Free Christmas At The Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan Page A

her little button nose. Once you got past all the fluff and nonsense, she was a very endearing baby.
    Chadani smiled cheerfully and pointed at the largest cake on the stand, winter raspberry with pink icing confection that Issy, in whimsical mood, had covered in sparkly stars. They were very pretty and shiny, she conceded.
    ‘WAAAH!’ shouted Chadani.
    ‘Will I get one for you to share?’ said Issy, firing up a cappuccino for Helena.
    ‘Oh, Chadani doesn’t really like to share,’ said Helena. ‘She’s a bit young to be forced into that, don’t you think?’
    ‘It’s a very big cake,’ said Issy.
    ‘Yes,’ said Helena. ‘You really shouldn’t have made them so large. You have to think about children too.’
    Issydecided not to roll her eyes, and put another batch of bear cakes into the oven. Then she decided to take a quick break – Pearl and Caroline weren’t talking to one another, which made them both work really quickly and efficiently in a gigantic huff – and sat down next to Helena, who was looking at toys in the Argos catalogue whilst Chadani made shorter work of a gigantic cupcake than Issy would have believed a one-year-old capable of.
    ‘Hey,’ said Issy.
    ‘Do you know,’ said Helena, flicking through the catalogue, ‘Chadani has every single one of these, just about. They really need to invent some new toys.’
    ‘You love having a daughter, don’t you?’ said Issy, suddenly.
    Helena beamed. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘yes. Yes, I do. I mean, obviously we got a very special child, not everyone gets that. But yes. In general. I mean, obviously, it can be …’ She stopped herself. ‘Yes. It’s wonderful. So when are you and Austin going to get to it, then?’
    Issy bit her lip. Ever since they’d got together … well, everyone had just seemed to think that it was the end to a fairy tale, a happy ever after; there was Austin and Issy, and wasn’t it funny, she fell in love with her bank manager, ha ha, bet she’ll never be short of a few bob, ha, well, you can guess where he’s putting his deposits … oh, she’d heard all the jokes. And now it was more than a year ago, and everyone was expecting some kind of announcement,or at least for something to happen. But Austin’s work had gone on and on and she’d got caught up in the shop and moving, and, well …
    Something in her expression penetrated Helena’s baby haze.
    ‘You two are all right, aren’t you? There’s nothing wrong? I refuse to believe there’s anything wrong. After all the goat’s arseholes you’ve dated, I won’t let anything bad happen to you. Don’t you dare. I mean it. I’ll march Austin round at gunpoint. I will put him in a wrestling hold. I will remove his horn-rimmed glasses and stuff them up his—’
    ‘I’m sure it’s nothing,’ said Issy hastily. ‘I’m sure he’s just … you know, a bit caught up in New York and a bit excited. That’s all. Nothing bad.’
    The doorbell rang. Issy looked up. It was a delivery service. She wasn’t expecting anything.
    ‘Issy Randall?’ the man in the uniform said.
    Issy signed for the box, noticing with excitement that it was from Austin.
    ‘AHA!’ she said. ‘Look! I shouldn’t have mentioned anything! Look! He’s sent me a present from New York!’
    Helena beamed as Issy cut through the brown tape. ‘Hurrah! Now never think badly of him again! You need a relationship like Ashok and me.’
    ‘What, where you tell him what to do and he lies down and kisses the ground you walk on? Hmmm,’ said Issy, but she was smiling with happiness.
    Inside was abright green box, wrapped with a paler, pistachio-coloured ribbon.

    The girl in the New York cupcake shop was called Kelly-Lee. She was very pretty, with a snub nose and wide grey eyes and a few light freckles that looked as though they were dusted on like icing sugar. Her hair was thick and auburn, in a high ponytail, and she wore the pink polo shirt uniform of the shop in a way that was pert but