The Waffle House on the Pier - Tilly Tennant Page 0,19
idea. In fact, I still don’t know if it’s a good idea, I just feel that it’s the right idea… you know?’
‘Oh,’ Georgia replied, chewing. ‘Don’t you think you ought to before you make all these plans? What if they’re not happy about any of it?’
‘They probably won’t be,’ Sadie said. She had a fairly good idea what her family’s reaction would be and that was partly why she hadn’t broached the subject with them yet.
Her mobile phone pinged the arrival of a message. She looked briefly to see that it had come from Lucy, who was letting her know that she’d arrived in New York and was on her way back to her apartment, and that even though it had been in sad circumstances, it had been lovely to see her. Sadie smiled slightly and locked her phone again. She’d reply when she had more time to write something meaningful.
‘If you think that,’ Natalie put in, ‘what does that tell you?’
‘That it’s probably a terrible idea – I know,’ Sadie said as she pocketed her phone and rejoined the conversation, irritated again at being called out a second time. Of course Natalie and Georgia were both right but knowing it didn’t help. Sadie couldn’t shake the notion that no matter what she thought about it all personally, no matter what misgivings she might have about reopening the waffle house, she couldn’t let it go. For all the reasons she’d stated, and for many more that even she couldn’t convey or understand, she was gripped by this unshakeable conviction that reopening was the right thing to do, no matter how hard it might prove to be. If nothing else it would be something for Gammy to focus on so that she wouldn’t be overwhelmed by her grief for Gampy.
‘You need to discuss it with your family before you do anything else,’ Natalie said.
‘I will,’ Sadie replied shortly. ‘I wouldn’t be so silly as to do anything without discussing it with them first. I just wanted to see what you both thought before I did. I mean, it’s not even a firm idea yet… it’s more of a daydream.’
‘So, is what we both think what you expected?’
‘Pretty much.’ Sadie swished her lager around in the glass before taking a sip. It was cold and bitter and crisp, just the thing for a warm evening in the sunniest nook of the beer garden of the Listing Ship. Sadie didn’t know what magic happened in the cellars of that pub, only that she’d never had better lager, no matter where else she went. Once she’d dreamt of running away from Sea Salt Bay as her sister Lucy had done, but more and more these days she was finding reasons to be glad she’d never had the courage to leave. Or at least the courage to leave for good, because her brief few years at university – though they’d felt like an adventure to the other side of the world – hardly counted at all when you got down to it.
‘So,’ Georgia said. ‘Changing the subject for a minute, what’s happened to Whatshisface? Why did you get rid of this one?’
Sadie couldn’t help but smile. ‘Jason. Why can’t anyone remember his name?’
‘Because,’ Natalie cut in, ‘he was such a boring nonentity that we’ve all had to block it out of our conscious minds for fear of falling into a coma should we utter it.’
‘He wasn’t that bad.’
‘He made me want to go and watch concrete set,’ Natalie said.
‘I’m sorry but he was pretty boring,’ Georgia agreed.
‘Really?’ Sadie blew out a breath and glanced at each of her friends in turn.
‘You must know,’ Natalie said. ‘You dumped him after all.’
‘I didn’t dump… Oh, alright; I suppose dump is as good a word as any for it, though I can’t help feeling it sounds a little mean to put it that way. Anyway, it was more of a mutual separation really…’
‘Instigated by you?’ Natalie asked carelessly.
‘Well,’ Sadie replied. ‘Yes. I suppose…’
‘Then you dumped him. Face it, Sadie, no one is ever going to live up to—’
‘Don’t!’ Sadie thumped her glass down, lager sloshing over the rim. ‘I know what you’re going to say and it doesn’t help.’
‘If you know what I was going to say then you’ll also know that my opinion hasn’t changed on the matter,’ Natalie said. ‘I don’t know why the hell you let Declan go in the first place—’
‘Nat!’ Sadie cut in, a real note of warning in her voice now.