The Promise of Summer, Part 2

by Bella Osborne

  ‘I had better warn you that I am a reigning champion,’ said Ruby, handing him his putter and blue golf ball.

  ‘Then you can show me what to do.’ He gave her a warm smile. At last it seemed Curtis was relaxed.

  They giggled their way around the course, tackling pirate ships, tunnels and castles until they reached the last hole. Ruby totted up their scores. ‘I won by one point!’

  ‘I demand a recount,’ he said, making a grab for the scorecard and missing.

  After a brief tussle she handed it over. He scanned the numbers. ‘It’s a draw,’ he said, breaking into a grin.

  They had a friendly discussion as they walked to the pier. Cleethorpes pier was shorter than most after the council dismantled a great chunk of it during World War Two, fearing the Germans would use it should there be an invasion. It might not have been as impressive as the likes of Cromer or Brighton but it held a special place in Ruby’s heart. It was where they had scattered her mum’s ashes. But she had lots of happy memories too. She remembered sitting on the pier and eating ice creams and the many times she’d tried and failed to catch a crab with a crab line and a piece of bacon rind.

  ‘Are you okay? asked Curtis, touching her arm.

  ‘I just zoned out. I’m fine.’ She’d been dreading coming back to Cleethorpes but with Curtis to focus on she’d surprised herself and enjoyed it.

  ‘What now?’ asked Curtis.

  ‘I present to you the country’s largest fish and chip shop,’ said Ruby, throwing out her arms and gesturing to the enormous restaurant taking up the lion’s share of the pier.

  ‘Let me pay for these.’

  ‘Nope. Today is on me,’ said Ruby, joining the queue.

  They made their choices, paid and collected the orders. Clutching the warm packages, they walked until they found a bench and sat down to eat their food out of the wrappers with a wooden fork – just as you should at the seaside.

  ‘Why do fish and chips always taste better at the seaside?’ mused Ruby.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Curtis. ‘I do know they taste better with you.’ It caught her off-guard and she wasn’t sure how to respond. Thankfully a large gull swooped down and snatched the chip Curtis had poised on his fork and the comment was forgotten.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Kim was quite pleased with how her hair had turned out. It had been coloured and now she’d put it up in a messy bun and it looked quite good. Sort of sophisticated but not too fancy. After much teeth grinding she’d settled on a black and white patterned shirt over a vest top and black trousers, which she hoped was smart casual. She reminded herself again that it wasn’t a date before adding an extra coat of mascara and redoing her lipstick. She checked herself in the mirror – she looked good. She pledged to make the effort more often – not for anyone else but for herself, because looking good made her feel good too. Recently the menopause had been getting her down and this was just the thing to give her a bit of a boost.

  Adrian arrived on time, said lots of nice things about how she looked and had brought some sweets for the performance. He was keen to point out he was happy to pay cinema prices for drinks but drew the line at chocolate that he could get for a third of the price at the supermarket. She agreed – she hated being ripped off.

  At the rescue centre, Adrian waited outside the kennel while Kim took in Boomerang’s food. The sky was clouding over but Adrian had a pac-a-mac with him. Kim would have put money on him having been a Boy Scout. For a few minutes they did their usual routine of Boomerang pogoing around like he had a hornet up his bum and Kim talking calmly until eventually he’d take some of the kibble from her hand.

  ‘Look at you two,’ said Adrian, his voice low and soft.

  ‘I know,’ whispered back Kim, proudly. ‘It’s not much but each time I see him he improves a little.’ With her free hand she gave Boomerang a rub around his ears. Kim put down his food and using a brush Margaret had given her, she went carefully over his brown and white coat. He was definitely getting used to her.

  Kim and Adrian chatted nonstop about Boomerang whilst they ate their pizza and were still chatting when they took their seats at the cinema. They settled themselves down and Kim remembered why she hadn’t been to the cinema for a while – it was stiflingly warm.

  They sat through the usual adverts and then the lights dimmed and someone introduced the live-streamed performance. Kim was quite excited. She was also starting to overheat. A hot flush was surging over her skin. She undid the cuffs of her shirt and rolled back the sleeves – it made no difference. She was thankful for the low lighting; she knew she’d have a sheen of sweat on her face and would be looking quite pink. Her temperature went up another notch. That was it, the shirt had to come off or she’d be reduced to a puddle. She needed to remove it quickly and efficiently and without drawing too much attention to herself. She decided to swiftly pull the shirt over her head. Kim kept her eyes on the screen. She took a deep breath and tugged the shirt off. She rolled it up and shoved it in her bag. Job done. It was a huge relief. She felt instantly cooler. Now she could relax and enjoy the performance.

  Kim got lost in the play. It was hilarious and the first half seemed to fly by. The actors left the stage and the cinema screen darkened as the lights went up. Adrian turned to look at her with a broad grin on his face, which suddenly changed to a more startled expression. ‘Uh … where’s your top gone?’ he asked.

  She was a little narked that he’d drawn attention to her taking off her shirt. There was nothing wrong with her vest top. Although when she looked down she could see there was something wrong – it had disappeared. She was sitting in the cinema wearing just her bra. And not even a fancy one at that. It was a comfy, slightly greying one, of a utilitarian nature.

  ‘Sod it! I must have pulled off my vest top along with my shirt.’ She began rummaging in her bag as her temperature shot up again, this time thanks to embarrassment. ‘As I get older, I get hotter and not in a good way.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Adrian. ‘Here.’ He expertly popped open his travel mac and offered it to her.

  She quickly put it on. ‘Thanks,’ she said, wondering if maybe dissolving into a puddle wouldn’t be an entirely better look.

  The journey back from Cleethorpes seemed to go way faster than the trip there – why was that always the way? Ruby and Curtis chatted nonstop about the day. It made her realise how much they’d packed into it and whilst she had done it all ostensibly for Curtis, she’d had a brilliant time too. It had made her think of all the fun she’d had as a child and how wonderful her mum was but for the first time thinking about her mother didn’t make her want to cry and that felt like a real milestone.

  ‘The size of that seagull? I thought it was going to make off with the whole thing,’ said Curtis with a chuckle.

  ‘Your face was a picture. I thought you were going to scream … again.’

  ‘Hey, that fun fair ride was terrifying. I actually thought my heart was going to stop the first time it went up in the air.’

  ‘Just the first time?’ asked Ruby, taking her eyes off the road for a second to give him a look.

  ‘Maybe a couple of times.’

  ‘I can’t believe that was the first time you’d swam in the sea.’

  ‘I’m trying not to think about what I might have been swimming in,’ said Curtis.

  ‘Yeah, it’s probably best you don’t.’

  Ruby drove into the hotel grounds. It was impressive all lit up by floodlights. She parked near the entrance as it was starting to rain. She stifled a yawn. ‘Night, Curtis. Don’t forget your towel and pink teddy,’ she said.

  Curtis undid his seatbelt and twisted in his seat. ‘Thank you, Ruby.’

  ‘You’re welcome.’

  ‘What made you do it? You must have planned it all.’ His eyes seemed to search her face for the answer.

  She shrugged even though she knew why. He was still waiting. ‘It was what you said about growing up in foster care an
d not having fun now you’re an adult.’

  ‘The two aren’t connected. My childhood was fine. I was happy. And lately, I guess I’ve been caught up in the routine of work. Today made a surprisingly good alternative.’

  ‘I’m glad.’ There was something about the intensity of his gaze that made her look away. She yawned. It was a bit of a fake one this time, although she was tired. She always slept well after a day at the seaside. The sea air makes you sleepy – that was what her mother had always said.

  He scratched his head. ‘Thank you doesn’t seem enough. I have to tell you I was somewhat alarmed when you announced our day out this morning but I have genuinely enjoyed it … well, apart from on the way there when you inched over the speed limit and the near-death experience at the fun fair. And possibly whatever waste and bacteria I have ingested in the sea water. Apart from those things, I really did have fun. Thank you, Ruby.’

  ‘I had a good time too, Curtis. You need to make sure you make time for fun in the future. Okay?’

  ‘Absolutely. I will put a recurring reminder in my diary.’ She could tell he was joking and it was good to see his self-deprecating side.

  She rolled her eyes at him. ‘Why not go the whole hog and make a spreadsheet?’

  He laughed and the sound seemed to fill the small car. ‘I might just do that.’

  Tuesday rolled around. Kim had been looking forward to her weekly catch-up with Ruby. As soon as Ruby walked in the shop she pointed at Kim.

  ‘You’ve changed your hair. I like it,’ she said.

  Kim was pleased. Buoyed by her evening out with Adrian she’d done something similar with her hair again and slapped on a bit of lipstick and she felt better for it. She needed her hair tied back for work. She couldn’t be doing with it always flopping in her face and it was better off her neck in case a dreaded flush materialised, but the new messy bun was a huge improvement on her usual ‘ponytail in elastic band’ effort.

  ‘Ooh, is this the walk of shame?’ asked Ruby, scanning Kim’s outfit.

  ‘No!’ But she was quite pleased that Ruby thought her capable of being out all night and then rocking up to work. Those days were so far behind her they were a mere smudgy dot she’d need glasses to see.

  ‘How was your date?’ asked Ruby, putting her bag down in the back room.

  ‘Really nice but it wasn’t a date,’ said Kim, trying to sound stern and failing.

  ‘Did you get lucky?’

  ‘At my age getting lucky means finding my glasses before I have to buy new ones.’

  Ruby gave her a hard stare. ‘Did you kiss?’

  ‘Of course we didn’t kiss. Friends don’t kiss each other.’

  ‘What? Not even a peck on the cheek?’ asked Ruby.

  Kim glanced up from sorting the flowers in the cooler and Ruby was giving her a disbelieving stare. ‘Air kissing isn’t actual kissing.’

  Ruby did an exaggerated pout. ‘I think the clue is in the title but okay.’ She held up her hands in surrender. ‘How was the play?’

  Kim gave a brief summary of the performance and then in great detail recounted her bra reveal disaster and Ruby laughed hard, even holding her sides at one point. ‘I’m glad you find it hilarious,’ said Kim but even she could see the funny side of it now. She’d been sitting in the cinema for a good hour in just her bra. She was thankful there hadn’t been more people there to witness it.

  ‘You should have said it was a bikini top.’

  ‘There was no way that industrial hammock was going to pass as part of a bikini. Not one from this century anyway. Thank goodness Adrian had his pac-a-mac.’ Ruby started laughing again. Kim threw a broken stem at her. ‘How was your grand day out with Curtis?’

  Ruby finally managed to get her giggles under control and started to set up the shop. ‘It went well.’ She lugged a heavy bucket into place and paused. ‘He said he enjoyed it and I really think he did. He thanked me on the day and again yesterday in a formal email.’

  ‘Oh, he thanked you on the day, did he? And what format did that thank you take?’ asked Kim, managing to squeeze a whole heap of insinuation into her voice.

  ‘We didn’t hook up if that’s what you’re asking.’

  Kim was disappointed. ‘But might that be on the cards in the future?’

  The momentary pause before Ruby spoke said far more than the words that followed. ‘No. Definitely not. However, I have had another thought that I wanted to run by you.’ Ruby put down a large container of chrysanthemums and bit her lip.

  ‘Go on, then.’ Kim was intrigued.

  ‘I’m thinking about asking Curtis to be my sperm donor. And before you give me a million reasons why it’s a bad idea, hear me out.’ She held out her palm and began counting them off on her fingers. ‘One – he’s super smart so the child wouldn’t struggle at school. Two – he is emotionally disconnected from people, so he’d not want to get involved with parenting. Three – he’s local so good Yorkshire stock.’

  Kim felt she had to butt in at this point. ‘Hey, he’s not a prize bull.’

  ‘Don’t interrupt but okay noted. Four – he fits my physical criteria because he’s tall and doesn’t look like he fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. And five – he’s loaded so he might do it for free or a reduced price.’ She’d run out of fingers. ‘And bonus point – he’s a business person so would be able to treat this as the simple business transaction that it is.’ She folded her arms, her shoulders tense and her gaze fixed on Kim.

  Kim was a bit stunned. The argument Ruby had presented was a good one. Kim didn’t like being put on the spot but she could see that Ruby had thought this through. It wasn’t the way she would have gone about things but she was warming to Ruby’s logic and if this was the route she was determined to pursue then someone who could see it as a business arrangement was probably the ideal candidate. Ruby was waiting expectantly for an answer.

  ‘Well, if you’re sure this is what you want then … I have to admit Curtis seems like the ideal donor.’

  Ruby’s shoulders relaxed and she smiled. ‘Excellent. Then all I need to do now is ask him.’

  Chapter Twenty

  That evening Ruby curled her feet underneath herself and zoomed in on the spreadsheet she’d created on her phone. It was a pros and cons list for using Curtis as her sperm donor. In fact she had two lists: one was from her perspective and one from his. The latter had been hard to do as she’d had to try to see the situation as he would and getting inside Curtis’s head was always going to be difficult. She wanted to be ready with any objections he might raise and needed a strong list of benefits she could persuade him with, although that was proving tricky. All she had on the pros side for Curtis was ‘Help out Ruby’. It probably wasn’t enough to win him over.

  Seymour was curled up next to her. He stretched and opened his wonky eyes. He looked how she felt after studying the spreadsheets on the tiny screen for so long. Surely there were more benefits for Curtis? It would be unkind to say it might be his only opportunity to have children – but given he was one hundred per cent focused on his job and seemed to struggle with people it probably wasn’t far from reality. But she couldn’t use that, not only because it was mean but also because it implied he would have some sort of involvement in the child rearing and that was exactly what she was trying to avoid by having a donor. She sighed heavily.

  She had a lightbulb moment and quickly added: ‘Pass on your smarts’, then she reworded it so Curtis would understand: ‘Pass on your clever genes’. She was uncertain as to whether that would be a strong selling point but it was all she had. She flicked the screen to her own spreadsheet. Her pros list was looking a lot happier. Her only cons were that she didn’t want to damage their friendship and she didn’t know his medical history but if he had grown up in foster care it was likely he didn’t know it either.

  She pictured her mum laughing at her making a spreadsheet. Usually when she thought of her, she saw her in the hospital bed to
wards the end of her life but more recently the images were of her mother laughing. She’d laughed a lot. Despite all the blows life dealt her she was always upbeat. Maybe this approach wasn’t what her mum had in mind but Ruby knew if she could have a relationship with her child like the one she and her mother had shared she would be very happy indeed.

  Her phone rang. Spookily it was Curtis and she almost dropped it in her fumble to answer.

  ‘Good evening. Ruby Edwards, Curtis Walker’s executive assistant,’ she trilled.

  ‘You do know it’s me?’

  ‘Yes, I’m just showing you how I answer the phone to your customers.’

  ‘Clients.’

  ‘Yeah, those too. Anyway, I’m glad you’ve called,’ she said.

  ‘Why?’

  Sod it, she thought. She’d not meant to say that out loud and now she had to come up with a reason. ‘Because …’ She looked at Seymour and her eyes almost crossed too. ‘Because we need to talk about what we’re doing about Lewis’s engagement ring.’ Seymour slunk off for a bite to eat.

  ‘I thought we could post it to the jeweller’s,’ said Curtis.

  ‘No, not now. I don’t want to talk about the ring now.’ This was no good – she needed to be face to face to ask him about being the donor.

  ‘Why not?’

  She waved her free hand around in the hope of conjuring up another quick and plausible answer. ‘Because I think Lewis and his girlfriend deserve better.’ What was she talking about? She had no idea. ‘I mean we owe it to them to have considered all options … perhaps we should draw up a spreadsheet and detail all our attempts to return it. With dates.’

  She waited. There was a moment’s silence. ‘I suppose that would provide a robust audit trail should he ask why it has taken this long to get it back to him.’

  ‘Exactly.’

  ‘I was ringing to ask if you could contact a new client. It’s just at the initial enquiry stage but I’m swamped here with the twenty-four-hour testing and I’m struggling to call them back.’