Her Silence

Chapter Eighteen

"Friends are relatives you make yourself." Eustache Deschamps

"Rosie, are you nearly ready?" James calls up the stairs. I grab my bag and shrug on my coat and then make my way down the stairs. Since the phone call that James had taken the other day I'd been keeping myself to myself. He didn't seem to notice this, which only made my stomach sink and my heart ache. We are meeting Joan and Harry in half an hour, and I'm admittedly nervous: I was visiting Tidy and Jacob as well as spending the day with James. For me, it's overwhelming.

"Excited?" James asks as he pulls away from the driveway. I simply nod, watching the world pass by in the passenger seat of his car. We stay silent for the rest of the journey, and as soon as he parks round the back of Tidy I get out of the car. I can hear James walking, hot on my heels, but shut him out when I see my dear friends sat at one of the tables, as well as those who were on shift today. I pull Joan in for a hug and crouch down to hug Harry.

            "Rosie guess what?" I shrug my shoulders, so he carries on. "Nana is going to ask you to look after me!" I nearly fall back, my face hiding nothing as Joan looks alarmed and has presumably guessed what Harry has just said. She swats him on the back of his head, and his face is a mixture of innocent excitement, and confusion. I stand up frowning at Joan, also in confusion, and she gestures for me to sit down but before I can I feel someone grab my arm.

"Rosie?" I turn to James and smile weakly.

            "James, this is Joan and Harry. Joan and Harry: James." I tell them, glancing between the three. James crouches down to Harry's level.

            "Hey buddy. So, you're the guy that's been keeping my girl preoccupied?" I swallow hard, blushing tremendously at James's statement that I'm 'his girl'. He looks up at me and then back to Harry. "She is pretty, isn't she?" Harry is smiling giddily, and Joan is looking so clueless that I nearly laugh. Harry catches onto this and turns to her.

            "He says that Rosie is pretty. She is, isn't she Nana?" Joan's eyes widen, and she chuckles.

            "Pretty? I dare say she is the most gorgeous girl her age I've ever seen." James nods earnestly in agreement, but I'm getting so hot out of embarrassment that I have to intervene before these compliments get out of hand.

            "Stop! Stop it, please." The three of them laugh at me, and James and I make a move to sit down. I sit next to Harry, and James takes the chair next to Joan. Whilst James and Joan greet each other, Harry pokes me.

            "Do I say bad things?" I frown. "I always seem to get odd responses or into trouble with whatever I say." He looks beside himself.

            "Don't be so silly Harry. You never say any malicious, you simply say the truth. It's just that sometimes people don't want to hear the truth, or it catches them off guard."

            "Malicious?"

            "You're not cruel." He smiles when he understands what I meant. I then hear footsteps, and I am pleasantly surprised to see Jacob striding towards our table. I immediately stand up to give him a hug, and James stands up to shake his hand.

            "Hello strangers! And hello to you two, too." He says, gesturing towards Harry and Joan. "I'll take your orders if you're ready. Rosie and James, the usual?" I nod and look at James, not realising he was that much of a regular here that his order is now familiar with the staff. Joan and Harry tell Jacob what they would like, Harry meticulously telling him, whilst signing for his Nana, that he would like his fish finger sandwiches cut into triangles, not squares, and that if there is cucumber is the salad he would prefer it to be cut length ways rather than in circles, to which Joan tuts. We all smile at him in adoration, Jacob not having a problem at all with his requests. Before he leaves, James catches him by the arm.