Page 18 of The Little Flower Shop By the Sea
When we arrive back down at the harbour, the Merry Mermaid is busier than it was earlier, but far from packed out, so we easily manage to find ourselves a space at the end of the bar.
‘What are you girls having?’ Jake asks, while Miley takes up her spot from earlier with a fresh pile of beer mats.
‘Dry white wine, please, Jake,’ Belle says. ‘Gosh, it’s busy in here for a Monday evening.’
This is busy?
‘Women’s Guild,’ Jake says, leaning over the bar to see where Rita and Richie are. ‘A lot of them come in here after their monthly meetings.’ He lifts an imaginary glass and pretends to empty it a few times into his mouth.
Belle laughs a bit too loudly for the strength of Jake’s joke.
‘Poppy?’ Jake asks. ‘Same as before?’
‘Oh,bothof you were in here earlier?’ A flicker of annoyance crosses Belle’s pretty face.
‘Only for a quick drink,’ I tell her. ‘Yes, same as earlier, please, Jake.’
I wonder whether I should have chosen a slightly more elegant drink, but beer’s what I like. I’m not going to change just to keep up with Belle.
And even if I did, a different-shaped glass wouldn’t change much about me. Belle is pretty, delicate and graceful. With her long, flowing, blonde locks and her petite frame she’s like a perfect china doll. I glance down at my heavy boots and black baggy clothes. At five foot nine I suddenly feel very tall and cumbersome. I might as well be Darth Vader standing next to Princess Leia.
‘Back again?’ Richie enquires of Jake as he finally arrives at our end of the bar. ‘And this time you’ve gottwolovely ladies with you. I don’t know how you do it, Jakey-boy!’
Jake grimaces and puts his order in while I look around to see who Richie means. Then it dawns on me that I’m supposed to be the second of the two lovely ladies.
I don’t get referred to aslovelyvery often. In fact it never happens at all.
‘Did you get settled into your grandmother’s cottage all right?’ Richie asks me while he carefully pulls two pints of beer from the pump. ‘She has a stunning view of the bay from there, I believe.’
‘Yes, thank you, and yes, she does. It was a bit too misty today to see anything, but on a clear day it’s beautiful.’
‘Sorry about Rita earlier,’ he says as he places the first pint down on the bar, and lifts a glass to begin pouring the second. ‘She gets a bit carried away sometimes.’
‘It’s fine, really. I’d rather someone said something to my face than behind my back any day.’
‘Hear, hear to that sentiment, young lady!’ Richie’s blue eyes flicker briefly from the pint glass towards me, then back down again as if he’s considering something. ‘That flower shop is very special to the two of us, you know?’
‘I got that feeling earlier. Rita seemed very keen for me to keep it going.’
Richie nods, he places the second pint down next to the first, and reaches for a bottle of white wine.
‘Usually I’m not one to believe in anything magical, you see,’ he continues, focusing on pouring the wine into a glass. ‘But your grandmother and her flowers were kind of instrumental in us getting this place.’
‘Really?’
He nods and places the white wine down with the other drinks. ‘Yes, I don’t know what she did, Poppy, or how she did it, but we have a lot to thank that lady for. That’ll be £9.80, please.’
‘But how did she help you?’ I begin to ask, as Jake automatically reaches into his pocket and hands Richie a ten-pound note.
‘You bought the round earlier,’ I protest, reaching for my purse. ‘Let me pay for this one.’
‘No, I didn’t, it was free, remember?’ Jake says. ‘Plus I can’t have ladies buying me drinks.’
I look to Belle for support, but she doesn’t say anything, she simply picks up her wine glass and takes a sip, so I’m torn between pressing Richie for more information about my grandmother, and pursuing this misdemeanour on Jake’s part.
‘Don’t be so old fashioned,’ I tell Jake, letting Richie escape along the bar to new customers, after Jake refuses his offer of change. ‘Women can buy men drinks.’
‘Hmm… yeah, I know,’ Jake says, absent-mindedly sipping on his own pint and looking around to see if there’s a table for us. ‘Belle, is that a table over there? Are those folk leaving?’
