It Happened at Cafe Nix

The Silver-haired Saviour

The Silver-haired Saviour

Elizabeth Dunk

Maria thought she was coming to Sydney to surprise her fiancé, but it turns out she was coming to Sydney to find out the truth and change her life forever…

The Silver-haired Saviour matches the style and tone of The Lies We Tell, published by Escape Publishing in August 2013.

The sun had risen, the sky was blue, ferries were shuffling in and out of the terminals and people moved past. Some rushed, suits and jackets on, either on their way to or from work. Some ran, getting in the daily exercise. Some ambled, looking around, enjoying the incredible sights and sounds of Circular Quay, Sydney.

Maria Teroso looked at her watch. Seven am. Had she really sat here, wrapped in her misery, uncaring of anything, for nine hours? It seemed just a heartbeat ago that she’d been at the hotel door, sliding the card into the lock. Putting her bags by the door, tiptoeing through the dark apartment—it was nearly ten, and it looked like Bob had already gone to bed. Good, just the place she wanted him.

Then she was pushing open the bedroom door and seeing Bob, on his back. A blonde on top of him. The movements of their bodies, the sounds, the smells making it very clear what they were doing.

A veil of blankness settled on her eyes but Maria pushed it away. No, she’d already lost nine hours. She wasn’t going to lose any more. She was going to face the fact she’d caught her fiancé in bed with another woman and then she was going to work out what the hell she was going to do to fix her broken life.

A tear dribbled down her cheek and she pushed it away. She couldn’t cry out here, sitting on a bench on Sydney Harbour. She stood, and realised she didn’t have anything with her. Handbag, suitcases, everything was still up in Bob’s room, left in the wake of her devastated flight from the room.

The tears started in earnest.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Maria turned around. A woman stood at the potted plants that marked the entrance to the outdoor dining section of one of the cafes. She was small, dark-haired with piercing blue eyes.

Maria hated that she was in this position. She was a successful businesswoman, ran her own conference organising company. She’d just triumphantly completed a five day medical conference for nine hundred people. But she had no other option, nowhere else to turn. “My handbag is in the hotel room of my cheating fiancé and I don’t know what to do.”

“You need a good cup of coffee. Come in.”

Maria took a hesitant step forward. Her back ached from sitting on the bench all night. The offer of a coffee was tempting. “Your boss won’t mind?”

“I am the boss. Come in.”

Wow. The woman was young, and cafes on this stretch of water were at a premium. She was doing well.

As Maria approached, the woman held out her hand. “I’m Nix.”

Maria looked at the cafe sign. Cafe Nix. “I’m Maria.”

“Come in and I’ll get you that coffee.”

Nix led Maria through the outdoor tables into the main part of the cafe. It was very modern—white tables, steel and black chairs, but the walls were wooden cabinets showing off wines and sheaves of wheat and displays of fruit and vegetables. The air was redolent with coffee beans roasting and bread baking. It was simple, but classy.

Maria sank into one of the tables against a black upholstered bench seat and relaxed back with a moan. She closed her eyes and listened to clangs in the kitchen as the chefs started preparations for the day’s meals.