The Waffle House on the Pier - Tilly Tennant Page 0,42
for the young and young at heart and, as such, reserved for the time of day when youngsters were out and about. There was a logic in this that was hard to argue with, but it also left the waffle house closed for a large chunk of every day. Sadie had always felt sure that there would be trade to be had in the evenings – though it had never been her place to say so.
Certainly, on this, April’s first day back at work, Sadie had no desire to address it, and even if she’d wanted to she was too tired. Her grandma didn’t look much better and so Sadie was grateful to switch the sign on the door from open to closed and lock up for the night. Not only was she tired, but Sadie had been subjected to more than her fair share of worries and stresses during the day, from the incidents with Gammy that ranged from not knowing what day it was (frequently), to making cups of coffee for a man who’d never drink them, to actually almost setting fire to the restaurant, and a million other little things in between. And those were on top of the stress of trying to do a job that she’d thought she’d known how to do but, once there, realised that she hadn’t known all that much about at all. She’d heard of learning on the job, the old saying that there was no substitute for experience, but the people who said that had never had to learn at a million miles an hour with a shop full of hungry people and an unpredictable situation in the kitchen.
Sadie had to believe that things were going to get better than this, otherwise, why was she here? She could easily turn to Gammy now and tell her this wasn’t going to work out, that she couldn’t do it, and she could make up more than enough compelling reasons why. But she didn’t want to, and so that had to mean something. And, despite the exhaustion clear on Gammy’s face, despite all the narrow misses and lapses throughout the day, her grandmother had looked happier and more purposeful than Sadie had seen her for a long time. If nothing else positive came from this day there was that.
Sadie could drive, but Sea Salt Bay was so small that she tended to walk when she could and they’d both walked to work that morning. It wasn’t exactly a long trek home, but there were steep roads and Sadie really didn’t fancy it now that they’d done a full and surprisingly hectic day at the waffle house. Gammy certainly didn’t look up to it and so Sadie suggested that they go down to the harbour to see if Ewan or Kat were free to run them home. Sadie’s brother and his wife carried so much equipment everywhere and their home was a little further out than Sadie’s so they always went to work in their station wagon. It was a safe bet that they’d have it parked up now in the space outside their little harbour headquarters.
* * *
Sadie held back an impatient click of her tongue as they drew closer to the harbour and could see straight away that the parking space outside the grey hut that housed the diving school office was empty. It couldn’t be helped and she could hardly be annoyed at Ewan and Kat, who hadn’t known they were coming and probably had lessons booked in anyway. Sadie decided to press on regardless – perhaps one of them would be in manning the fort and whoever was out with the station wagon wouldn’t be too long. It was getting late in the day for diving after all.
The door was open and Sadie ushered April in, following after.
‘Hello, you two.’ Kat smiled brightly, looking up from the desk in the welcoming – if extremely compact – waiting room. She had one of her regular, lurid green protein drinks in front of her and a laptop shoved to one side with a diary page open. Sadie glanced with some suspicion at the protein drink. She’d often thought they must work because Kat looked incredible but it was a sacrifice of taste that was just too big for Sadie to make – everlasting youth or not. She’d take an oozing ice-cream shake any time and the consequences for her waistline with it.