Four
Freddie’s Fish and Chips was exactly as I’d expected it to be. It was also packed to the rafters. Not that it had rafters. But you know what I mean.
The staff, all of whom were dressed in white and navy outfits resembling sailor suits, had smiles as wide as the English Channel, which this restaurant overlooked.
‘We’ve booked,’ said Lucy when the smiling waitress asked.
‘Ah yes,’ the woman said, the smile sliding from her face. ‘It’s Lucy, isn’t it? Sam’s new girlfriend.’
‘Me-oww,’ I said, not meaning to say that aloud.
The waitress narrowed her eyes into slits, and I swear she hissed at me.
‘This way,’ she said, swishing her hair like a cat’s tail as she marched ahead.
‘She fancies, Sam,’ Lucy whispered.
‘Really?’ I said. ‘I never would’ve guessed.’
Lucy rolled her eyes at me. ‘Okay, detective. I wasn’t sure it was that obvious.’
‘If she’d hit you on the head with a hammer, she couldn’t have been more so, Lucy. And, she’d probably quite like to do that, so be thankful you have a police officer present.’
‘Does the Met have jurisdiction outside of London?’
‘The Met, like any UK police force, has jurisdiction across the UK, within reason. And police powers generally apply regardless of whether an officer is on or off duty. But remember, anyone can make a Citizen’s arrest, so you could arrest her if she committed a crime. And frankly, the way she looked at you just then constitutes a crime in my book.’
‘Here’s your table,’ the waitress said, slapping two menus on a table right in front of the window. Even her fingernails looked like claws. ‘Someone will take your order in a moment. Enjoy your lunch.’ She tugged her face into a smile and flounced away.
‘Have a super day,’ I called after her.
‘This is the table Sam and I sat at,’ Lucy said, beaming at me, the waitress already forgotten. ‘And over there is the bar and that seat near the end is where Sam was sitting the day we met. Again.’
‘I like it here. Although a certain member of staff needs to learn some manners.’
I sat opposite Lucy and took in the view. She had been right about that. It was breathtaking. The promenade was heaving with people but beyond the crowd the sky was now a vivid cyan blue with the tiniest puffs of pure white clouds dotted here and there. Below that, the cobalt sea glistened in the now radiant sunshine and in the few gaps between the pedestrians, I could see gentle waves lapped at the shore.
‘It’s like paradise,’ I said.
‘Uh huh,’ Lucy agreed.
‘May I get you drinks?’ A waiter had appeared at our table and he made me jump.
‘They do that a lot,’ Lucy whispered over her menu. ‘Pop up from nowhere.’
‘I came from the kitchen,’ the handsome waiter said, winking at us both, and making Lucy blush.
‘Pity I can’t order him,’ I said in a whisper loud enough for him to hear.
‘You can,’ he said, giving me as good as I was giving him, and sending a little tingle up my spine. If I’d been here on my own, I might’ve taken him up on that.
‘A bottle of Sancerre, please,’ said Lucy giving a small cough. ‘And some sparkling water. Thanks.’
He winked at me again before he left.
‘Damn,’ I said. ‘I wish I’d brought my handcuffs.’
‘Behave yourself,’ Lucy laughed. ‘This is only your first day.’
‘Excuse me, madam! Pot calling the kettle black. Weren’t you having sex with Sam on your first day here?’
Lucy’s face turned bright red. ‘Could you say that a little louder? I don’t think they heard you in Switzerland.’
‘Sorry. Forgot where I was for a moment. But it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Sam’s hot. You’re gorgeous. And we’re all under thirty. Sex is not only natural, it’s a foregone conclusion at our age.’
‘At any age, love, if I have my way,’ a woman who looked close to seventy said. I think she might’ve been on her way to the loo or somewhere as she had walked past, but she’d turned back and come to say her piece, before laughing like a drain and retracing her steps.
‘Good for you,’ I said, giving her a thumbs up, and she threw me a wink in return.
‘I can’t take you anywhere.’ Lucy frowned at me but I could see she was trying hard not to laugh.
‘No. But he could.’ I nodded at the waiter who was returning with our wine. ‘Sorry. I’ll behave.’
‘Hmm,’ was all Lucy added.
‘Would you like to try it?’ he asked.
‘Don’t say it,’ Lucy warned me before smiling at the waiter. ‘No thanks. And we’ll pour.’
His smile told me he probably knew what I was going to say, and I think he was a little disappointed Lucy had stopped me. He was rapidly growing on me. I liked a man who could take my banter and my sarcasm.
‘Sam could teach you how to sail,’ Lucy suddenly suggested as she poured me a large glass of wine.
‘What? Where did that come from?’
I held my glass in the air while she filled hers and then we clinked glasses, just like we always did when we opened a bottle of wine. We might now live miles apart but some things would never change. At least I hoped they wouldn’t.
‘I was just thinking, you might be safer at sea. Fewer people.’
I burst out laughing. ‘I’d probably drown Sam. I think being on the back of that bike was excitement enough for me, thanks.’
I’d forgotten that Sam was also a sailing instructor, although not so much these days. But that was how he and Lucy had met. On the very first day of her holiday in Fairlight Bay ten years before.
‘You can just about see Fairlight Bay Sailing Club from your seat,’ she informed me. ‘If you lean forward a little. It’s the one in the middle of the long expanse of the paved promenade. The only three-storey building. There’s a shop front on the promenade level, an upper storey with the clubhouse and a wide balcony where members can sit, and a lower storey where the boats and sails and all the ancillary equipment is stored. There’re large metal doors that open onto a long concrete boat ramp that sits on top of the pebbled beach and leads right down to the sea. But you can’t see the doors from here.’
I craned my neck and leant forward.
‘Oh yeah! Wow. That looks posh. Is Sam still a member? Wait. Are you?’
She grinned at me and nodded. ‘I joined last month. There’s a Sailing Regatta in August, and Sam wants us to enter. Just for fun, not to win.’
‘Yeah right. Said no man. Ever.’
Her grin grew wider. ‘I told him that if winning was important, he’d better pick someone else. He said it wasn’t about winning. This was about us sharing the experience. Oh, and I’d forgotten how weird, yet rather wonderful it feels to have sex in a sailboat.’
‘Lucy!’ I roared with laughter. ‘And you have the nerve to tell me to behave. But, tell me. What does it feel like?’
She leant forward and sipped her wine. ‘Join the sailing club and find out. Oh! But when I suggested Sam could teach you how to sail, I wasn’t offering his services for anything else.’
I almost choked on the sip of wine I’d taken myself as I couldn’t help but laugh.
‘I don’t think there was any need for you to tell me that. And besides, Sam’s not the type, is he?’
‘To cheat?’ She shook her head. ‘I don’t believe so. No.’
‘He adores you, Lucy. Every other woman might as well be a pebble on the beach for all he cares. You can see it in the way he looks at you. And the way you look at him.’
That was the one thing I did envy her for. I’d never had a man look at me the way Sam looked at her. It was enough to send tingles up and down your spine – forever.
‘I’m starving,’ Lucy said.
‘Me too.’
I studied the rather impressive menu which, in addition to the obvious fish and chips, also offered lobster, crab, and oysters, and surprisingly, steak. There was so much choice I couldn’t decide what I fancied.
But all this talk of sex was making me a little hungry for something other than food. I wouldn’t mind some bedroom activity of my own. Or activity anywhere, come to that.
Maybe I should ask for the waiter’s number when I ordered. Just in case.
Or maybe I should see if Elliot, Sam’s handsome photographer friend did fancy a holiday fling.
But perhaps that wasn’t wise.