Together Or Apart

3. Salt

"Do you cater for vegans? Two of my guests are vegan." I ask the manager of Salt. He is a bald man with a thick moustache above his lips. It's one of those moustache's that are curled up at the end. When I glance down at his name tag, it says that his name is Dávid. Is that pronounced Dah-vid instead of the regular pronunciation of Day-vid?

Salt is one of the best places in Sydney for functions. That and Opera Bar, but that isn't very suitable for vegans seeing as they predominantly serve seafood. I went into about six different restaurants and this was my favourite. Two of my friends are strictly vegan and Hugo's - an Italian restaurant I love, did not have anything vegan so Salt is my last resort.

"Yes ma'am." He tells me. "So this was for Saturday the 22nd?" He asks.

"That's correct."

Dávid taps away on his iPad screen before looking back up to me with his hands clasped together. "Perfect. How many guests."

"Umm, let's say 40. It's a 'small' dinner with family and close friends."

Given by the questionable look on Dávid's face, I'm assuming that he is concerned as to why I classified 40 as a small dinner. For a party, I'd say that's quite small. Once you add up Harry's and my family, that's already 20. Then add close friends who will bring their partner's and children. The numbers add up before you know it.

Dávid continues typing away onto the iPad while I glance around at the Sydney harbour behind me. This is a terrific spot. The function room is on the second level. There's floor to ceiling windows where you look out directly onto the water. There's a couple of boats floating on the dock and in the far distance is the Maritime Museum with an old fishing vessel out the front of it.

I went on an excursion there in grade 5. It was one of the best excursions I ever went on. I should take London in there one day, she would enjoy it.

"Alright Hailey, I can arrange that for you. We take a three hundred dollar deposit so would you like to pay cash or card?"

I stare at him for a moment while I think back to when our conversation commenced. I never gave him my name.

"Card please."

"Wonderful. Would you like to pay in full now or just a deposit?"

I might as well pay for it now. That will get the venue organisation out of the way and I can start making calls to everyone tonight. I sent out a text a month ago, reminding everyone to keep the date free. Now that things are official I can call to confirm. I'm not expecting everyone to be able to make it, especially our international friends. But at least the the invitation is there, so nobody will be offended.

While I am tapping my card on the eftpos machine to pay for the venue hire, my phone starts ringing. I place my card inside my purse then look to see who is calling me.

Harry wants to FaceTime.

"Hey, I'm just paying for Sydney's birthday venue. I'll be one sec."

"Alright, just call me back. It's nothing important I just wanted to chat."

"Okay, I'll call you back." It is then that I notice that his hair looks different. Not drastically different, but I can tell that it's shorter. "Did you get a haircut?"

His lips curl into a smile. "I did. What do you think?"

I look up from my phone to see Dávid laughing quietly to himself.

"Sorry, did that go through?" I ask and he nods his head. "Harry, I'll call you back."

After finalising the Salt reservation, I return back to my car and call Harry back on FaceTime.