The Waffle House on the Pier: A gorgeous feel-good romantic comedy

by Tilly Tennant

  ‘That,’ Ewan said with a small smile of his own. But it faded into something more pained as his gaze travelled to April. ‘And the fact that none of us has time on our hands to help; we can barely keep on top of our own affairs without running a waffle house as well.’

  Sadie looked at her grandmother, waiting for a response, but nothing came. It was like she’d already chosen to retreat, the woman she’d once been choosing to follow her husband into the void and leaving behind someone who simply looked like April Schwartz. It pained Sadie to admit, even privately, that they’d already half lost her. It couldn’t be that simple, surely? There had to be a way to get her back, and surely that’s what they all wanted? Certainly the one thing they shouldn’t be doing was taking from April the only thing that might bring her back to life. If they took the waffle house from her, persuaded her to give it up, what would she have left? Surely it would be better to give her something to focus on, to keep something of what she’d shared with Gampy, even if it was more of a keepsake than a viable business?

  But then, Sadie also had to admit that her mother and brother were right. Who could spare the time to help run the waffle house? If it didn’t make enough money these days to employ staff, then that was out of the question. If April was going to have help it had to be one of them, but none of them could do it.

  ‘Gammy…’ Sadie said. ‘Never mind what can be done… What do you want? You must have some idea.’

  April looked at her. ‘Is there any point in saying what I want?’

  ‘Of course there is,’ Lucy said.

  ‘But you’re all telling me that it’s not possible.’

  ‘That’s not what we’re saying.’

  ‘But nobody wants to work with me?’ April asked. She shook her head sadly. ‘I can’t say I blame any of you. Ain’t enough excitement in an old place like that, and you’ve all got bigger plans.’

  ‘But if you could,’ Sadie asked, ‘you’d want to keep the waffle house on?’

  ‘It’s not possible,’ April repeated.

  ‘So what do you want us to do?’ Graham cut in.

  April shook her head slightly but she didn’t offer a reply.

  ‘We’re surely not just going to wrap it up like that?’ Sadie asked, her gaze settling on every adult at the table in turn. ‘If Gammy wants to keep it on there must be a way around it. If we put our heads together surely we can come up with some kind of solution?’

  ‘Like what?’ Ewan asked.

  ‘I didn’t say that inspiration would strike instantly,’ Sadie replied tartly. ‘But you’re writing the waffle house off with no discussion.’

  ‘Isn’t that what’s happening here?’ Henny asked. ‘I thought this was a discussion.’

  ‘OK, without an informed discussion,’ Sadie replied. ‘We haven’t gone over all the options.’

  ‘That’s because there aren’t any,’ her mother said.

  ‘I’m with Sadie,’ Lucy said. ‘There must be a way to make things work.’

  ‘I agree,’ Graham said. ‘I’ll admit it’s going to be hard to part with that old place – we all have a lot of good memories there. I certainly don’t want to see it go.’

  ‘And can you imagine it being sold off to someone who might turn it into something tacky or horrible?’ Sadie said.

  ‘Or even knock it down,’ Graham added.

  ‘Isn’t it protected or anything?’ Kat asked.

  ‘Protected?’ Ewan glanced at her. ‘In what way?’

  ‘It’s old, isn’t it? A pretty unusual example?’ She turned to April. ‘Isn’t it a listed building or something?’

  ‘I hardly think so,’ April replied slowly. ‘I wouldn’t exactly know.’

  Graham shook his head. ‘I don’t think so – we would know if it was, although I often thought it ought to be. I doubt it’s historically significant enough for that kind of protection.’

  ‘So someone could knock it down?’ Sadie asked. ‘If they decided they just wanted the spot on the pier, and not the business or the building, they could just bulldoze it?’

  Graham shrugged, though he looked as unhappy at the idea as his youngest daughter did.

  Sadie looked at her mother. ‘We can’t let that happen.’

  ‘What can I do?’ Henny asked. ‘I’m not a fan of the idea either. We can all sit here and complain, but unless someone comes up with a solution then we can’t change it.’

  ‘The ultimate decision has to lie with Grandma,’ Ewan said, and for once Sadie was in full agreement with her brother.

  All eyes went to April. She gave a half shrug and a long sigh that Sadie was convinced would end in a heart-wrenching sob. But it didn’t – she only spoke quietly.

  ‘I’ll do whatever you think is best,’ she said, and that statement alone told Sadie all she needed to know about her grandmother’s mental state. She’d never have said something like that in the past. Before Kenneth died April would have fought to keep their business; she’d have worked day and night and sunk every last copper into it; she’d have kept it open even if that meant only one customer a day coming through the doors, because while there was a customer, she’d have thought it was worth it. But then, Sadie had to consider that maybe even her grandma had had to see the bigger picture, that some battles just couldn’t be won no matter how hard you fought, and that all things eventually came to an end. Perhaps that was all it was; perhaps that era had simply come to its natural end.

  ‘That settles it then,’ Sadie’s mother said, addressing the table at large as she shook out a napkin and placed it on her lap. ‘I know we don’t like it but the waffle house will have to be sold.’

  Chapter Three

  For the rest of lunch, conversation turned to the practicalities of the sale of Sea Salt Bay Waffle House. While there had still been some opposition to it, eventually the family had all agreed there was no other way that they could see. April contributed very little to the discussion, other than to agree to almost everything without question. Every time Sadie looked at her she wished she could look inside her head to see what she was really thinking and feeling about it. No matter what had happened, what had been lost, Sadie didn’t believe that what they were planning round the dinner table was truly what her grandmother wanted.

  But despite feeling that, and wanting to do something about it, Sadie was stumped every time she tried to come up with a workable solution to the problem. Whichever way she looked at it, she had to admit that her mother was right – nobody was in a position to take on the running of the waffle house. More to the point, it would inevitably mean supporting April too – and Sadie suspected that nobody really wanted that responsibility. And with that realisation she had to admit that some problems, no matter how sad the facts made you, however much you wished they could be otherwise, couldn’t be fixed. All things had to end eventually and perhaps – whether they were ready for it or not – the waffle house on the pier had served its last customer. Perhaps it really was time to let it go.

  Sadie volunteered to go and check the waffle house over after lunch. Her grandmother was staying with her, Henny and Graham for the time being until they felt comfortable letting her live alone again. Whether that would be back in April’s flat above the waffle house had been a cause for some debate during the month since Kenneth had died, but it seemed that today’s lunch had settled that too. If the waffle house was to be sold it was unlikely that April could go back there. The family weren’t exactly sure where she was going to live instead – whether it would be in some kind of sheltered accommodation in a retirement village, in a new home by herself or perhaps even continuing to stay with Henny and Graham – but it was something they were going to have to iron out over the coming days and weeks.

  In the meantime, with April still staying in their spare room and the waffle house empty, the family had been taking it in turns to see that all was well and that the place was still secure. Not so much from a crime point of view – usually the worst Sea Salt Bay had to offer wa
s the odd bit of littering on the promenade – but more to guard against damage caused by something unexpected, such as an undiscovered burst pipe or a gas leak.

  So Sadie took her turn now as the afternoon light mellowed. The earlier rain had stopped, but the breeze was still brisk enough to whip the sea into dancing peaks and slap her hair around her face. She tucked the lengths into the collar of her old blue raincoat and plunged her hands into its deep pockets. The temperature wasn’t exactly freezing but the wind set goosebumps spreading over her skin anyway.

  The waffle house was in darkness. Not that she’d expected anything else, of course, but somehow the fact still jarred. It didn’t look right without the welcoming lights in the window that Sadie had always taken for granted until now, the interior a swirl of candy colours and sweet smells. The keys rattled in the lock as Sadie opened up and even that was a strangely mournful sound. The lock tended to stick – there was a knack to it that Sadie was only just mastering – and it took her a minute to get it right before it popped open with a dull clunk.

  Letters that had collected on the threshold scattered as the door swept over them and Sadie bent to gather them up. Most of April’s suppliers had been told that the waffle house would be closed for the foreseeable future – if only to prevent endless deliveries that they didn’t need from sitting and spoiling. But there were still old accounts to settle, the bills for those steadily trickling in. There was personal mail amongst the post too, all the more painful when it was addressed to Gampy. The ones in Sadie’s hand weren’t the first. She’d add these to the pile at home later; the family were choosing to open them up and deal with them rather than subject April to the distress of seeing his name on correspondence, though there was a lot of it that they just didn’t know what to do with and would be forced to consult her on at some point.

  Though they were all making regular checks on the building, and Sadie’s mother came in every once in a while to clean and air as best she could, despite their best efforts the smell of damp and neglect was beginning to characterise each visit now. It was practically on top of the sea and it was inevitable that a building so close to the water, with no heat or life in it, would soon be affected. Sadie glanced around the dimly lit main room. The sugar-pink chairs were upturned on top of the baby-blue tables and, despite the fact that Henny had only been in a few days before to clean, they were once again powdered in a fine coat of dust. The chrome counter was covered too, and Sadie trailed a finger along it to see a stark track left behind.

  Seeing nothing untoward here, she continued through to the kitchen. It was just as silent and depressing as the dining room. Not so long before it would have been the joyous hub of the café, with her grandmother dancing to old tunes on the radio as she mixed her delicious batter while her grandfather took orders out front.

  Sadie smiled sadly at the thought. She’d spent many weekend afternoons as a teenager helping out here for extra pocket money, though the truth was her grandparents would have given her the money anyway and they paid her far more than her work was worth. She’d spent even more hours sitting at one of their tables being fed with free waffles with strawberries and cream, or pancakes stuffed with banana and drizzled in maple syrup or crammed with raspberries and melted chocolate and dusted with icing sugar. It was the only way to get some fruit into her, Gammy would say when Henny complained that April was ruining Sadie’s evening meals, but she’d fire a conspiratorial wink at Sadie as she did to say that she was only joking. The fruit was just there to make the sugar taste better, and who cared about silly old evening meals anyway. Not jolly, kind, fun old Gammy, that was for sure.

  As she’d grown older, Sadie had no longer wanted to sit at the baby-blue tables of her grandparents’ waffle house with her grandmother fussing over her, ruffling her hair as she ate, singing old songs in the kitchen so loudly that everyone in the dining room could hear. She’d wanted to head out with her friends to the nearest big towns to eat in trendy new places. But when Sadie remembered those awkward years now she felt deeply guilty and sorry that she’d thought that way. Today she’d give anything to have those years back.

  Even though she didn’t want to, Sadie flicked the switch to illuminate the kitchen so she could check round properly. Apart from the same fine layer of inevitable dust that covered the dining room, it was spotless. Despite the suddenness with which Gammy been forced to abandon it the day the ambulance had come for Gampy, Sadie and her parents had been in to clean it from top to bottom, throw all the perishable unused food away and switch off the gas. As a result it now looked clinical, unloved, as if no life had ever been lived there. With a deep sigh, Sadie turned off the light again. She couldn’t bear to look any longer than she had to because it made her feel more miserable than anything else had for a long time.

  As she went back through to the dining room, her gaze was drawn to the figure of a man looking in through the window. Broad shoulders that she knew well, a slight irreverent wave in his hair and eyes the colour of sage leaves, eyes that she’d gazed into so many times over the years they’d been together, eyes that she sometimes still gazed into as she dreamt at night. On any other day she’d want to smile at the sight of him, even knowing she shouldn’t, but that smile didn’t come so easily today. She’d seen him around town many times in the checked shirt he wore now and had remarked to herself every time, with a pang of longing, that he’d looked good in it. She’d always had to chase the feeling away as he’d stopped to say hello, handsome and relaxed and unaware of the turmoil he caused in her heart when he did, but today, perhaps because of her heightened emotional state, she was finding it harder. There was no coat over his shirt, because he’d always been far too hardy to worry about a spot of rain.

  Sadie went to open the door, doing her best to shake feelings that she’d given up the right to long ago.

  ‘Hi,’ he said. ‘I saw the light on and I thought I’d better check who was in here. I mean, you never know…’

  ‘It’s just me. But thanks. It’s good of you.’

  ‘It’s alright. I was on my way back from seeing Melissa anyway. It’s only neighbourly after all, isn’t it?’

  ‘Well thanks anyway, Dec. I appreciate it.’

  Declan shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and blew out a breath.

  ‘So…’ he began, the merest hint of awkwardness in his voice. ‘How is your grandma? I didn’t like to come to yours and ask because… well, I thought it might not be welcome just yet.’

  ‘Oh, I think she would have liked to have seen you. She’s bearing up. Sort of. She’s very… introverted right now. I don’t know, maybe seeing you might cheer her up a bit.’

  Declan raised disbelieving eyebrows and Sadie had to give a small smile.

  ‘OK, so maybe not,’ she admitted. ‘She’s pretty terrible if the truth be told. She just seems like… like she’s gone out. Like she’s a house and the person who lives there went out but forgot to turn out the lights. But not in a crazy way, just a really lost, absent sort of way.’

  Declan nodded. ‘I was sorry to hear about your grandpa – we all were. He was a lovely guy, and everyone around here was very fond of him.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Sadie said, doing her best to hold back the tears suddenly pooling in her eyes. She sniffed hard and pulled herself back from the brink.

  ‘If you need anything… I mean, if April needs anything, just ask. I can’t promise I’ll be able to help all that much but I’ll do whatever I can.’

  ‘I’ll tell her that – it’ll mean a lot to her.’

  ‘Well…’ He shrugged. ‘That’s what we do, isn’t it? In Sea Salt Bay, I mean.’

  Sadie gave a stiff nod. ‘How’s your mum and dad, by the way?’

  ‘Oh, the same as ever,’ he said, his tone more cheerful now, more certain.

  ‘And Melissa?’

  ‘She’s good too. We’re looking for a house, actually.’

  ‘A house…’ Sadie hesitated. What was she supposed to say to t
hat? She was supposed to be pleased for him, she decided quickly, and she would be. ‘Wow… so things are going well.’

  ‘Yeah. She says it’s about time we thought about living together and I suppose she might have a point. I mean, it’s been three years now.’

  ‘It’s not all that long – not for a huge decision like moving in together.’

  ‘Try telling that to Melissa.’

  ‘Will you stay in the bay? There aren’t so many places around here for sale and they’re certainly not cheap.’

  ‘Don’t I know it. We’re looking here first though. I’d like to stay, and I don’t mind if it takes us a little longer to find the right place if it means we can do that.’

  ‘And Melissa?’ Sadie asked, sensing a caveat to his statement.

  ‘She says she’d leave given half a chance. But then she doesn’t have the same ties here, does she? She wasn’t born and raised here like me so I can hardly blame her for being less attached to the place. I think we’ll work it out in the end – she knows that I love it here so even if we had to leave we wouldn’t go far.’

  Sadie nodded. ‘Well, I’m pleased for you if that’s what you want. I know you have to find the right place for both of you but I hope you don’t move too far away; I’d miss you.’

  ‘Nah, you wouldn’t,’ he said with a warm smile. ‘You’d soon forget about me. Anyway, won’t you be on your way out of the bay when you qualify? Wasn’t that what you always said? That there was nothing in Sea Salt Bay – no jobs, no prospects, no excitement? Once upon a time you were desperate to get out.’

  What he didn’t add, but what they both knew, was those exact reasons were the ones Sadie had given him the day they’d split up. He’d wanted to settle, but she’d been restless, and after a long and tiring argument they’d decided that the two simply couldn’t be reconciled and that had been that. Looking back, Sadie had had plenty of time to regret her decision, but that regret hadn’t come until much later – too late to put it right and too late to take her place in Declan’s life again.