String of Fate

Chapter Forty Five

I was not in the best place mentally at the moment. My grandmother had just died. It had been suspected – she was old and hadn't been able to work in her shop for a while. Still, it had still been a bit of a shock. She was my only living relative apart from my parents. My dad had been orphaned since he was ten, and then raised with my mother since her parents were his godparents. He was four years older than my mum, and her dad died in a car accident when she was thirty – two years after I was born. I adored my small family, but I hated that now it was even smaller.

"Heather! Come on! We need to go!" My dad bellowed up the stairs as I hit the shut-down option on the menu of the laptop shutting the lid. I grabbed my phone and slid it into my pocket, thinking that the device was all I needed when I was going to the will reading of my late grandmother. It would be better than carrying my bag around the whole place to not go into it.

I was still surprised over an hour after the will reading. There had only been one other person alongside my family – and that was the gift shop owner next door to my grandmother's ice cream shop. They'd been friends since childhood and she'd gotten some of my grandmother's jewellery that had some sentimental value for the two of them from when they were younger. We were to adopt my grandmother's dog, but he was already living with us since we had found out that they had passed away. My parents had gotten the house to do with whatever they liked, which they had expected. I got the ice cream shop and a lot of her savings to redecorate the place. I was now a fifteen year old with my own business.

"Do you want to sell it?" My mother wondered, setting the cardboard cup of tea on the table in front of me. Her and my dad both had coffees. I could smell them. They sat opposite me, both looking confused and unsure of what to do. They had been expecting to get the ice cream shop and had been planning on selling it since they didn't have the time to run it. I had not wanted them to sell it because I loved that place. I just never thought that I would get it and be able to run it. "Your father and I have the pottery business to take care of, and you have your education. You can't give up school for this. Especially not when you're so close to your GCSE's and finishing school. You don't know the first thing about running a business."

"I'm not selling the ice cream shop. I've only got about a month left before my exams, and they're going to be over before my birthday. I'm going to evaluate the shop for the next couple of days and then figure out what to do. If I'm completely honest, it's been months since I've been there. Besides, for the running of it, you and dad can help me out for a bit until I get the hand of actually running a business because you guys have experience with that kind of stuff." I spoke aloud, thinking that it was the best course of action. I couldn't just give up on the store that my gran had run for fifty years, and a part of me couldn't believe that my parents were suggesting it.

I didn't even need one day to know that I wanted to make this work. I wanted to run the business after I had finished school. It was the perfect idea. I checked in on the girl my gran had left in charge, Amber, after the shop had been closed on the first day. She was twenty-one and had started as a work experience girl when she was sixteen years old. She'd shown enough enthusiasm that my grandmother had employed her straight out of school. There was one other employee, Sandra, who still had trouble with some parts of her job, and didn't even seem to like she even liked her job.

"Your grandmother wouldn't want you to sell this place." Amber said as soon as I sat down to talk to the staff – just after closing time. The two of them were interested in what I had to say, and probably wondering if they were both going to be keeping their jobs.

"I know, and I'm not going to. I am, however, closing this place until I finish school." I explained. I'd spent all day on the computer for a reason. "I'm going to have this place redecorated, redesign the logo, set up a website and social media links, and you two will be going to Italy for a week to train with a very successful ice cream maker because I was thinking that we could try to incorporate some own flavours into the menu as well as not just the homemade vanilla that we do now. You two won't need to worry about your wages, though, because my gran has savings which will cover the two of you for the couple of months that this place would be closed. I'm going to source stock so we can expand the menu, starting with drinks like coffee and sodas, maybe we could expand to smoothies by next summer. If you have any ideas for winter then let me know, since we won't be selling much ice cream. What do you guys think?"

"That sounds great. Are you going to be able to do it within a couple of months?" Sandra replied. I nodded to her, not actually sure if I would, but I would certainly try. I was hoping to have the business open again by the end of June to allow for the beginning of the summer month.

"What are you going to do once the business is re-opened?" Amber questioned, taking my notebook and reading through the ideas that I had written down, pausing on the idea of giving a retro theme to the décor so it would only need a lick of paint on the walls and a good scrub on the floor and windows. It would save both time and money. The seats and tables were all in really good condition, so, they wouldn't need replacing for a couple of years.

"I was thinking of working here with you guys. I'll need to learn everything from scratch but I want to work here, so, I'd love it if you guys could train me. There's always been a part of me that loved this shop just as much as my gran did, and I want to help to keep her dreams alive." I told them as Amber slid my notebook back across the table. "I hope you don't mind what I'm doing to this place. I want to make this place somewhere where a lot of people will come and hang out."

"Of course not. You have some brilliant ideas." Amber informed me tapping the notebook. "When are you thinking of re-opening it?"

"The 27th of June. It's after the exam period and my sixteenth birthday, so, I thought it would be the perfect time." I explained. "Would you guys be willing to train me before the re-opening? If we can get the redecorations done with enough time to spare, would you guys mind spending some time training me?"

"Of course. It would be good to have an extra pair of hands here in the summer period." Amber replied.

The time passed quickly. I used both of my hobbies to create the logo and website for the reimagined shop, changing the name of the shop to have my grandmother's name in it. I used four different social media websites for the shop – Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest. When I wasn't at school, I headed to the shop to clean and paint, following that with the delivery of new machines, glad that my grandmother had had enough savings in order for me to properly redecorate the place. Amber turned up a lot to help, giving me lessons on how to make ice cream when she came back from Italy.

I also helped my parents to sort through my grans belongings, finding some lovely photos from the initial opening of the shop to put on a canvas to decorate the store. Since she had a big house on the beachfront near the shops, they decided to turn it into a B and B, where they would be living. The two bedroom house that I had grown up in a couple of streets away was given to me, but I wouldn't have it to myself until after the work was done. They were going to keep the pottery business, converting my grans large garage into the workhouse so they could work from home. They said that they needed a new kiln anyway.

Finally, the day came. The day after my final exam, the day of my sixteenth birthday, the day that 'Rachel's Ice Cream Parlour' opened for business. I got up at the sound of my alarm, noticed my string and headed downstairs. My mum had made my favourite food for breakfast – pancakes. They had placed my presents on the table in front of my usual seat. There were two cards and two boxes. I went for the boxes first, finding some beautiful stud earrings from my parents and a gorgeous ice cream pendant necklace that was from my gran that she had bought before she died. Then, I moved onto the envelopes. The first was from my parents, a beautiful card and some money to go shopping.

Finally, I opened the card from my gran, seeing a gorgeous card and finding a letter inside. I read it. Twice. Then a third. Then I couldn't stop crying. My mother wasn't sure what to do since I hardly even cried. It was the first time that I had cried since she had died. It was so sweet and she was hoping that I would accept the ice cream store and run it with the best intentions.

The doorbell went and my dad escaped to answer it. I heard talking, but I couldn't make out who it was or what they were talking about. Then, Amber walked into the room, followed by my dad. She took one look at me before sitting next to me and pulling me into a tight hug, surprising me.

After I had cried it out, I leaned back and looked at Amber's face, confused. "What are you doing here? I thought we were meeting at the parlour for the opening."

"I know, but I followed this." Amber answered, holding up her left hand – and I saw her string. I felt happiness rise up out of nowhere. "Can I kiss you?"

I couldn't find the words, so, I nodded.