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

by Polly Babbington

  Thoughts and words and conversations came thundering in side by side: casual encounter, who are we? He’s a player. Be careful.

  Round and round it went like swirling fog taking up every inch of her brain as she made her way to the hotel entrance, walked through the hotel lobby, and stabbed the buttons for the lift.

  40

  Lulu woke up in the dark, cold hotel room with the morning light peeking through from the blackout curtains. Her head ached from the long restless night, her eyes burned from the tears, and her spine felt as if someone had repeatedly twisted it left and right all night long as some sort of a joke.

  For hours and hours, all through the unsettled night, her mind had gone over and over the image of Ollie standing at the pedestrian crossing his arm around Cressida Delmey-Brown. Their close faces, them sharing a look, comfortable together. Seeming to the outside world as if they were a couple.

  Slimeball. Why did I even go there?

  Lulu picked up her phone from the side and read the text from Willow who had arrived at Heathrow earlier that morning. Lulu welcomed Willow home, pleased that she was finally back but kept everything happy and smiley in her message - there was no point in upsetting her too.

  The night before, Lulu had decided, rather than send one of those awful SOS messages where the recipient couldn’t actually do anything to help anyway, not to tell Willow about who she had seen with Ollie. She wasn’t even sure if she was going to tell anyone at all. Maybe it was better if it was just buried?

  She couldn’t feel much other than stupid, used, and let down. As she lay in the huge hotel bed with the gorgeous soft sheets and luxury pillows and stared up at the ceiling she didn’t know what she was going to do.

  Did she text him the photo? Call him up and ask him what was going on. Pretend she didn’t know anything at all and then confront him with it? Call his bluff and show him the pictures on her phone when she next saw him? It was all so much effort and took so much brainpower.

  As Lulu got out of bed and flicked on the kettle, she decided she wouldn’t do anything yet. Despite trying to embrace the structure of the ‘casual encounter’ she was going to dissect this situation to within an inch of its life and take it from there. She would wait and examine it from every single angle until she was hit by inspiration on what to do.

  After showering, making a cup of tea and getting dressed, she put on some makeup to try and disguise the disturbed night which was written all over her face. Then she left the hotel room and made her way down to the restaurant.

  Approaching the table where Ava was sitting with an iPad propped up on the left, she tried to put a smile on her face. As Ava looked up she took one look at Lulu's expression, jumped out of her seat, and put her hand on Lulu’s arm.

  ‘What the heck happened to you after you left last night? You look terrible! You’re pale as a sheet and your eyes are all puffy.’

  ‘Ahh. Nothing. Just a hotel bed and a busy night. You know what it’s like.’

  ‘Sorry! I’m not buying that in any shape or form. What’s happened?’

  With the question and the look on Ava’s face, Lulu promptly burst into tears. All her notions of not telling anyone about it went out the window. Unable to speak, for fear of starting to wail, she fumbled in her pocket for her phone. Locating the photos she passed it to Ava who looked at the grainy picture of Ollie at the traffic lights. Ava had not yet met Ollie but she’d seen pictures of him and it didn’t take her long to work out who it was.

  ‘Yikes. Is that Ollie? Oh god, it is. Is it him with the tea heiress?’

  ‘Exactly the one,’ Lulu replied, her lips set into a grim line and dabbing the corners of her eyes with a tissue.

  ‘Oh my! And you don’t know anything about this?’

  ‘I do not. As far as I was concerned he was in Berkshire with his parents as I said to you.’

  ‘What are you going to do?’

  ‘I’ve no idea. I’ve been awake all night. I just don’t understand it,’ Lulu said as she scrolled through the pictures and zoomed in on the one of Ollie and Cressida walking down the road.

  ‘Well, it certainly does look incriminating. They look a bit sombre, though,’ Ava sighed, taking off her glasses and placing them next to her iPad on the table. ‘You need this like a hole in the head.’

  ‘I know. I don’t know what to think. I thought we were just so together. You know?’

  ‘It certainly seemed that way from what you’ve told me,’ Ava replied.

  ‘There may be an explanation I suppose. Everything was going so well. I feel like such an unequivocal idiot. Why would he have behaved like that? What, it was just fun and games for him? He got some warped pleasure out of leading me down the garden path?’

  ‘I really don’t know,’ Ava replied with a confused look on her face.

  ‘How do we apply the Ava Richardson philosophy to this situation?’ Lulu attempted to joke.

  ‘I think we apply Lulu Drinkwater analysis to this situation,’ Ava replied with a wry smile.

  ‘Don’t worry. I’ve been doing that all night. Over and over and over again.’

  ‘And the result?’

  ‘Wildly swinging between he’s the ultimate player and I want to kill him, to that there must be a simple explanation for this.’

  ‘I really hope it’s the latter.’

  ‘You and me both,’ Lulu replied as she put her phone back in her pocket.

  ‘Have you heard from him at all?’

  ‘Only the text yesterday afternoon to say that he had spent the day with this brother and telling me to have fun.’

  ‘That just doesn't sound like the sort of thing a player does to me. He seems too interested.’

  ‘I guess not. Isn’t that it, though? Don't players do precisely that? Keep everyone guessing, as it were. Keep people hanging on. String them along for as long as possible.’

  ‘From what you’ve said all through this though it just doesn’t seem to add up. It must be your second deduction. There must be an explanation.’

  ‘Or he just conveniently forgot to mention that he was in the same city as an old girlfriend and he was out late at night looking very cosy with her? Is that the explanation?’

  ‘I hope not. So, what are you going to do?’

  ‘Nothing. I decided that last night. I’m going to wait until I get back to Pretty Beach tomorrow and then I’m going to play it by ear. See what happens.’

  ‘Aren’t you going to be mulling it over all day?’

  ‘No, I am not. I’m going to put it to the back of my mind. Ava, you know what, I went through that terrible last year and survived, didn’t I? I can cope with this.’

  ‘You did. Absolutely. And I am extremely proud of how you handled it all.’

  ‘And who are we?’

  ‘We are confident, capable, independent women who can do it on our own.’ Ava coughed and put her glasses back on. ‘Most of the time.’

  41

  Lulu got off the packed train in Pretty Beach to an overcast but warm day. Trailing along behind the throng of day-trippers arriving in Pretty Beach for the sea air, she was lost in a world of her own.

  The Saturday had gone well with Ava, and Lulu had managed to put all thoughts of Ollie and Cressida out of her head. She had come to the conclusion that she could more than deal with whatever it was that the explanation turned out to be. She had tried to convince herself that it meant nothing to her. She could do a casual encounter. It was hardly as if they were attached in any way. This was nothing like what had happened with Fenton.

  Deep down though, like some strange, painful extra little twist, it was worse this time. It was easy enough to try and fool herself that she was okay but it had been different with Ollie. Or so she’d thought. Everything that had happened with him had shown Fenton in a whole new light and that had been so very welcome. Being with Ollie, engulfed in the honey, had made her feel better about being unceremoniously dumped from her marriage and left with nothing. It had been
as if she was suddenly the one laughing at Fenton. The one who had moved on to better things.

  Now, she felt as if somehow that whole part of her life with Fenton rather than faded was exemplified a million-fold. Fenton had found something better and now it seemed that Ollie had too. And how rock bottom did that make her feel? There wasn't much lower that she could go.

  As Lulu was strolling down the laneway, she stopped to window shop at White Cottage Flowers, bumped into Suntanned Pete walking his dog, and made her way towards the Boat House. At the end, she saw Holly coming out of the bakery on her way to her car.

  Holly trotted along in sparkly high heels with Xian in huge gold headphones by her side. As Xian went to get into their big black Porsche, she spotted Lulu and looked around the car door.

  ‘How was the weekend in the big smoke? By the looks of your face, not so good!’ Xian said, put her iPad on the front seat, closed the door and took a few steps towards Lulu. ‘What’s happened? Are you unwell? How was the event?’

  Lulu smiled. When she was growing up in Pretty Beach it had irritated her no end how Xian and Holly seemed to know everything about the town. She had thought they were gossiping old busybodies. Now she saw in Xian’s eyes her genuine concern. And how on earth had she picked all that up before Lulu had even opened her mouth to utter a word?

  ‘It was fine. Thanks, I’m just a bit tired. I hope I’m not coming down with anything. It was really stuffy on the train. Maybe I picked something up there.’

  Xian nodded and frowned. ‘I don’t believe that for a second. Your whole aura is off.’

  The sides of Lulu’s mouth turned down and she let out a huge disillusioned sigh. ‘Oh, is it?’

  ‘It is,’ Xian said, narrowing her eyes. ‘How are you getting on with our resident part-time fireman?’ Xian asked.

  Holly butted in. ‘Mum! Don’t be so nosy.’

  Xian looked amazed at Holly and turned back to Lulu. ‘He was up in town this weekend too, wasn’t he? Did you go out for dinner with him up there?’

  ‘Umm, no we didn't. Err, Xian how do you know he was up in town?’ Lulu wondered because as far as she was concerned Ollie had been going to Berkshire.

  Holly answered. ‘There was a call-out at the fire station this morning, apparently. Joe the fireman came in for buns on his way past at lunchtime. According to him, Ollie was delayed in London because of a family emergency. I think that’s what he said Ollie had messaged him.’

  Lulu nodded and not wanting to let on that this was all news to her she smiled. ‘I’ve not really heard a lot from Ollie because I’ve been really busy. Then after the event, we were out all day. I’ll catch up with him when I get home.’

  Xian nodded. ‘Get yourself off to bed for a nap I would say. You look rough as old boots.’

  Lulu laughed and waved as Holly and Xian got into the car.

  However I look on the outside I feel a million times worse inside. That I know for sure.

  42

  Lulu walked woefully along Seafolly passage with her head down. At least she had the thought of seeing Mabel to cheer her up. Mabel helped in all sorts of situations without even knowing it. And especially in situations of the heart.

  As a few odd rays of sunshine filtered through an overcast sky, Lulu looked up at the tones of grey and thought how well they matched her sour mood. Stepping onto the drive, she heard Mabel barking in excitement from inside. Mabel had stayed overnight at Lottie’s in Strawberry Hill and Lottie had taken Mabel for a long walk earlier on in the day. Then she’d dropped her off at Lulu’s so she was there for when Lulu returned home from London.

  Lulu opened the front door as Mabel came bounding into the hallway wagging her tail like crazy.

  ‘Beautiful darling, Mabel. I’m so pleased to be home. How are you?’

  Mabel looked up at her with the big brown eyes and it was as if she had picked up on Lulu’s low mood right away.

  ‘Right. First things first Mabel. Let’s get you a little treat,’ Lulu said as she walked into the kitchen. Mabel sat down perfectly, waited for the treat and as Lulu bent down to give it to her she almost dropped the treat to the ground.

  Stepping forward she frowned at a note taped to the door to the old conservatory.

  Lovely Lulu. No more rats for you. I hope you like it. Love Ollie xxx

  Lulu turned the piece of paper over confused and then peered into the conservatory. The last time she had been into the old structure the floor had been covered in droppings. One of the windows had weeds growing through it and the windowsills were rotten and falling apart. In light of the conservatory's state and the other more pressing jobs in the long list for the house, Lulu had done a very good job of ignoring the room entirely. Stepping in now, the windows glistened in the odd ray of sunshine, there wasn’t a single rat dropping to be seen, and the windowsills had been repaired and painted. The old tiles had been cleaned, the fans at the top looked as if they may now work, and the air smelt of disinfectant and cleaning products.

  In the middle of the floor, a massive hand-tied bouquet wrapped with a wide pale pink ribbon was bursting with old-fashioned roses. Mabel had a good nose at the flowers and then proceeded to sniff the whole perimeter of the conservatory.

  ‘Really, Mabel! This man is quite the piece of work. He’s gone to all this trouble for me down here in Pretty Beach while he’s keeping the tea heiress happy in town. Priceless. I have to give it to him though. He really is cocky to think he can get away with this,’ Lulu said as she took in a big inhale of the gorgeous roses.

  Walking back through the house to the front porch where she’d left her bags, she took out her phone and raised her eyebrows in surprise. Two texts, one from Ava and one from Ollie.

  Hi. You should be home by now. I hope you like the surprise. I wasn’t in Berkshire at all - a little white lie so you wouldn't suspect anything. I called in the troops to work in the conservatory. Anyway, I'll be home later. Want to pop round?

  Lulu didn’t know what to reply. This had totally floored her. It was totally not what she had thought would happen. Now what did she do? This scenario had not been dealt with in her analysis anywhere!

  Lulu sat down cross-legged next to the flowers in the middle of the floor. Leaning her chin on her hands, she looked at the glossy painted woodwork and the gleaming floor.

  ‘Oh well, Mabel. If nothing else we now have the most beautiful conservatory to sit in. And a sofa in the sitting room.’ Lulu actually laughed to herself at the irony of it all.

  Are a conservatory and a couple of sofas worth a broken heart?

  A few hours later, with Mabel stuck to her side like glue, Lulu, despite an overwhelming amount of analysis on the matter, couldn’t decide what to do. So she had turned off her phone, buried the conundrum, and done nothing at all.

  Deciding to use gardening as therapy, she’d gone out to the front and weeded nearly a whole bed on the left-hand side under the window to the study. With her hands in the earth and an unbelievable difference in the appearance of the bed, Lulu began to feel better and had slowly settled on a plan.

  She took off her gardening gloves, got up, and went into the house. Walking into the study she took out her phone, turned on the wifi, and printed the photo of Ollie and the tea heiress. As the printer whirred and spurted out the photo she looked down at it in disbelief.

  Her plan was not to reply to the text but later on when she was sure he would be there she was going to march up to his front door and confront him with the evidence.

  Who are we?

  We are confident, capable, independent women who can do it on our own.

  43

  Lulu passed the cake shop on her right and could almost taste the beautiful cakes and sweet things in the window. She gazed at the towering display of treat boxes filled with pastel cakesicles, cream fairy cakes topped with swirly icing and gold sprinkles, and blush pink slabs tied with the palest grey ribbon. She made a mental note to go in and introduce herself to the owner and as she ap
proached her kiosk her face broke into a smile. It was no longer bringing the area down and though far from ready it was getting there. At least she had this to look forward to.

  Unlocking the door, the scent of cleaning and painting hit her nose, and as she flicked on the light switch she looked around. The rows of open shelving in the alcoves that she had cursed The Hippy Shop people for installing had been transformed from their differing hues of purple to blush pink and were looking lovely.

  The whole room seemed to sigh in its new creamy white paint. Lulu smiled at the irony of how the wall colour had turned out. She’d got to the end of the preparation of the kiosk, checked on her situation with paint, and realised that there hadn’t been enough of anything to get the whole thing done.

  Lottie had donated various tins of leftover paint to Lulu’s Seafolly House renovation cause and after standing in the garage looking at the leftover odds and sods and reading various internet forums on painting, Lulu had thrown the dribs and drabs into one huge tin of brilliant white. She’d stirred it together having no idea what she was doing, wondered if a chemical reaction might occur and she would blow up the whole of Pretty Beach, but had ended up with a pale, creamy-white with a barely-there grey-ish tinge.

  Once the kiosk had been anointed in the neutral paint, Lulu had spent ages analysing where to incorporate the blush pink of the Pretty Little Things logo and had decided on the alcove shelves.

  After a lucky find on the sale table at the DIY store, Lulu had poured deep pink paint into the mixed up white and the pale blush pink that had resulted had been a good enough match for her to go with.

  A huge round wall decal ordered from Etsy with the Lovely Little Things logo had been stuck behind the tiny counter, and everything was looking close to being ready to go.