Chapter 21
21
Latitude One, High Tides Hotel, St Aidan
Cereal boxes and forward planning
Friday
S hadow and I are up at the crack the morning after Jean and Shirley’s party, not that there’s any clearing up to do. By the time the friends wandered off back to St Aidan any crumbs had long since blown away, and then I washed a few dishes, stuck the bottles in the recycling and it was job done. All that was left was the glow of pride in my chest, and the echoes of their effusive thank yous carried by the wind along the beach. If it hadn’t been for the Kit complication, that would have been the easiest roll of twenty-pound notes I’d ever earned.
As arranged, on the dot of nine Shadow and I settle into Kit’s sofa area and watch a catwalk show of clothes mostly borrowed from Rye. We go for the least tight jeans, and a blue shirt with a dark blue flower print, worn outside the trousers to give maximum bum coverage. Like everything in life, you have to choose your battles. We give up on trainers and settle for deck shoes without socks because anything is better than black leather city brogues and we don’t have all day.
Once we move onto the proper stuff, I follow Kit around and nod while he delivers his tour. I only interrupt to remind him he needs a single angle as well as his usual one, when it hits me that the couple stuff isn’t making me want to scream quite as much as it once did. Having happy couples paraded non-stop under my nose for weeks has taken the edge off me wanting to throw up the instant I see them. It helps that I’ve seen from the inside that even the most loved-up ones have their difficult moments. Don’t get me wrong, I still hate that the world is built for pairs, but I’m more at peace coexisting beside that as my own person.
I offer to get flowers. We send out for crates to stack artfully in the studio, fishing nets to drape over them, and two blue deck chairs for the front of each hut. I’m thinking we’re almost done here when Kit comes out with the showstopper: ‘So what about your plans?’
As it was a choice between reluctant family members and Kit, I didn’t have much leeway. I rang Sophie and apologised for the very last time for Dyegate, then I committed to future baby-sitting out of all proportion to the crime. But at least I secured her services.
‘We’ll use your second hut for storage of the prepped cups, as you suggested.’ I can’t quite bring myself to give it its full title. ‘Then Sophie, Milla, Mum and I will run them across to the van and finish and serve from there. And you can have a second serving station with the brownie stack and extra sprinkle supplies at a table outside.’
He looks doubtful. ‘Is that the best balance?’
I try to stop my worst fears from breaking through my calm exterior. ‘It’s one night! Sophie and Milla will have to suck it up and get on!’ That goes for Mum and Sophie, and me and Sophie, too. ‘Given the friction it’s not ideal, but it’s the best I can do.’
He looks out at the sea. ‘I was talking about numbers, not personalities.’
Damn. ‘Let’s not overthink it. I’ll juggle as it happens.’
If it sounds like a recipe for disaster, it probably is.