Chapter 28 #2
It felt rather odd and strangely domestic doing the ‘weekly shop’ (okay, a very strange week) along with Will.
The pair of them chatting about which cranberry sauce looked the best, at one point.
It also felt rather sad that they’d never get to do these kinds of things together as a couple.
Sometimes, it was the little everyday domestic details that she’d missed since her relationship with Trevor ended, just chatting about what you fancied for tea, or whether to try a new shower gel for a change.
The lad on the till nearly had a heart attack when he saw the volumes that were loaded on his conveyor belt.
And getting the supplies back into the trolley, in some kind of manageable order, took the skills of a speedy and logical mathematician – luckily, they had one to hand.
As keeper of the kitty, Cath had taken a deep breath as she paid the various bills, with a big chunk coming out of her own credit card account – hopefully to be refunded from the still incoming donations and possibly the grant, if accepted, in the next few weeks.
Back to this evening, they needed to be sure they had all the food supplies ready and as organised as they could be to create the best ever supper club feast – Turkey and Tinsel in Tilldale–style.
With pots, pans, knives and vegetable peelers lined up and ready for action, the Peel-a-thon was about to begin.
Lily set up Will’s speaker on the kitchen windowsill, linking her phone and putting on a lively mix with a good beat. Cath was happy to go with the flow. Apparently, it was the soundtrack she used when out jogging to keep the motion flowing.
‘Glass of red at this point, anyone?’ Dan pulled a bottle and a corkscrew out of his shopping bag.
‘Why not?’ Nikki gave a grin.
‘Okay, but just the one glass. We need clear heads tomorrow, chaps,’ warned Cath. Nothing was going to wreck this event now.
‘We know,’ the supper clubbers answered, having had the lecture already.
They all laughed. The camaraderie was clear in the kitchen, as the stainless-steel sink was part-filled with water, and piles of potatoes were put in.
No leaky tap to annoy them either, hurrah!
Peelers at the ready and they were off, with Will, Nikki and Lily removing the skins.
Andreas chopping them to size, and Cath popping them into pans, production-line style.
Sprouts, carrots and parsnips were dispatched in a similar manner. The biggest problem was deciding how much was enough. Seven bags of parsnips, eight, nine …? They decided to overestimate. More was definitely better than ending up short and coming a cropper at the serving-out stage.
Andreas began to sing out, ‘Can you peel it?’ in the style of The Jacksons’s ‘Can You Feel It’ track.
Then he asked Lily to put the song on loud on Spotify.
The whole group were soon swaying, dancing and singing along to the catchy chorus, ‘Can you peel it? Can you peel it? Can you pee-eel it?’ Cath couldn’t help but grin.
What a crazy lot they were. Crazy to even think they could pull this off, more like. But hey, they were nearly there.
Lily pulled her arms out of the sink, waving her fingers jelly-jazz-hands style. ‘Look, my hands are all white and wrinkling, eugh.’
‘A sign of hard work and water osmosis,’ said Will drily. ‘You’ll be fine. They’ll be back to normal in a few minutes.’
‘Well, I think that’s the lot done,’ said Cath, scanning the mass of very large, filled pots and pans.
How the hell would they fit all of those on the hob at once?
A wave of panic hit her. Her brain then answering her own question: potatoes first, then they’d go into the hot oven trays.
The parsnips could roast, too. So, it was only the sprouts and carrots to boil together at the last. Cath’s mind was still, not surprisingly, on overload.
Before she left this evening, she’d jot down a cooking timings list. ‘Well done, guys, and thank you all so much for your amazing help today.’
‘And tomorrow, we go again,’ observed Dan wryly.
‘We do indeed,’ added his partner. ‘But it’ll be more than worth it.’
‘Aw, I can’t wait to see all their happy faces,’ said Nikki. ‘The hall looks so lovely.’
‘And all those empty plates,’ added Lily.
With the rest of the fresh food safely stored in the hall’s big refrigerator and cold store, (apart from a turkey each that Cath and Andreas had in their respective fridges at home to bring across first thing; they’d found they couldn’t actually fit all four of the mega-birds into the school’s fridge!) that was a huge chunk of the preparation done.
After the frenetic start to the evening, it had all come together well, other than Cath trying hard not to brush close to Will as they worked.
At one point, she’d looked up and spotted him glancing at her with a pensive expression on his face.
She knew she had to respect and abide by his decision, and yes, in some ways, she could understand it but she still wondered how much was guilt, and pressure from his girls, with his own feelings being put on the back burner for the sake of his family.
She suppressed a sigh as she held his gaze for a second and gave a gentle, poignant smile.
She found she couldn’t be angry with him.
She told herself to stay focused. Today and tomorrow were going to be hectic enough; no need to tangle them up with added emotion, too.
She had to remind herself that there was much to be thankful for in this new life of hers. There was no way she was losing this precious friendship group over their romantic split.
It was time for Cath to go home, grab an easy snack, collapse in the bath and then get some rest. Tomorrow was a big old day.
She took a while to doze off, though shattered, and instead of counting sheep, she found herself mentally checking her Christmas event to-do list, filled with a sense of nervous anticipation.