Page 67 of A Secret Cornish Wish
‘Oi! You lot! I hope you haven’t started without me?’
We all look up to see Mandy waving wildly at us from across the bar.
‘Barman!’ she calls, slamming her hand down on the bar as a worried-looking Richie comes towards her. ‘Tonight needs to be a party, not a wake. What’s everybody having? The drinks are on me!’
Seventeen
Mandy, good to her word, buys everyone in the pub a drink. It quickly becomes clear she’s probably had a few drinks already, as she smiles and grins her way around the bar speaking to people and patting them on the back, before moving onto the next.
‘Is she all right?’ Claire whispers as we watch her. ‘She’s not behaving very . . . well, very normally, is she?’
‘Grief can be a funny thing,’ Rob says. ‘It affects everyone differently. I suspect this is Mandy’s way of dealing with everything that’s going on.’
We continue to watch Mandy until eventually she joins us in our corner of the bar.
‘Well now,’ she says, her eyes bright as she casts them around the table, ‘How are we all – good, I hope?’
Claire is the first to speak. ‘Mandy,’ she says anxiously. ‘I’m so very sorry for your loss. We all are.’
Mandy immediately looks down into her glass. She swirls what looks like a spirit of some kind around, so it swooshes over the ice cubes. ‘Yes. Well. It is what it is.’
‘How are you doing?’ I ask gently. ‘Is there anything we can do to help? You know for tomorrow?’
Mandy’s head snaps up again. ‘I’d really rather not talk about tomorrow,’ she says, and I notice how drawn her face looks under her heavy make-up. ‘I’m grateful you came and all that. But I’d rather hear all your news tonight if that’s all right with you?’
‘Yes, yes, of course,’ we all hurriedly reply.
‘And who might you be?’ she asks, turning her gaze to Mack. ‘We have a stranger in our midst!’
Mack quickly explains why he’s here.
Mandy nods sombrely. ‘I appreciate you coming all this way. Both of you,’ she says, turning to Rob now. ‘The journey from London is bad enough, let alone the USA!’
‘It’s the least we could do,’ Rob says. ‘Isn’t it, Mack?’
Mack nods.
Mandy takes a gulp from her drink. ‘So, what’s your story?’ she asks mischievously, looking at Rob and Mack. ‘Are you batting for the other side now, Rob? Eddie will be over the moon, but my mate Frankie here will be extremely disappointed!’
Eddie looks horrified, and my cheeks flush incredibly hot, partly from embarrassment and partly from annoyance.
‘No,’ Rob says firmly. ‘I am not, and neither is Mack. We’re just mates. Mack has a wife.’
‘I do indeed,’ Mack says. ‘Sarah.’
‘Oops! Sorry,’ Mandy says, not seeming in the least embarrassed, unlike myself and Eddie. ‘My mistake! It does happen you know – the change, and I’m not talking the menopause. Still time for you and our Frankie to get it on then?’
I glare at Mandy now.
‘What?’ she asks, seeing me. ‘You’ve always had the hots for him, as he has for you.’ She takes another long gulp from her glass, draining the remaining liquid. ‘Another, you lot? No? Well, I need one. Back in a minute.’
Mandy gets up, steadies herself, then walks as competently as she can back over to the bar.
‘She’s grieving,’ Claire says. ‘Try not to be too cross with her, Frankie.’
‘I’m going to get some air.’ I stand up. ‘It’s very hot in here tonight. I’ll be back in a bit.’
I hurry outside into the cool night air, where I immediately take a few cleansing breaths. Then I walk over to the harbour railings and lean on them. The earlier rain has now cleared, and it’s a beautiful moonlit evening. Above the waves rolling into the harbour, I can see tiny stars dotted across the night sky. I look up at them, take another deep breath and sigh.
