‘That sounds awful,’ said Riley. ‘I don’t think I could cope with anything that intense.’
‘She was always calling me,’ he said. ‘She’d send me emails, texts and messages on social media. She damaged my car, kept ringing me at work after I changed my mobile number. The receptionist was going mad.
‘She started leaving me written messages then. Everywhere I went they would appear, slipped under the windscreen wipers of my car. I had to have it out with her in the end, and then I stopped all contact. I haven’t seen her for a few months now.’
‘Ouch.’ Riley reached for his hand when she saw how upset he was. ‘That must have been terrible to go through.’
He nodded. ‘But now I have you to think about instead. I like that – how about you?’
Even though Riley didn’t want to tell him about Nicholas yet, it did seem tame in comparison to what he’d gone through. ‘I think my story can wait for another night.’ She leaned over, pulled him towards her and kissed him lightly on his lips.
Although it was a small town, there were lots of places to eat in Hedworth. Dan had seen the inside of most of them during the past couple of months. Date after date, meal after meal, he’d eaten and drank whilst each time trying to watch his weight. He could never resist a sticky toffee pudding, though, try as he might.
He sat in a booth at the Red Lion pub, nursing a glass of orange juice. Tonight he was meeting Ronnie – short for Veronica, so her profile said – thirty-one years old, divorced, no children, thank goodness (her words, not his), and looking for a man with a good sense of humour who liked going on walks, eating out and having fun. Well, he supposed if you counted all the times he covered the shop floor each day, that must surely be equivalent to a walk.
Ronnie was already ten minutes late and he wondered if she was going to show up at all. Please let her arrive soon, he thought, not wanting to be stood up.
Although, to be fair, she might already be here and watching him, and he might not recognise her, if his last two dates were anything to go by. Lorraine, especially, hadn’t looked anything like her profile picture, so much so that he was actually thinking of complaining to the dating site for false advertising. At his reckoning seventy per cent of the profile pictures were probably a few years out of date.
His mind flipped back to the night before, when he had been chatting to a woman named Anna. He hadn’t mentioned anything to Riley or Sadie, but he’d been talking to her on the website for a few nights now. Last night, they’d sent some private messages – nothing corny, just getting to know each other. She seemed a laugh, although he was disappointed that he couldn’t see her face as she hadn’t added a photo to her message.
Dan had decided to be honest and had taken a selfie to upload. He couldn’t see the point in meeting with someone if you weren’t being your true self. It just made the night uncomfortable and a waste of time and effort. Before the Lorraine fiasco, there had been Alice the month before. She had moaned from the minute she opened her mouth – about her life, her job, her family, her car, her flat, her pet rabbits. Dan had nearly lost the will to live when she began to go into great detail about how long it took her to clean out Jekyll and Hyde’s cage every day. Why have pets if you didn’t want to look after them? And didn’t she realise how lucky she was to have her own place?
‘Dan?’
He looked up to see a woman standing in front of him. Ronnie wasn’t much like her profile photo either, he sighed inwardly. Dressed all in black, with hair the same colour and a pierced lip that he couldn’t recall seeing in her photo, she reminded him of someone from The Walking Dead. Pale skin and dark make-up finished the look.
He took a deep breath and smiled.
‘Yes.’ He stood up and held out his hand, long ago giving up the notion that a peck on the cheek was more welcoming. ‘Hi, Ronnie.’
Ronnie shook his hand, shirked off her coat and sat down with a thump. ‘That’s enough of the introductions. What shall we eat? I’m starving.’
Put off a little by her abrupt manner, Dan smiled nonetheless as Ronnie studied the menu. She seemed to light up as she ran her finger over the choices.
‘Ooh, they do so much here, don’t they?’ She looked up, eyes wide with exhilaration.
Dan wondered if there was human blood on the menu. He snorted, then changed it into a cough as she stared at him. ‘They do,’ he said, after clearing his throat.
Ronnie’s head went down again, a finger lovingly stroking down the list of main courses. ‘What are you having?’ she asked as she snapped it shut a few seconds later, making him visibly jump.
‘I think I’ll go for chicken and pasta,’ he said. ‘You?’
‘It has to be steak for me, with all the trimmings. Don’t skimp on anything, especially onion rings. I’ll have an extra portion of those.’
Dan gasped. This dating lark was becoming very expensive. Even though he would never let her, he was annoyed that she hadn’t even offered to contribute.
The waiter came across and took their order. ‘Could I add an extra portion of chips to it?’ Ronnie asked just as he was about to walk away. ‘And heavy on the mayo, too. Ta.’
‘Have you been here before?’ Dan asked when they were alone again, for want of something to say.
‘Yes, lots of times,’ Ronnie nodded. ‘I prefer mid-week, don’t you? More choice on the menu and cheaper, too. We can have two for a tenner. Actually, I usually have two for myself for a tenner.’ She laughed loudly at her own joke. ‘I do love a bargain when I’m eating. You should have ordered some chips with your chicken and pasta.’
‘Oh, I couldn’t manage both.’ Dan tried to keep his annoyance at bay, outraged by the fact that she thought he could eat all of that.
‘No, for me.’ She laughed again.
They had to wait an excruciating thirty minutes, making small talk, before the food arrived. Dan tried not to scowl as he realised he was going to have to watch her eat all of it, too. By the way she was eyeing the plate on the next table, practically drooling as she watched a woman spooning food into her mouth, he knew she’d be a messy eater.
As soon as the plate was put down in front of her, Ronnie began to devour the food, sawing into her steak and shovelling it in as if she hadn’t eaten in months. She chewed the meat like a cow chewing grass, speaking between mouthfuls and washing it all down with lager.
When she saw he wasn’t eating, Ronnie stared at Dan’s food longingly.
‘Don’t you want that?’ she asked.
‘I’m not very hungry.’ Dan put down his fork.
Without being asked, Ronnie leaned over, grabbed the dish and tipped the remainder of his meal onto her plate. ‘Waste not, want not,’ she grinned, before popping some of it into her mouth. ‘Have you decided what you’re having for pudding?’
Just the thought was enough to make Dan want to throw up on the spot. Again, he found himself glancing at his watch, figuring out how long he’d have to stay before it was acceptable to make a move. It was too early to leave politely. This called for emergency measures.
He put his hand out, purposely clipping his pint glass. It flipped over, the liquid dropped over Ronnie’s meal.
She pushed back her chair, her face a mask of horror as she surveyed the ruined food.
‘Look what you did!’
Dan felt like a young Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone, when he tipped coke all over the pizza. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d called him a little jerk.
Everyone in the restaurant turned to look his way. Mortified, he stood up quickly. ‘Let me grab a cloth.’
He rushed across to the bar and asked for something to wipe down the table. While he waited, he saw a couple come in. They were laughing as they chatted, hands reaching out to find each other’s as they waited to be shown to a table. He sighed: that’s how a date should be.
Suddenly, he made a dash for the door. Stuff it, he wasn’t waiting around to be insulted. Ronnie could pay for her own food, too.
The greedy cow.
Out in the fresh air, he felt elated as he giggled at his courage in walking away. Another dating disaster. Another woman to cross off his list, but at least it hadn’t cost him a penny.
Chapter Fifteen
On Friday evening, Sadie had invited everyone over to her house for a final rehearsal of the dance routine. Until now, Riley had felt confident that they might just be able to do it, but doubt was beginning to creep in and they couldn’t seem to get anything right.
‘Be careful!’ she cried as she practised with Dan, who was flinging her around a little too energetically. ‘I want to stay in my heels tomorrow.’
‘Sorry,’ he replied, ‘but I want to make sure it’s perfect. I don’t want to let Chloe down. She’s such a good dancing partner and I’m such a bad one. I’m expecting someone from the crowd – if there is a crowd – to hold up a score card and it definitely won’t be a se–ven!’
‘I’m not sure I can even wear my heels tomorrow.’ Ash bent down and slipped her shoes off. ‘My feet are red raw from all the dancing this week. Whatever gave me the impression it would be good to join in with you lot?’
‘We’ll all be sensational,’ Dan retorted, ever the optimist. ‘It will be a huge success and everyone will join in with the competition and save our skins.’
‘If only it were that easy,’ said Riley, flopping onto the settee. ‘I feel like Baby in Dirty Dancing. I don’t know the lifts, we haven’t rehearsed the pliés. I would rather someone put me in a corner!’
‘At least you don’t have to lift me up above your head,’ Sadie laughed. ‘I don’t think anyone would be capable of that.’
‘Seriously, Riles,’ said Ash. ‘It’ll be fine. And if it isn’t, then let’s hope no one makes too much fuss about it. We don’t have to promote it on social media if it goes wrong. Ethan said he needed time to make the video look good afterwards, so as long as no one uploads anything from their own phones, we’ll be laughing.’
‘We’ll be laughed at, more like,’ muttered Riley. ‘If something does go wrong, you can guarantee that lots of people will be filming us and uploading it and then that will go viral.’
‘You sound more pessimistic than me.’ Ash got to her feet again and held out a hand to Dan. ‘Come on, let me practise with you.’
Dan pressed play on his iPad, whizzing the song forward to the place they needed to begin. ‘Right, here we go again.’
Riley glided around with him afterwards too, as best she could in the space they had. After three attempts, they succeeded in doing it faultlessly. Twice more they repeated it and by the end she felt a little more confident.
Yet when she got home to her flat that evening, the nerves were back. She was praying that Suzanne wouldn’t show up unannounced. Although it was unlikely, knowing their luck she would turn up just as they were about to join in the dance – at the exact moment they were shutting the shop for ten minutes to do the flash mob.
It seemed strange to come home to her flat after staying with Ethan for a couple of nights. He’d dropped her back at home each morning and she had gone to work with Ash as usual, but just being part of a couple again had felt good. Ethan had told her he was an exceptional cook, and when they had more time, after the flash mob, he was going to cook her a meal. He’d said she would be dessert – now that, she couldn’t wait for.
Now that she was home, all she wanted to do was share the day’s events with him in person, rather than chat to him over the phone. Not that he would be remotely interested in an order of sandals, but she couldn’t contain her excitement.
It had been touch and go, but her order had finally arrived that afternoon and they had spent time displaying them in between serving existing customers and drumming up followers online. Riley had moved everything around several times before she had been satisfied.
The sandals were sure to be a winner – she’d even put pairs aside for herself and Ash. They had a thick-ribbed sole and one large strip of leather to push feet into, which enabled the toes to peep out. A delicate thin strap held the shoe in place around the ankle but it was the marbled heel that made them stand out. She’d ordered them in three colours so far: white, orange and the blue that Marsha and Ruby had favoured. She couldn’t wait to see what people thought of them.
Frank’s bags were looking sensational, too. He’d even designed one with a pair of black heels and the hashtag, which was perfect for their competition. Remembering how great the chair in the window had looked in the photo that had appeared in the Hedworth News, when she had sat in it, Riley had popped the chair back on display and draped the bags over the arms, with the sandals on the seat and underneath, both in and out of their boxes. Sadie had suggested putting a pair of sandals into a bag, too. It had the added effect of creating the colour, and the element of fun, that she had imagined. She hoped Frank would be pleased when he saw them.
Riley sank down on the settee with a glass of wine and a huge grin, tired but elated. Her sense of adventure over the past couple of weeks had completely surprised her, taking on a life of its own. She was about to do something crazy, something that could potentially be amazing. Something that might save her job, perhaps even the shop, if they got a big enough crowd on the High Street. It could keep her friends together and the business she loved open.
And the competition seemed like it could be a lot of fun, too. Deciding not to ask Suzanne, they’d each put £50 into the fund. The prize money stood at £100, and the leaflets they’d had printed to promote the competition had cost another £50. The winner would also have a bag exclusively designed for them. What could be more personal than that?
She took a sip of wine and relaxed her neck, letting her head sink back into the cushions. It seemed things were starting to look up, at last. Organising the flash mob had filled her with new confidence. It had given her the get-up-and-go that she had been missing for a while. This campaign, and the flash mob, had given her the opportunity to make a name for herself. She was thinking less and less about Nicholas and more about Ethan. She was moving on, and she liked it. Who knows what other opportunities would come from all this? She couldn’t wait to find out.
Riley felt apprehensive as she caught the bus to work the next morning. It was the morning. Although not too warm, the sun shone brightly in an only partially cloudy sky. She’d checked the forecast earlier and seen that there was a dry afternoon on the horizon, with no rain anticipated, and hoped that it would be right. If it rained, everyone would probably disappear into the shopping centre and they’d either have to postpone the flash mob or perform for a few daredevils who didn’t mind getting wet. And that wouldn’t look good on a video, if no one was watching the dancing.
‘Are you nervous?’ asked Ash, sitting beside her. For once, she didn’t have her earphones in. ‘I’m more excited, really. It’s going to be so much fun.’
‘I hope so,’ Riley replied. ‘I really am scared of falling over in front of people we know, never mind the people we don’t!’
Over the past week, they’d each been dropping hints about the flash mob all over town. When she had called in at the chemist’s, and some of the other smaller shops on the High Street, Sadie had mentioned that something exciting might be happening on Saturday. Riley had confided in Ray, as she needed a place for the dancers to meet up beforehand. Ray’s Café was on high alert, and they were also going to be responsible for playing the music out into the street. Dan had gone further into Hedworth, to the barber’s in the town square, to Blundred’s Bakery, and to some of the shops in the shopping centre.
Riley had been to the indoor market to visit the girls on the fruit stall. As well as Nicci, there was her sister, Louise, and Sam, the owner. Riley had gone to school with Louise and Sam, so knew them well. She’d dropped into conversation that something would be happening on Saturday afternoon, and asked them to spread the word to build up a buzz. Sure enough, it had worked a treat and several people had come into Chandler’s to ask them what was going on.
‘Do you have any big followers on your Twitter feed who would retweet and maybe get some interest?’ said Ash, as the bus pulled into the station. ‘Any names from Hedworth?’
‘Yes, I made a list. Of local people too. I’ll have another scan through when I get to work.’
They split up at the top of the steps on the High Street. It was strange to see it deserted as Riley walked along, and to think that by that afternoon they might hopefully have brought a little fun to the place.
‘How are you feeling?’ Sadie asked when she arrived at the shop.
‘I feel like I’m going to throw up,’ Riley admitted. ‘I’m excited, but scared too. You?’
Sadie held out a shaky hand. ‘Nervous,’ she admitted. ‘Christine is bringing Esther here half an hour before, so that she can’t spill the beans. She’s so excited.’
‘What happens if there aren’t enough people around? We have a four-minute window. If people hear about it after the dance has started they won’t get to us before it’s finished.’
‘There will be.’ Sadie gasped. ‘My stomach has just lurched again. This will either be great fun or a total disaster.’
‘I can’t wait to see which one.’ Riley smiled as a text message arrived from Ethan: How are you feeling about your big dance debut?
She wrote back: Terrified, if you must know. Do you have a minute to talk?
‘I’m just going to speak to Ethan.’ As her phone rang, Riley went outside for a moment. Maybe Ethan had some ideas for how to get the word out about the flash mob without mentioning what exactly was going on.
‘Well, there’s Danny Warrington, the football player. And what about Urban Angels . . . surely they’d be interested in shoes?’
‘They won’t bother with the likes of a small shop, surely?’ Riley wasn’t convinced.
The Second Chance Shoe Shop Page 12
