CHAPTER 23
Rosa had finished her Friday shift at the Lobster Pot and was walking home with Hot trotting jauntily beside her. He had been delighted to meet his new friends Ugly and Pongo, and had had a whale of a time running up and down the bar and being petted by the punters. Rosa was feeling happy too: it was nice to have some cash in her pocket.
She noticed a light still on at the Cockleberry Coven and wondered what Mary and Queenie did to fill their evening hours. There was now a beautiful pink crystal placed on the windowsill at one end and a window box of winter pansies on the other.
Hot was still full of energy, so flashing her torch as she did so, she carried on walking past the shop and headed down towards the beach. Rosa loved the feeling of peace and freedom that this quaint little town brought and felt safe walking about, even in the dark. And despite being on her own a lot of the time, she discovered that she rarely felt lonely. Mind you, she’d always been a bit of a loner. She found it hard to trust - almost expected to be let down. Yes, Luke and Sheila had betrayed her trust, but Jacob, Raffaele, Mary and Joe to date had shown kindness.
Rosa acknowledged to herself that she did miss the familiarity - and the safety too, of living with Josh, as she knew he would always bail her out, whatever kind of trouble she got herself into. However, it was time to stand on her own two feet: also, she wanted to make him proud. She had never known any different, but not having a mother or father to look up to was hard. She had no yardstick of how she should behave. Had never really had any restrictions placed on her and when they were, she had rebelled against them with an ‘it’s not fair’ attitude.
Being honest, she admitted to herself that she had never, ever felt truly happy. Wasn’t even sure what she was looking for to make her so. Money really held no value to her. Men ditto: the only use for men was to satisfy her need for being held and for sex. But, at the moment, Rosa told herself with some surprise, she was all right. She loved the beach and the elements. Loved her new little home and the excitement of running her own business.
Once on the beach, she wound her scarf up around her mouth: it hadn’t seemed so cold with the shelter of the terraced houses along the narrow streets. The stars lit the midnight sky and the waves crashed hypnotically on the shore. Apart from that, the night air was still and silent; even the gulls had gone to their clifftop beds until morning.
Letting Hot off his lead for a quick run-around, she looked back to the Ship. It was in complete darkness, aside from a front-bedroom light. Quite early for a Friday night for it to be shut, she thought. But then again it was mid-January and freezing cold. She would go back in there one day, she decided, but not just yet. She hadn’t heard a word from Luke, but then why would she? They had both got what they wanted - an hour of no-strings-attached, pure unadulterated lust. However, Rosa did have flashbacks to that moment, as it had been bloody good - and despite what he had done, she did fancy the pants off of him.
It had all gone very quiet about the hit-and-run too - well, apart from Joe seemingly making his own inquiries. Luke had to be guilty, although his drink-driving story had seemed plausible. Her supervisor at the pound shop had always used to say, in his rich, northern accent, ‘The truth will out.’ Only time would tell, Rosa thought, as she certainly wasn’t going to say a word. Just recalling her awful time working at that shop made her realise again how lucky she was. To be able to choose to work part-time at the moment was like a dream come true.
She suddenly realised that she hadn’t heard from Josh in a while. She looked at her phone. It had been a whole week. So unlike him not to send her a text every other day at least. It was late on a Friday, but she guessed he would still be up. Smiling as she prepared a cheeky opening gambit, her face fell on being met with the empty sound of his answerphone.
She was just about to call Hot and go home, when she noticed a lone figure slumped on the bench at the top of the beach. Strange, at this time of night. With Hot by her side, she started to walk back towards it. Flashing her torch towards the bench, she saw that the figure had knees to chest and their head in their hands. And as she got closer she could hear muffled sobs.
The tiny figure was just wearing a skirt, thick tights and a jumper. No coat or scarf.
‘Titch? Is that you?’
The girl made an opening between her fingers to see who it was as Hot began to jump up at her, barking.
‘Ssh, Hot, come now.’ Rosa put him on his lead and shortened it.
‘Rose? What are you doing down here at this time of night?’
‘I could ask the same thing of you. What’s the matter – what’s happened?’
‘I’m a bit drunk.’
‘Well, that’s not a crime, is it, nor is it a reason to be sitting out here sobbing and freezing to death. Look, how about you borrow my coat for a bit and I walk you home.’
On saying that, Rosa realised she actually had no idea where Titch lived. In fact, she knew nothing about her apart from the fact that she worked in the pub and the coffee shop, and Seb Watkins thought she had great tits.
Titch started to cry again. ‘That’s the whole point. I have nowhere to go and Sheila Hannafore has fired me as I was drinking on duty.’
Rosa clumsily held her in her arms. She was no good at showing or giving emotion. In a situation like this, her practicality kicked in instead.
‘Right, get this on you.’ She took off her bomber-jacket. ‘Come up to mine, I’ve got either hot coffee or cold JD – either one will sort you out.’
‘Who’s that, calling you this late on a Friday night?’
‘Er . . . just one of the lads, pissed up at his brother’s stag do,’ Josh called through from the bathroom. Lucy propped herself up provocatively on a pillow and arranged her long, blonde hair so that it flowed all over it.
‘Well, turn it off now and get back in bed, big boy. I’ve got a surprise for you.’
Josh appeared in the doorway and smiled. ‘Have you now.’
Lucy looked hot, Lucy was hot, but as he made love to her all he could think about was Rosa’s missed call and whether she was OK.