The Inspirational Friend

Recently a friend of mine made a major change in her life. She sold her business and moved on.

Now…this in itself is just another stepping stone in her life and one that does not affect me beyond the fact that she owned a tremendous café called Zou Bisou in Royal Leamington Spa and they did the best Mocha coffee I’ve ever had. So the café going to new owners and my friend moving on isn’t really newsworthy. What is? Well, as a proud misanthrope she is one of the few people in my life that I consider a friend.

We met in 2014 when the café had recently opened. I lived in a flat above another business in the food court Zou Bisou was based in and I’d just written a book called THE SUNDER OF THE OCTAGON, a sequel to my kids book THE CATASTROPHE OF THE EMERALD QUEEN. I mentioned that the book was due out soon and she anticipated what I wanted to say and went “Do you want to do a book launch here?”We got this together for the following week and I had a pleasant coffee or two while sat at a table signing autographed copies of my novel **

Over the next two and a half years we became pals. But the thing is we were really pals, not that “see you down the pub” kind of shit that you get with a lot of people. We had our fallings out (one of which resulted in us not speaking for a couple of months and me getting banned from the café) but in the end I put this down to the fact that we were actually being genuine with each other, something I’ve always found hard to do with people, especially people I like or to be more accurate, that I want to like me.

My friend was always flamboyant both in her style and how she talked and seemed to have boundless energy. She also has a giggle that I’ve wanted to capture as a ringtone for some time now. Sometimes I’d see her and she’d be down and need a hug. But other times I was down and I needed someone to talk to. We ended up going to see both the James Bond movie Skyfall and later The Hunger Games: Mockinjay part 2 in cosplay.

Both of us loved/ love Game of Thrones and we became GoT husband and wife every time an episode aired. I’d download it and she’d turn up at my flat with some treat or other from the café as we sat in rapture watching the denizens of Westeros do their thing. A few episodes even had us wincing and debating the morality of a father who’d burn his own daughter at the stake or just how much fun it was seeing Ramsay getting torn apart by his own dogs while tied to a chair.

Christmas 2015 I was spending it alone so she invited me to dinner on the Xmas day with her and her family. I spent a pleasant day getting quietly drunk and watching movies and later she drove me home. Next day my lack of memory and request for a behaviour report was noted as “You behaved yourself but it took me ages to get you out of the car”.

In 2016 I realised I was stagnating in the picturesque but very dull town of Royal Leamington Spa so I moved out of my flat and sold, gave away or stored all my stuff and went backpacking to Australia and New Zealand. I then moved to Rome but whenever I came back I’d go and see her and while she was invariably busy she always had time to speak to me and in 2018 said “You’re nicer to be around. Your energy is more gentle”.

My friend is wonderful because she is unique and unlike most people I know isn’t ashamed to show her vulnerable and angry sides. I’ve seen her upset and even in tears and she’s seen me at the depths of despair. I would sometimes go in to the café and brightly ask her staff if she was there to get the reply “Yes…but she is in a FOUL mood”. She’d then emerge from the kitchen and I’d realise from the Bruce Banner-esque face that the Hulk was on standby and I’d quietly leave and catch up with her later.

There were no grudges borne between us because at the end of the day we were and are true friends.

Like me she writes books and and last year published her first novel, INDIGO LOST with the sequel INDIGO STAR coming out as I write this. She’s a qualified Yoga teacher and has more energy than four people put together. She’s my friend because we’ve seen each other as sad, happy, angry, miserable and joyful and we still kept in touch even after I moved away.

Now I will actually have to make an effort to find her when I traipse back into Leamington, rather than order a mocha in her café. She once described me as a “selfish, wandering troubadour”.

I am someone that doesn’t get close to most people. The few friends I have are people I absolutely trust and as I’ve got older I enjoy solitude and being by myself more and more. I can fully imagine becoming the poster boy for Curmudgeon’s Monthly when I get to my 60s.

Stephanie Summers, my inspirational friend. x

----------------------------------------------

**As an author, one of the best feelings you can have.