Millie Vanilla’s Cupcake Café

Again, Millie watched avidly as the stranger examined his cup, turned the handles of the teapot and hot-water jug this way and that and lifted the saucer to examine the maker’s mark. The delicate flowery pattern should have looked ridiculous in his long-fingered grip, but it didn’t. Who was he?

There was one way to find out. She carried his soup and bread over, determined to ask questions, only to be thwarted as Biddy came in with Elvis. Shaking sea spray off her woollen beret, the elderly woman said, ‘Afternoon,’ in her over-loud voice. Millie served the stranger his meal and noticed with amusement that Biddy was glaring at him. He was in her favourite seat.

Biddy settled noisily at a table nearer the kitchen and made a great fuss over taking off her coat and settling her poodle.

Realising the interrogation would have to wait, Millie went over to her. ‘Your usual, Biddy?’ Millie didn’t need an order pad for this customer. Biddy always had the same thing.

‘My usual,’ the woman barked. ‘What else? A coffee and scone. And a shortbread for Elvis.’

‘Coming right up.’ Millie made sure she was facing her as she spoke. Biddy was really quite deaf but could lip-read. When she chose. Millie tried to be charitable and sympathise with how frustrating it must be but suspected Biddy’s permanently bad mood was nothing to do with her hearing loss. ‘How’s Elvis today?’ Normally Millie would fuss over Biddy’s hearing-assistance dog but she was too aware of the stranger. He seemed to be watching everything that was going on.

‘Upset, that’s what he is. That bitch has been after him again.’

Millie sensed rather than saw the stranger’s shoulders tense. ‘What, Arthur Roulestone’s retriever? She’s as quiet as a mouse.’

‘Not when she catches sight of Elvis, she isn’t. I swear he makes her randy.’

‘Oh dear,’ Millie murmured. ‘Just as well he doesn’t have the same effect on Trevor.’ They looked to where the dogs, having had a sniff to say hello, were now studiously ignoring one another.

‘Yes well,’ Biddy sniffed. ‘Folks ought to control their dogs, especially when they’re around others that work.’

Out of the corner of her eye, Millie saw the stranger’s shoulders quiver. Was he laughing – or about to complain? He’d been friendly towards Trevor, but maybe two dogs in a café was too much?

As far as she knew, Arthur’s Daisy never had the energy to raise her head, let alone pester a poodle a quarter of her size, but she supposed Biddy knew what she was talking about. ‘I’ll just get your coffee.’

Unfair though it seemed, maybe today wasn’t the day to let Biddy sit in a corner with Elvis nursing a solitary cup for an hour or two. The sooner she served her, the sooner she might leave. Taking Elvis with her. Millie immediately felt guilty. Why shouldn’t Biddy take as long as she wanted? The café was hardly busy. It was just this stranger. He made Millie uneasy. In lots of ways.

She busied herself in the kitchen, served Biddy, gave Elvis a homemade dog biscuit and took away the stranger’s empty soup bowl.

‘That was absolutely delicious.’ He gave her the megawatt smile again. ‘Is it really homemade?’

‘It is.’

‘By you?’

‘By me. As is the sponge cake.’

‘Then I can’t wait!’

He was being friendly. Saying the right things. Even Trevor, tart that he was, liked him – and she trusted Trevor’s opinion implicitly. But still, there was something not right about this whole encounter. She couldn’t quite place what it was. Maybe she was just unused to dealing with men who made her hormones fizz?

‘I’ll go and get it.’ The sooner he ate and left the better. Then things might get back to normal. She might get back to normal.

‘Could I trouble you for some more boiling water?’

‘Of course,’ she breathed. Bugger. He was going to linger.

As she served him, Zoe and her collection of friends clattered in, bringing the fresh January cold with them. They deposited their school bags and coats in a pile and slumped onto their usual corner table, phones in hand.

‘Hiya, Mil,’ Zoe called.

‘Hi, girls. Hot chocolate?’

‘Hot chocolate,’ they chorused back.

‘We’ve had PE,’ Zoe explained further. ‘Had to run around the field for hours. Supposed to be cross-country training,’ she added gloomily.

‘You poor things. I remember it well. Extra marshmallows, then.’

‘Thanks, Millie,’ came another chorus and they disappeared into scrolling down the screens of their phones.

After distributing mugs of hot chocolate, liberally laced with marshmallows and cream, Millie glanced around. Against the silvered light of the winter afternoon Biddy sipped her coffee, one hand protectively on Elvis’ black woolly head and Zoe and the gang were giggling over something on their phones. There was a comfortingly warm fug in the place. She sighed with pleasure; she loved this little café and cherished its place at the heart of her community.

Then she noticed the stranger pushing away his empty cake plate.

‘May I have my bill, please?’

‘Right away.’ Millie had already prepared it. She couldn’t wait to get rid of him.

He glanced at the amount and paid cash. ‘So, you’re Millie?’ he asked, putting a note on the saucer.

Blimey. More questions. She forced a friendly smile. ‘I am.’

‘And you own Millie Vanilla’s?’

‘I do.’

‘Great name, by the way.’

‘Thank you.’

In a bid to encourage him to leave, Millie picked up his payment, her eyes widening at what he’d tipped. As he stood up and put his coat back on, she noticed he towered above her. Another point scored. She liked tall men.

‘That was really delicious food. And you’ve got a marvellous place here.’

‘Thank you,’ Millie repeated. Why didn’t he just go?

‘I hope I can find the time to come back.’

As he went out, Clare, Zoe’s best friend, wolf-whistled. The dogs’ noses shot up at the sound. ‘Who was that?’ she asked, her eyes like saucers. ‘He’s gorg!’

‘And totally too old for you,’ Zoe replied.

Clare rolled her eyes. ‘I so totally don’t care.’

Zoe craned her neck to view him as he sauntered along the prom. ‘Nice bum.’

Millie giggled. ‘That’ll do, Zoe. I’ve told you before to stop ogling the customers.’