Lottie Phillips - Sunshine at Daisy’s Guesthouse

Daisy wiped away the tears and realised how good it felt to let go like that.

Once they had both caught their breath, James smiled, resting his hand assuredly on her arm. ‘I didn’t quit my job because of this letter; I quit because I couldn’t bear working where Hugh had once been, the office wasn’t the same. You know?’

‘Yes,’ she said, calm now. ‘I know. I live in this house every day, remember?’

He nodded, his voice quiet. ‘I think that’s what Hugh was worried about, he thought you would stay here and perhaps feel you had to because it had been your home together. Then we agreed that there was no way you would ever consider selling it, so the next best option is to change it, invite people in.’

Daisy furrowed her brows. ‘You’re doing it again.’

‘What?’ Confusion crossed his face.

‘Being a man. Trying to solve it.’ She looked around her. ‘I love this house because it’s my home . I don’t need to invite strangers into it.’ She dipped her head. ‘Actually, if anything, I think I would resent that.’

James nodded. ‘Well, you know what’s best and you’re probably right but if you did want to try and you needed someone to look after the office side…’ He stuck his hands in the air. ‘I’m your man.’

‘Otherwise, what? You find another job in the city?’

He shook his head. ‘No, I thought I’d try moving.’

‘What? Out of London?’

‘No.’ He smiled. ‘Further afield. Australia. There are some great opportunities there at the moment and it would just mean properly getting away, starting again.’

Daisy’s heart skipped a beat. ‘Oh, I see.’ She was, for once, speechless. She knew he was right to want to move on but another country? Though why should it bother her? James was just a friend. Friends did that; they got on with their lives.

She stared hard at the ground, contemplative. Maybe it was because it felt like everyone else was moving on and she was stuck. Stuck in the thick quagmire of grief and memories that threatened to drown her. She couldn’t, however, stop other people from saving themselves.

‘Oh, that sounds wonderful,’ she said but she could hear the forced appreciation in her own voice.

‘You don’t sound that happy about it.’ James searched her face. ‘Sorry, it’s not that I’m abandoning ship, it’s just… you know.’

‘No, absolutely.’

Suddenly, there was the rumble of a car coming up the drive. She didn’t need to turn around to know it was Tom. The giveaway was the faulty exhaust pipe; it sounded like a Boeing 747 coming into land.

‘Hello darling Daisy,’ came a booming voice behind her and shortly the doorway was filled with the tall and athletic frame of Tom, wearing bright pink chino shorts and a Hawaiian shirt.

‘Oh my, Daisy.’ He air-kissed her cheeks then looked at James, grinning broadly. ‘If only I had known that James was here. I’d have put on my very special—’ he elongated this word ‘—cologne. This one is so understated and I hate to be understated.’

James, ever the gentleman, held out his hand. ‘Good to see you again, Tom.’

Tom clung to his hand like ivy to a wall. Daisy eventually had to tell him to let go.

‘Oh sorry, darling Daisy, it’s just this man has left me hanging since university days.’

That was the thing about Tom: not a shy, retiring bone in his body.

‘Why are you dressed up for some sort of New Orleans street party?’ she asked, eyeing his loud and proud outfit.

‘Well, darling, I’ve decided I’m not getting any…’ Once again, his eyes walked the length of James’s body who Daisy noticed flushed ever so slightly. It had taken her twenty years to not flinch at some of his statements. ‘So,’ he continued, ‘I think it’s because I’ve been wearing drab, wintry, but ever so chic, clothes. Now is the time to break free and show people my spring and summer wardrobe.’

Daisy giggled. ‘How’s it working out for you?’

‘Well, so far, some builders asked me when the parade started…’ Tom mused, grinning. ‘Anyway, more to the point, Lisa sent me.’

Daisy narrowed her eyes. ‘Oh, she did, did she?’

‘Yeah, she said you had big news and I was to find out what the big news was…’ He waited expectantly, like a puppy.

‘There is no news,’ Daisy interrupted quickly. ‘None.’

‘No, no news,’ James agreed, catching her grateful smile.

Tom put his hand on his hip. ‘OK, not being funny. You two are so up to something.’ He grabbed the piece of paper from Daisy’s hand and turned his back on Daisy who madly tried to scramble it away from him.

‘Tom, give it back to Daisy, come on,’ James said, like an ever-patient schoolmaster.

Eventually, Tom turned back to them both and beamed. ‘This is wonderful. This is so wonderful.’

Daisy wrenched the letter from his grasp and held it to her chest. ‘It’s not happening.’

Tom wasn’t listening; he was already on his phone.

‘Lisa?’ He smiled at his audience and Daisy just stared on in horror. ‘Daisy is going to set up a bed and breakfast at the house.’ Daisy could hear a muffled voice on the other end of the receiver and she went to grab the phone.

‘It’s not true,’ she managed to say quickly before Tom had it back off her.

‘Yeah, and James is going to help her which means he’s going to live at the house. How good is that?’ He indicated his outfit. ‘I knew, when I put this on, something special was going to happen today.’ He touched Daisy’s arm tenderly, phone still pressed to his ear and then with a nod of his head to James, he said, ‘Come on guys, group hug. I’ll put you on speakerphone, Lisa. We are more than happy to help out, aren’t we, Lisa? We’ll be doing it in the name of Hugh.’

Daisy quickly found herself ensconced in a mass of male limbs, quickly noting that James wasn’t refusing and putting Tom right. No, he was fully involved in the group hug.

‘Um, guys…’ She disentangled an arm and waved her hand around like a white flag. ‘Um, I actually said no, I wasn’t going to do it.’

James and Tom moved in closer and she was well and truly trapped in a sandwich of testosterone, hairy chests and Tom’s sickening cologne. God, she couldn’t imagine what the other cologne – the special one – was like; she would have needed a gas mask.

‘Um, James, didn’t we just agree that we’re not doing this crazy idea and you’re heading to Australia?’ Her voice sounded small as they still refused to let go and she remained trapped.

‘Shouldn’t we at least try, Daisy? Isn’t it what Hugh would have wanted?’ Tom said.

‘Exactly,’ Daisy heard Lisa say.

‘Um, actually if anyone’s doing it, it’s me and James.’

‘Nah, you need all hands on deck,’ Lisa said and Tom murmured his agreement. ‘I mean who’s going to change beds and cook eggs.’

‘I’m not sure I want everyone here all the time plus guests.’ Daisy was growing ever hotter. ‘Can I get out of this hug? I mean this is craziness.’

‘No,’ Tom said. ‘Darling, you are staying there until you agree. At least give it a go, then we can always stop if it turns out badly and James—’ he delivered a fake sob ‘—could then go and tan his beautiful body on an Australian beach and discover he was gay, after all, but can’t afford the return journey home so he will never have me in his life…’ He stopped, genuinely caught up in his own fairy tale. James shifted uncomfortably.

‘And Lisa and I could go back to waitressing in the bistro, talking to the tweed brigade. And you, you could continue to do it is whatever you do.’

Silence descended on the huddle, Lisa included, and Daisy realised that, unbelievably, he was right. What did she have going on? She didn’t have children, she barely spoke to her mother and she didn’t work. Maybe Hugh had been offering her a lifeline, and maybe, annoyingly, the boring old sod was right.