Chapter 2 #2
‘Aye, me too.’ Maggie was struggling hard not to laugh. ‘I’m expecting him to deliver big time on what he’s promised,’ she said, before finally dissolving into a fit of the giggles.
‘Ugh!’ Florrie groaned, realisation dawning as she clocked the amused expressions her friends were wearing. ‘You lot are terrible! Don’t even joke about it,’ she said, as the first ripples of relief kicked in.
‘Who’s joking?’ said Stella, giving a hearty chuckle. ‘Actually, didn’t he say something about roping old Lobster Harry into it, too?’ She feigned a questioning look. ‘Buy one, get one free…’
‘Aye, that’s right; two for the price of one,’ Maggie said through her laughter. ‘Gotta love a cheeky little BOGOF bargain.’
‘It would add a whole new dimension to proceedings, don’t you think, lasses?’ said Jasmine, mischief written all over her face. ‘Mind, I’d put money on Lobster Harry keeping his raggy old gansey on for the performance.’
‘’Course he would, Jazz,’ Stella said, feigning incredulity. ‘He’d have to have it surgically removed otherwise, and I can’t see him going to such lengths just for a few hours.’
Even Lark, who didn’t usually partake in such persistent teasing, couldn’t help chuckling at Stella’s observation.
Locals regularly joked that the craggy-faced, dentally challenged fisherman had never been seen without his tightly knitted gansey, even in the height of summer, and that he’d only replace the one he was currently wearing once it had become so threadbare it started to unravel.
Florrie rolled her eyes and clapped her hand to her forehead. ‘Stop now! All of you! Not funny! At all!’ The group collapsed into a riotous fit of the giggles, Florrie following suit, Jasmine’s dirty cackle standing out above them all and attracting curious looks from nearby tables.
‘Aww, poor Florrie,’ Lark said in her familiar gentle tones. She reached across and squeezed her friend’s hand, smiling kindly as she did so. ‘We wouldn’t do anything like that to you. Promise.’
‘’Course we wouldn’t,’ said Stella through her giggles. ‘But, oh, your face was a picture.’
‘Is there any wonder with you lot?’ Florrie shook her head as the final traces of her fears ebbed away, allowing the jaunty tune courtesy of the folk band to register in her ears. She slumped back into the settle and took a sip of her wine, savouring the feeling of relief.
With the exception of Maggie, the women had been best friends since primary school.
It was no exaggeration to say they’d been through thick and thin together, fiercely supporting one another as they’d dealt with the numerous challenges thrown at them over the years.
Florrie would argue that every trial and tribulation they’d faced had brought them closer together, deepening their friendship, and strengthening their loyalty.
It meant they could be completely honest about their feelings and worries, safe in the knowledge that they wouldn’t be judged or ridiculed, or that they’d offend anyone.
But that didn’t mean they were exempt from being on the end of a good bout of bantering. As Florrie had just experienced.
When the friends’ laughter had finally subsided, Stella asked, ‘What the heck made you start a rumour like that, Jazz?’
‘I was just trying to throw that dreaded gob-on-legs Pat Grievson off the scent, that’s all.
The nosy old bat was pretty much interrogating me about it when she collared me at the supermarket; like a rat up a drain, she was.
And knowing how quickly gossip spreads round this town thanks to the likes of her, I knew if word of our real plans got out, it wouldn’t take long before it reached our Florrie’s lug ’oles.
I thought dropping a cheeky little decoy into conversation with one of the town’s biggest busybodies would work a treat and get her off the scent. ’
‘Seems it did the trick,’ said Stella, her mouth twitching with a smile.
‘Didn’t it just?’ Maggie agreed, chuckling.
‘Threw me off the scent, all right,’ Florrie said dryly.
‘Tell you what, though, it wouldn’t half add a bit of spice to the romance section of the bookshop if he’d performed – as Florrie so demurely put it – in that particular aisle,’ Jasmine added with another raucous cackle.
‘Ugh! Please don’t. I doubt poor Jean would ever recover from the shock,’ she said of the bookshop’s septuagenarian assistant. ‘Mind, she wouldn’t be the only one.’
‘Might be the highlight of her week for all you know,’ quipped Jasmine. Florrie replied with an eye roll, though she couldn’t help but laugh.
‘So, lasses, here’s a suggestion for you, what d’you think about giving our Florrie here a bit of a hint about what we actually do have planned?
’ asked Stella, glancing around at the others and steering the conversation in a direction Florrie found far more preferable.
‘I don’t mean to share the details, more like just enough info to help allay her fears once and for all, especially after the afternoon she’s had fretting about it. ’
‘I’d be happy to do that.’ Maggie nodded.
‘Me too,’ said Lark.
‘Same here, especially since I’ve been the cause of her concerns – sorry, flower,’ said Jasmine.
‘No harm done.’ Florrie gave her a warm, but knowing, smile.
‘It’s a fab idea, but how about before we do that, we let Florrie tell us about Dawn and why she’s come to Micklewick Bay?’ suggested Lark. ‘I’m sure she’d rather get the bad stuff out of the way knowing there’s something happy and positive to chat about after.’
‘I’m good with that,’ said Stella.
‘Me too,’ agreed Jasmine.
‘Same here, if Florrie would prefer to do it in that order,’ said Maggie.
‘Actually, I like the sound of that.’ Florrie noted how telling it was that even Lark, who rarely said anything negative about anyone, would refer to Dawn and her arrival as ‘bad stuff’.
Feeling the weight of her friends’ gaze upon her, Florrie’s stomach clenched as her mind went back to the moment the bookshop door opened earlier that afternoon, and she looked up to see Dawn Harte standing there, a combative look in her eye.
‘We had absolutely no idea she was coming so we were totally flabbergasted when she landed. But it was even more of a shock when she told us that she’d booked herself in at a local B&B and – I can hardly believe I’m about to say this—’ Florrie grimaced.
‘She said the reason for her visit was to help with our wedding preparations.’
A stunned silence followed as the four friends sat looking back at Florrie, mouths agape. The lively tune being belted out by the folk band was so at odds with the feeling of foreboding in her stomach.