Page 89 of Lessons in Love at the Seaside Salon
His eyes are going every which way, as if he’s looking for something. ‘I didn’t know what was going on,’ he says. ‘I thought maybe she’d dropped me. Then I was worried something had happened to her, but you all seemed to be still working here so I thought she hadn’t died or anything, otherwise maybe you’d have closed for a few days.’
He’s talking a mile a minute and Trudy is worried he’s going to pass out from lack of oxygen.
‘Take a breath, Brett,’ she advises. ‘It’s all right.’
‘She’ll think I don’t care!’ he says, and Trudy imagines that’s right. ‘But I do! I really do!’
Trudy reaches over and picks up his hand, patting it with her other. Her Dylan used to get wound up like this about his school work. So worried about his exams that he’d almost have a nervous breakdown. So she’d take his hand from time to time, like he was a little boy again, and it would always calm him. Deepdown we’re all still little kids wanting our mums to make things better, no matter how old we get.
‘I know you do, pet,’ Trudy says soothingly. ‘Here’s what we’ll do, okay? I’ll go and see her on the weekend and tell her you’ve been in to see me and that you want to visit.’
‘I can’t just go and see her? Where is she?’
There are two hospitals on the Coast – Wyong and Gosford – so it wouldn’t make sense to keep him guessing, because he could figure it out fairly quickly. Still, it’s not a clear-cut situation.
‘She’s at Gosford, but she’s not seeing many visitors. And her mother is there a lot.’ Trudy stares at him. ‘A lot.’
‘That’s okay,’ he says.
Trudy realises then that he has no idea what Josie might or might not have told her parents about him.
‘It’s not, actually. Her parents only found out about you because some friend of theirs saw you and Josie together.’
His forehead creases. ‘Oh yeah. We were in Blue Bay. Josie was really worried about that.’
‘They had an argument. That was just before …’
No, she’s said too much. She doesn’t want to burden the boy. But from the look on his face she can see it’s too late.
‘An argument about me?’ he says, and it comes out slightly strangled.
‘None of this is your fault.’
‘But …’
‘Brett,’ she says firmly, ‘families are complicated. Every single one. This was not your fault. But you can’t go and see her. Not yet. Let me handle it. Okay?’
He stares at her then nods slowly.
‘Give me your number and I’ll call you about it,’ Trudy says. ‘Let you know what’s going on.’
He writes it in her appointment book. ‘I really like her,’ he says softly, and when his eyes meet Trudy’s she sees just how much.
‘I believe she really likes you too,’ she says. ‘So we’ll just try to sort this out, all right?’
He nods. ‘Thanks, Trudy.’
‘You’re a good lad.’ Before she knows what she’s doing she gives him a hug, but he so looked like he needed one, and when his arms tighten around her she knows she was right.
‘I’ll be in touch,’ she says as she sees him out the door. When she turns back around she sees Sam waiting for her.
‘Everything okay?’ he asks.
‘It will be. We have to believe that, don’t we?’
He smiles, a little sadly. ‘We do. I’m almost done here.’
‘I’ll be out the back,’ she says, and she takes herself to the room that holds their bags and their colours and their tools and their towels, the place this salon couldn’t function without and which is also a refuge from time to time. She turns on the radio and hears Pat Benatar’s ‘Love is a Battlefield’ playing and thinks about what it means, that phrase, before starting to wash up the mugs in the sink, getting ready for the next day.
