From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Gethyn (again)
Date: 17 June
OK, so here’s a question. Should I follow up on Gethyn’s request to come to Appledart? He said he wanted to visit. Am nervous. I don’t want him to think I’m ‘loose’. Also, I look like shit.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Gethyn (again)
Date: 17 June
No offense, Ag, but you flew to Venice to shag a total stranger … just saying. Let him come.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Re: Gethyn (again)
Date: 17 June
But that’s exactly the point. Paddy was a stranger. This is Gethyn and I don’t want to mess it up. Shit, you haven’t told him about Venice, have you?
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Gethyn (again)
Date: 17 June
Of course not. By the way, what’s the latest with Isabella and Nathan?
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Appledart
Date: 17 June
Hello, Gethyn
Sorry I was unable to reply to your last email straight away. Of course you can come to Appledart, you could stay at the pub or with Ishmael. I’m sure he would be happy to have you to stay.
Let me know what you decide. I’d love to meet you.
Aggie
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: In Other News …
Date: 18 June
Hi, Pol
Yes, Isabella.
With me laid-up and useless, Isabella took to the helm at the café. Nathan decided to extend his stay at the pub (with Jack) so he could help Isabella run the café (and get his leg over in the process). Nathan has risen in the ranks from ‘shithouse’ to white knight. I could drag out the whole nitty gritty of it, but in a nutshell, they’re shagging, which means – fabulously – that the café’s place in the almanac is secured.
The other fantastic news is that Casey has asked me if I’d like to lease the café from her for the next year. We’re sorting out the details, but I’ve said yes. I’m going to rent out my place at Midhope to raise the money – the one will offset the other. I’m not telling mum. She hasn’t written or phoned to check that I’m OK after my fall, but I will continue to send love and light in her direction. Well, ta ta for now.
A
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Appledart
Date: 18 June
Hi, Aggie
I thought you were getting a bit cocky on a horse for a beginner, you daft mare! Some good news. I’m booked onto an RAF aircraft for the 22nd – I’ve got a one way ticket home!
Thanks for the offer to come to Appledart, but I may do something even more radical and take the rare opportunity of having a month off to go further afield. Also, I hear you have someone staying with you while you’re ill and it’s probably best if I don’t get in the way. For what it’s worth, just in case we lose communication for a while, I think there’s something wonderful about you. You’re an incorrigible romantic and you deserve to be romanced. I hope your new admirer knows that.
Take care,
G
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: No Subject
Date: 18 June
Does Gethyn knows about Jack?
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: No Subject
Date: 18 June
Stop what you’re doing an answer my email! I need an answer right now … POLLY!
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: No Subject
Date: 18 June
OK, steady on. I only get chance to log on to a computer every so often. Yes, Gethyn knows. Isabella sent us both the same email and said you had an admirer.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Re: No Subject
Date: 18 June
FOR FUCK’S SAKE!!
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Abroad? Why?
Date: 19 June
Pray, sir, what pleasures are to be found abroad that cannot be found here? (I may have stolen that line from an Austen film …) Ag
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Abroad? Why
Date: 19 June
Let’s see … diverse culture, language, temperament, climate (need I go on). But honestly, Ag. You already have plenty of company.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Re: Abroad? Why?
Date: 19 June
Yes, I have company, but I don’t have ‘company’ if that’s what you mean. That’s the problem with the café at road’s end, people come and never want to leave.
Ag
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: My Foolish Heart
Date: 20 June
Dear, Aggie
It’s late and I’m all knackered out, so I’m sorry if this letter is to the point, but I’m just going to empty my head into this email and press send, then it’s done.
Although Jack twat-face has the lead on me, deep, deep in my soul I feel that you and I are supposed to meet. I know you may not find me attractive, but what if, by chance, you do? I want to do all the things I read about in your books. I want to squirt honey out of a bottle in the shape of a heart onto your porridge, I want to come to your home and find the door wide open and a note on the kitchen table that reads, ‘Upstairs, now, you beast!’. I want us to have dinner and look across at your smiling face as you converse merrily with someone (who is actually very annoying) at the table and know exactly what you’re really thinking behind the smile – ‘he’s a cock’.
And I know you’ll be thinking that I’ve been drawn-in by all the sex scenes, which, I admit, you do write particularly well. But honestly, it’s not that at all (well, not entirely). It’s difficult to describe, but I know you, Aggie – the real you – the generous you, the you that sits alone at night, providing so much joy for others while taking very little back yourself. I know the angry you, the passionate you, the zesty you, the hilarious you.
Basically, all I want to do, Agatha Braithwaite, is run away from this hell hole and keep on running until I step off that little boat onto that funny little crag of Scottish wilderness you call home, and if I’m really lucky, we won’t feel a moments awkwardness, but look into each other’s eyes and just know that everything we’ve both been searching for will manifest in each other.
But whatever you do, don’t fall in love with Twatface. Please wait for me. Like I said, you don’t know me, and you might think this a bit crazy, but if you’ll let me, I’ll be with you very soon.
Yours, Gethyn
P.S. Oh, and for some final doctorly advice, do yourself a favour and get your arse off that settee, stride out onto that beach and get some fresh air.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Time for Truth
Date: 21 June
Dear, Gethyn.
Jack has gone.
Ag
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Re: Time for Truth
Date: 21 June
Good. Why?
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Time for Truth
/> Date: 21 June
He wasn’t you.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Happy Ending?
Date: 21 June
What if I disappoint you?
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Happy Ending?
Date: 21 June
Dear, Gethyn
So this is how I feel ...
I don’t want to rush into a relationship or have sex with you or experience anything more than friendship, at the moment.
Yes, my gut feeling is that you may just be the person I’ve been waiting for all of my life. But here’s the rub: in some of my novels, I have absolutely no doubt that, after the last turn of the page most of the relationships wouldn’t last the year out. But what if you and I really could live happily ever after? I believe this will only happen if you come to Appledart as a friend and with no expectations. If we are to fall in love, then let’s fall in love over time – gently, tenderly (you do realise that I’ve turned into you and you’ve turned into me …)
Who is Gethyn Evans? Who is Agatha Braithwaite, for that matter? Our letters could hide a myriad of lies and yet, I don’t care, because I feel that perhaps I’ve seen a side of you that no one else has seen. What I know for absolute certainty is that you’re a man I would be honoured to meet because:
- You’re the man who stole a tent so my friend could have some privacy in world where every scrap of womanhood was taken from her.
- You’re the man who took her a bowl of water so she could clean herself during her lowest days.
- You’re the man who made a football out of a sandbag to cheer her up.
- You’re the man who danced to the Bee Gees during a scud attack.
- You’re a man with a moral conscience.
- You’re also the man who got me to strip away my ego, see myself as the heroine in my own novel, rip apart my story and write a new and better one.
Come to Appledart and have some fun, you deserve it.
Yours, Agatha
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: My Foolish Heart
Date: 22 June
I’ll see you next Saturday.
G
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Foolish Heart
Date: 22 June
There’s no boat on a Saturday.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Re: My Foolish Heart
Date: 22 June
The lack of a boat won’t stop me.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Hello Darling
Date: 23 June
Dear, Agatha
How are you, my darling? Terrible news about the fall. Sorry I haven’t been in touch since you went away. My computer crashed just after you left and I’ve only just got it back from that chap on the high street. I’ve been so very busy, though, the time has just flown by. But I’m back online now so do let me know how you’re getting on at that sweet little café of yours.
I wanted to tell you that a journalist from The Sun contacted me a couple of days ago. He asked me all kinds of questions about you, my daughter, the secret author! I have absolutely no idea how the word got out, but I was very subtle. I think they are running an article on you this Sunday – I thought you’d want to know. Well, must dash. Do let me know when I can visit. I do miss you, darling.
Mamma x
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: You’ll Never Fucking Believe This!
Date: 23 June
Hi, Polly
Total frigging nightmare! I think my complete imbecile of a mother has let it slip in the village that I ghost write for Isabella, the upshot being that someone has tipped off the press (probably Mum, come to think of it) and Isabella will be ‘outed’ in the papers this Sunday. We didn’t even know anything about it until Mum emailed to tell me (she certainly chose her moment to get in touch). She must have been shitting it for real this time. All hell has been let loose with her agent – who wanted to sue me for breach of contract - but bizarrely, Isabella doesn’t seem to care. It seems the only absolute truth in life is this: when you’re shagging like a wild wombat, nothing in the world can bother you!
But back to you. If you don’t want the Met Office job you could set sail for absolutely anywhere you choose, but if you’re not sure, maybe go back to your old job for a while, just to get your feet back on terra firma, then why not just see which way the wind blows you (as a met woman at least you’ll know which direction you’re headed).
Regarding Jack, the problem is that I seem to have fallen for Gethyn – I know, madness - and I know I’ve never met him, but I genuinely do believe there is a connection that common sense cannot explain. Perhaps we find our soulmates via routes we could never possibly have expected, but that route was pre-ordained the whole time? Take Isabella, for example. Who would ever have foretold her great luck – not even Anya, I reckon.
So, I’ve invited Gethyn to stay. He’s coming next week. But here’s some news: I have no intention of jumping into bed with him, no way. It’s easy to get carried away in an email, but we’ve never met and we may not fancy each other and I don’t want to ruin his time here by flirting wildly on email and then doing to him what I did to the jockey in Venice. No matter what, though, he’s going to have a wonderful time, and so are you when you come to stay. Can’t wait to see you, Polly. And this time, we’re never going to lose touch again.
Love, Ag
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Coming Home
Date: 24 June
Oh, Aggie
I’m thrilled to bits Gethyn is coming to stay. I bet you fancy him though, no question, and he’ll definitely have the hots for you. It’s all just perfect!
You’re right. It’s time for me to set sail and leave my failed marriage in the past. But I may not need to go back to the Met Office as I’ve got an idea (and I got it from your friends from the café) – Antarctica! I had an email from work to say that the British Expedition Force are looking for a meteorological observer to join their team for six months – it can’t be a coincidence. I’ve put my name down and I’ve got a good chance of getting it.
What do you think?
Love, Polly
Bluey
From: Andrea Evans
To: Polly
Date: 24 June
Dear, Polly
I wanted to write you a quick note to say thank you so much for suggesting I follow my heart. I’ve enrolled on a nursing course starting in September. Mum’s going to have the kids for me and I’ll be able to keep some hours at the shop. I can’t wait. It’s like a whole new life is about to start. Get in touch when you get home. I’d love to see you. Thanks again.
Take care, Andrea
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Re: Coming Home
Date: 24 June
Antarctica? Not you too? It’s a bit extreme, Pol, but fuck it - great idea. Go for it! We never know what lies round the corner, do we?
In your last letter you said you want to put your failed marriage behind you. This got me thinking about the world ‘failure’ and I realise that relationships that come to an end should not automatically be regarded as failures. I think we should stop associating the ending of things with failing, full stop. Many people who live alone have a sense of having failed in some way, which categorically is not the case and can lead to a degree of self-loathing (and if a woman does not have a baby, this is not a case of failing, either). I would have been much more content as a single woman in Yorkshire if I hadn’t known the tongues of the women at the sh
op (OK, one woman at the shop) were casting aspersions. Similarly, some women are predisposed to be genuinely motherly, while others, like my own mother, have no concept of selfless nurturing. But again, does this mean that she too is a failure? (I can’t believe I’m giving her some slack bearing in mind her latest exploits). But let’s face it, I have placed a whole heap of pressure on my mum over the years. I wanted her to behave like your mother because your mum seemed to fit the image in my mind of what a mother should be.
We are all only failures if viewed in a certain light. Yes, I would love to have a monogamous relationship with a man (‘it’s better with two, said Poo’) but even if Gethyn and I hit it off, I will never again allow myself the horror of being without close friends – especially female friends. How many times have I listened to women in this café cry their hearts out, usually saying that their man doesn’t understand them, but seriously, of course men don’t understand us, they aren’t women!
Between Friends Page 20
