Chapter 40
Lili blew out the incense sticks she’d left burning in the lounge, having found the smell comforting as it had wafted through the cottage, after she’d taken the first step of her monumental decision to say goodbye to Colonel Mustard.
She and Dylan waved Callum off. The crisp breeze at the front door said a refreshing hello.
‘Fancy a drive out?’ she asked Dylan. ‘I know it’s dark and biting weather, but there’s a walk I haven’t done for a while.
It takes an hour if we go from Mevagissey, but I feel like I need it today.
It always clears my head. We’ll need to wrap up.
I’ve got a scarf you could borrow. Or have you got to get back to Tavistock tonight and be in the office tomorrow? ’
‘Nah. We’re closed now until the first week of January. A walk sounds great!’
An hour later they had parked up in the fishing village and were lucky enough to buy takeout coffees just before the last café open lowered its shutters.
Lili led the way towards the coastal path until Dylan took her hand and, grinning like two high school sweethearts, they walked side by side, away from the closed gift shops and the boats moored for the night yet dancing a jig on ocean ripples.
The village looked even prettier than usual with the Christmas lights.
She built up the pace and, sipping coffee, they passed Portmellon and eventually reached Gorran Haven beach.
‘Never been here,’ said Dylan, squinting in the darkness as they made their way down onto the pebbly sand, rocks jagged and shiny either side of the little bay.
Choppy black waves did taekwondo across the ocean, and Lili led him to the rock where she always sat.
Frost glinted, sparkling and subtle, on the stone, as magical as the twinkling fairy lights back in Mevagissey, in shop fronts and across streets.
She breathed in the sulphur smell of a nearby patch of seaweed, glistening and writhing in the wind.
The two of them sat down. Lili turned to Dylan and kissed him.
He put his arm around her shoulders. How easily they fitted together.
Lili never thought it would be possible to feel so at ease with a guy you fancied even more than Glen Powell.
She gazed out far, across the water, hoping to see her friend, realising it was unlikely the seal would be bathing at night.
Far, far away in the distance, the lights of a ship passed by on the horizon.
The sky was as clear as black diamond, stars and satellites easily visible. Her eyes dropped back to the water.
‘Em had a tattoo of a dolphin, you know,’ she said.
‘Except, of course, it was no ordinary dolphin. This one cheekily had its tongue stuck out and was diving over a rainbow. She got it done at a music festival where Rick Astley was a guest performer, much to her mum’s envy.
There was a pop-up tent and she didn’t think twice about going in and getting one done with zero planning. ’
‘Ever seen dolphins here?’ he asked.
‘No, but they’ve been spotted a few miles out to sea.’ She pointed. ‘And see that sea stack, about fifty metres out? Whenever I usually come, a large grey head pops up to say hello. I prefer to think it’s the same seal every time and have called it Neptune.’
‘Not got a tattoo of it, then?’ he asked. ‘Can’t say I’ve noticed one. I might need to examine you again later.’
She laughed and leaned in for another kiss, longer this time, despite the coldness of their lips and noses. She could have sworn the breeze whistled wit woo .
‘No. Tattoos were Em’s thing, not mine, along with her music festivals.
She used to go with a group of friends when we were younger – they’d set silly dares like high-fiving twenty people in less than a minute, or peeing in the most unusual container, as the loos were often filthy or had thirty-minute queues.
One of her friends filled a Coke tin without spilling a drop. That takes skills.’
Dylan had been looking out to sea. He faced Lili.
‘Harry was the same, although he’d head off with a big backpack filled with home comforts, like a blanket, food and drink.
’ Dylan went to say something but then changed his mind.
He gazed out to the sea again. He rubbed his forehead and turned to Lili. ‘Can you describe Em’s tattoo again?’
‘A dolphin sticking out its tongue, diving over a rainbow. Why?’
‘This is going to sound crazy, but did she get that done at…’ He screwed up his face. ‘It was a festival in the summer of 2021, in South Wales.’
Lili’s brain scrolled back through the years.
‘How on earth did you guess that? Are you a fan of Rick Astley? I remember her talking about that one incessantly afterwards. Wildtown festival, that was it. Post-Covid, some music events still weren’t going ahead.
This one did. She said everyone went a little crazy, getting drunk, getting tattoos…
Can’t say I blame them, after the lockdowns.
’ Lili’s eyes narrowed. ‘Em wouldn’t shut up about this guy she’d hung out with.
He was apparently a bit of a joker and reckoned rickrolling was hilarious.
You won’t believe what he got tattooed – they went into the tent together. ’
‘Try me,’ said Dylan, an odd look on his face.
She grinned. ‘I’d completely forgotten. This guy got a QR code linking to a YouTube video of Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” on his arm, so he could rickroll everyone who asked him what it stood for.
Em thought it was iconic and was gutted when she lost him in the crowd on the second day and never got his contact details. ’
Dylan put down his coffee cup. ‘Lili. I know about that tattoo already. Because… it was my brother’s.’
‘You mean he had one like that?’
‘No. I mean, that man at the festival was Harry.’
Lili sat very still.
‘He came home raving about this girl he’d met. Said she had awesome purple hair and grew up in Manchester. She’d shared her crisps and fruit with him and these amazing cinnamon buns from the café where she worked. In return he bought them burgers and chips.’
‘Em and Harry… they knew each other?’
Slowly, Dylan nodded. ‘Yep, I reckon so… She was into astrology and when the concert was over, she took him to a nearby field where the lights were less glary and pointed out different star constellations. He tried to track her down on social media, but he only had her first name to go by, and the fact that she lived in Truro. They’d got separated on the second day during a crush when a really popular band came on.
’ Dylan picked up a handful of sand and let it run through his fingers.
‘He said this girl had so much energy, the best banter and she actually laughed at his jokes.’
Lili’s jaw dropped. ‘This is mad.’
‘I’d never seen him so buzzed about a girl before. I remember him telling me about her wearing some sort of sleeveless, floor-length silk coat that was totally impractical for roughing it outside.’
Lili exhaled. That coat – it was the one of Em’s that Meg always talked about and said showed true style.
Her mind scrolled back again. ‘Yes, I remember now, she said the tattoo guy was from Tavistock, and he’d pretended he’d got her a vegan burger.
He insisted on calling her his little potato all weekend.
He told her to google the Italian for it when she got home.
She did and… Oh, of course… now it makes sense. ’
‘It’s an Italian term of endearment – patatina .’
‘Yes. Because well-cooked potatoes are soft and tasty. We laughed about it. We laughed even harder when she talked about his tattoo – but in an affectionate way on her part. Em tried to find him afterwards as well but she gave up eventually, because he’d said how he was going backpacking and… Oh, Dylan.’
He nodded. ‘That music festival was shortly before his trip.’
She linked arms with him and the two of them gazed out at sea, chatting about Em and Harry and how well-matched they would have been.
‘Look!’ said Dylan, and he pointed towards the sea stack.
Lili stood up and grinned. A head bobbed up and down under the moonlight. Neptune had come to say hello. Dylan stood up and put his arm around Lili. They turned to face each other.
‘I can’t help thinking Em and Harry somehow orchestrated our meeting,’ she said.
‘It would be just like Harry. He was always trying to get me on dating apps.’
‘And Em would have seen you as the perfect antidote to me moping around after her death, as she’d have seen it.’
‘It would be a shame for their hard work to go to waste,’ said Dylan, his jet-black eyes twinkling along with the stars.
A lump rose in her throat. ‘It does feel as if fate had to get involved, because Mario and Bacteria don’t sound like a match made in heaven,’ she whispered.
‘Why don’t we ship our names together? Bario? In Italian, that’s the word for barium, a chemical element. Your ceremonies are about going back to the basics of life. That’s us, building our relationship from the ground up.’
‘You are so romantic,’ she said and pulled a face.
When they stopped laughing, he held her tight. Lili leaned into him and closed her eyes. Despite the cutting wind, the crashing waves, the December frost, everything felt absolutely right.