Page 17 of On The Edge

10

Weeks went by in a blink of an eye. Cat couldn’t believe how busy she was. Her pub shifts were a comfortable weekly occurrence, and she felt that she was achieving progress with her various endeavours slowly but surely. She had also been given the nickname “Red,” after her auburn hair. One of the regular customers started employing it to call for more drinks, and somehow it had spread. People were now saluting her on the street, “Hey Red!”, which she was becoming used to hearing, and admitted to Jess one afternoon that secretly she loved it. Her driving lessons had come on too and she felt quietly confident of her imminent driving test. The wait itself however, made her a little giddy and apprehensive the whole day long, so after finishing her afternoon shift in the pub, she grabbed a quick coffee with the other staff members in the kitchen. Another new addition to the workforce was Angie, with whom Cat had recently started to enjoy gossip catch-ups. Cat marvelled at how much Angie knew about everyone and everything on the island.

“Did you see them both drinking at the bar together?” She held her cup in one hand as she crammed a leftover scone into her mouth. The two girls leaned against the aluminium worktop where the kettle and other biscuits lay. The kitchen was about to start serving dinners, and Jim the barman was chatting to the chef.

“You can’t go round saying things like that, lass!” He stopped his conversation and tutted over at Angie.

“I’m not saying anything!” A look of utter disbelief came over her face. “It’s over the whole island that they're having an affair, and it must be true if they were drinking together last night!” Angie continued further into another story of two locals who Cat didn’t know.

“Come on now, whest your tongue!” Jim shook his head like a disapproving father and started his conversation up again with the chef.

Angie looked at Cat exasperated and shrugged her shoulders.

On her way up the stairs of the hotel, Cat passed Monique, who stopped in front of her. A deep blue dress with black check print clung to her waist and hips, paired with black heels. She looked incredibly smart and sexy. Cat stood back and admired.

“Monique you look amazing!”

Monique put her hands on her hips and looked down. “Oh this old thing? Had it for ages in the cupboard.”

Cat was sure that wasn’t the case, it looked brand new.

“Anyway - just the girl I was looking for!” Monique announced.

“Oh?” Cat suddenly felt apprehensive.

“Now don’t take this personally, we love having you live here as well as work for us. But the room you’re in, well we’ll need it soon. It’s starting to get busy here.”

“Oh... Right! I mean, of course...” Cat bit her lip. Crap, what was she to do!

“Cat, honey - do you seriously plan to stay on the island?” Monique asked the question that Cat had been avoiding asking herself since she had arrived. Everyone who came into the pub asked “Are you here on holiday?” or “What brings you to the island?” All these straightforward questions had been uncomfortable for Cat to answer. What could she say? “Well, I quit my job, and left my boyfriend after reading a magazine article about The Old Man of Hoy?” She thought not! So she had told people she was here on a holiday exploring. But as she stood in the stairway with Monique's eyes boring into her every cell, she felt speechless, and afraid of what the future might hold. She was beginning to like the freedom of not knowing.

“Erm…I think so. I think I want to stay here. I’m sorry; you’ve been so good giving me that room for as long as you have. But there’s nowhere on the island to rent, I have been looking.” Cat swallowed, “within my budget at least. I don’t even know where to look for a cheap room.”

“Oh darling, that’s why I’m coming to you now. You see, a lovely old woman called Margaret, one of our regulars, passed away not too long ago.” Monique stopped for a moment, and a tense sadness flickered across her face.

“I’m very sorry for your loss.” Cat touched Monique’s hand gently.

“Thank you, darling.” She sniffed. “It was some months ago now. Marge came to the pub every day at 3pm for her glass of sherry, to read the newspaper, and talk with the staff. She was a gem of a lady, she used to organise our karaoke nights, which were very popular round here. She loved Abba!” She smiled to herself. “Anyway, I’m getting distracted, my point is her family live in London, or France, or something like that, and they've decided to let her old cottage. It will need work, but since I was a good friend of lovely Marge, they’ve kept me in the loop. And I thought you might want to take it? Or, have a look, and see what you think?” She glanced at her watch not waiting for an answer, “I must dash - just remembered the Chef wanted to talk to me earlier.” Monique sashayed away, elegantly distracted.

“Thank you!” Cat called after her.

The next day Jess was locking up the gallery when a beaming Cat appeared, glowing, at the door.

“Hi love, come in!” Jess waved her friend in, who remained on the step, smiling and shaking her head.

“Why not?” Jess looked down the street then back at Cat, bemused.

Cat pulled out a set of car keys and pointed to a bottle green Beetle parked up. “I passed my test!”

“Wow! That’s brilliant!”

“I know!” Cat lifted her arms high in the air, completely carefree, and hooted with sheer excitement and relief.

Jess looked again down the quiet road for any disapproving passers by, but all was quiet and still, apart from her loudly enthusiastic friend.

“OK! Shh there, people might think there's a fire!” Jess laughed.

“Come on, let’s get out of here!” Cat threw the keys in the air, tried to catch them but picked them up with a smile.