Free Meet Me at the Cupcake Café by Jenny Colgan Page A

returned to Issy, who had spent the previous three minutes blushing hideously on Pearl’s behalf.
    ‘That’s exactly what the budget airline said. I’m not allowed to be wider than the aisle.’
    ‘You’re not wider than an aircraft aisle!’
    ‘I will be on the new planes they’re bringing in. Everyone has to stand up in them, packed in like cattle. They put a belt round your neck and attach you to the wall.’
    ‘I’m sure that’s not true,’ said Issy.
    ‘It’s true,’ said Pearl. ‘Trust me. As soon as the belts stop decapitating the crash test dummies, you’ll be standing all the way to Malaga. On one leg if you forget to print out your boarding pass before you get to the airport.’
    ‘Well, I’m never having a holiday ever again, so that scarcely matters,’ said Issy. Then she realized she was using a ludicrously self-pitying tone in front of someone who rented a flat that she shared with her baby and, it seemed, her mother, and changed the subject.
    ‘Shall we get back?’
    Pearl sighed. ‘Well, it’s either that or a shopping spree down Bond Street and a quick stop into Tiffany’s.’
    Issy smiled wanly. ‘Well, at least we got cake.’
    ‘We did,’ said Pearl.



Chapter Five

Peppermint Creams
For you, as sweet as you are.
1 egg white
1 lb icing sugar
peppermint essence
Beat the egg white until frothy – do not overbeat. No, that is just enough. Perfect. Stop now.
Sieve in the icing sugar and now the mixture should be stiff. Yes, there is a lot of icing sugar on the floor. Don’t worry about that now. Don’t stand in it. Don’t … OK, your mother is going to have a fit.
Right, just a couple of drops of peppermint essence … just a couple, otherwise it’ll taste like toothpaste.
OK, are your hands clean? Now, make it into paste – yes, like playdough. No, you can’t eat playdough. Now, we’re going to roll it out and you can cut out circles. Well, yes, or I suppose you can have animal shapes … a peppermint cream horsie, that’s fine. Oh, a dinosaur? Well, yes, I don’t see why not … There we are. Now we have to put them in the fridge for 24 hours.
Well, no, I suppose we could test just one .
Well, I suppose they don’t all have to go in the fridge. Or, no, any of them.
Love, Grampa

    If Issy shut her eyes, she could smell the sweet peppermint creams, melting on her tongue.
    ‘Come on,’ Helena was berating her.
    ‘I am a brave person,’ Issy was trying to say in the mirror, brushing her teeth.
    ‘That’s right,’ said Helena. ‘Do it again.’
    ‘Oh God ,’ said Issy. She was about to spend the day marching cold into estate agencies and asking for work. She thought she was about to throw up.
    ‘I am a brave person.’
    ‘You are.’
    ‘I can do this.’
    ‘You can.’
    ‘I can handle inevitable repeated rejection.’
    ‘That’s going to be useful.’
    Issy turned round. ‘It’s all right for you, Len. The world is always crying out for nurses. They’re hardly going to start closing all the hospitals.’
    ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’ said Helena. ‘Shut up.’
    ‘You’ll see,’ said Issy. ‘One day they’ll get robots to do it all and then you’ll be out of a job and sorry you weren’t more sympathetic to me, your best friend.’
    ‘This is better than sympathetic!’ retorted Helena, stung. ‘This is useful !’
    Issy was starting near the flat. If she could find a job within walking distance, so much the better. No more wet bloody mornings standing outside Pear Tree Court and forcing her way on to the 73 – well, at least that was a nice thought.
    The door to Joe Golden Estates pinged as Issy went in, her heart in her mouth. She reminded herself she was a calm professional, with experience in the property trade. There was only one man in the office, the same distracted-looking balding chap who had been showing that woman around the shop.
    ‘Hello!’ said Issy, too surprised to remember why she was there. ‘Aren’t you renting Pear Tree