Chapter 6
She contemplated her decision as she rode the bus back to Totnes, ignoring Lee’s kind offer of a lift. She needed the time to figure out what she was going to say to her sensible older sister who, despite making that leap herself, might not be so impressed at her little sister doing the same.
She’d called the owner - a Mr Tim Hutchins - as soon as she’d left the flat, and pending references from her current landlord, he was thrilled to have her move in.
“Can you move in from the first?” he’d asked, and without thinking she’d agreed, knowing there’d be details to sort down the line.
“Well, I’ll wait for the reference - you said you’d contact the landlord?”
“Yeah,” Beth said, thinking she’d better give notice herself before asking for a reference.
“And then if all looks good we can sign a contract by the end of the week!”
***
“What do you mean, you’re moving to Dartmouth?” Lee asked as the three of them ate dinner that evening.
“I’m done with Exeter, sick of my job,” she admitted, spooning mashed potato into Holly’s mouth as Lee sat with her mouth open at Beth’s news. “I love Dartmouth. I can be closer to you…”
“What will you do for work?”
“Figure it out!” she said with a forced laugh, “Like I’ve always done!”
“But Beth… you can’t just decide on a whim to move your whole life to Devon because you like the place.”
Beth was a little insulted by this. “You did.”
It was said a little more harshly than she perhaps meant to, and the words stung.
“Okay, yes, I did, but my life had already been ripped to shreds when I made that decision. I caught my husband in the middle of having an affair, if you’d forgotten.” It was the closest the two had come to an argument in many years - possibly since they were still teenagers, living at home together.
“But you still left everything else - house, job, friends. My life is empty, Lee, so I’m ripping it to shreds myself. I want to do this.”
“Beth - just because it worked for me doesn’t mean it necessarily will for you,” she said, biting her lip. “I don’t want you to throw your whole life away because I did.”
“I’m my own person, Lee. I can make this decision for myself. It’s not that I want your life - I just want a different life.”
“In Dartmouth?”
“In Dartmouth. I’ve fallen in love with the place, more than I have with a man in a long time. And I’ve found somewhere to live…”
“What? How long has this been the plan?”
Beth glanced at her watched. “About six hours,” she said with a slight grin.
Lee ran a hand through her hair.
“You exhaust me,” she said with a sigh.
“Says the woman who moved to a new town, found a flat mate and set up a business, all while supposedly still planning to head back home?”
“Fair point,” Lee said after a moment’s silence. “It’ll be lovely having you so close… I’m sorry Beth, I don’t want to be all… mum on you. It just stresses me out.”
“It’ll be fine,” she said, more confident than she truly felt. “It’ll all slot into place, I’m sure of it.”
They clinked glasses, Beth’s full of wine, Lee’s apple juice, and toasted. “To Dartmouth then,” Lee said.
“To Dartmouth,” Beth answered, ignoring the knot of worry in her stomach at what she had decided to do.
Maybe she needed Lee’s help; she was the organised one. She had always been very good at writing lists, as Beth recalled…
***
Lee and James had clearly talked that evening once Beth was in bed, as the next day he knew about Beth’s plans, although he didn’t pass any judgment on them. Lee and James were both off, and so a plan had been made to head to the beach in Thurlestone, a little village twenty minutes away, with the hope of braving a swim in the sea and some paddling for Holly.
Beth had woken excited, even if it was tinged with nerves, and realised she couldn’t remember the last time she had got up feeling a sense of purpose. It was good, she decided - and the landlord hadn’t seemed too miffed at her giving notice over the phone the night before, so she hoped that her reference would be good. That would be one thing ticked off the list, at least.
James drove, and Beth sat in the front, with Lee in the back keeping Holly happy. Beth was quite happy to be driven, especially on roads this winding with such high hedges, and when she saw the amount of times James had to reverse for oncoming traffic, she was pleased she hadn’t offered. It was all worth it, though, when they turned a corner and saw the glittering sea nestled between cliffs and fields at the bottom of the valley.
“Wow,” said Beth.
“Takes my breath every time,” Lee agreed, craning her neck slightly to see between the front seats. “With the sun reflecting off it like that…”
There were a few cars parked in the car park, but it wasn’t too busy yet, despite the ever-increasing heat. Together they bundled Holly and everything they had brought with them - food, towels, shade, suncream - out of the car and to a patch of golden sand that they decided to claim. James busied himself setting up enough shade for Holly, while Lee focussed on covering their daughter with suncream.
Beth scrunched her feet into the sand, feeling the grains between her toes and tickling the soles of her feet. Her shoes had come off the second they’d left concrete, and the sparkling sea ahead called out to her.
“Anyone else going to be up for swimming?” she asked, stripping down to her bikini in preparation.
“It’ll be far too cold for Holly,” Lee said. “And probably for me too! I’m happy paddling.”
“Spoil sport,” Beth said, sticking her tongue out. “James?”
“Definitely up for swimming,” he said, looking pleased with the shaded area he’d set up. He was already wearing his swimming trunks, and stripped off his t-shirt in a single movement, showing off - whether intentionally or not - his impressive physique. He had the muscles of someone who clearly kept in shape, and Beth couldn’t help an appreciative look, before averting her gaze and realising that her sister’s eyes were most definitely fixated on her fiancé.
“Come and paddle then Lee, while we swim.”
“Do you not want to get warm first?” Lee asked, pulling off her own beach dress and adding it to the heap on the floor, a little less confidently than Beth or James. After the birth of her first child, she couldn’t help but feel a little self-conscious of her changed body; Beth planned to privately tell her she had nothing to worry about. She still looked fantastic, as she always had done.
“Race you down there!” Beth said, setting off down the beach at a slow run, feeling the warm air swirling around her. She glanced back behind her and saw she was in no danger of losing; James was not in pursuit. No, he only had eyes for his fiancée, and the two seemed to sharing a moment than Beth felt like an intruder observing - but she struggled to look away. The tender way they kissed…
She moved away, dipping her toes in the water and wincing a little at how cold it actually was. The warm weather belied the temperature of the sea before them.
“It’ll be fine once you’re in, honest,” James said, having jogged to catch up with her. “Getting in’s the worst part!”
He took a deep breath and slid into the water, releasing a gasp of air as the coldness hit him, then moving his arms through the sea in a powerful breast stroke.
“See? Lovely now!”
“Hmmm,” Beth responded in disbelief, but took a deep breath and plunged herself - with far less grace - into the water. She shrieked a little, but found he was right: the sharp iciness wore off once you were in, and it was insanely refreshing.
Lee had caught up to them with Holly, who had crawled part of the way and been carried the rest when she tried to put a handful of sand in her mouth.
Beth copied James for a few minutes, cutting through
the water in laps with a passable breast stroke, and enjoying the feeling of the water surrounding her body, making her feel weightless. She lay back in water, feeling the chill engulf her hair and her scalp, floating on her back and squinting up at the bright sky above. She knew this was not an everyday moment, lying in the sea and staring up at a cloudless sky, but it felt pretty beautiful.
She stood - the water was fairly shallow, even once she’d swum out a little - and shielded her eyes against the sunlight to watch Holly jumping tiny waves, with Lee lifting her by the arms every time one approached. She was giggling away, clearly not put off by the cold temperatures.
“I love it here!” Beth shouted, and Lee grinned.
“If you’re moving here, that’s definitely a positive!”
“I don’t know how you’re not at the beach every day,” she said into the warm breeze, lying back again to float on the salty water.
“Life!” Lee replied, and Beth knew she had a point…
But this bliss was something she wouldn’t forget for a while.
Chapter 7
Life moved very quickly after that week. Gone were the monotonous tasks that never seemed to change. Instead, Beth attempted to achieve the tasks on the list she had sat and written with Lee on her last night, over wine and complaints about what her current life had become.
Hand in notice.
Pack.
Send first month’s rent.
Find a job.
Sort out utilities.
Hire a van.
She was sure much more would come up as the next two weeks flew by, but it was a good starting point. She’d started with the notice, and while they’d said they were sad to see her go, they were happy to take two weeks notice plus the remainder of her holiday in lieu of the rest of the time she owed, and so she was good to go for July 1st. Her flat would have to be paid for two weeks after leaving, but there was no getting out of that - such was life, she thought, chalking it up to the costs of spontaneity.
The one person who was not so impressed was Jasmine, when she broke the news at their first lunch together on the Monday after her week away.
“You were meant to be going on holiday for a week, Beth,” she said, “Not abandoning me forever!”
“Dramatic as ever!” Beth said with a laugh as they drank iced coffees and shared a large slice of chocolate cake.
“Seriously, though - you’re upping and leaving?”
“Yep, seems that way!”
As with everyone else she’d told, the plan was received with a mixture of shock and disbelief.
“Just seems very out of the blue…”
“As you said, I’m not that old yet! If I can’t be spontaneous now, when can I be? Besides, I decided that change is what I need…”
“Please do not tell me you are making life-changing decisions based on a drunken conversation with an inebriated teenager that you made out with for all of five minutes?”
Beth gave her a gentle shove. “No I am not. And he wasn’t a teenager… and he was quite cute, if I remember correctly, there were just-”
“No fireworks. I get the drill. I presume you think there’ll be fireworks in Dartmouth? Or is there someone there already?” Beth laughed at the way her eyes lit up at the possibility of some gossip.
“No there isn’t, and I’ve decided I’m done firework-chasing. I’m going because I love the place and I need to decide what I want in my life - and a man will not solve that for me.”
“Very modern,” Jasmine said, licking the last of the chocolate from her spoon. “But when there is a man, you won’t forget all about me with the gossip, will you?”
“If there is a man at any point, I promise I will give you all the details.”
“I’ll miss you,” Jasmine said, for once without any hint of drama or irony.
“Me too,” Beth said, reaching over and squeezing her hand. “But I need to do this. And before you know it, you’ll be moving on somewhere else too - or marrying IT guys…”
***
The documents had all been signed for the flat before she’d even left Lee’s the previous week, when she’d briefly met her new landlord, Tim. She thought he was probably in his late thirties, slightly overweight with a black beard and a penchant for wearing Hawaiian shirts - but he seemed like a pleasant enough guy, and was thrilled when Beth enthused over the views from the flat as much as he did.
Paying the first month’s rent was a simple task of logging on to her account and putting in his details - although she was slightly stressed to find the amount pretty much wiped out her savings. It made the ‘get a job’ point on her list far more imperative - but she found trying to find a job whilst not actually living there to be difficult. Besides, the whole point was to find things she loved - and nothing was sparking her joy at that moment in time as she perused the vacancies on job-search websites.
Packing was a chore that she had always hated. It was one of the reasons she had become a little less spontaneous when it came to her living arrangements - she dreaded the packing. She had too much stuff, which she knew, and as she surveyed it all at the end of the working week she groaned.
“Where on earth do I even start?” she said to herself. She’d managed to nab a load of boxes that were about to be crushed at work, and so started with the the living room first. Thankfully the place was furnished, so it was only her own personal affects she needed to worry about - but boy there were a lot of them. She began shoving throws and cushions into a box, then tipped them all out again and began to fold them when she realised how quickly she was running out of space. Clothes, shoes and handbags were definitely the next hurdle to tackle, and try as she might to be brutal about throwing things away, she still found herself with the majority of the items that had been in her wardrobe now stacked inside boxes by her front door. She tried very hard to think what Lee would do, and eventually labelled the boxes with the room they were for, feeling like that counted as some organisation at least.
Feeling exhausted, she poured herself an exceptionally large glass of wine, put the television on and decided enough was enough for one evening. She still had a week left - she was sure she would get it all done.
Famous. Last. Words.
The day of her big move arrived, and Beth realised not only had she not packed up any of the kitchen, but she had also completely forgotten the last item on her list: hire a van. She surveyed the mountain of boxes that would most definitely not fit in her tiny car and swore repeatedly, wondering who she could phone for help. Lee? She would be busy with Holly. Her mother? She hadn’t exactly told her mother she was moving yet… she was planning on following Lee’s tried and tested approach of moving first and telling their mother later.
Jasmine was the only name she could come up with that she wasn’t embarrassed to admit this failing to, and when she got through on the fourth ring, she was pleased that she had made the call.
“Not that I want to help you abscond from Exeter,” she said with a huff, “But Joe has a van, and I’m sure I can persuade him to give you a hand.”
“Really? You’d be a lifesaver. With a car and a van, I think we should manage it!”
“No problem. Let me talk to him, we’ll be at yours in an hour or so, ‘kay?”
“I’ll be ready - or try to be at least!”
***
It was just under an hour later when a knock on to door made Beth jump up from her frenzied last-minute packing and realise that it was time to get moving. Jasmine bounced through the door, pulling Joe along behind her. Beth had met him once or twice, and she thanked him profusely as he began lugging boxes down the stairs to his van.
“Thanks for coming too,” Beth said as she and Jasmine took a box each and stepped carefully down the narrow stairs.
“I get to be nosy and see where you’re moving to - it’s a win for me!”
“Let’s just hope we can fit it all in,” Beth said.
It felt like an endless trudge up and down the stairs
with box after box, but eventually both the van and Beth’s little Fiat were full to the brim, and the flat was mercifully empty of boxes.
“I just need to check a couple of things,” Beth said, handing them a piece of paper with the address on. “And probably get fuel. See you there?”
As she wandered her now empty flat, she marvelled at how much bigger it was without all of her stuff inside. Even with the furniture remaining, it felt much more spacious - and she wondered whether someone else was waiting for their own fresh start which they would get in this flat. She said goodbye in her head, feeling a little silly - especially as it was technically hers for two more weeks - and locked the door behind her.
The South West Series Box Set Page 39
