Rosie stretched to the tips of her toes, hoping it would relieve the ache in the balls of her feet. The cafe had been a mad rush again and, while it was good that she was so busy, as it kept her mind from wandering to the same person every single time, she was exhausted. It didn’t help that she had trouble sleeping and that, every time she set foot outside, she now had to be wary of a paparazzi snapping a shot of her or, even worse, a camera crew barrelling in her direction, asking her the same question over and over again: Did you and Princess Olivia have an affair while she was engaged to Jemima Bradbury?

It had been like that every single day this week and every time Rosie wondered if what they’d had between them was ‘an affair’. What was an affair, anyway? In her heart of hearts, she knew what it was, yet she couldn’t let that feeling come to the surface ever again.

Rosie stopped her feet gymnastics and glanced at Amy. She wasn’t sure why her ex had chosen Mark & Maude’s to have brunch today. Her family owned plenty of brunch spots in Otter Bay. Either she was here for Gina’s food, or for Rosie.

Rosie didn’t have any resolve left to resent Amy showing up. In fact, she was quite happy to see a familiar face — as opposed to having a camera lens shoved into hers.

Amy looked up from the newspaper she was reading and smiled at Rosie. She leaned back and said, “Join me for a minute?”

Rosie nodded and took the seat opposite Amy. This was the quiet time just before the lunch rush would begin. And Aunt Hilary was here. Rosie could afford to sit down for a few minutes.

“You look tired,” Amy said, giving Rosie’s face a once-over, “and like you’ve lost weight.”

“Having a princess break your heart will do that to you.” Rosie followed her statement with a chuckle. She didn’t need Amy’s pity.

“I can’t say much about the princess bit, but I can definitely tell you what heartbreak feels like,” Amy said.

What was Rosie supposed to say to that? She hoped Amy wouldn’t take this opportunity to put the moves on her again. Rosie was too tired to put up that particular fight.

“Thanks for telling me about Charlie.” Rosie shook her head. “I still can’t believe I didn’t see it.” Rosie supposed she only saw what she wanted to see: a kind, gorgeous woman who was interested in her.

“Just so we’re clear.” Amy leaned over the table. “I didn’t get any joy out of giving you that information. I hate to see you like this. I really do.”

“Is that why you’re here?” Rosie asked.

“No.” Amy tapped the newspaper she’d been reading. “It’s for your free copy of The Daily Mail, of course.”

“Of course.” Rosie had vowed to end the cafe’s subscription to The Daily Mail many a time, but even she had to admit it was the most read newspaper at Mark & Maude’s by far. She’d basically been outvoted by her customers. “Please don’t tell me what they have to say about me today.”

“It says here you used to go out with Otter Bay’s most eligible lesbian bachelorette Amy Davies.” Amy snickered at her own joke. At least Rosie hoped it was a joke.

“As long as it doesn’t have too many unflattering pictures of me in there,” Rosie said on a sigh. The other day, she’d glimpsed a headline above a picture of her in, admittedly, rather frumpy clothes: Rosie in Rags vs Jewelled Jemima!

Rosie worked in a cafe so she dressed in jeans and comfortable shoes. What did Jemima do with her days? Probably go fancy shoe shopping and get photographed in all the right places.

“A picture of you could never be truly unflattering.” Amy was laying it on a bit thick.

The cafe’s phone started ringing and Rosie was glad to have an excuse to get up, but Aunt Hilary had answered it already.

“Sorry,” Aunt Hilary said. “Dinner service is fully booked for the next two weeks.”

Rosie’s brain still had a hard time computing the words her aunt had just spoken. Firstly, they had a dinner service now. And secondly, it was so popular, they’d had to turn away customers.

Amy stared at her, her eyebrows drawn all the way up.

“Yes?” Rosie asked.

“Fully booked, eh? Congratulations.”

Rosie wasn’t about to confide this in Amy, but every time she took a call for a booking, her heart sank a little more. At first, she thought it was because Mark & Maude’s revival was so inextricably linked to Charlie, until it started dawning on her that there might be a different reason.

“Thanks,” Rosie said. “Who’d have thought?”

Rosie wondered what would have happened if she hadn’t taken the For Sale sign down. Would the cafe have sold yet? And now that it had been all done up and was doing so well, could she ask a higher price for it? She pushed the thought away and focussed on Amy.

“A bit of gloss and the place looks like new,” Amy said.

Rosie looked at Amy, at the spot she was sitting in, but instead of seeing Amy’s face, she saw Charlie’s. This was the table she always chose, away from the window. That made sense to Rosie now. Even though she’d worn that expensive Paul Smith jacket, Charlie had looked decidedly un-princess-like when she’d ordered her first pot of tea at Mark & Maude’s. Then the whirlwind of the subsequent weeks played like a movie in Rosie’s head again, like it had done so many times before.

The details of it killed her. The most random memories turned out to be the most heart-breaking ones. Charlie leaning over the pool table at the Dog & Duck. Charlie chatting to Gina, telling her she would fix things for her. Charlie walking up to her at the cemetery on the anniversary of her parents’ death. Charlie kissing her chastely on the cheek outside her front door.

All of that had happened, yet here Rosie sat. The walls might be a different colour, but she was still the same Rosie Perkins taking orders at Mark & Maude’s — now with dinner service. Or was she?

Sticking up the For Sale sign, for about thirty minutes on the day she’d made the decision to sell, hadn’t only made her incredibly nervous. It had also shown her a glimpse into a different life. A different future.

The point was that on that day, after many months of consideration, Rosie had made a decision. There were many reasons why she’d backtracked on it, but the main reason behind it at the time — Charlie — was gone forever.

Rosie slanted her torso over the table and whispered to Amy, “I still might sell it.”

Amy narrowed her eyes. “Don’t tease me about this, Rosie. You know I’m dead serious when it comes to business.”

“Oh, I definitely know that.” She kept her voice down because she didn’t want Hilary to overhear. “If I do sell it, it would come with certain conditions.”

Amy nodded. “It can come with a million conditions, I’ll honour all of them.”

When Rosie got home, she found Paige hunched over her laptop. She seemed utterly absorbed in whatever she was reading. Rosie hoped it wasn’t another article about Princess Olivia. It seemed as though there was no other news in the country anymore. She was secretly hoping for a juicy political crisis to take the nation’s attention away from the upcoming royal wedding.

Rosie cleared her throat. Only Cher had noticed she’d come home.

“Oh, hi,” Paige said absent-mindedly.

“What are you so caught up in?” Rosie sat down next to her sister.

Paige straightened her spine. “I think I’ve made my decision and I’ve decided on Bristol. It looks great and I won’t be too far away, so I can come back home regularly.”

Rosie tried to decipher Paige’s smile. It failed to convince her that Paige was one hundred per cent certain about her final choice.

On her short walk home, Rosie had made a choice as well. It was time both she and her sister started supporting each other’s real dreams, not the ones they conceded to because of concerns for one another.

“Bristol Uni is really your first choice?” Rosie inquired.

“Not my first choice, per se, but close enough.”

“Close enough to what?”

“It’s a great university and I could come home during terms. See how you and the cafe are doing. Maybe help out a little.”

Rosie shook her head. “What’s your actual first choice?”

“Durham,” Paige said, as quick as a flash.

“You should go with your first choice.”

“B-but it’s too far away and that would—” Paige started protesting.

Rosie shook her head with a bit more fervour this time. “You don’t have to choose Bristol for me. We need to start making our own choices.”

“Well, yes, but this particular choice isn’t just about me. And going to Bristol wouldn’t exactly be a hardship.”

“But it wouldn’t be your first choice.” Rosie turned fully towards her sister. “Would it be easier for you to choose Durham if I told you I might not be here to come back to?”

Paige tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

Rosie took a deep breath before speaking. “What if I sold the cafe?”

“But you’ve just spruced it up,” Paige said.

“Which will only make the price go up.” Rosie’s heart was beating in her throat. “I think the reason I didn’t take the initiative to give the cafe an overhaul, apart from lacking the funds, is that it was never my dream. I never really had the chance to figure out my dreams. After Mum and Dad died, all I knew was that I had to come back here. But if you’d asked me before they died what I wanted to do with my life, it would never have been run a cafe in Otter Bay. Not even one that’s been done up by a princess.”

Paige giggled at that. “Are you sure about this? I mean, what will you do?”

“That’s what I need to figure out. But I definitely want to go travelling.”

“Wow.” Paige sank against the backrest of her chair. “Everything would change.”

“Everything will change regardless.” Rosie eyed her sister. “You’re all grown up now. You’re starting your own life in September. I don’t want you to be held back by thoughts of me.”

“You could never hold me back.” Was that Paige’s voice breaking? “After all you’ve done for me.” She grabbed hold of Rosie’s hand. “If anyone deserves to follow their own dreams, it’s you.”

“And you’d be all right with selling Mum and Dad’s cafe?” Rosie had trouble fighting back a tear.

“Their memory lives on in our hearts, not in a pile of bricks,” Paige said.

“When did you get so wise?”

“Must have been my older sister’s influence.” Paige shot her a smile.

Rosie scooted a little closer and threw her arms around her sister. Perhaps she hadn’t done such a bad job of raising her after their parents were gone.

As if she wanted in on it, Cher jumped into Paige’s lap.

“Who’s going to look after this furry monster if we both leave?” Paige asked.

“I hope Aunt Hilary feels up to that terrible burden.” Rosie scratched Cher under the chin.

Paige took the cat in her arms and walked to the sofa. She sat down and addressed Cher as if the animal could actually understand what she was saying. “What do you think, Cher? Do you want to go live with Aunt Hilary?” She shook Cher’s paw. “She has agreed,” Paige said with a smirk on her face.

“Now we only have Aunt Hilary to work on.” Rosie crashed into the other sofa and stretched out her legs. She was so knackered, she felt she could fall asleep in a heartbeat.

Paige switched on the TV and immediately they were assaulted with more images of Charlie and Jemima. Paige switched the channel, but it seemed like every single one was covering a press conference the princess and her fiancée had given.

“It’s okay,” Rosie said, the adrenaline of seeing Charlie’s face again jolting the fatigue from her system. “Let’s see what happened.” Part of her didn’t want to know, but the overriding part was curious. Maybe they’d called the whole thing off?

They watched in silence for a few minutes. Princess Olivia — because that was not Charlie on the screen — confirmed that the wedding would take place in five weeks’ time and that all the rumours the press had been spreading were false. She and Jemima were in love and firmly committed to this engagement.

“It’s like it’s not really her, is it?” Paige said. “Like she’s a totally different person.”

For a split second, Rosie allowed herself to think that, in a way, Charlie had been right. Rosie would never have fallen for Princess Olivia. She could only ever have fallen for Charlie, the ex-army officer who had swept her off her feet. But Charlie was gone and had been replaced by that stiff and joyless woman on the television. Sure, Princess Olivia smiled, but the smile never reached her eyes. Didn’t anyone see that?

Rosie felt sorry for Charlie and, for the first time, came close to understanding why Charlie had lied. But she could understand it all she wanted; Charlie was still marrying another woman.