by Zoe Cook
‘So, how long have you known each other?’ Lucy asked, as Tara placed a frothy white coffee in front of her with a smile.
‘Ooh, a few years now, I guess,’ Tara replied.
‘We met in Exeter on a night out, would you believe?’ It didn’t seem that unbelievable a story to Lucy.
‘We started hanging out a bit…’ Tara trailed off and Lucy felt the familiar burning jealousy start to take hold. ‘And then Tom needed someone to help out here, I needed a job. It all went from there, really. You’re so lucky to have grown up down here. It’s great.’
Lucy nodded and her gaze drifted out the window to the beach. It was a clear, bright morning, promising a day of sunshine. The first few families were making their way on to the beach to stake their claim to a patch of sand and make elaborate windbreaker fortifications around their plastic spades and sandy towels. Lucy could hear Tara in the kitchen now, unpacking boxes and bags, humming to herself. Lucy drank the cappuccino and it slipped down her throat, leaving a silky, sweet taste and provided comfort Lucy hadn’t known she’d wanted. She took her phone from her bag and texted Nina: in the café, fancy brunch? She reckoned the probability of Nina being keen was around the ninety-nine per cent mark, her appetite had definitely become even healthier with pregnancy.
Lucy still couldn’t quite believe she was old enough to have a best friend who was having a baby, but Nina was taking it all in her stride as if it were the most natural thing in the world to be having Kristian’s child. And it was, of course. Lucy knew that really, it just made her feel so far away from being ready to become a mum, and somehow a little bit, what, sad? Her phone beeped with Nina’s reply: Sure thing, be down in 10. Lucy smiled to herself; she hadn’t spent enough time with Nina on her own since being down in Cornwall. Everything had ended up being a group event, which was great, but she loved talking to Nina one on one and she wanted to hear all about the pregnancy.
Tara appeared back behind the counter. ‘How’s the coffee?’ she called over, and Lucy looked down to see that she’d finished it.
‘Great, thanks, really nice,’ she said, genuinely.
‘Good stuff. Want another?’
Tara’s phone beeped and Lucy watched her examine the screen, her face changing as she read. Tara reddened slightly, then seemed to go pale. She looked upset as she put the phone back into the pocket of her apron.
‘Sorry,’ Tara said, turning to Lucy again, flustered, ‘did you say yes to another coffee?’
‘Maybe in a bit,’ Lucy called back, ‘Nina’s coming down for brunch.’
‘Oh great,’ Tara’s enthusiasm made Lucy feel jealous again and she cursed herself inwardly for being so pathetic. ‘She’s MY friend’, a childish, mocking voice whispered in her head.
‘Menus!’ Tara placed two A4 pieces of cream paper, printed with the day’s brunch menu, in front of Lucy and stood for just a moment too long for it not to feel awkwardly like she wanted Lucy to start a conversation with her. About what, thought Lucy, eggs and bacon? Lucy turned back to the window and scanned the surf, wondering if she could still recognise Tom from this distance. It had been a game she played with herself when she worked here; once everything was set up she’d stand outside with the salty air breathing life into her, usually hung over, soul, and try and pick out Tom from all the wetsuited bodies in the water. She’d follow her chosen figure as he rode, then as he left the water, and more often than not, if she remembered correctly, as he turned into a full-size Tom walking up to her, wet hair dripping in front of him, hands reaching out to her for a kiss and cuddle before he showered and joined her at work. Lucy could hear Tom’s mum calling out to him to clean up before coming to the café, but it had never made any difference. Tom had always come and given Lucy her kiss fresh from the water, and even though he left her needing to wipe sea water from her face, she’d always been glad of that moment. A daily dose of pure happiness, she supposed now, as she realised she couldn’t pick him out any more.
Nina arrived in a fluster, complaining about Kristian hiding her hair-straighteners. It felt an unlikely story, but Lucy nodded along sympathetically as her friend calmed herself down and ordered a decaf latte from Tara.
‘Absolutely hate decaf coffee,’ Nina sighed, ‘but I’m not drinking no coffee at all, so what can you do? Anyway, my dear, how are you doing?’
‘I’m fine, thanks,’ Lucy replied. ‘No plans at all today, which feels quite nice. Still getting used to this pace of life again.’
‘Yeah, bit of a change from London, right?’ Nina hadn’t asked her much more about what had happened, and Lucy wondered what Tom had told them after Claire’s call to him.
‘It was too much for me there in the end,’ Lucy said. ‘Just the job, really, I think. It was a negative place to be and I was partying too hard to try and feel better.’
‘Which, of course, only actually makes you feel worse,’ Nina looked Lucy in the eye and she nodded in agreement.
‘All I wanted was a promotion, to get on with my career and really prove myself. But Emma wouldn’t let me move out of that role because, as vile as she was to me at times, she liked me as her PA. It was a horrible job,’ Lucy realised she had hardly thought of Spectrum in the last few days. It made her feel a bit panicky even talking about it now.
‘When I go back to London I’ll look for a job in a bigger, more professional, company with proper structures in place,’ Lucy continued. ‘It’ll be exciting.’ But she didn’t really believe the last part herself and she didn’t want to look at Nina as she knew she’d know that too.
‘Good,’ Nina replied. ‘That’s good to hear. It never sounded a great place for you, Luce. I was worried about you. You just went off grid – I hardly heard from you. And then when we spoke you had that fraught tone to your voice that you used to have at school around exam time. Except this was all the time, as far as I could work out.’ Lucy knew what she meant.
‘Do you know,’ she replied, ‘I really miss some of my work friends. I spent so much time with them, and then suddenly it’s all gone and I’m not part of it any more.’ Nina leant across the table and held her hand in a way that only Nina could pull off without it feeling incredibly patronising.
‘On the positive side, of course, it brought you back here, to me!’ Nina grinned now at Lucy. ‘And that is pretty damn awesome, as I know you rather well, and I am so wonderful that I will even buy you brunch. Now, what are we having?’
When Tara appeared with the plates of bacon and eggs on toasted muffins, Lucy’s stomach rumbled.
‘Thanks, love,’ Nina smiled at Tara. ‘This looks a-mazing.’
When Tara was out back in the kitchen Lucy asked Nina, without looking at her, ‘so you’re friendly with Tara, then?’
‘Uh huh,’ Nina nodded as she pronged bacon into her mouth. ‘She’s lovely, you’ll really like her.’
Lucy smiled, in what she hoped appeared to be casual agreement.
‘You will, Lucy, honestly, give her a chance,’ Nina replied, knowing her too well. ‘Anyway, about tonight, Kristian wants to do a ‘massive’ barbecue on the beach, for old times’ sake. What do you think?’ She raised her fingers in quotation marks for the ‘massive’, indicating that Tom and Kristian would go and blow a bloody fortune on food and drink.
It had been one of their group traditions; strangely elaborate now she came to think about it, barbecues on the beach with seafood, great burgers, lots of wine. What precocious teenagers they’d been.
‘That sounds lovely, who’s coming?’ Lucy hoped this hadn’t been Nina’s way of telling her Tara was joining their little group; that wasn’t what she’d signed up for. ‘Just us four, like I said, for old times’ sake. Although obviously I can’t get drunk and run into the sea naked, so it won’t be quite like it used to be.’
Lucy laughed at the memory. It was something of a party trick of Nina’s to be more drunk than anyone else incredibly quickly, then pretty much naked, and then in the sea. It was probably quite dangerous, L
ucy thought for the first time now, though it had never occurred to her at the time.
Lucy wondered what she would wear tonight and what she would say to Tom. They hadn’t really spoken alone since the day at the church, and Lucy had wanted to thank him properly. She needed to try to get past the Tara situation
Tonight would be the perfect opportunity.
23
Lucy waved Nina back up the hill to the house and walked through town in search of the hairdressers. Her hair was the longest it had ever been and all the sea water had taken its toll on the ends. She’d resorted to tying it back into a ponytail every morning. There were two hairdressers in the town: one had always been the old ladies’ salon and the other was run by the glamorous Emily and Juliet Tweed, who were always identifiable around town by their fashion-forward catwalk-inspired hairstyles. Lucy remembered how they’d introduced the two-tone-dye look down here, a long time before it was actually fashionable, and how awful it had looked on everyone apart from the Tweed sisters, who could pull off almost any look.
She turned the corner at the bottom of the hill, taking the winding mews path lined now with fashion boutiques and a more tasteful selection of Cornish gift shops than had ever been imaginable back when she was growing up here. Not a seashell- encrusted beach hut lamp in sight, she thought.
Talking Heads had kept its prime spot just before the seafront, though its sign was new, a striking logo in steel and plastic. It looked smart. Lucy could see Emily Tweed through the window at the reception desk. She looked good, Lucy thought, trying to do the maths and work out how old she must be now. Forty? Her sleek blonde shoulder-length bob swished about as she talked animatedly to a younger girl using the computer. Lucy pushed the door open and walked into the warm smell of hairspray and shampoo, the roar of hairdryers almost drowning out the radio. She hadn’t expected Emily to recognise her, she had forgotten about the infamy of being one of ‘those poor girls’. Even after all this time. She could see Emily vaguely recognise and then struggle to place her, her face did the sudden drop Lucy had hated during those last few years she lived down here when people worked out who she was.
She arranged an appointment for later in the week.
‘That’ll be with Liv,’ the receptionist said, nodding towards the row of salon chairs. ‘Sounds good,’ Lucy replied. ‘I’ll see you then.’
As she turned to leave a hand touched her back, taking her by surprise.
‘Lucy? Is that you?’ Lucy turned to see a grinning face so close to hers she could smell her chewing gum.
‘Yep, that’s me’ she replied, trying desperately to work out who the pretty, petite girl was. She didn’t even look familiar.
‘It’s me, Olivia,’ said the grin. ‘Oh, you won’t remember me. I was a few years below you at school and we all used to come in to the Beach Café when you worked there. You’ve been gone for ages! You look great.’
‘Oh, thanks,’ Lucy smiled, struggling for anything more to say. It was unnerving how the grin hadn’t dropped even momentarily throughout the exchange.
‘Well,’ said Olivia, standing now at the desk looking at the booking chart. ‘Looks like I’m seeing you on Friday for, what is it…’ her finger scanned along the line. ‘A full head of highlights, wash, cut and blow-dry – fab!’
Lucy smiled at Olivia, trying to match her enthusiasm, and beginning to dread the appointment.
Back on the street, she wandered past a couple of boutiques and paused at the window of a pink shop, her eye caught by a coral dress hanging on a green velvet hanger. She could see the price tag from where she was, marked £139. Hideaway Bay really has gone up in the world, she thought. A hand knocked on the glass from the inside, making Lucy visibly startle. The stark lighting in the window meant she could only see a silhouette, beckoning at her to come in. Confused, she opened the door and stepped cautiously inside, looking to her left to see who it was calling her in.
‘LUCY! It IS YOU! I knew it!’ Not another one, Lucy thought, before her eyes adjusted to the dim light and she realised who it was.
‘Oh my GOD, Annabel? I didn’t know you were still here,’ Lucy ran over and hugged her. Annabel still smelt like her childhood home – Lucy couldn’t believe the clarity with which she remembered the smell. Annabel was one of Claire’s best friends at school and had been Lucy’s idol growing up. She thought she’d left years ago – Claire hadn’t mentioned that she still lived here.
Annabel made tea in the storeroom while Lucy looked around the store, answering Annabel’s shouted questions about what she was doing back in Hideaway, and about life in London. ‘And Tom?’ Annabel quizzed, as she walked over with their tea and a packet of biscuits.
‘Oh yeah, it’s fine. It’s great to see him again,’ Lucy said, honestly.
‘It must be so strange for you, though,’ Annabel pressed a biscuit towards Lucy’s hand. ‘I mean, you guys weren’t just some childhood thing. We all thought you’d get married.’
‘Yeah, I know, it’s weird that it’s not weird, if you know what I mean,’ Lucy said. I sound like a moron, she thought. ‘We hadn’t kept in touch, so there’s been a lot to catch up on.’
‘I bet,’ Annabel said. ‘The Beach Café is amazing. It’s going into the Condé Nast Traveller’s guide to the best beach bars in September, you know. I couldn’t believe it when Tara said. Quite the golden couple, aren’t they? Tom’s her knight in shining armour, lucky girl.’
Lucy felt her face flush, though with what, she wasn’t quite sure. Embarrassment?
‘I didn’t know that,’ she tried to sound casual. ‘But it doesn’t surprise me.’ She wasn’t sure if she was referring to the beach bar’s imminent fame or the confirmation of Tom and Tara as an item. Lucy put her cup of tea down on the counter and looked at her phone.
‘I really need to go, so sorry,’ she clumsily pushed her phone back into her pocket and smiled at Annabel. ‘It’s been lovely to see you.’
‘Oh, you too, Luce. Hang on a minute, will you? I saw you looking at that dress.’ Annabel was reaching into the window, grasping in the direction of the coral, silk, backless, Lucy noticed now, dress, slipping it off its hanger and inspecting its label. ‘Yeah, thought so, it’s a size eight – looks about right for you. Here you are.’ She pulled out a brown bag, opened it up and wrapped the dress in tissue paper in one motion, handing it to Lucy with a kind smile.
‘I can’t take that,’ Lucy protested, confused by the generosity.
‘You can and you will,’ Annabel’s hand remained outstretched. Lucy took the bag. ‘I loved growing up with Claire – I loved going to your house. Hanging around with all of you. Your mum…’ she paused, looking at Lucy, who smiled back at her.
‘Yeah, they were great days,’ Lucy said, her mind flicking through images of the Annabel, Claire and the gang having sleepovers in the lounge, her mum making them popcorn and nachos, laughing with them all.
‘They were golden days,’ Annabel replied, her mind wandering through the memories too, Lucy suspected.
‘I’d love you to take the dress,’ Annabel said, bringing them back to the room. ‘You’ll look drop-dead gorgeous in it, and there aren’t many people in this town who could pull it off. Far too many washed-out pastel-coloured sailing clothes around’, Annabel rolled her eyes and smiled mischievously at Lucy.
Lucy laughed and opened the bag to feel the silk in her hand. ‘It’s beautiful, thank you so much.’
‘You’re more than welcome. Just make sure you come and see me okay?’ Annabel opened the door for her to leave. ‘And send my love to your sister, will you?’
Lucy promised she would, kissed Annabel on the cheek and stepped back out onto the sunny street, as goosebumps rose on her arms.
24
It was warm enough at 8am for breakfast on the terrace. Every evening the TV news was full of reports of the ‘hottest summer’ in living memory and the hosepipe ban looked imminent now. It had made Tom’s huge garden and pool the main hang-out for the four
of them, as the beach was invaded daily by an ever-increasing number of sweaty red tourists.
‘I’m going to start a campaign,’ Nina announced, as she placed a wooden board piled high with pastries and strawberries onto the glass table.
‘Oh God, here we go,’ Kristian muttered, reaching for a handful of berries, and offering Tom one from his hand.
‘I want a sign as you enter the town. You know the ‘welcome to Hideaway Bay’ ones we’ve got at each side of the valley?’ she waited for affirmation from her audience.
‘Well, I’d like them to say underneath ‘Please remember, just because you can get it on, it doesn’t mean it fits.’
Lucy laughed. ‘You are terrible,’ she said, helping herself to a croissant and tearing it in two.
‘It’s just good advice,’ Nina continued. ‘I mean, honestly, there are all the signs about feeding the seagulls, why can’t we have something to protect my eyes from the monstrosities walking through town every day the sun shines?’
‘I’m with you, mate,’ Tom said, folding a pain au chocolat into his mouth. ‘They come into the café, sandy feet, burnt, hairy beer bellies, it’s pretty grim.’
‘It’s pretty grim watching you talk with a mouth full of pastry,’ Lucy snapped.
Tom looked at her with slight confusion, before visibly shrugging and turning back to Nina. Lucy felt rage rise in her chest.
‘So who’s driving today,’ Tom asked pointedly in Nina’s direction.
‘Oh, obviously me’ she replied, cross at her newly awarded role of designated driver.
‘Well, we’ll be having a few beers,’ Kristian confirmed.
‘I’ll drive if you like,’ Lucy offered. ‘I’m not drinking, I don’t mind.’
‘I thought we were taking you for a champagne cream tea, Luce.’ Tom looked at her, but she refused to make eye contact.
‘Your all-time favourite, champagne queen,’ Kristian nudged Lucy. ‘Don’t be a bore.’
‘I’m not really in the mood,’ Lucy replied to Kristian, trying to sound soft rather than stern. She’d been so embarrassingly angry with Tom since her conversation with Annabel, she’d tried to stay out of his way. But the trip to Freetown had been planned for over a week.
