Page 72 of Lessons in Love at the Seaside Salon
‘What do you do for two hours?’
‘I surf!’
He didn’t surf today, though: there were no waves. She would absolutely have understood if he hadn’t waited for her when he had nothing else to do, but he did. As she emerged from the Seaside Salon he took her hand and kissed her on the lips – not for too long, because they were in front of the salon – and they walked around the corner where he kissed her some more.
It made her feel better, seeing him. He knows she’s been worrying about her parents finding out about them – even though he wants that to happen, has told her that he wants to meet them because he’s serious about her. It’s the most wonderful thing she’s ever heard and also the most stress-inducing because she can’t imagine having that conversation with them.
The preferable thing to do is daydream about him and him alone, not what it would be like for her parents to meet him.
She’s still daydreaming as she opens the front door of the house.
‘Josie.’
Her mother appears in front of her and she jumps.
‘Mum, you scared me,’ she says, putting her keys on the table just inside the door.
Her mother’s nostrils flare. ‘Where have you been?’
‘At work.’ Josie frowns. ‘Why?’
‘You’re later than usual.’
Her father joins them, his hands folded in front of him.
‘I had a colour. She arrived late.’ This was the truth, but she feels queasy as she says it, as if she’s about to be exposed for lying even though she hasn’t. Her time with Brett did not make her late – she was already late.
‘If I call Trudy will she confirm this?’ Her mother’s voice sounds strangled.
‘Yes.’ Now Josie feels upset – why is her mother questioning her like this? Why would she care …
Oh. No. Her mother knows something.
‘You’re lying,’ her mother says.
‘I’m not.’
‘Miriamsaw you!’ her mother screams.
Josie hadn’t forgotten about Miriam but it’s been almost a fortnight and she had started to believe that Miriam had forgotten about her. It feels like a betrayal even though she knew it was coming. Has always known, for years it seems, that this day would come when the life she wants for herself is on a path that her parents have barricaded and keep barricading because they don’t want her going anywhere. Out of fear, not love. She is the only child they were able to have and her mother, in particular, never wants to let her go.
What they didn’t count on was Brett. He knows how to clear that path for her. He’s doing it already. Because of Brett she feels stronger than she ever has in her life. Not just Brett – the salon too. The work she does there. The person sheisthere. She is more capable than she realised. She’sgood at things. Clients tell her so. Trudy, Sam and Evie tell her so.
So she may have been stupid little Josie at school but she’s not any more – and she never wants to go back to being her again, no matter how much her mother wants that.
There’s no point pretending she doesn’t know what Miriam saw. Which means she needs to draw on that new strength of hers and kick down those barricades.
‘I saw her too,’ she says as calmly as she can.
‘Who were you with?’
‘Brett.’
‘Brett?’ Erin’s eyes are wild and she turns to Josie’s father. ‘Paolo – say something!’
Her father’s mouth opens and closes, then he stops looking Josie in the eye.
Was he always this weak? Was her mother the one calling the shots all this time? Suddenly Josie pities him.
