The sun was beating down from a wide blue sky. Seagulls circled overhead, squawking and calling. People milled about: women in flowing summer dresses, men in shorts with their shirts unbuttoned to the waist—including Sunny, who, for a freckled guy, was jolly keen to get his nipples out. I wasnotcomplaining.
We walked between the two little rows of stone and weatherboard buildings along the meandering cobblestone road. The air smelt of salt and mud and fish. It was lunchtime, and the tide in the Thames Estuary was low, so the boats were tilted on their sides on the honey-coloured sand, waiting for the water to come back in and refloat them.
As we rounded a corner, I saw a small wooden building made of shiplap boards, surrounded by picnic tables. It was painted in dark blue and had big white writing that said “Fish Shack.”
“This is the place,” I said.
“Fish and chips at the seaside? Amazing,” Sunny said. “I hope they’ve got cockles.”
“You grab a table. I’ll go order.”
I stepped up to the counter, and Bertha’s arms flew open, accompanied by a shriek.
“Ludo! You came to see us!” She ran around the counter and wrapped me up in a big hug. “Dave! Dave! Look who it is.”
“Ludo! Hello, son. Fancy a pint of cockles?”
Bertha released me, and I reached over to shake Dave’s hand. It was his good hand, which had even more crushing power than his bad hand. Bertha looked over my shoulder, then back at me.
“Is the pretty lad with the freckles ’ere wif you?”
I nodded.
“He’s ever so handsome, in’t he? He should be on TV. Don’t you fink, Dave?”
“What’s that?”
“Don’t you fink that lad over there should be on TV?”
“Born for it, I should have said,” Dave said, darting back behind the counter to pull a basket of chips out of some oil.
“Are you stepping out together, then?” Bertha asked.
“Yes. That’s Sunny. He’s my… boyfriend,” I said, feeling a flush of pride, the smile nearly breaking my face.
“Oh, Harry will be disappointed,” Bertha said. “We told him all about you.”
“If only every gay man had a wingman as wonderful as you, Bertha, we’d all be set.”
“Well, thank you for comin’ to see us, love. You’re a very thoughtful young man. Are you hungry? What can I get you boys?”
Sunny
It was the perfect day for the seaside. I stood, leaning over the wooden railing at the water’s edge and scrolled through the digital wallet in my phone, checking for the thousandth time that the tickets were still there and had not magically disappeared. My surprise for Ludo? We were off to the evening’s showing ofHamilton. He was going to lose his mind. We’d both seen it already, of course, but that wasn’t the point. The point was, we’d never seen it together.
As I waited for Ludo to come back with our lunch, my phone buzzed.
Stavros has changed the name of your group to Stav’s Greek Gap Year.
Stavros:I’ve been summoned to Greece for family stuff. Who wants to join me for a big blowout in Mykonos before I start my big fat Greek gap year?
Petey Boy:I’m in, bruv!!!
Nick:Definitely sounds wheelchair accessible!
I was just about to type a reply when Ludo came trotting towards me, a brown paper parcel under his arm and two ciders and a pint of cockles held in his hands. He looked so handsome in his tinted sunglasses, his curls bobbing in the breeze.
“Can you grab one of these?” he called out. Then he tripped on a cobblestone, slamming into me, drenching me in cider and sending cockles into the air. My phone flew out of my hand and over the edge and plopped into the shallow muddy waters of the estuary. A thousand seagulls descended on us from nowhere, fighting over the cockles. At least the fish and chips were still wrapped. I put out a hand for Ludo to grab, and I pulled him up.
