I hate to admit that Kit’s right – but that mahoosive number of puddings aren’t going to materialise on their own. If I want to avoid falling flat on my face in a puddle of soft scoop, I’m going to have to seriously up my game here. All while trying not to rip the clothes off the metallurgist.
It’s an enormous challenge – I only hope I’m up to it.
21
Latitude One, High Tides Hotel, St Aidan
Cereal boxes and forward planning
Friday
Shadow and I are up at the crack the morning after Jean and Shirley’s party, not that there’s any clearing up to do. By the time the friends wandered off back to St Aidan any crumbs had long since blown away, and then I washed a few dishes, stuck the bottles in the recycling and it was job done. All that was left was the glow of pride in my chest, and the echoes of their effusive thank yous carried by the wind along the beach. If it hadn’t been for the Kit complication, that would have been the easiest roll of twenty-pound notes I’d ever earned.
As arranged, on the dot of nine Shadow and I settle into Kit’s sofa area and watch a catwalk show of clothes mostly borrowed from Rye. We go for the least tight jeans, and a blue shirt with a dark blue flower print, worn outside the trousers to give maximum bum coverage. Like everything in life, you have to choose your battles. We give up on trainers and settle for deck shoes without socks because anything is better than black leather city brogues and we don’t have all day.
Once we move onto the proper stuff, I follow Kit around and nod while he delivers his tour. I only interrupt to remind him he needs a single angle as well as his usual one, when it hits me that the couple stuff isn’t making me want to scream quite as much as it once did. Having happy couples paraded non-stop under my nose for weeks has taken the edge off me wanting to throw up the instant I see them. It helps that I’ve seen from the inside that even the most loved-up ones have their difficult moments. Don’t get me wrong, I still hate that the world is built for pairs, but I’m more at peace coexisting beside that as my own person.
I offer to get flowers. We send out for crates to stack artfully in the studio, fishing nets to drape over them, and two blue deck chairs for the front of each hut. I’m thinking we’re almost done here when Kit comes out with the showstopper: ‘So what aboutyourplans?’
As it was a choice between reluctant family members and Kit, I didn’t have much leeway. I rang Sophie and apologised for the very last time for Dyegate, then I committed to future baby-sitting out of all proportion to the crime. But at least I secured her services.
‘We’ll use your second hut for storage of the prepped cups, as you suggested.’ I can’t quite bring myself to give it its full title. ‘Then Sophie, Milla, Mum and I will run them across to the van and finish and serve from there. And you can have a second serving station with the brownie stack and extra sprinkle supplies at a table outside.’
He looks doubtful. ‘Is that the best balance?’
I try to stop my worst fears from breaking through my calm exterior. ‘It’s one night! Sophie and Milla will have to suck it up and get on!’ That goes for Mum and Sophie, and me and Sophie, too. ‘Given the friction it’s not ideal, but it’s the best I can do.’
He looks out at the sea. ‘I was talking about numbers, not personalities.’
Damn. ‘Let’s not overthink it. I’ll juggle as it happens.’
If it sounds like a recipe for disaster, it probably is.
22
Latitudes One and Two, High Tides Hotel, St Aidan
Bouncy castles and lines in the sand
Sunday
We couldn’t have wished for a more perfect night. For once the wind has dropped, and as the sun sinks across the bay the singles club members arrive and cluster around the gazebo bar. Nell is there, welcoming everyone from her steamer chair as Rye pours mojitos for a wide range of guests. The ladies from Iron Maidens cleaners are here, there are a couple of young barmen I recognise from Jaggers bar, some people in gym gear who look like they’ve come straight from aerobics, and Jean and Shirley have brought a gang from the walk-and-talk group.
Plum bounces around, giving out cards for tonight’s icebreaker, which is how most singles club events begin. If you find someone with the same picture as yours, you have to yell ‘Together Forever’ at the top of your voice, kiss them on both cheeks, and then you both have to down your mojitos and go and get a refill. As there are only four different cards the noise soon drowns out the sound of the waves, and Rye is wielding his jug as if he’s been doing this for ever rather than only half an hour.
I’d been dreading the bit where Nell introduced Kit and me, but it’s over in seconds and no one seems to give a damn that I gave up ironing my ditsy print dress halfway round the skirt. Before I know it, I’m in the studio, answering a thousand and one questions about jewellery as if I’ve been doing it my whole life. Kit’s working the crowd at the other end of the room, and as I catch only glimpses of his dark curls over other people’s heads, this is definitely the kind of teamwork I can cope with. Before I know it, part one of the evening is over, and the spotlight is turning onto me.
When it comes to my own team, a van was a great idea to separate us from the High Tides gang, but I knew cramming my mum, Sophie and Milla together to assemble the sweets was a risk. In ten seconds flat Sophie and Mum have clashed over whether to stick the flamingos in the cake chunks or the ice cream, and my mum flounces off down the steps to help Kit with the flyers.
‘Two firm orders for wedding-ring days and a definite maybe! For a singles event that’s a result.’
Sophie’s carrying on as if nothing has happened, as she and Milla add the ice cream, Rice Krispies and custard to the syrup sponge themed desserts, and I pass them through the serving window to the queue of customers snaking past Latitude One’s veranda and out towards the sand.
As my supply runs out, I turn to get the next trayful. ‘There were some very wistful “When the time comes” sighs, too.’
Sophie nods. ‘You can’t look too far ahead in business. These are all potential future clients. After all, Nell loves to give her singles goals to aim for.’
It was a good move to light up The Hideaway too, so when people ask where I’m based, I can point. It looks magical with the warm glow of its windows, and the hanging bulbs splashing light across the decks as they swing in the breeze.
