The Repair Café

They specialised in making things good as new, but could they mend two broken hearts?

- Lucie Kay

I found it,’ I said, wiping a light film of dust off my treasured clock with my sleeve. ‘I’d love to see it working again.’

‘That’s perfect!’ Hazel said. ‘I can’t wait to hear my vinyl records again, once this beauty is mended,’ she added, carefully picking up her lurid 1980s portable record player and placing it in a cardboard box.

‘Will we have to fix things for other people?’ I asked, half-hoping Hazel might change her mind. ‘I’m not great at DIY.’

‘You’ll be fine, Sarah – you’re way more practical than me and, anyway, I’ve made some cupcakes to take so we have some brownie points to start with.’

‘I suppose I could bring my banana loaf,’ I said, slightly encouraged by the prospect of food.

‘Already organised,’ she said, nodding at two Tupperware boxes on the kitchen table.

‘You know when I said we should get out more, I was thinking more of the cinema or the theatre,’ I laughed.

‘You can’t talk at the cinema or theatre. This way we’ll get to meet people.’

Hazel and I had first me each other years ago at university. When we realised we’d be working in London at the same time, we decided to rent together. Both of us were recovering from messy relationship break-ups and were trying to forget about our respective exes.