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‘You can have Harry if you like,’ said Bev, ‘although don’t expect any foreplay. He will give you a run for your money atTipping Pointthough.’
Everyone laughed at that.
‘How was the psychic?’ asked Diana.
‘Interesting. I think Sal came through for me. She said he was watching over me.’
Everyone nodded and smiled but only Bev believed in that sort of thing.
‘Well, Sal isn’t here any more and you need a good man’s company,’ said Sylvie. ‘Maybe he’ll send you someone if he’s watching over you.’
‘Isn’t there anyone you’ve got your eye on, darling?’ Diana enquired.
‘No,’ said Marielle, though it wasn’t strictly true, but she’d keep that to herself too.
‘Are you in a rush to get back?’ asked Teddy when they reached the car. He found he didn’t want the day to end yet. He’d enjoyed Sabrina’s company; it had been a long time since he’d gone out for a meal with a woman who wasn’t hismother and even though this was never meant to be a ‘date’ date, it felt as if it could have been. It was nice to sit across the table from a woman and eat – even substandard Ciaoissimo food – and talk, and laugh, and feel that she enjoyed his company too. He worked stupidly hard but when he stopped, like today, he realised that he missed having someone special to care about.
‘No, not at all,’ said Sabrina. She was glad he asked because she hadn’t had enough of today yet. She’d liked spending time with him, just the two of them, and when she talked she noticed how intently he listened to her. It felt like a novelty, as if whoever she had left behind hadn’t valued her enough.
‘It’s a lovely day, we could have a stroll on the beach. There’s plenty to choose from.’
‘Sounds great,’ she said.
‘I’ll even throw in an ice cream.’
‘Ooh. Extra great.’ She grinned with an almost childlike delight that made him grin too and he felt something inside him, like a frisson of warmth against sensitive nerve endings. It was unexpected but no less pleasant for that.
Teddy set off, heading out of Scarborough on the north road. He knew which beach he’d take her to: Briswith, with all its pretty fishermen’s cottages painted in different colours and higgledy-piggedly streets, but without any steep hills, unlike Robin Hood’s Bay.
‘Loads of mermaid tales – excuse the pun – around here, you know,’ Teddy enlightened her. ‘Did you know they sank lots of Spanish ships that sailed here in the Armada?’
‘I think I remember doing the Armada at school,’ said Sabrina, ‘though I can’t recall them ever giving any mermaids credit for the scuppered ships.’
‘They obviously didn’t fit the narrative.’
Sabrina took in a sharp breath and the noise made Teddy’s head spin round to her. ‘You okay?’
‘I just… just remembered sitting on a sofa with a big ginger cat on my lap.’ She had no idea why her mind had leapt from Spanish-hating mermaids to that image.
‘Maybe you were reading a book about mermaids when he was with you?’ suggested Teddy.
‘Maybe,’ she answered, but she didn’t think it was that. Maybe it was the same sort of comfort she got from him as she was getting here, in this kind, Italian man’s company, but she couldn’t exactly say that without sounding flirty.
They were shortly in Briswith; Teddy parked up on a street and they got out, walked down a small incline and they were there on the beach.
‘Hang on,’ said Sabrina, perching on the arm of a bench while she stripped off her boots and socks. ‘Ah, that’s better,’ she said, putting them in her shoulder bag. ‘I only bought the boots this morning and I think I might know why someone donated them to a charity shop. They’re agony.’
So she’d been shopping to dress up for today. Probably blown her wages on clothes. That made Teddy feel a stab of guilt because he was only giving her a minimum wage.
‘Don’t worry, they were cheap,’ she said, as if hearing his thoughts. ‘I got the whole outfit for thirty quid.’
She made her ensemble look more expensive than that. She exuded quiet class and Teddy wondered if, in her other life, she was the sort of person who spent all her money on expensive clothes or was happiest in jeans. She lookedreallygood in them, he had to say. Anyway, he didn’t want her to be out of pocket so he’d put an extra thirty quid in her next wage packet and lie that it was tip money.
‘What’s good for the goose,’ he said and kicked off histrainers and ripped off his socks too. The sand felt good underneath his feet. The beach was on his doorstep and he never went.
They strolled along and he wondered if people they passed thought they were a couple, if they gave off that vibe, or else friends or siblings. He liked her being at his side. He wouldn’t have minded if people bracketed them together. He imagined what it would be like if they were. He missed being a ‘two’. He missed sex, missed the intimacy of sharing his bed with a woman. Sharing anything with a woman actually: a meal, talking at breakfast across the kitchen table, watching a box set, the excited packing for a holiday. He missed that giddy expectation of first going out with someone, of wanting to get to know her, of wishing the date would never end and stringing it out for as long as possible.
Sabrina edged towards the sea and squealed as the cold water hit her skin. Teddy thought that it was like being with someone who had never been up close and personal with the sea before and was experiencing it for the first time. He thought it was sweet, especially as she went back for more and squealed again.
