“See you later!” I called out to anyone who was listening.
“Later kiddo,” Mum’s voice floated back from somewhere inside the house.

I made a quick readjustment of my shorts, I was giving the shorts over hose look another go, I might not have long enough legs to really carry it off but what the heck. I had my Handy out before I got to the bottom of the drive and ringing a moment later.

“Strechau.”
“You coming up to the kiosk?”
“Kiosk? Er right,” Max dopily replied.
“You don’t have to.”
“No, no, i’ll come up, got some chores first, ‘bout one?”
“Cool, laters!”
“Bye Gab.”

I closed the call and found myself almost skipping along towards the bakery.

“Hi Fritzy, hi Frau Holdorf!” I called out to the town busybody.
“Fraulein Bond,” she allowed with a nod whilst Fritzy was spinning like a top at the mention of his name.

“You look happier today,” Con greeted when I arrived at Thesing’s.
“Too much like hardwork being miserable, hi Frau T.”
“Morning Gaby, you both ready?”
“Gab?” Con enquired.
“As i’ll ever be.”

We were soon all squeezed into the van along with the days baked goods order for the kiosk and chugging our way up the valley.

“So you all packed Gaby?” Frau Thesing enquired.
“Mostly,” I allowed.
“You girls are all the same.”
“Mu-um,” Con complained.
“Well you still wouldn’t have anything packed if I hadn’t pushed you last night.”

Con gave me a look.

“I bet your mother didn’t need to chase you to get ready Gab?”
Well you know me, but I wasn’t going to admit that I’ve got nothing actually packed, “er no,” well she hasn’t yet.

Why am I at the kiosk today? Well for starters I’m not racing and then of course we need to do a sort of hand over to Con’s mum who’s going to run it while we’re away. I could probably have dipped out but as Dad pointed out, it’ll help stop me dwelling on the other stuff much like yesterdays shopping trip.

“You like?” I hinted to Con as she started the till up.
“Eh?”

I sort of offered my schnoz towards her.

“What am I supposed to be looking at?”
“Nose, sparkly?”
She stopped her counting and looked, “nice.”
“Its a diamond, Mum bought it for me yesterday,” gabbled.
“I didn’t think she was keen on it?” Con noted returning to her counting.
“Yeah well she said if I was gonna wear something it ought to be good quality.”
“Well you wouldn’t want your nose going green or something,” Con agreed.

Look we’ve all had cheap stuff like that, I’m not exempt.

“We having coffee?”

Things don’t really get going until after twelve on Sundays, hence our later opening, oh we get a few paper collectors stopping off for coffee, the odd dog walker even but even the weekend visitors don’t get to Con’s Kiosk until late morning.

“Con says you do a stock check on Thursday?” Therese suggested as we went into the storeroom.
“Yeah,” I agreed, “then she rings the order through from the bakery Friday morning.”

Of course Mrs T is aware of how we work things but I guess she’s getting it straight in her head.

“Hmm, maybe we should think about getting a landline in so you can do it from here.”
“Wouldn’t that be expensive?”
“It’d save some time and if we get one of the new till systems Tomas has been looking at we can connect you too which will make my life easier doing the accounts.”
“Right,” I’m not exactly sure what she’s on about but at the end of the day its not me paying for it.
“So, show me where everything is.”

It was a bit overcast but warm enough that there were plenty of bare arms and legs about, I was itching to lose my tights but my cut offs are a bit too, er short to wear on their own. Oh well, guess I can live with being warm for a few hours. Anyhow by twelve we were all being kept busy enough, five of us was probably a bit excessive, normally Sundays we only have three but I wasn’t complaining.

“When do you want lunch Gabs?” Con asked.
“One?” I suggested.
“Something planned,” Kris hinted.
“Might be,” I allowed.
“I bet someone's coming for lunch,” Nena opined.
“I’ll get mine now then,” my BF told us taking off her apron.

Oh yeah, there’s been a slight change of plan, Nen is travelling with me and Con tomorrow, not sure why the change in plans but it doesn’t make any difference really.

“So you packed Nen?” I asked as the pair of us were left alone.
“Just about, you?”
“I know what I’m taking.”
“You haven’t started yet have you?”
“Well, not as such,” I had to admit.
She rolled her eyes, “its a wonder you ever get anywhere Gab.”

My heart had a little flutter at the distinctive sound of Max’s mofa making its way through Altenahr, geez, get a grip girl. I already had our lunch pretty much ready so when the lummox actually arrived I was already removing my apron. The garden was quite full but Max managed to snag the little table in the far corner as it became available.

“Busy,” Max observed as he helped unload our lunch from the tray I’d brought it over on.
I shrugged, “not too bad.”

We finished unloading and I quickly returned the tray to our ‘clean up’ station.

“So you looking forward to the camping?” Max asked as he prepared to eat.
“I guess.”
“But?” he stuffed several Frites into his mouth.
“I wish you were going.”
“Its a girls trip, I don’t think me being there would go down too well,” he suggested.
“Yeah but I’ll miss you.”
“Its only a week Gab,” he pointed out.
“Yeah,” I agreed pushing my chips around the plate.
“So you want to go somewhere when you finish here?”
“Like?”
“We could go up the woods?” he suggested.
“I’ve got to finish packing,” well start actually.
“We can go up on the Mofa?”
“What about Dad?”
“He’s not coming is he?”
“No silly, me on your Mofa?”
“He doesn’t have to find out does he?”

I can’t deny it was very tempting, extended time in the seclusion of the forest with Maxxie but do I want to tempt fate?

“Best not,"i sighed, "come down to ours for tea, we can go up the vineyard after for a bit,” I guess common sense won out.
He shrugged, “’kay.”

The rest of the afternoon fairly flew by, we had a big flock of Dutch cyclists come through who kept us busy for a while and there was a continuous stream of other visitors to the kiosk. With many hands the end of day clean up went quickly too so that the Thesings were dropping me off just twenty minutes after we shut for the day.

“See you in the morning Gab,” Con told me.
“Yeah, Dad’ll pick up Nen first then come back down for us.”
“Okay, byeee!”
“Tschussie!” I returned with a wave as Therese set off again.

“I’m home!”
“You’re early?” Dad opined.
“A bit, it alright if Max comes to dinner?”
“You’ve already invited him haven’t you?”
“Erm.”
“Just make sure you’re all packed for the morning, I’ve serviced your bike.”
“Who’s coming?” Mand queried arriving in the kitchen.
“Max,” Dad supplied.
“Might’ve guessed, so what’s for dinner?”
Mum arrived from downstairs, “I was going to do quiche with salad.”
“Fine by me,” at least I’m not doing it, “er Max is coming.”
“I heard, you can sort out the taters.”
“Mu-um, I need to pack,” I groaned.
“It won’t take you long, Manda can you do the salad please.”

“Just going for a walk,” I told my parents after Max and I had done the washing up.
“Don’t be too long, you’ve still got stuff to do for tomorrow,” Mum told me.
“I’ll have her back by ten,” Max suggested.
“Half nine,” Dad stipulated.

Well it was worth a try.

“You haven’t got the ring in,” Max noted as we lay on our favourite patch of grass hidden amongst the vines.
“Don’t you like the diamond?”
“Diamond? Its nice I guess but you can’t play with it like the ring.”
“You only like me for my nose ring,” I accused in jest.
“Well you do have some other appealing features.”
“Such as,” I demanded.
“Lets see,” he leant himself on one elbow to look down at me, “your eyes.”
“just my eyes?”
He stroked the hair from my face, “your lips are quite nice.”
“How nice? Show me.”
“If you insist,” he rolled further over and lowered his face to mine and I braced myself for a further snogfest.

“Fritzy! Come back here you naughty boy, where are you going? Fritzy!”

Maddy Bell © 16.01.2018