What Happens at the Beach.... T Williams A

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СКАЧАТЬ such British dishes as shepherd’s pie and toad-in-the-hole, even though the hot, sultry conditions were more suited to salads.

      The day after meeting Alain and Dominique again, Natalie had gone back down to the beach in the early morning and, after her swim, stopped off in their restaurant for a drink on the terrace. From then on this became a regular event, either first thing in the morning or in the late afternoon when Jeanne, the carer, was at Colette’s house and Natalie came down to swim and sunbathe.

      She enjoyed chatting to them, and to the young waitress, Laure, getting all the local news and telling them all about herself. Alain hadn’t been exaggerating when he said they were getting very busy and, as the end of July approached and the start of the traditional French exodus from the big cities to the beach for the month of August began, Natalie offered to come and work alongside Dominique and Laure serving at table on busy evenings, and they accepted her offer enthusiastically. Colette was happy to see her granddaughter getting out and about. Natalie enjoyed the work, meeting new people and bonding with Dominique, Alain and Laure.

      It wasn’t long before she told them about David and how she had ended things with him. Dominique immediately pointed out a number of regular male customers who had asked about her and who, clearly, found her very attractive. For her part, Natalie wasn’t interested in flirting, especially with customers. Quite often she would meet her friend the Labrador on the beach and she found herself staring out to sea, searching for sight of his master. She spotted him a couple of times and, to her surprise, found herself feeling irrationally excited when this happened. On one occasion he waved to her and she found herself waving back like a woman possessed. For somebody who had publicly announced that she had no interest in men for now, this was disturbing and rather irritating.

      In the evenings when she wasn’t working at the restaurant, Natalie would chat to her grandmother and continue her internet search, now getting more and more urgent, for a job. All she had got back from the Canadian job was a one-line email confirming receipt of her application; nothing more. Things were looking grim. The grant money she had managed to get in order to do her PhD had now dried up and the income she got each month from the rental of her parents’ house mostly disappeared in her half of the rent of the flat she shared with David and other regular monthly outgoings. Sooner or later she would have to cancel these payments but she knew she had to speak to David first and, anyway, she still had to retrieve her possessions.

      Otherwise, although the few euros she got for working as a waitress and the fact that she was living rent-free in Colette’s house meant she could just about manage to exist down here for now, it was quite clear to her that before long she would have to get a job, any job. One thing upon which she was quite firmly decided was that she didn’t want to be beholden to anybody, particularly David or his bloody family.

      As for David, after taking a day and a night to simmer down after his email about her moment of bad temper, she had replied in clear, formal, dispassionate terms, telling him that the engagement was off and that was that. He replied almost immediately asking her to reconsider and she replied in language he, as a lawyer, would understand. My decision is taken and it’s final. Please leave me alone. Since then there had been no further contact between them.

      One day, as she and her grandmother were sitting on the terrace, enjoying their mid-morning mug of tea, with Charlie the dog lying at their feet, crunching his regular daily biscuit, they had another visitor. This time it was a man and Natalie immediately recognised him as the dog’s master, the man who had bumped into her in the sea. She felt the blood rush to her face and her heart leap. He appeared, hesitantly, round the end of the house and gave a short whistle. The dog immediately leapt to his feet and ran across to him. Natalie gave the man a wave and beckoned him over, feeling an inexplicable butterfly sensation in her stomach as she did so. He made his way over to them, still rather hesitantly. She stood up and welcomed him, addressing him in French.

      ‘Hello, my name’s Natalie. And this is Colette.’

      ‘Good morning. I’m afraid my French isn’t very good.’ He was right about that, and his accent was unmistakably English, so Natalie was quick to put him at his ease in his own language.

      ‘Are you English? So am I.’

      ‘Ah, right, excellent.’ He sounded and looked relieved. ‘My friends call me Mark. I see that you’ve met Barney. I hope he hasn’t been making a nuisance of himself.’

      ‘Barney? I’ve been calling him Charlie.’ Colette was smiling.

      Natalie was delighted to hear her grandmother sounding animated and still speaking pretty good English, even though she rarely had the chance to practise it these days. Natalie’s father’s French had been good, but Colette had been a teacher of English in her youth and had done her best to keep it going by speaking it to him every time she saw him. Natalie grinned as Colette held out her hand to Mark and, with an almost completely straight face, introduced herself. ‘I’m very pleased to meet you, Mark. I’m Natalie’s big sister.’ Then she disintegrated into fits of giggles.

      Natalie joined in, while Mark looked slightly puzzled. Natalie held out her hand to him and he took it in his and shook it. He had a good, firm handshake, but the funny thing was that it somehow made her whole body tingle. She hoped he would put her red face down to the sun. His smile was open and friendly and she was still smiling when she released his hand and pointed down at the dog.

      ‘Barney, Charlie; I suppose they both sound pretty much the same to him. He certainly seems to answer to Charlie.’

      ‘He’s a Labrador. If you’re offering him food, he’ll answer to anything.’ Mark looked sternly at the dog. ‘Barney, have you been bothering these good folk by begging for food?’ The dog’s big brown eyes looked back at him innocently.

      Colette answered immediately. ‘Not at all. He’s been a model of good behaviour. Haven’t you, Charlie?’ The dog abandoned his master and trotted over at the sound of his name, or at least an approximation of it. Colette looked down and smiled at him before addressing Mark. ‘Would you like to join us for a cup of tea or a coffee?’

      ‘Thank you, that’s very kind, but I’m just off out. I’ve been looking for Barney, as he’s supposed to be coming with me.’ He smiled at her politely. ‘Some other time I’d be delighted to.’

      ‘Well do come back, please. We’ll both be very pleased to see you again, won’t we, Natalie?’

      Natalie suddenly began to feel inexplicably embarrassed all over again. She nodded and gave Mark a little wave as he excused himself once more and went off with the dog. She waited until all sounds of their footsteps had retreated before giving her grandmother an accusing look. ‘We’ll both be very pleased, won’t we? Gran, you sounded like Mrs Bennet from Pride and Prejudice, trying to get me married off to Mr Darcy. The last thing I need right now is to get involved with some random man, even if he is rather nice.’ As she said the last words, she found herself weighing him up. He was probably a few years older than her, maybe in his mid-thirties. He was tall, a bit taller than David, with close-cropped fair hair and a friendly, handsome face. She hadn’t seen his eyes this time because of his sunglasses, but he was tanned and he looked fit, presumably as a result of all the long-distance swimming he was doing. He had a very nice smile as well, but, she told herself as firmly as she could, she didn’t feel ready to risk getting involved with another man. The final months with David, and then the break-up, had disillusioned her badly. Practical matters took precedence now. What she wanted and badly needed wasn’t a man, but a job.

      ‘He’s a very handsome man, you know. I do like tall men, don’t you?’ Colette was grinning at her and Natalie found she couldn’t keep a straight face for long. She gave a sigh СКАЧАТЬ