The Tattoo Part 2

(You can find the first part here.)

After another week of wandering around I’d officially exhausted all the food and drink places in a 60-mile radius. My hopes were slowly fading and I was exhausted. Work was getting more demanding and I was desperate to find this soulmate. I couldn’t help thinking that maybe he was looking for me too and that’s why I couldn’t find him. I’d also considered going around all the places that hadn’t exactly said the words written on my arm, or the ones that have different staff rotations. I was going insane. I’d decided it was time to call in some help.

Situated on my living room floor with pizza and drinks, I unloaded my dilemma to my best friend Jemma. Jemma was my hero, always on call to my every need.

‘Maybe you just need to wait, I mean you’ve basically got the worst sentence in the world tattooed on your arm.’ She said, stuffing pizza into her mouth. She was a beauty even with greasy cheese down her face.

‘Yeah, and you got the best. You had it so easy, falling in love with your best friend and all. I can’t just sit around waiting, I have to do something!’

‘Mmm’ Now she had her thinking face on. She was way cleverer than me and liked to shove it in my face by pulling this face and kind of blanking out for a while. ‘Okay, this may be crazy but hear me out. What if you go on a bit of a trip? Take some time off work, travel around the country trying food and coffee from around Britain. You’ve always wanted to travel and this could be your perfect opportunity!’ The grin on her face could charm Scrooge.

‘Okay, great idea, but the amount of money it would cost, and the number of little towns and villages with food shops and cafes in this country is unreal. It would take forever!’

‘But think of this, if you find them in the first place you go then you don’t have to go to any others. Or you could take them with you.’

‘And what if I go around the whole country looking for them and I don’t find them anywhere?’

‘Then you’re a hopeless case and you need to mope in your bed until he finds you.’ I flop onto the sofa behind me with a huge sigh, Jemma sticks the T.V on and we don’t talk about it for the rest of the evening.

I went to bed that night with her idea whizzing around my head. I was trying to figure out a way it could work. Surely it was time for me to take a holiday anyway? I could take a couple of weeks off work, borrow Mum’s campervan and drive around tasting Britain’s best food and drink whilst simultaneously hoping to run into my soulmate. It was crazy but it could be fun. I went to sleep that night dreaming of delicious coffee and a gorgeous man.

The following Friday I drove away from Mum’s with high hopes and music blasting out of the speakers. She was stood next to my car waving me off with tears in her eyes. She’s always so sentimental.

The first town I hit was a cute little place full of rustic coffee shops and bookshops. The sun was shining and it felt like I was in a cheesy romance novel. The coffee places varied from a hipster hubbub to a mum’s and toddler hangout. The coffee itself also ranged from the best coffee I’ve ever tasted to making me want to spit it into the nearest bin. Even after spending more money than I’d hoped and being completely full of liquid all the time, I still had no hope on the guy front.

‘Just enjoy your time away honey, this is your first holiday since you started the job and you deserve it. Find out some stuff about each place you visit and take tours of them. Find something more fun than just drinking coffee all the time.’ I’d decided to call Jemma on my way to the next town after feeling a wave of loneliness came over me.

‘Yeah, I guess that could be a lot better than just moping around’ I sighed.

‘You bet. Also, make sure you’re drinking decaf. You’re gonna end up being a coffee addict.’

‘I’ll even have a drink of tea every now and again, would that make you happy?’ I giggled. Jemma could be a proper health freak sometimes.

‘Ah! Fantastic!’ I imagined her throwing her arms in the air with this, ‘Anyway, gotta go hon, the husband has time off so we’re spending the evening together. Enjoy your travels!’

I spent the next 2 weeks, travelling around small towns and big cities, relaxing, reading any romance novel I could get my hands on and hoping that I wouldn’t end up driving in a snow storm. Although I was still trying to find my guy I had decided that Jemma was right and I needed to just relax and find fun in the places I was travelling. I’d been gathering things from all the towns I was driving through and was actually enjoying myself. I was sitting in a hidden restaurant looking out at the hills around me when I got a call from Jemma.

‘Alice, oh my goodness, where are you? Why haven’t you been picking up?’ She yelled down the phone. She was so agitated it worried me.

‘Jemma, I’m sorry, I’m in the hills, there’s literally no reception here. What’s up?’

‘Alice, it’s your mum. She’s in hospital.’ She said so quietly I could hardly hear her. ‘She had a heart attack while she was holding a bake sale and was rushed to hospital. You need to get down here now.’ The light snow falling outside seemed to slow and I hardly noticed the waiter give me the bill. The world seemed to move in slow motion as I got into the van and drove towards home