Zander closed his laptop, turned to her and smiled. ‘I’m excited about this. Something to put in your next blog post, I do believe. I loved the last one about island nature walks and your suggested reading list. That combination of books that tie in with the island is perfect. I’m really glad you’re here, Freya.’
‘And thank you again for the opportunity. I’m loving being here.’
‘Right,’ he said, grabbing his laptop and jumping off the stool. ‘I’ll leave you to it; I’m sure you’ll want to head back and have dinner. We’ll get planning, and if there’s anything Meena can’t answer, or if you just want to bounce some ideas off me, here’s my direct number.’ He scribbled a mobile number in the top corner of her notebook, nodded and left.
He strolled across the decking and on to the sandy floor of the clearing. She watched him until he reached the beach and was out of sight, beyond the drooping fronds of the palm trees silhouetted against the moonlit sky.
Freya finished making notes about the cocktail evenings and closed her laptop. It was funny how back home she’d been quite happy to be the ‘behind-the-scenes’ person, her days spent editing. Although she’d attended some of Bloom & Cole’s book launches and other events, she’d never really had hands on experience of organising them and she was never the centre of attention. She could work a room quite comfortably and was at ease making small talk with authors, other publishers, journalists and bloggers, but this was a whole new experience and she was relishing it.
It was late, much later than she normally left the bookshop unless there was an evening event planned, and darkness had descended over the clearing. Her head was buzzing with ideas and she needed time to think them through, which she intended to do on the way back to the staff village.
She made sure everything behind the counter was put away for the night, tucked her laptop case beneath her arm and left the bookshop. The heat outside hit her, a stark difference to the comfortable temperature inside. It would be slightly fresher on the beach so she went that way.
‘Freya.’
She turned at the voice, her hand flying to her chest as she caught sight of a figure hidden in the shadows of the dusky treeline. ‘Oh my goodness, Aaron, you made me jump.’
He seemed to have appeared from nowhere.
‘Sorry,’ he said, walking over to her. ‘I didn’t want to disturb you. I thought you’d be finished ages ago – it’s late. I heard voices and you looked like you were deep in conversation.’
‘Yeah, we were talking about plans for the next cocktail evening. Zander adored the first one and loves the idea of making it a regular event with cocktails themed around books. The next one is going to be inspired by The Great Gatsby. Zander’s requested that one – he says he loves the 1920s feel. I can’t believe the things he can make happen. I mean apart from the cocktails themselves, he’s managing to supply sparkly headbands with feathers for the ladies and fedora hats for the men. We’re going to have jazz playing, the whole works. I need to choose an extract from the book to read out to set the scene and get the conversation going.’
The words spilled from her. The idea of planning an evening around a book was more exciting than she could have hoped for.
She took Aaron’s hand. ‘Honestly, I can’t believe I’m managing to combine my love of books, while living and working in a place like this. And after being so unsure about Zander when I first met him, I don’t know, my opinion’s totally changed about him. He’s as passionate about books as I am and seems far more open to my ideas than he did at the beginning. I guess that’s to be expected, I was new and he probably needed time to put his trust in me... Sorry, I’m rambling.’
‘That’s okay. He’s obviously made you happy.’ He squeezed her hand tighter before dropping it and pointing to the path that led away from the bookshop. ‘Shall we head back and get some dinner?’
‘I quite fancy walking the long way, doing a loop along the beach and then back if you’d like to join me?’
He nodded and took her hand again. They walked towards the beach in the direction Zander had gone just a little while earlier.
~
Freya stood on the edge of the clearing and gazed with utter satisfaction at the bookshop. Hundreds of twinkling fairy lights decorated it and the soft toe-tapping tones of saxophone and bass guitar filled the clearing. Her heart soared with pride as guests began to arrive, sun-kissed and happy, their summer evening clothes giving a nod to the 1920s with fedora hats for the men and sparkly feathered headbands for the women. Freya secured her headband and led the last couple to arrive to an empty table flickering with candlelight.
The bar staff made mint julep in a bar area that had been set up to one side. With everyone seated and relaxing with a cocktail, Freya set the scene for the evening by reading an extract from The Great Gatsby. In the stillness of the bookshop clearing, surrounded by fairy lights and lanterns, with the moonlit beach and ocean as the backdrop, her voice filled the air. Tanned and happy faces hung on her every word. Her love island bookseller job was everything she’d hoped for and more. She finished reading and the clearing filled with applause. The jazz restarted,
