Elsie could feel herself shaking, but she knew she was. ‘I’m terrified – I mean I’ve no idea how to go about it, or even how it’s done now – but it feels right.’
‘We can help,’ Daisy said, nodding furiously – a suggestion which slightly alarmed Elsie. Daisy prided herself on being a bit of a matchmaker, even though several of her match-ups for friends had ended in dreadful dates and acrimonious splits. But then, as Elsie reasoned, when you were as effortlessly gorgeous as Daisy Maynard with a successful career and a wealthy property developer boyfriend, what would you really understand about the perils of dating?
‘Promise me one thing, darling: steer clear of those dreadful dating sites,’ Jim interjected, his assertion eliciting shock from his three daughters. ‘No, I’m serious. I signed up for two of them last year and they were most disappointing.’
The unexpected revelation of Jim’s secret online dating history temporarily hijacked the conversation, and Elsie allowed herself to relax a little as the incredulous reaction flowed around her. After this week’s apprehension of telling her family what she was planning, she now felt strangely peaceful. It was the right decision and it was an important one.
I love you because you’re brave and strong
and you always know what to do.
xx
It was the first message in the pile stacked neatly inside the former chocolate box the subject of Number 50 on The List:
50. Read the box messages – all of them.
It had taken Elsie eighteen months to bring herself to open it, the thought of its unread contents strangely comforting. When she made the decision last Monday to fulfil the last-but-one item on The List, it had felt like being reunited with an old friend. And as soon as she read the first message, Elsie knew it was the right time. The message made perfect sense – and instantly she knew what to do.
‘Wow,’ said Cher Pettinger, owner of Sundae & Cher, when Elsie told her the news a week after the shoplifting incident. ‘And you’re sure you’re ready to dive into the shark-infested dating waters again?’
Elsie pulled a face. ‘Well, when you put it like that, how can I resist?’
‘No, no, that’s not what I meant,’ Cher shook her head, the tall ebony beehive atop it shaking wildly. ‘It’s just, you know, when you’ve three divorces under your belt like me the whole dating scene becomes more of a moron-dodging exercise than anything else.’
Elsie smiled at her boss, noting again how at odds her lack of dating success was with the confident forty-something dressed head to toe in vintage Dior. ‘I’ll bear that in mind. How is the latest flame?’
Cher grimaced as she dropped a newly mixed tub of house speciality Apple, Cinnamon and Nutmeg ice cream into the glass-fronted display cabinet. ‘He was looking promising until I realised he still lived with his mother. Forty-two years old and still sleeping in a bedroom with He-Man wallpaper.’
‘Blimey.’
‘Believe it, sister. It’s a jungle out there. But you know me: ever the optimistic adventurer.’
Cher Pettinger’s relationship history read like a cautionary tale on the perils of dating. Married and divorced three times, she had since endured a string of hopeless beaus, from the owner of the local amusement arcade who had a strange penchant for life-sized dolls, and the toyboy estate agent who was convinced that he was being stalked by MI5, to the ageing lothario hotelier who turned out to be a serial bigamist. But Cher was nothing if not committed to her dating cause, gamely braving the ‘jungle of morons’ in pursuit of true love.
Elsie liked her boss immensely, despite Cher’s infamously dry sense of humour, which had earned her a fearsome reputation in North Laine. She was sassy and assured and undaunted by life – and in Elsie she had found a kindred spirit. Together, over the past three years, they had turned the once hippy vegan café in colourful Gardner Street that Cher inherited from her dotty aunt, Lucy ‘Skyflower’ Pettinger, into a retro-themed ice cream café that the great and good of Brighton flocked to, irrespective of the season.
Sundae & Cher was filled with 1950s and 1960s memorabilia, from the gold-framed Elvis and Frankie Valli photographs on the wall behind the green glass counter, to the black and white harlequin tiles on the floor, replica Wurlitzer jukebox, black and white checked tablecloths and red leather and chrome chairs. It had the air of being simultaneously retro and chic, and modern and cool – and Elsie loved to see people’s expressions when they walked in for the first time. Of course, the killer detail was that all the ice cream sold in the café was made onsite, in the basement kitchen with its large ice cream mixing machine and large freezer cabinet. This meant that Sundae & Cher could offer flavours nobody else in Brighton could match, changing them regularly to keep the ever-enthusiastic customers coming back for more. From Toasted Popcorn to Blue Cheese and Walnut, Maple Banana and even a Tomato, Basil and Olive combination, Sundae & Cher’s unique ice cream flavours had become a talking point in the famous seaside town. Add to this the effortlessly relaxed and fun atmosphere and it was easy to see why Sundae & Cher fitted into colourfully bohemian Gardner Street perfectly.
Cher was obsessed with 1950s and 1960s fashion, proudly wearing vintage finds from the retro clothing boutiques that lined the streets of Brighton’s famous shopping district. Her home, too, was a shrine to retro kitsch, her love of which was evident wherever she was.
As such, she looked every inch the part behind the glass counter of Sundae & Cher – as did Elsie in her black short-sleeved blouse with white collar and cuffs, turquoise satin circle skirt and white frilled apron. It was fun to dress up for work and even though the days were long and busy, Elsie adored being part of Cher’s throwback business vision. It was as if Cher’s trademark dynamism was infused into the very fixtures and fittings of the ice cream café – a sense of optimism and fun pervaded everything, something which had proved precious to Elsie during the last eighteen months.
Today, as she scooped colourful balls of handmade ice cream into deep blue sundae glasses, Elsie felt more positive about her decision than ever.
‘So, want me to set you up?’ Cher asked, popping Belgian chocolate-filled wafer sticks into the top of the sundaes. ‘Because I’m sure I know some suitable gents. Not that I’m saying you won’t find anyone under your own steam, you know, but every little helps and that.’
The door opened and a middle-aged man bounded across the harlequin-tiled floor towards them. ‘Morning, lovely ladies!’
‘And here’s one of them now,’ Cher winked. ‘Dennis, my lovely. How’s our favourite morning customer?’
Dennis’ ample cheeks flushed. ‘Always the better for seeing you, m’dear.’
Cher feigned coyness and batted her false eyelashes at him. ‘Such a charmer! So what can I tempt you with today?’
His eyes made a greedy survey of the generous swirling mounds of rainbow-hued ice creams before him (and, arguably, a wider reconnoitre of Cher’s generous chest in the process). ‘Ah, decisions, decisions. I think I will have one of your excellent breakfast pastries, considering the early hour.’
‘Good choice. Anything with that, Dennis?’
Elsie knew the script of this conversation by
