Page 55 of Lessons in Love at the Seaside Salon

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

Talking to Dylan about Sol now seems like the easiest thing in the world, Trudy thinks, compared to bringing Sol to the club to meet her friends. Laurie’s friends.

She didn’t tell Peter and Lois, or Fred, that she’d be bringing Sol.

Peter and Fred were Laurie’s good friends but if she told Peter she’d have to tell Lois, who would then have told everyone she knew, just because she likes a gossip, not in a harmful way but she likes to be the first with the news.

And if she’d told Fred he’d tell his wife, Joyce, who didn’t care that Laurie died in the first place so she’d hardly care that Trudy has a new friend.

No, the element of surprise is better. She hopes.

She thought about how best to choreograph the whole thing – get there early, so she could watch for people arriving? Or wait until she thought they’d all be there, then walk in? That’s the shock-value entrance, of course, but also the most efficient way to do it.

Efficiency has won the day, so she and Sol are arriving ten minutes after she arranged with the others to gather in the club’s dining room.

‘Now, you’re sure about this?’ Sol says as he offers Trudy his arm. She takes it; she always does. She likes that it’s an easy way of being attached to someone, of showing a man you trust him, without holding hands, which she would find too … much. At least at this point of their relationship.

Are they having a relationship? She supposes they must be. Even a friendship is a relationship. Any interaction with another is a relationship, whether at its beginning, middle or end.

‘I am,’ she says. ‘I’m an adult and I’m allowed to make new friends.’

He gives her a look she can’t read. ‘Did you think you needed the permission of others?’

‘Not that, but … It’s normal to be worried, isn’t it? They were Laurie’s friends.’

‘And yours.’

‘It never feels that way after someone dies.’

She thinks about how those friendships have shifted in the years Laurie has been gone, how she has never felt on the same footing, because the others hadn’t associated with her on her own before. They didn’t know who she was without Laurie – just as she didn’t. But she does now.

‘I understand,’ Sol says, and she knows he must because he’s been through it himself – except she knows that men can have an easier time of it when their wives die.

Other women scoop them up, not wanting them to fend for themselves.

Whereas widows are considered to be able to cope.

Or that they should be able to cope. That’s her reading of it, anyway, from her own experience and what she’s observed.

Perhaps what she’s unconsciously done to others too.

They reach the door of the club and Sol opens it for her.

Trudy feels queasy, and also like something is stuck in her throat.

Why is she doing this to herself? Oh, that’s right: because she’s allowed to have a friend. To move on. To not stay crystallised in amber because she’s not a fossil.

Swallowing the stuck feeling, Trudy takes Sol’s arm again and turns him left, in the direction of the dining room.

Peter is sitting in such a way that he sees them first, and Trudy watches his face change from confusion to mild shock, then he slips a mask of impassivity over it and stands up.

Lois follows his gaze and her mouth forms an O. Then there’s the twinkle of impending gossip in her eye.

Fred also turns, and he smiles straightaway. A good sign.

Joyce glares. Who knows what’s wrong with that woman, but for the first time Trudy doesn’t care.

‘Trude,’ Peter says, kissing her on the cheek then holding out his hand to Sol, who takes it.

‘Peter, I’d like you to meet my friend Sol. Sol, I’d like to introduce Peter. He was a friend of Laurie’s.’

‘And I’m a friend of yours,’ Peter says, shaking Sol’s hand vigorously.

‘Trude, hi, hi, hi,’ Lois says as she sweeps in, kissing Trudy, kissing Sol. ‘Hi, darl, I’m Lois.’

Trudy introduces them properly then does the same with Fred and Joyce before they all go back to the table, which has only one spare seat. Of course – she didn’t tell them there would be six for dinner.

‘Oh,’ Lois says, then she looks at Peter, who wordlessly retrieves a chair from another table and places it next to the other.

‘Do we have enough room?’ Trudy asks.

‘Absolutely!’ says Lois. ‘Don’t we, Joycey?’

Joyce makes a face then picks up her glass of wine.

‘That’s a magnificent brooch, Joyce,’ says Sol, who is sitting next to her. Joyce’s face softens. So Trudy hasn’t been able to crack this woman for years yet Sol can do it with a few words? The man must have the magic touch, and she appreciates it.

‘Thank you,’ Joyce coos. ‘I made it.’

‘You made it! Tell me about it.’

With Joyce deftly handled, Trudy turns her attention to Lois and Peter.

‘Ginger ale, Trude?’ Peter says, standing again.

‘Oh, I can –’

‘No, you won’t.’ Peter smiles. ‘What does Sol like to drink?’

Trudy gives the order and once Peter is gone, Lois pounces.

‘So he’s your new friend, is he? Handsome fellow. Where did you meet him? At the salon, I bet. You wouldn’t think it’s a place to meet men but clearly it’s worked for you, Trude, good on you!’

Before Lois’s imagination can run away from her, Trudy decides to intervene.

‘Actually, he was a friend of Laurie’s from bowls.’

Lois looks mildly scandalised, then leans in. ‘You weren’t …’ She glances around. ‘Having an affair ?’

Trudy laughs so loudly that heads around them turn.

‘When would I have had time for an affair?’ she says, not caring who hears. If the worst that can be conjured about her and Sol together is that they might have been on before Laurie died, she can handle it. ‘And I didn’t even know the man until a few weeks ago.’

‘Weeks?’ Lois’s eyes go even wider. ‘You just seem like …’

‘Yes?’

‘Well, like you … fit together.’ She giggles.

‘Good on you, Trude. I thought you should be with someone. Truly, it’s not good to be alone, is it?

Pete and I talk about this. Whoever goes first – I mean, we could die together in a car crash, you never know – we’ve both said the other shouldn’t be alone forever.

It’s not right, is it? We’re social animals, Trude. That’s what I always say.’

Trudy smiles as Lois continues to talk about how she’s glad Trudy has found someone and Sol will need to join them each time they have dinner, and maybe he could play golf with Peter and Fred. Meanwhile Sol is fully engaged in conversation with Fred and Joyce, and something about it feels … right.

‘Ginger ale, Trude,’ Peter says as he puts her drink in front of her, then Sol’s in front of him.

Trudy gently squeezes Sol’s hand, and he squeezes back, and slowly she feels the hard shell of the past two years start to melt away.