Page 10 of The Little Flower Shop By the Sea
‘You have to try and persuade her otherwise,’ Rita says grabbing Jake’s hand. ‘Tell her how important that shop is to this town.’
Jake squeezes Rita’s hand then puts it gently down on the bar.
‘Poppy will make up her own mind, Rita,’ he says. ‘She’s a grown woman, with her own opinions.’
Rita huffs.
‘I won’t do anything rash, I promise,’ I say, trying to appease her.
Rita gives me a terse nod. ‘Good. Well, that’s something, I suppose.’
‘We’ll leave you with your drinks,’ Richie says. ‘Let us know if you’d like food. I’ve a cracker of a spag bol on the menu tonight, and –’ he looks around him at the near empty pub – ‘unless it picks up a bit later, me and Rita’ll be eating it for the rest of the week. No, the drinks are on us,’ he says when Jake holds out a note to pay for our beer. ‘In memory of Rose.’
Richie leads Rita away in search of thirsty customers.
I take a sip of my beer.
‘Is that why you brought me in here?’ I ask Jake. ‘Because you knew they’d react like that and try and persuade me not to sell.’
Jake shrugs. ‘Not at all. I brought you in here because it’s the only pub in St Felix and I wanted a beer.’
I eye him over my pint glass.
‘Honestly. It makes no difference to me whether you sell the shop or not.’
‘Yes it does,’ I say, following him as he gestures for us to sit at a table that’s become free by the window. ‘If I sell the shop to someone who doesn’t intend to run it as a flower shop, then you’ll be out of business.’
Jake laughs.
‘What? What’s so funny?’
‘As lovely as your grandmother was, her shop’s not my only source of income. I supply flowers to shops all over Cornwall.’
‘Oh, I didn’t know that.’
‘Do you know anything about flowers at all?’ Jake asks, putting his pint down on the table. ‘I thought it was the family business.’
‘No, not a lot,’ I admit. ‘I’ve always steered away from getting involved.’
‘Why?’
I shrug. ‘Dunno, flowers just aren’t my thing.’
‘What isyourthingthen?’
I think about this. ‘I don’t think I’ve found it yet, to be honest.’
Jake watches me as he drinks from his pint glass.
‘What?’ I demand. ‘What are you thinking?’
‘Nothing, guv, honest!’ he says holding up his free hand. ‘Tetchy, aren’t you?’
‘No, I’m not. Just because I haven’t gone into my family business, it doesn’t mean I have a problem!’
‘I never said you did.’ Jake shakes his head. ‘I think I’ll just sit here in silence and drink my pint. It’ll be easier.’
We both pick up our glasses and drink, looking anywhere apart from at each other. I watch Miley playing over the other side of the bar; Rita has given her some monkey nuts – appropriately. She’s carefully breaking open each nut one by one, then neatly brushing the shells under a beer towel before she greedily eats the inside.
