The Way It Never Was Read Online Free PDF

future maintenance with the father of her unborn child is going, Paolo marches onto the decking.
    ‘Liv, can you please stop chopping up the biscuits as samples,’ he complains. ‘I know your game!’ In fairness to Paolo, I too have witnessed Liv doing this with croissants. Looking towards me with a deadpan expression, Liv gives him the middle finger and I want to hide.
    Another factor that may be hindering success is that while Liv and Paolo have a business partnership on paper, on any given day, it’s like some bad episode of The Apprentice . With dramatic pauses, blunt words and shouting, sometimes I can barely concentrate on my coffee for trying to eavesdrop on what they are arguing about. It’s also not helped by the fact that there must be a good few years between them, which eternally youthful Paolo never likes to admit. It means that their language in combat is very different, for while Paolo tries to patronise Liv, she has no problem hitting back with some obscenity in response. Who needs TV, this is the real deal. You could never accuse these two of having any reserve. Hell, just get it out on the table! I’ve no doubt that if Liv goes overdue, Paolo will be brought in to induce her into labour.
    Hanging over them all the time is the stark reality that the café should be a lot busier, which only serves to exacerbate sour relations. Sometimes there is a buzz of an early morning caffeine rush, or a post-natal get-together with screaming babies and lactating mothers, but most of the time the Globe is pretty quiet. Liv admits that this worries her, especially as she never had a contingency plan for going on maternity. Quite frankly, I don’t blame her eating biscuit samples, as she’s now staring down the prospect of being a single parent thousands of miles from home, with a struggling business to contend with. I’m not sure how I would handle it, but then again, I’m not sure how one goes about getting a kiss these days, let alone impregnated. The fact that Liv is finding it hard is also not helped by every pregnancy book being geared towards couples, when the ‘man’ – and I use the term loosely – who got her pregnant has no interest in being a father.
    Looking like she is about to fall asleep any minute, Liv props herself up on her elbow and carries on talking to me while I drink my coffee. ‘Hey, did I tell you that I can’t see my bikini line anymore?’ Studying me closely, she then stops. ‘Wait a second. You look different. What the hell happened?’ I am about to tell her when she interrupts. ‘You got fired? No way! I know you hated it but couldn’t you have got in there first? God, I hate it when people dump me just as I’m about to dump them!’
    With a miserable face, Liv strokes her belly and points in the direction of Paolo, who’s serving a rather creepy looking guy with a moustache and low cut trousers that show his shirt tucked into his underpants. ‘Paolo called me fat today. Fat!’ she angrily shouts, her voice echoing round the space. ‘I cannot believe he said that! Who does he think he is!’
    Just as I’m about to change the subject and correct Liv on thinking that I got fired, a smiling girl comes out of the kitchen taking her apron off. ‘Liv, am I okay to go for the day?’
    Paolo and Liv have a twenty-year-old called Sam, working for them. We call her ‘Hilarious Sam’ behind her back, as she always talks as though she is on the verge of breaking out into laughter. It seems that everything amuses her and I mean everything .
    ‘Sure Sam! Same time tomorrow?’ Sam nods and heads out of the door smiling. ‘She is totally driving me fucking nuts,’ says Liv through clenched teeth, watching her leave. ‘I don’t think I’ve got the disposition to deal with really cheerful people anymore. I was crying earlier ‘cause I accidentally tipped a milkshake onto a customer’s lap – chocolate. And you know what, she actually started giggling. No word of a lie.