All That She Can See(35)

Cherry’s jaw tensed. She felt a sudden urge to shake him by the shoulders to make him really listen to her but instead she leaned in close and said, ‘Quite a bit, actually.’ Chase looked up through his eyelashes, not wanting to acknowledge that he was no longer alone. He couldn’t pretend that he hadn’t met her and he couldn’t ignore the undeniable evidence that someone else like him existed. ‘Seeing the bad in people is just as hard. Do you think it’s easy knowing how awful the world is? How badly everyone feels about themselves and each other all the time? I open my eyes every morning and there’s Hatred, Depression and Obsession. Oh, and wait a minute, there’s Confusion, Panic, Indifference, Jealousy, Guilt and Loneliness too. And that’s just before breakfast! And the only way I can think to help is baking! CAKE! That’s my solution. Cake. It’s the only way I feel like I can help.’

‘Why do you even want to help?’ Chase said quietly, feebly.

‘Because what else am I supposed to do? Everyone else manages to achieve their goals in spite of all the trouble that life throws at them so why should I be the only one without some kind of purpose? I’ve got this ridiculously inconvenient gift so I may as well use it. Not to be mischievous and to mess with people’s emotional stability.’ She looked Chase dead in the eye now that she could see he was really listening, ‘but to be proud of something and to actually make some kind of a difference in this hard, beautiful, horrible, wonderful world. Chase? Are you even listening to me?’

As quickly as she’d had Chase’s attention, it was gone again. He seemed to be focused on something else now. Cherry followed his gaze and realised he was focused on someone else: Orla. Orla was wiggling her fingers and flashing her teeth at him but Chase didn’t look in the least bit interested. In fact his eyes widened and his mouth opened but Cherry couldn’t make out what he was saying.

‘Chase?’

‘Cherry, call the police.’

‘What? What are you talking about?’

‘Call the police!’ Chase pushed his way across the floor, roughly catching people’s shoulders but no one shouted, everyone just laughed as he knocked them. Cherry stood up on the counter to get a better view of what was going on and she finally saw what Chase had seen. It had been impossible to see anything other than Orla’s face through the crowd but Cherry now saw that there was a man behind her who had his hands firmly snaked around her and up her top. Orla didn’t look distressed or scared, though; she was grinning from ear to ear. Before Cherry could even get down and to the phone, Chase had already reached them.

‘Oi! Get off of her!’ he yelled but neither Orla nor the man responded. Instead they just beamed back. ‘I said, get your hands OFF!’ Chase punched him hard on the jaw and his grip on her loosened as he stumbled backwards. He would have taken Orla with him had Chase not caught her and moved her aside. Chase straddled the man, whose face still held a crooked grin so Chase punched him again. ‘It’s people like you who make this world HELL!’ They were next to the window and Chase could feel the heat of the man’s Desire through the glass. He hit him again. ‘STOP SMILING!’

‘CHASE!’ Cherry ran to Chase and tried to pull him off the man, whose nose was bleeding and quite possibly broken. ‘Please, Chase. I’ve called the police – please don’t make this worse.’ Chase gave in to Cherry tugging at his shirt collar and got off the man and stood up. Orla was straightening her top still with a big smile on her face but even so, she collected her bag and coat and left.

‘Fun’s over!’ Cherry yelled. ‘Out! Put down the cake and OUT!’

No one complained. They simply gathered their belongings with plastic-looking smiles on their faces and filed out of the door in an orderly line.

‘You heard her. Out.’ Chase gave the man on the floor a rough nudge with his foot and gingerly he got up and stumbled out, leaving a few bloody fingerprints on the floor. Cherry locked the door behind them, turned the sign from OPEN to CLOSED and sank down to the floor, her fingers trembling as she pressed them to her eyes.

‘She didn’t even respond,’ she sobbed. ‘She didn’t even react. To anything.’

Chase picked up one of the cookies. ‘What did you put in these?’ He licked it and instantly his face lit up. ‘Blimey, Cherry.’

‘Everything. Literally every good feeling you can think of is in those cookies. Each one is a cocktail.’ She couldn’t bring herself to look at her bakery. She felt like she’d betrayed it and everything she’d set out to do.

‘You didn’t make them happy, you made them numb. This amount of happiness is like a… a drug. Too much and the whole world disappears. Nothing holds any value any more.’ Chase usually spoke with a harsh tone but this was the first time Cherry had heard any hint of compassion in his voice.

‘I took it too far, didn’t I?’ Cherry hugged her legs in close and buried her face in her knees.

‘Maybe a little.’

‘I hated the fact that you were taking over something I’d spent years perfecting. And you were taking over so… recklessly. And now look at me! This is recklessness at its finest!’

‘I know. I guess I’ve never been good at taking my time with anything. I always want to be the best as soon as I begin.’ Chase looked surprised at his confession. ‘I don’t know why I said that. Any truth serum in those cookies as well?’ Chase laughed but Cherry looked up at him through tearful eyes and bit her lip.