Chapter 147: Before Anybody Else Does II

Danny ate the roll sat on the scooter in 4 bites. It was the first thing he’d eaten since Adaeze’s crumble yesterday afternoon, and it had brown sauce on it and he ate the lot.

What happens on Friday, if Priya writes the wrong letter? Who rings Leeds for you then?

He wiped his hands on his jeans and rode up to Grange Road.

It was gone half 12, and the lunch rush had dropped to 3 waiting. Marcus was in, clearing the window. Danny went in as far as the till.

Keisha was on the machine. She knocked a basket out against the bar, bang, and when she reached up to the top shelf for cups the apron rode up and showed a strip of brown skin at the small of her back, above the waistband of her work trousers. The black trousers pulled tight across her backside as she stretched.

Your bank’s on fire and you’re stood here looking at your head barista’s arse? What is wrong with you?

Her lashes had gone into points from the steam. When she tamped, the muscle in her forearm stood up under the old pale burns and went flat again. The 3 gold studs flashed up her ear as she turned.

She saw him in the mirror behind the bar. She said something to Tobi, who was on the milk, and to Marcus at the window, and came round the end of the counter with a glass in her hand, and walked Danny back out and round the side of the building to where the bins were.

"10 minutes. My break, and I’ve not had my coffee." It was a flat white in the glass. She leaned on the wall and held it under her chin with both hands, a slick of balm on her mouth and steam coming off the top. "Go on, then. What’s happened?"

He told her about the yellow box in the app and the careful woman in Leeds, and Priya saying Friday. He told her the trust would not be signed before she started, and might not be signed at all.

Keisha drank some of the coffee and did not interrupt.

"And before you say anything," Danny said, "here’s what I want. Don’t start on the 17th."

Her eyes came up.

"Go back in and ask Marcus to have you till the end of January. Tell him your new place has had a delay. It’s true. Don’t walk out of a job on my word when the thing my word was about isn’t there."

"So you’re sacking me before I’ve started."

"No. I want you in February with it signed and read. If the bank lets go, you come. If it doesn’t, you’ve lost nothing, and your lad’s had his Christmas."

Keisha watched him over the rim of the glass.

"Marcus’ll have me," she said at last. "He’s been asking since Wednesday whether I’d stop, like a dog at a door. He’ll be made up."

She drank.

"And my rule’s not been touched, by the way. A bank looking at you isn’t me finding anything out. I want you to know I thought about it before you got to the end."

"I’m not going to tell you anything about why."

"Good. You remember the other rule, then."

"Never again. Not when it’s going well, not when I’m pissed."

"Not at 2 in the morning." She nearly smiled. "What else? You’ve got a face on like there’s an and."

"Tobi. Is he all right for shifts? I want him kept on here till I can have him."

Keisha put the glass down on the top of the bin.

"What’s happened?" Danny said.

"He told Marcus on Friday he was going in the new year. Showed him the contract, because he was proud of it. Marcus had him on 5 shifts."

She said the rest flat.

"There’s a lad from Deptford starting next Monday, and from then Tobi’s on 2. It went up on the rota at 8 this morning. He’s been on that milk since 8 not saying a word about it."

How much is 3 shifts? 300 a week? And he’s lost it for showing Marcus a contract you signed on the wing of a van?

"Where’s Marcus?"

"Out front clearing. Why?"

"Because I’m going to ask him to put Tobi back."

"He’ll not, for you." Keisha picked the glass back up. "You’re the bloke taking his 2 best people. Why would he do anything for you?"

"I’ll ask what it’d take."

"And pay him with what? You’ve £2.80."

"Then I’ll ask what he wants."

She kept looking at him a second more.

"Tell Tobi first," she said. "Out here. Not on his bar."

She went in. A minute later the side door opened and Tobi came out in his apron with his sleeves pulled down over his wrists, drying his hands on his jeans.

"Keish said you wanted me."

"My bank’s stopped my account," Danny said. "This morning. They’re checking me and they won’t say why. The arrangement that was going to cover your 12 months won’t be signed before you start, and maybe not at all. And Keisha’s just told me what Marcus did."

Tobi stood by the bins with his hands in his apron pocket.

"At the bus stop you didn’t tell me one thing about you," he said. "Everyone’s got a bit they don’t say. Is this yours?"

"It’s near it."

"Did you nick it?"

"I’ve not taken anything off anybody."

Tobi kept his eyes on him and said nothing for a bit.

"Is your shop still opening?"

"The ceiling’s going on. Everything after that is behind that bank."

"Nursery’s £1,100 on the 1st." He pulled one sleeve lower over the burn on his wrist. "I worked it out at 8 o’clock, stood in front of that rota with my coat still on. On 2 shifts I’m short 600 a month."

"What do you tell the nursery?"

"Nothing yet. They ring you at 5 past 9 on the 2nd, not before." He looked at the side door. "My mum’s got that contract on her fridge, Danny. She put it up with a magnet from Clacton."

"I’m going in to Marcus."

"Don’t. He’ll make you look small in front of the queue."

"There’s 3 people in the queue. I’ll live."

"And if he says no?"

"Then I come back out here and tell you he said no, and we work out the 600 from there."

Danny went in through the side door, past the walk-in and the mop bucket, and out into the front of the shop.

Marcus was going along the window stools with a tray, stacking saucers. He was about 50, in a navy apron over a good shirt, with a face that had been up since 5.

He looked at Danny coming out of his own back corridor, and then at Keisha on the machine, who did not look round.

"You’ll be the Corner," he said.

"Danny Flynn. I want to talk to you about Tobi’s shifts."

"Do you." Marcus put a cup on the tray. Clink. "Go on, then. You’ve a minute. I’ve a queue."

"He told you he was leaving because I’d given him a contract. My start’s been held up. It’s not his fault. Put him back on his 5 till I can have him."

"Why would I?"

"Because he’s good. Keisha says so, and she doesn’t say it to his face."

Marcus wiped a ring off the window counter with his thumb.

"I know he’s good. So I’ve a lad starting Monday on his shifts, to learn the bar off him while he’s still here to teach it."

He straightened up with the tray on his hip.

"I’ve had that road 11 years, son. Keisha’s been on that machine longer than the machine has. And 5 minutes ago she walks in off her break and asks can she stop till the end of January, because your start’s held up, and I’m meant to be grateful."

"So she’s staying through Christmas. You’ve got her."

"I’ve got her till February, and then I’ve got nobody, and a lad from Deptford, and you."

Marcus looked across at Keisha’s back, and then at Danny properly for the first time.

"Here’s how it works. That lad signed with you because Keisha was going. He told me so himself on Friday. If Keisha’s not going, your bar’s got nobody running it, and he’s not leaving a job for a shop with no bar. Then he’s mine, and he’s on 5, and the Deptford lad can go back to Deptford."

"That’s her decision."

"It is. So I’ll not say it to you. You’re not my staff."

He raised his voice just enough to carry over the grinder.

"Keish. Tear your notice up. Properly, on paper, and you stop. And Tobi has his 5 shifts back from tomorrow."

At the machine, Keisha’s hand stopped on the grinder.

"Your call, Keish," Marcus said. "I’ve got 3 waiting."