Nora was concentrating but she could see the man sniggering in her peripheral vision. Her fingers met with moist cooked meat. ‘Eww, I think I’ve found the chicken. At least I hope I have,’ she said, retrieving her hand. She twisted as much as she could towards Bruce. ‘Come here please, Bruce, and be a good boy for the nice man.’ She shared some of the chicken with the dog, who wolfed it down. She waved the man closer but he only took one step. He seemed quite cautious around Bruce. ‘Here, if you take the chicken he’ll follow you anywhere.’
‘OK.’ The man took the chicken but in the handover he almost dropped it and Bruce darted forward, which made the man dash out of the way with the chicken in one hand and an eager Bruce close behind him.
But at least he was running in the right direction and the lead was soon loose enough for Jay and Nora to escape.
‘Bruce, come here please!’ shouted Jay, waving another piece of chicken. Bruce put on the brakes, stopped chasing the poor man and ran back to Jay.
‘Thank you!’ Nora called to the man. ‘You can keep the chicken!’
Once the windbreak was up and picnic rugs were down, Jay checked his watch. ‘I think I have time to go and grab a coffee if you’re all right to wait here with Bruce.’
‘No problem,’ said Nora, settling herself on the blanket.
‘Did you want one?’ asked Jay.
‘I’ll probably get one with Mickey,’ said Nora.
‘Of course you will. OK. Back in a jiffy.’ He went off across the sand sliding in and out of his flip-flops like a drunk surfer, which made Nora smile.
27
Jay hated flip-flops and he wasn’t keen on sand either but they were a price he was prepared to pay for a day at the seaside. He had to agree with the Victorians that there was something restorative about sea air. It was hard not to keep checking over his shoulder as he waded across the soft sand but Nora and Bruce were fine, they were lying down together. He nodded to the nice helpful man who had now returned to his family but for some reason they appeared to be packing up early.
It wasn’t far to the café and it was a nice stroll along the promenade in the sunshine. On the way he spotted an ice cream shop that looked like it needed checking out later. He ordered a vanilla latte to go and waited near a kiosk window. Jay took a moment to take in his surroundings. He rarely visited the seaside but it brought back memories of family holidays. His mum trying to feed everyone paste sandwiches they didn’t want and then not letting them go swimming afterwards for reasons nobody ever explained. His dad spending far too long measuring out a cricket pitch on the sand anddesperately trying to get the bails to stay on the stumps even though the merest breeze would knock them off. But despite any squabbles over spades or grumbles about sunhats they were all mollified by an ice cream. Happy days.
He watched a couple walk past him hand in hand and join the coffee queue. He was dark and rugged, she was blonde and petite. He wondered why small women seemed to go for big men. Were they trying to even out the gene pool perhaps? Did that mean there might be a very tall woman somewhere looking for someone exactly like Jay? The blonde woman was very pretty.
They were touching each other in that easy way that lovers do. They were talking quietly and almost every sentence was punctuated with a kiss. He didn’t like to stare but it was hard not to and they were oblivious to anyone or anything else around them. All-consuming love, that was what Jay was after. To know someone felt the same as you did, that was the dream.
The man pulled his phone from his pocket and shook his head. ‘I am so sorry. That’s a client who needs me. I’m going to have to dash but I’ll see you tonight, yeah?’
‘You getting a coffee?’ she asked.
‘No time. I need to go right away. And you’re going back to the office anyway.’
‘OK. You owe me,’ she said. The woman looked disappointed but she kissed him and waved as he strode off.
‘One frothy almond milk and a caramel latte for Jay?’ asked the lady at the kiosk window. Jay didn’t like toleave Bruce out and a quick Google had told him small amounts of plant-based milk alternatives were OK for dogs.
‘Sorry. Mine was a vanilla latte,’ said Jay.
‘My mistake, love. Give me a minute.’ She disappeared and the petite young woman came to stand near Jay. An Americano for Amelia arrived and the woman walked off into town.
Jay’s phone beeped with a text. It was probably Nora wondering where he’d got to. It wasn’t. It was a text from an unknown number that read:
Did you get your present? You didn’t say thank you. That’s not nice.
He stared at the message. An icy sensation trickled down his spine. Was this meant to be a joke? It really wasn’t very funny.
‘Vanilla latte for Jay,’ said the kiosk lady.
It took Jay a moment to pull his eyes away from the text message. He shoved his phone in his back pocket. ‘Thank you.’ Jay took his drink and willed himself not to drink it through the lid because he always burned his tongue that way but he really wanted a shot of something to distract his mind from the message. Who had sent him the cardboard cut-out and how had they got his phone number? This was all getting a bit serious. He hoped he’d not been too long as he speed-walked back along the prom.
Nora was sitting up and looking for him when he returned.
‘I am so sorry. First they got my order wrong then I got a—’
‘It’s OK. Tell me later. Mickey is coming to the prom to meet me now anyway.’ Nora jumped to her feet. ‘How do I look?’
