We’re all going to the Puffin Inn again, including Elias. We’re obviously not leaving him at home. There is a group of kids here growing up together which is great to see and good for the town as we don’t want it to just become a retirement village which places by the sea can be in danger of. Roman’s hotel is booming, even through the winter, which has meant more jobs and more people living here permanently. That’s made this year a good year all over for businesses and restaurants. Amelie’s had to make Christmas Day invitation only, prioritising the Puffin Bay residents as the number of people who’d asked to join was more than the pub can hold. Someone even suggested two sittings, which made her laugh. I think Roman’s had a Christmas Daymeal put on at the hotel so people who live outside the Bay but want somewhere to go can choose there.
However, there’d be a place for you if you do want to come to Puffin Bay for Christmas. I have the spare rooms ready now for visitors and no one’s staying here over Christmas. Our mam’s going to Finn and Ruby’s and we have some of the Callaghan and Green cousins coming over for New Year’s Eve which I’m really looking forward to. It feels like ages since we had everyone together – probably because no one’s gotten married in a while. The next big wedding will be Roe and Freya, although they haven’t set a date yet, and that’s if Clover and Grayson don’t have a quick wedding somewhere – I think we’ll have that as a surprise. Clover can’t usually hold water about secrets and stuff like that, but I just have an inkling that we’ll turn up to the pub on a Sunday afternoon and be told we have to get up to the church.
I hope they get married there. I need another memory of that building.
To clarify, we’ve had one set of fans at the lighthouse. That set might’ve been several people over several days, but I’m classifying it as one set. No one in the town was complaining though because the cafes and shops made a ton those days, and it was when it would’ve been a quiet weekend too, so I suggested that a monument of me be erected on the seafront.
Roe suggested it should be made with sand, and the discussion veered in a direction I didn’t like from there, so I don’t think it’ll be happening any time soon.
Puffin Bay gossip – there are bits.
Roman’s granddad is still growing his own special blend, although no one talks about it because it is illegal. He and his girlfriend have kitted out the whole town in holly and ivy, and all the Christmas plants that he’s been able to get his hands on. It’s taken weeks and I don’t know how much they – or Roman’s– spent but the place looks amazing and I think it’s up for some award, possibly an award they’re designing solely because of how Puffin Bay looks right now. I’ll put some photos on my social media – it’s not like people don’t know where I live, is it – and you can have a look.
I’ve just about finished my Christmas shopping. There’s a box coming your way – I’m sending it on the same day as this, so we’ll see if they get there at the same time. I’ve done stockings for my brothers, their women and Elias – Elias has got more, obvs. My mam and her boyfriend have got a stocking too, and I’ve got them a weekend away in the Lake District, which I know sounds a bit boring when I could’ve got them Paris or Amsterdam, but my mam loves the Lakes and she hasn’t been for years, so we’ll see. It’s a posh log cabin with butler service and a hot tub, which she’ll like.
Mavis is still doing the same. She hasn’t been well – she had a really bad cold that turned into a chest infection and she hasn’t shaken it off, which has worried the town. She is irritatingly nosy, but she’s kind of what we’ll all become if we stay in Puffin Bay one way or another. She has a good heart though, and she makes sure things get done. She is back up on her feet now, which has been a relief. I was dropping by each day with lunch for her and to spend half an hour or so to give her some company. She ended up showing me all these photographs of Puffin Bay through the years and telling me stories about the town. I didn’t realise before how old she actually was. I thought she was late seventies or early eighties. She’s actually ninety-one. I started taking a Dictaphone with me when I called and recorded her telling those stories, often prompted by the photos we were looking at. She’s given me permission to write them down and publish them in the future, so I’m looking at how best to do that.
I have an offer for you. I’m going to New Orleans and will be there for Ivy’s anniversary. Why don’t you come with me? It’s a week’s break and coincides with Mardi Gras this year with Easter being early.
I had an update on the figures for the weather fairy tales book. We’ve made more than expected for Ivy’s Fund already, so that’s looking really good. We’re looking at a ball in summer next year to raise funds for it as well as showcases of some of the adventures these kids have had because of it. We’ve got four kids going to Lapland at Christmas, and another five going to Disney in Florida, as well as other experiences in the country, so it’s making a difference already.
How’s things with Phil? You sounded really uncertain about him in your last letter and when we spoke you totally dodged my questions about him. What’s going on there? If you don’t like him, or there’s a red flag, ditch him. You’ll meet someone else.
Hope you’re okay, Iris.
Love,
Gully
A year and ten months after.
Dear Gully,
Thank you for the very long phone call on New Year’s Day. I’m sorry I verbally vomited all over you, but I couldn’t phone one of my other friends because I did not want to hear anyone say ‘I told you so’.
I knew there were red flags. You mentioned red flags in your last letter, so I think you saw them too even through what I wrote, but I did not expect the scene on Christmas Day.
I’m still in shock.
Why would anyone propose after just four months IN FRONT OF THEIR ENTIRE FAMILY without even sounding out whether the person they’re proposing to actually wants to get married? I don’t understand.
He was so lovely and attentive, just a bit too much sometimes but he had calmed down with the needing to see me every day. I’d said I wasn’t interested in moving in with him for at least a year and we’d have to see where we were at that point. We hadn’t exchanged “I Love Yous” – but he proposed.
I had no idea what to say, so I nodded and everyone celebrated and I spent the next few days heading out early in the morning to take photos and avoiding him and everyone else.
Then I did what any sane woman would do in those circumstances – I got in the car and drove, after leaving him a Dear John letter that was one of the worst things I’ve ever had to write.
I feel terrible. I haven’t heard from him since and he’s not a bad person, just desperate to have a wife and I don’t know why because he’s a catch. He’s good looking, has an amazing body, earns a load of money and is a proper gent. He’s a solid seven out of ten in bed and is kind and considerate and good company. For some women, he’d have been the ultimate catnip. Just, for me, the chemistry wasn’t there and he was misreading signals, or hoping for signals that weren’t there.
I’m wondering whether I should go and see him and explain. I just can’t wrap my head around why he would do this though? Why would he propose like that after a few months?
Seriously, I’m swinging between feeling terrible for ditching him like that and feeling furious because of him proposing so publicly.
It was really obvious too that his family knew beforehand and were ready for him to ‘pop the question’. They’d even made acake with ‘Congratulations Iris and Phil’ on it which felt really fucking creepy.
So I’m definitely up for Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The photos I can capture will be amazing and I need a change of scenery. If I’d have still been with Phil, I don’t think I would’ve said yes to going because he would not have understood me going away with another man, and with hindsight, that would’ve been a massive problem.
You’re one of my best friends and if he couldn’t respect who I am and what’s made me this way, or trusted me enough to not cheat on him, then he wasn’t for me.
