Lovely Little Things in Pretty Beach : A magical feel-good romance book to escape with in summer 2021.

by Polly Babbington

  Cressida in a spread for Hey magazine, lazing on a bed in full make-up and a silk dressing gown. Cressida in a ballgown and wellies in the woods. Cressida standing at a film premiere in an extremely figure-hugging dress. Cressida jogging on the beach in a white string bikini in the Maldives. Cressida walking through Heathrow airport in huge sunglasses and a massive tote bag. On and on it went. Cressida Delmey-Brown. Luckiest girl in the world.

  Lulu stared out the kitchen window, Mabel on the floor beside her, sighed, and then she looked back to the laptop and couldn’t stop herself from clicking more. It was like a drug designed to drip feed her curiosity and make her, at the same time, seem somehow dreadful but wanting more.

  After another fifteen minutes had gone by and Lulu had topped up her wine, she had decided that she needed to put all thoughts, and there were many, of Ollie Cavendish out of her mind. Not only did he look as he did, but he also seemed to have lived some gilded life with the best education money could buy, was always seen with a stunning girl on his arm, and had a family that, by the reports in the newspapers, was pretty much perfect. The only thing that seemed to be missing was any mention of his ex-wife.

  As Lulu flicked aimlessly through more and more pictures, she reflected on her life. She had been married to someone who was one step up from a criminal, her whole marriage had been a farce, she’d grown up in a not-a-lot-happening coastal town, and the most she had to show for her life was a German car and a vast collection of shoes. Shoes someone like Cressida Delmey-Brown probably bought with her spare change.

  And to add a little bit of insult to injury, Cressida had that stunning effortless air about her sought by many but attained by few. A willowy blonde with legs up to her neck, permanently lightly tanned and seemingly makeup-less, and certainly not needing to lose a few pounds. Huge grey-blue eyes, glowing skin, and everything about her from her dress sense to her house seemed to just shout opulence.

  Lulu pulled her hair on top of her head and squinted at her reflection in the kitchen window. There was no way she could compete with the likes of this shiny specimen that was Cressida Delmey-Brown. Lulu was wearing the last year around the middle, the stress was most definitely showing around the eyes, and by the tone of the tops of her legs, a yoga class or sixty-five wouldn’t go amiss.

  Lulu shut the laptop and felt just as she had when she had been dropped off by Ollie after the shoe on the train incident. There was only one word for it. Totally and utterly deflated. Like a wrinkled-up helium balloon the day after a party.

  Staring out of the window and listening to waves crashing onto the beach, Lulu decided that Ollie Cavendish was going to be ceremoniously placed onto a pile. The Too Good for Me pile and Lulu was going to leave him right there and not look back.

  23

  After four hours dealing with a constant stream of check-ins, a problem with a bathroom on the first floor, and a man who had complained because he had thought that deckchairs on the beach near the pier came as part of the facilities at the hotel, Lulu checked with the other receptionist Samantha that she could go to lunch.

  Taking off her shoes and putting them in her bag, Lulu slipped her feet into her trainers, took her lunchbox out, and headed through the Old Town. She made her way to a bench on the promenade overlooking the beach and took in big deep breaths of the fresh sea air.

  She took her sourdough roll out, laid a linen napkin on the bench beside her, and sat eating her lunch, looking at the purple-grey clouds coming in off the sea. Even when Pretty Beach was overcast and touch and go on the weather front it was still lovely. She had forgotten that in her life in London. Forgotten all the reasons it was so beneficial to live by the sea.

  Taking her phone out of her pocket, she checked her phone messages and opened one from Ava that must have come in while she was on reception.

  Hey. What are you up to? I’ve been working twelve-hour days on my new course. Ahhhh! What’s happened with the guy you bumped into who came around for dinner? Heard anything further on that?

  Welcome to my world. I’ve been working fourteen-hour days if you include the house, for what seems like a year! Nothing much to tell on that front.

  So, you haven’t heard from him?

  Nup. Not really.

  Not really???? Is that a yes or a no?

  He walked me home on Friday night from the pub near the kiosk. Lulu typed adding a smiley emoticon.

  And??

  And nothing.

  Tell me you asked him in for a drink…

  Actually, I did. There was a sort of moment at the end where I *think* he might have gone to kiss me.

  ????

  I don’t know, I’m now thinking I imagined it but there was a moment at the end as he left but I bottled it!

  Nooooooo! Tell me you did not do that. Why????????

  Yep. And since then I’ve Googled the life out of him and his family and he has now moved onto the Too Good for Me pile.

  No way. There is no such pile. Lulu, you are amazing, and don’t you forget it.

  Google him. Ollie Cavendish. The girlfriend if that’s what she is looks like she just stepped out of a magazine.

  Ava went quiet for a bit and Lulu finished her roll.

  Yeah. Okay. I can see why you put him on that pile. Really though? Is anything quite that perfect? I thought you said he was divorced?

  Yep. He is. That’s the only thing I couldn't find much out about.

  Oh well. You never know. Don’t put yourself down though, Lulu. Fenton has knocked your confidence big time. Don’t let some tea heiress top you.

  I know. I just thought what on earth am I doing? I’ve just come out of all of that with the divorce and everything… it’s so raw and fresh.

  It’s because he looks like a ******* movie star. I would lol.

  Hahahahahaha, Ava. You don’t change.

  Nup.

  Anyway, look. I’ve got to go. I’m on my break. I’ll let you know any developments but don’t hold your breath. Xxx

  Cool. Spk later. Don’t forget I’m in London soon for the conference and you’re my guest of honour.

  As if I would forget! xxx

  Lulu smiled, feeling very grateful that she had a friend like Ava. It was nice to know that someone had her back with no judgement. Ava had been brilliant throughout the year of hell Lulu had just come out the other end of, when other friends Lulu hadn’t seen for dust.

  Lulu walked back towards the hotel, bent down and put her pumps back on, sprayed perfume behind her ears, and made her way towards the staff entrance at the back of the hotel.

  After going up to the staff room, helping herself to three macarons, making a cup of tea and having a sit in the massage chair, Lulu got in the service lift, and presented herself back at reception. Samantha clicked a button on the computer and gathered her things to go.

  Just as Lulu was putting her phone in the drawer under the desk, it slipped out of her hand and she knelt down to pick it up. Sliding her hand along the carpet craning her neck to see where the phone had landed, she witnessed Samantha suddenly drop her bag back under the desk, sit back down on her stool and heard her in a high-pitched voice address someone approaching.

  ‘Hello, stranger! Long time no see,’ she heard Samantha almost sing in enthusiasm.

  Lulu scrambled up from the floor, pulled herself up using the stool, and brushed down her trousers. Looking up, right there in front of her, appearing as if he had just stepped off a plane from the Mediterranean, was Ollie.

  Ollie smiled at Lulu and then turned to Samantha. ‘Yes. I haven't been here for a while. Well, I have been here just not in the hotel. I’ve been working over at Pettacombe.’

  Samantha pulled her long dark hair around to the front and fluttered her eyelashes. ‘Yes, I know you have. So, to what do we owe the pleasure? The last time I saw you you said you were avoiding the hotels like the plague.’

  Ollie coughed. ‘Err, just popping in to see my mother.’

  Samantha giggled. ‘Your mother
? Funny! She’s not down here at his time of year with everything going on in town. Surely you must know that by now, Ollie?’

  Ollie shook his head. ‘Yes, umm. I need to check something with Helen too.’

  ‘Right.’ Samantha nodded. ‘Anything I can help you with?’

  ‘No thanks,’ Ollie replied, turning to Lulu. ‘How are you getting on, Lulu? How’s the hand?’

  Lulu held up her left hand which was now healing well. The dressing had been replaced with what was not much more than a large plaster. ‘I’m out of the woods since I went back to the surgery.’

  ‘You’ve been taking it easy, I assume?’ Ollie asked.

  ‘If you call painting a large room on my own, sorting out a massively overgrown garden, running my small business, and working part-time taking it easy then yes,’ Lulu replied with a smile.

  Ollie shook his head. ‘You don’t stop, do you?’

  Lulu pursed her lips together. ‘Unfortunately not.’

  At that moment Helen, Atlanta Cavendish’s assistant, came strolling out of the function room on the left. ‘Ollie! How are you? What on earth are you doing here? I haven’t seen you around these parts for a long time.’

  Ollie shifted from one foot to the other and rested his hand on the reception desk. ‘Oh, you know, just popping in. I have something to run through with you too if you have a minute,’ Ollie replied.

  ‘Really? Rightio, okay. Follow me through to my office. By the way, did you manage to get into the computer yesterday? I saw your email wanting to know how to access the Pretty Beach staff rosters - was there something you needed to know?’ Helen said with a frown.

  Ollie looked uncomfortable. ‘Err, I was just checking something on the IT side. There was a problem with that.’

  ‘What on the roster software? I didn’t know you were dealing with rosters and stuff now? I thought that was your worst nightmare,’ Helen said as they walked away from the desk and Ollie looked over his shoulder, raised his eyebrows to Lulu, and smiled as they made their way to the lift.

  As Lulu was approached by a young couple checking in she swallowed, blinked rapidly, and tried to recollect how to breathe.

  24

  Lulu opened the backend of the Lovely Little Things website and made adjustments to the stock levels. She’d just had a new shipment of scented candles arrive and was hoping that along with a new design of summer baskets, they would boost the sales that had slowly started to return to her online store.

  Slicing through the brown industrial tape on the side of the large cardboard box in the middle of the kitchen table, Lulu was hit by the scent of the candles as she opened the flaps and delved inside.

  Her new range of four candles had been planned to evoke the scents of walks on the coast. Conceived to bring the delights of Pretty Beach to her customers by way of lighting a candle. One morning after a long stroll with Mabel through the woods at the top of the cliffs, Lulu had come up with the idea of a new range of four candles, and the Lovely Little Things Coastal Walks range had been born. Now, after to-ing and fro-ing with the supplier, the whole concept sat right in front of her in four huge boxes.

  As she pulled each candle out of the large cardboard boxes, Lulu had high hopes for how they would sell. With their beautiful matte glass, white leather lids, and natural wood wicks, Lulu ran her fingers over them. She was fairly sure they would turn out to be a great addition to Lovely Little Things, but you never really knew. She’d taken a gamble on the order and, with her current state of finances, needed to ensure that they sold.

  With beautiful styling, the warmer weather on the way, and some pushing on social media, Lulu was hoping the candles would turn a good profit. She was convinced that her customers in their gorgeous homes would love to light a candle and be reminded of their holidays by the sea.

  An hour later, the delivery of candles was collated, product pages were written, and the categories had been uploaded to the store. All she needed now were the photos.

  Lulu gathered up the candles, put them into a basket and with Mabel by her side, she walked through the garden, opened the gate at the end and looked around for inspiration.

  She’d done nothing to the area past the fence that backed onto the beach. It was still looking unkempt and in need of attention, but at the same time, it was rustic and wild with nature at every turn. There was almost a part of her that wanted to leave the area just as it was.

  On the left butted up to an old fence, a pile of driftwood basked in the sun. The jetty to the right with its faded old timber lent itself nicely to a coastal photoshoot, and the rickety old chairs tucked up amongst the reeds may just provide the backdrop she needed. If she got the photos right with the setting, the candles would maybe almost sell themselves.

  An hour or so later, after placing the candles in amongst the driftwood, on the seat of one of the chairs, and on the ledge of the jetty with the sea glistening in the background, she had hundreds of photos on her phone.

  Lulu strolled back up towards Seafolly House with the basket of candles over her arm and as she walked into the kitchen, the scent from the boxes of candles still on the kitchen table hit her. Everything from her walks by the sea came back to her as she inhaled. Yes, the candles were going to be a very good income stream, of that she was now more positive.

  After quite a bit of tweaking with filters and edits, all four of the candles now had beautiful accompanying pictures and wonderful descriptions on the Lovely Little Things website. All she needed now was interest.

  Lulu finished off the updates, uploaded some pictures to Instagram and Facebook, set up a few social media ads, and called it a day. After carefully storing the candles in the garage, she strolled back into the kitchen, flicked on the kettle and made a cup of tea.

  Sitting at the kitchen table with Mabel snoring gently underneath, Lulu’s phone buzzed with an Instagram alert. Mindlessly opening the app, she scrolled through to a direct message via Lovely Little Things.

  Hey, Lulu. It’s Alexandra here. I’ve just seen your new candle range pop up in my feed. Darling! They’re just what I need for our annual summer garden party. I’d need fifty as lovely gifts for my ladies. I wanted to check that’s doable with you? Life by the Sea is the one I like the sound of and any possibility of personalising them with my initials as you did with monogramming the planners? Alexandra.

  Lulu smiled as she read the message. Well, that hadn’t taken long. The amazing power of social media. Alexandra Bowles was one of Lulu’s very first customers. Lulu had worked with her sister at a PR company in Fitzrovia, and when Alexandra had come into the office one day, she’d randomly glanced at a handmade basket Lulu tied with a cotton scarf underneath Lulu’s desk and had virtually begged Lulu to get her one the same.

  Alexandra had, in fact, contributed quite a bit to the early success of Lovely Little Things. In those days with no social media, word-of-mouth marketing had been everything, and it hadn’t taken long for the lovelies-who-lunched to be falling over themselves for Lulu’s tiny but meticulously curated, exclusive finds.

  Her small business had grown from there with pop-up boutique markets in the summer months, stalls at Christmas events and her ‘gatherings’ which were by invite only and normally ended up with all of her stock being sold out.

  Lulu laughed to herself as she remembered those days of lugging stock around. The days before the internet changed small business. Then she’d often only been able to afford to buy five of things and had taken a chance on how it would go. Unknowingly, this had worked in her favour, with the ladies-who-lunched adoring the idea that they had something no one else could buy.

  Lulu started to type back to Alexandra, noting that of course she could put Alexandra’s name on the candles, when in actual fact, she had no idea how she was going to do it. And replying after another message and then the order came through the website that she would certainly be able to hand wrap each candle individually to coordinate with the theme of Alexandra’s garden party.

/>   Lulu made another cup of tea, calculated how long it would take her to get the candles wrapped and sent, and tried to forecast how many new customers and orders would come through once Alexandra’s gifts had been received. Whenever any of her customers in Alexandra’s league used Lovely Little Things for one of their highly-regarded events, Lulu always ended up with a little flutter of orders on her website and interest on social media.

  As Lulu looked at the date for the garden party in her calendar and thought more about Lovely Little Things, her mind mused to the kiosk. She wondered how long it would take to makeover the little shop and how quickly she could get it all sorted. If a few social media posts could bring in a sale like they just had, it was time to take the plunge.

  Lulu Drinkwater had come to another point in her new start, and the journey for bricks and mortar Lovely Little Things in Pretty Beach had begun.

  25

  After another busy couple of days at work and no further appearances from Ollie in Pretty Beach, Lulu was done for the week. She woke up ready for a full day of DIY and chores.

  Later on that day, the boot room was stripped of its sixties wallpaper, Lulu had taken a call from Helen to ask if she would mind filling in at Pettacombe again in a few weeks’ time, and she’d mowed the top patch of lawn. Her to-do list was being slowly ticked off one small job at a time.

  After an early supper, absentmindedly scrolling through her phone, and a few texts back and forth with Willow, Lulu looked down at Mabel.

  ‘Right, Mabel. One last job for the day. A nice long bath and then a walk through Pretty Beach with you. Would you like that? What do you think, my little cherry pie? I bet you’re dying to go out for a walk, aren’t you?’

  At the mention of a walk, Mabel wagged her tail like crazy and followed Lulu around, sat patiently on the floor of the bathroom while Lulu was in the tub, and waited expectantly at the door of the dressing room as Lulu tied her damp hair into a bun and got dressed. Lulu put on soft blush pink lounge clothes that were respectable enough to go out in, but felt like pyjamas and had sold out in no time at Lovely Little Things.