The Grand Reopening Of Dandelion Cafe

The cherry sauce soaked into her tongue, the pastry scratched the roof of her mouth and the bitterness of the cherries made her almost wince.

She inhaled the sweet smell of the cherry orchard. The scent of the leaves just after the rain, water glistening on the plump red fruit, the colour so deep it was as good as black.

The evening was just tipping into twilight. Objects had a hazy edge and the streetlights had come on over the path.

He kept his head turned her way, kept his eyes on her in the mirror, almost like a punishment for her snooping. His moody, dark gaze fixed on her blushing, embarrassed face.

unmistakable scent of river water and dewy grass that mixed with the chiselled wood shavings from the boatyard and the engine oil from the motorboats and generators to engulf her in a smell so familiar she almost couldn’t detect it.

At the end of the road she could see the sun ripple off the river in rings; swans gliding, brilliant white in the early-light; the pub garden twinkling with dew on the vine leaves;