Sorcerer Read Free

vinaigrette she’d ever known.
         ‘Mum, you look like that sandwich is a major disappointment’ said Gabby.
    ‘Well it is’ said Jenny. ‘I overslept this morning and didn’t get any breakfast. I’m more than ready for something’.
    ‘Well change it’ said Gabby. ‘Say you don’t like it and ask for something else’.
    Jenny sighed. ‘No, it’ll do’.
    ‘It won’t do, Mum, if you don’t like it’.
    ‘You know I don’t like to make a fuss’.
    ‘No, go on, Mum. Cameron won’t mind’.
    The café was owned and run by an Australian called Cameron James who was in his early thirties. He’d met a Manchester girl when she was travelling in Australia and fallen in love enough to follow her home. They were married now with a little son but that didn’t stop all the women from flirting with Cameron. He was the typical tall, lean, rugged Aussie type who always wore shorts as soon as the sun came out. He had the kind of relaxed, easy going manner that meant he got on with absolutely everyone. He’d joined the local cricket club and the local rugby club. His physical allure was enhanced by his curly dark brown hair and his face always being covered in five o’clock shadow. He had that kind of straight out of bed look that made the women who went into the café think he was the best bit of crumpet they’d laid eyes on for years. 
    Cameron came over to the table with his usual relaxed antipodean swagger.
    ‘Is everything alright for you here, ladies?’
    Gabby explained that her Mum didn’t like the sandwich and after a short debate Cameron said he’d bring her a cheese and tomato one instead and without the salad.
    ‘Sorry about that ladies’ said Cameron with his usual charm. ‘I’ve got a new bloke started in the kitchen and his techniques need a little refinement shall we say. But he’ll learn’.
    ‘You know, Cameron, if you weren’t married and I wasn’t deliriously happy with my fiancé then you and I could’ve been made for each other’ teased Gabby.
    Cameron smiled. ‘Yeah, well maybe in the next life, honey’.
    ‘I’ll hold you to that’.
    ‘But how will I find you? You might come back as a cat or something’.
    ‘In which case, I’ll find you. You know what cats are like’.
    ‘Strike me pink it’s a good job my wife can trust me’.
    ‘If I was your wife I’d keep you under lock and key’.
    ‘Now there’s an image to get me through an otherwise tedious afternoon’ said Cameron and then winked at her before going off to the kitchen to sort out his apprentice.
    Jenny shook her head and smiled. ‘You are shameless’.
    ‘Mum, I’m getting married to a man I love very much but I’m not dead to the sight of some eye candy’.
    Jenny didn’t quite know what to say to that. Her marriage to Gabby’s father had felt like one year folding into the next one and the next one. She wasn’t in love with Ed anymore. She didn’t know if she ever had been or if he’d ever been in love with her. They weren’t even comfortable with each other. They were distinctly uncomfortable at times and that could make time pass so slowly when they were at home together, especially since Gabby had flown the nest to move in with her fiancé Owen. They should’ve had more children but they hadn’t. They’d been putting off the inevitable for almost all of their twenty years of marriage and Jenny had learned to fill the gaps with going to the gym and making curtains.
    ‘You are sure about everything, aren’t you love?’
    ‘About marrying Owen, you mean?’
    ‘Yes’.
    ‘Of course I’m sure, Mum. Why are you asking me that?’
    ‘But you’re a pretty girl, Gabby, and you’re young’.
    ‘Where’s all this coming from?’ asked Gabby before cutting into her order of raisin toast with scrambled eggs.
    ‘I just don’t want you to wake up in ten years time and wish you’d had more freedom before settling down’.
    ‘I thought you liked Owen?’
    ‘I do, love, I do. I like