Page 34 of Lessons in Love at the Seaside Salon

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

For their third date, Brett asked Josie to a cafe in Blue Bay, near The Entrance.

The Entrance is the more popular spot, attracting tourists who like the pelicans that tend to congregate in the area.

Josie never recovered from her mother reading Storm Boy to her as a child, let alone seeing the movie, so she feels ambivalent about pelicans: drawn to them yet also sad when she sees them.

She had told Brett this as they sat on the beach at Killcare, talking about books they’d loved as children – not the conversation she thought she’d be having, but she’s learning that she shouldn’t make up her mind about him in advance.

Still, she couldn’t believe he’d remember it.

Let alone take her so seriously that, when he suggested Blue Bay as their destination, he said, ‘I know we could go to The Entrance but I also know how you feel about pelicans.’

The thoughtfulness in that one sentence was enough to take her breath away.

They were standing by her car at the end of another workday – because by now he turns up almost every day to walk her from the salon and see her safely into the driver’s seat – and he was so matter-of-fact about it.

Not saying it as if she’s a weirdo for having a pelican problem.

‘It’s so pretty round there, though – how about Blue Bay?’ was the way he phrased it.

She hasn’t been to Blue Bay in … well, ever.

There are so many beaches on the Central Coast and, as tends to happen when you live in a place that other people love to visit, you don’t see it the way they do.

Her cousin in Sydney says the same thing: people love going to Bondi Beach but unless you live near there you rarely think of it.

Josie isn’t sure if that means we tend to take things for granted or that we appreciate what we have. Maybe neither. Maybe it’s laziness.

Brett is there to bust her out of that laziness by taking her to Blue Bay for lunch on this wintry Saturday that is slightly overcast. He pulls back her chair for her and she sits down, beaming.

Just happy to be with him. She’s never felt this happy simply to be with someone.

Other people can be complicated; hard to read, hard to predict, so she tries to be the good girl and behave in a way they expect, and usually fails.

Brett seems to like her just to be her. It’s harder to accept than she thought, because she’s spent most of her life trying to be what others want her to be.

Who is she and what does she really want?

These are questions she’s been asking herself as she drives to and from Terrigal each workday.

The answers haven’t yet appeared, apart from this one: she wants Brett.

‘My mum says the sandwiches are great here,’ Brett says, his white teeth flashing against his tan as he smiles.

‘Did you tell your mum we were coming here today?’

He looks up from the menu. ‘Yeah.’ Another smile. ‘I asked her where’s a good place I could take you.’

‘She knows about me?’ Josie says in a rush.

He looks bemused. ‘Sure. I told her about you when I met you.’

‘Oh.’ While she’s thrilled about this, she wonders if he’ll presume she’s told her mother about him. Will he think her strange that she hasn’t? Or maybe he won’t judge at all. He’s not the judgemental type. Or he doesn’t seem to be.

‘Is that okay?’ He sounds worried and she finds it endearing.

‘Of course! It’s fine!’

He gives her a funny look then smiles. ‘Don’t worry,’ he says, ‘you don’t have to meet her unless you want to.’

That’s not what I was thinking , she wants to tell him.

But before she can get it out the words get stuck in her throat because she sees something she never wanted to see: one of her mother’s friends, walking into this little cafe in Blue Bay where she’s sitting with a boy her parents don’t know exists, let alone that she’s on a date with him.

‘Josephine, darling!’ calls the friend, whose name is Miriam, which Josie knows all too well because Miriam likes to drop by unannounced and after she leaves her mother will sigh, shake her head and mutter, ‘Oh, Miriam.’

It’s impossible for Josie to pretend she’s not her, because the most recent drop-in by Miriam was two nights ago and Josie has not changed at all in that time.

Her hair is the same length and colour; her weight is the same.

So there’s no point pretending to be someone else, as tempting as that is because she really does not want to introduce Brett to Miriam of all people.

Brett twists toward the door in time to see Miriam rustling in their direction. Miriam always rustles. Josie is not sure why, but it’s probably something to do with the fact that she likes to wear clothes with lots of details.

‘Mwah mwah.’ Miriam kisses Josie once on each cheek, almost as if she was expecting to see her and, indeed, that it’s they who are meeting for lunch.

‘Lovely to see you again so soon, darling,’ she goes on, then turns her heavily mascara’d gaze to Brett.

‘Who’s this handsome young man?’ she demands.

Josie wants to sink into her chair, but Brett just grins, then stands up, towering over the diminutive Miriam.

‘Hi,’ he says.

‘This is Brett,’ Josie says, not much above a whisper.

‘Brian?’ Miriam looks confused, although Josie is sure she heard it properly.

‘Brett.’ He’s still grinning.

Whyyyyy? It will only encourage her!

‘Brrrrrett.’ Miriam rolls her r s as she says it and seems to enjoy doing so, given the spark in her eyes. ‘And who are you, darling?’

‘I’m Josie’s boyfriend.’

He glances at Josie, so calm, so confident, and instead of feeling elated that he’s called himself her boyfriend – her boyfriend!

– she wants to tell him to take it back, immediately.

Instead of this being the best moment of her life thus far, it feels as if she’s being pulled into a black hole of imminent parental disapproval, because she knows for sure that the first thing Miriam will do when she leaves this place – something that might possibly even cause her to leave this place instead of staying for lunch or whatever she’s doing here – is call Josie’s mother and gossip about seeing Josie and meeting Brett.

So when Josie arrives home this afternoon, after pretending she was ‘just going for a drive’, she’ll have to tell her parents she has been lying to them.

It’s going to be bad. Bad enough that she needs time to think about what to do and say and what she might need to do after she says what she’ll absolutely have to say, which is that she’s had three dates with Brett and she lied about all of them.

The lying. They’ll focus on that first. After telling her since childhood that she never needs to lie to them, they’ll sit her down and ask her to explain why she felt the need to do it.

Why she couldn’t tell them about him. Did she not love them?

Did she not think they loved her? It will be a laying-on of guilt the likes of which she’s never seen, and it’s almost enough to make her want to stand up, tell Miriam that Brett is joking and this is the first date they’ve been on, and walk out.

Except she doesn’t want that. Not at all.

Because he called himself her boyfriend and somewhere under these layers of fear about what’s going to happen when she arrives home, there’s elation – total, amazing happiness – that he would feel that way.

That he’d want to attach himself to her and tell someone about it.

He likes her. He really likes her. The incredible fact of that may be enough to get her through what’s to come.

‘Boyfriend?’ Miriam says, turning to Josie. There’s no rolling of the r s this time.

Josie looks at Brett, whose smile is wide and reassuring. His eyes are kind, and she imagines he’s encouraging her to take on the mantle he’s set down.

‘Yes,’ she says, holding his gaze, feeling herself smiling, not having made a decision to do so but it just happens, doesn’t it, when the boy you think is really great tells someone else he’s your boyfriend when you weren’t even sure yet if that were true.

‘Your mother hasn’t said anything.’ Miriam looks from one to the other.

‘You’re a friend of Josie’s mother?’ Brett asks.

Josie loves him a little for deflecting the enquiry away from her.

‘ Old friend. My name is Miriam.’ She sends Josie a pointed stare, although Josie doesn’t actually know what the point being made is.

‘I haven’t met Josie’s mum yet. Or her dad.’ He looks at Josie again. It’s going to be all right. That’s what the look says. Or what Josie wants it to say. ‘We haven’t been going out long,’ Brett continues.

Miriam looks quite satisfied about something. ‘How delightful,’ she says. ‘Well, I’d best be going.’

‘You’re not having lunch here?’ Brett says.

For a second Josie wonders, with dread, if he’s about to invite Miriam to join them.

‘Here?’ Miriam glances around. ‘No . I saw Josephine through the window. That’s the only reason I came in.’

Brett looks unfazed by Miriam’s mild insult and Josie wants to hug him for it. She smiles as nicely as she can while hoping Miriam will leave immediately.

‘No doubt I shall see you again, Brett.’ Miriam’s smile is faker than her blonde hair colour. ‘Josephine, darling, I know I shall see you again. Toodle-oo.’ And with a wave of her long-nailed fingers, she’s gone.

Brett swiftly sits down. ‘Quite a character,’ he says.

Josie murmurs her agreement but feels the tension rising in her as she contemplates what’s going to happen once she’s home. She blinks back the tears that have unexpectedly formed.

‘Hey.’ Brett frowns, then reaches across the table and takes her hand. ‘What’s going on?’

‘My parents don’t know I’ve been seeing you,’ she confesses, because she needs him as her co-conspirator now. ‘She’ll tell them. And then …’ The tears packed into her throat make her voice raspy. ‘They won’t like it.’

‘How do you know?’ He squeezes her hand. ‘I’m very likeable.’

She laughs involuntarily, then squeezes back. ‘I know you are,’ she says. ‘But they want me to stay locked up at home for the rest of my life.’

‘ That’s not going to happen.’ He takes her other hand. ‘We have too much to do. Places to see.’

We? We. We. What a magic word. Maybe he will be able to stand up to them with her. Maybe everything will be all right. It has to be sometime.

‘Do we?’ She smiles at him, even though she still feels unsettled.

‘We do.’

He leans across the table and kisses her quickly, which makes her feel a whole lot better. Then they set about the business of ordering their lunch.

While they eat he keeps telling her funny stories, and she knows he’s probably trying to distract her, and she thinks it’s one of the kindest things anyone has done for her, because she’s worrying – oh, how she’s worrying – that Miriam will have scurried off to the nearest phone box to call Erin and tell her all about seeing Josie and a boy together.

‘Hey,’ he says as they’re leaving, and he takes her hand in his and kisses her temple. ‘It’s not that bad.’

‘Sorry,’ she says, her voice strangled.

‘For what?’

‘I was bad company.’

He stops and stands in front of her. ‘Did I say that?’

‘No.’

He nods once. ‘Right. Because you’re not bad company.’ He smiles and it’s so warm her heart feels as if it wants to melt. ‘You’re my favourite company. And you don’t ever have to apologise to me for having something on your mind.’

It’s overwhelming, having him care for her this much. Really. It’s …

She knows her parents love her. But this is different. Brett chose her.

‘You’re the best,’ she whispers.

He laughs and takes her hand, kissing her on the lips this time. ‘Nah, you are,’ he says.

As he walks her back to the car, she forgets to worry, and she keeps forgetting all the way home.