Issy bit her lip and suddenly felt a terrible wave of homesickness.
Chapter Twelve
Kugel
220g medium-wide egg noodles
65g butter
220g cream cheese
100g sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
200ml milk
150g frosted flakes or corn flakes mixed with sugar
2 tbsp butter, melted 2 tsp sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
Cook noodles according to package directions.
In a large bowl, mix butter, cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, eggs and milk. Stir until smooth.
Drain noodles, and add to mixture, then pour into a large square pan, cover and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, about two hours before the meal, preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.
In a small bowl, crush the cereal and mix with melted butter, sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle the cereal mix on top of the cold kugel, and then bake for 1¼ hours. Cool for 20 minutes before serving.
Issy fell asleep in the car, then sank into the beautiful bed, which made her feel like she was sleeping on a cloud, and even though she was woken incredibly early by both the jet lag and Darny banging hard on the connecting door, she already felt much better. She had been too tired even to give Austin a proper kiss, but as she turned over in the bed, she saw he was already up and in the shower.
‘Hey,’ she said as he came out with a towel wrapped round him and opened the door for his brother. Darny grunted at them, then headed into his own bathroom.
‘Hey,’ Austin said, without quite looking her in the eye.
Issy immediately panicked and sat up in the big soft bed. Last night was a bit of a blur.
‘Was I …’ Her voice sounded weird, a bit husky. ‘Sorry, was I really bad last night?’
‘No, of course not,’ said Austin, but his tone was a little distant.
‘Well, you put me on the spot,’ said Issy, looking round for something to drink. She picked up a bottle of Evian, then saw a sign next to it indicating that it was $7.50, which even she with her poor arithmetic skills could tell was outrageous, so she put it down again.
‘Just drink it,’ said Austin crossly, when he realised what she was doing.
‘What’s the matter with you?’ said Issy. ‘What did I do?’
‘You were just … you were just a bit aggressive, that was all.’
‘I was aggressive? That Vanya girl wanted to bite me on the leg!’
Austin still looked unhappy.
‘Austin,’ said Issy, imploring him. ‘Look, if you wanted me to behave in a certain way or dress like a tart and keep my mouth shut like that Candy girl … you should have said so.’
‘I didn’t,’ said Austin. ‘I just wanted you to be yourself.’
There was a terrible silence.
‘Maybe that was me,’ said Issy quietly.
Austin looked as if he wanted to say something, then bit his tongue and didn’t. Instead he glanced at his watch.
‘Look …’
‘You have to go. I know. Me and Darny will go out and explore.’
‘Good,’ said Austin, looking relieved to be on safer ground. ‘OK, cool. I’ll text you. I should be able to get away this afternoon after five. I know this cool café we can meet at.’
‘Well, we might need an afternoon nap,’ said Issy. ‘But definitely. OK.’
Austin came over and kissed her. ‘We could do with some time, just the two of us,’ he said. At exactly the same moment, Darny started up singing a loud and extremely tuneless version of a Bruno Mars song, whilst clattering loudly in the rainforest shower. Issy rolled her eyes.
‘Mm,’ she said. Then she smiled. ‘Have a good day.’
Austin smiled back at her, but still, when he left the hotel room she felt a terrible anxiety in the pit of her stomach. Something wasn’t right, and she didn’t know if she could fix it. She didn’t know the recipe for this.
‘Well, fix it,’ Pearl was saying, as patiently as she was able. Maya tried yet again, but her shaky hand meant that more of the latte slopped over the top of the glass.
It was Maya’s first day, and Pearl had never had to be someone’s boss before, especially not someone who was pretty, sweet, young, and appeared to have caught the eye of a person Pearl would never admit in a hundred years she had a bit of a soft spot for.
It was proving tricky for both of them. Maya was trying her best, but Pearl was so quick and efficient, she couldn’t quite follow what she was doing; not only that, but she was nervous. Pearl seemed to have taken against her for some reason, and she couldn’t work out why. And she’d been up since five on her post round and had been too anxious to eat any breakfast.
‘Three lattes, a hot chocolate and four mince pies,’ said Pearl, smiling nicely at the customer. ‘Just ring it up like this.’
Her fingers flew deftly amongst the buttons and the till dinged open. Maya tried to remember what she’d done, but it didn’t seem like it would be possible. She sighed, then went back to the coffee machine. Grind, pressurise – the big orange Rancilio terrified the life out of her. Even Pearl admitted it was temperamental, and likely to give you a steam burn at any moment. Steam the milk but not too much (skin) and not too little (freezing). Then combine, spoon the foam on the top, and powder a little cupcake shape with chocolate and a template Issy had had made up. Repeat a hundred times an hour, serve up with a smile … Maya was getting panicked.
‘Hurry up!’ said Pearl, keeping a fixed grin on her face. Where the hell was Caroline? She’d been late the day before, too. When Pearl had called her on it, she’d shrugged and said, come on, the boss was away, and anyhow it was too cold to leave the house in the morning without her coat. Now she’d done it to her again. Pearl gritted her teeth. Sometimes it drove her beyond endurance to have to work with someone who only turned up as a sop to her ex-husband’s divorce lawyer, and thought she was hard done by at that.
Maya turned round too fast and knocked the entire metal jug of milk on to the floor. Gasping apologies, she jumped to it, but Pearl was there before her.
‘Please take these mince pies with our compliments,’ she hissed, handing the customer back her money. ‘I’ll bring the coffees over when they’re ready.’
Pearl got out the mop whilst Maya spluttered apologies that Pearl wasn’t really in the mood to accept, particularly when they smelled burning and she realised she’d missed the oven beeper going off because she’d been crouched down cleaning up milk, and they’d lost an entire tray of Christmas cake cupcakes and the beautiful warm-scented ambience of the shop had gone, giving it instead a charred edge that was going to do nothing for business.