Tilly blinked, not sure what to say. What was he asking her? ‘I, right, err.’
'I'll be going early to help set up, but it would be great if you could come. I could meet you there. About six-thirty?'
The fireworks went ballistic. 'Yes. Umm, I think I’m free. Okay, lovely.'
Otto looked at his watch. 'I'll see you then.' A bell rang from an approaching tram. 'It's nothing fancy. Don't go to any trouble.'
Pah. Very funny. There would be a lot of preparation involved on Tilly's part. There would need to be a military manoeuvre to get her ready to go anywhere if he were involved. So far, this man had seen her knee-deep in mud, face-planting a gorse bush and in her dressing gown and a yellow hat. She'd be darned if she would do anything other than try to make him have a second or indeed third look if she attended an oyster night with him. To be frank, she was already thinking about booking a facial. 'Oh, no, no. Of course not. Right, well, I’ll see you next Saturday if not before. Six-thirty at The Darling Arms?'
‘Yes, great.’
A tram pulled up, and before Tilly knew what else to say, he’d stepped on, waved and very quickly was gone into the fog. Standing on the pavement clutching her picnic basket, not sure why she was practically fizzing from head to toe, Tilly shook her head. Very peculiar. What had happened had actually made her see stars and fireworks. Catherine wheels had turned in front of her eyes.
As she started to walk away from the tram shelter, she frowned. What even was that? Had Otto Carrington, grumpy, utterly gorgeous Otto Carrington, asked her out? Clearly, he didn't have a wife. Tilly couldn't quite work out if he actually had asked her out, but whatever it was, she was going to chalk it up as a win. She'd practically bitten his hand off, point of fact, which, after swearing off men forever, was a turn up for the books.
Frowning, she made a face. I think I might have a date.
31
Tilly wasn’t many steps away from the tram shelter before her phone came out. There were moments in her life that required the input of The Properlies, and being asked to an oyster night by a gorgeous, grumpy farmer with a picnic basket in one's hand was very much one of them. Ducking into the doorway of a shop, she popped a voice message in the group.
'Emergency session of The Properlies, please. All members to the table. I have just, and I need you to listen very carefully to the wording, been asked by Otto Carrington to an oyster night at the pub next Saturday, to which I said yes, at which point he said, and I quote, "I'll see you then." He then said, "It's nothing fancy, don't go to any trouble," got on a tram and vanished into the fog like Poldark. So, the question is a simple one. Is this a date, girls? Because it has all the ingredients of a date, but it was delivered like a delivery slot confirmation. Six-thirty at The Darling Arms. I mean. I could have been booked in for a boiler service. Discuss later if anyone is free.'
The replies landed before she'd even made it back to the harbour road.
Pia:It's a date. Yep, we need a video call this evening. This requires real chatting face-to-face.
Tilly: Yes, OK. What time suits???
Jasmine:Agreed. 6 pm your time? I'm on a break then. I'll have about an hour before wigs.
Pia:6 pm. I'll bring the rosé. Tils, this is epic.
Jasmine:See you at 6. x
At six o'clock on the dot, Tilly was sitting out on the decking at the back of the Boat Shed with a cup of tea, a blanket over her knees, and her phone propped against an old lantern on the table. The tide was on its way in, slapping at the posts below, and a thin layer of fog hovered over the estuary. All signs of the storm were long gone, almost as if she’d imagined it. Not a bad venue for a committee meeting of The Properlies, all things considered.
Pia arrived first, glowing and golden on a terrace in Provence with a glass of rosé the size of a small fishbowl, and then Jasmine, in a harshly lit dressing room with a row of wig heads lined up behind her.
Tilly smiled. ‘Hiya.’
Jasmine sipped from a can of soft drink. ‘Ooh, it looks nice where you are. The fog makes it so pretty. I can’t wait to visit.’
Tilly looked behind her. ‘Yeah, it’s very nice. You wouldn’t think fog could make everything look so lovely.’
‘One minute you had palm trees in the background, now fog. Amazing how quickly things can change.’
‘Ha, I know!’ Tilly nodded in agreement.
Pia smiled. 'So good to see you two. All looking well. Right, let’s get on with the real conversation. He asked you to an oyster night? What even is one of those?’
‘Good question.' Tilly smiled and then divulged everything that had happened at the tram shelter in the fog.
'It sounds abitlike a date, but not really. Tricky one.' Pia shook her head.
Tilly nodded. ‘I know. It’s probably not, and I’m overthinking it. He’s just being neighbourly.’
Jasmine put her can down. 'Possibly, but also, the wording is interesting.Don't go to any trouble.Why would he say that?'
