‘You decide, David, darling,’ she says, leaning across the counter at an angle that leaves little to the imagination inher summer dress. ‘I think you’re good at making decisions, aren’t you?’
I gulp and feel my cheeks burn as she looks me up and down seductively. The lady is almost old enough to be mother, or at least my younger aunt, but that doesn’t make her ever want to change her behaviour. It’s the same thing every time I see her, even at church, and it makes me very uncomfortable to know her husband is waiting in the car with their two very spoilt kids waiting on ice cream.
‘Er, strawberry is good, I think?’ I say rubbing my chin, eager to get her out of my way. The heat from the street outside steams off the skin of every customer, sweaty and damp from the humid August day, and my excitement from this morning returns, reminding me of a whole new world of freedom that now sits at my fingertips.
‘Strawberry it is. Oh, and congratulations, by the way,’ says Mrs Sampson, allowing her fingers to rest on my palm as she lays a ten-pound note in my hand. ‘Your father told me your good news earlier. I just had to come in to congratulate you in person.’
I feel the roof of my mouth go dry and the shop floor threatens to come up to meet me. It’s really heating up and I’m sure I’ve a river of damp sweat running down my spine, a grey line of patches on my white T-shirt.
‘Thank you,’ I whisper before fetching her ice cream, and she tiptoes away in her high wedges and flowing white dress,leaving me to breathe in her sickeningly sweet perfume for a second before I deal with the next person in line.
‘News of what exactly?’ asks Aaron, who has now taken up position at the adjacent till at the same counter. ‘What’s she congratulating you about?’
‘Who?’
‘Your fancy woman, Mrs Robinson the ice-cream vamp?’ he says, laughing as he deals with a customer return, something he could do with his eyes closed. I laugh in return at his reference to the famous character fromThe Graduate, the sultry Mrs Robinson who woos her young student, and feel my cheeks burn again. ‘You’re like a magnet, man. I swear, I only wish I had half your charm. Is it the vicar’s son thing or is it the rugby-boy physique that gets you all the attention?’
‘It’s my puppy-dog eyes,’ I joke in return. ‘I passed my driving test this morning if you must know – not that my father will ever in his life let me drive his precious car – so that’s my big news. Better late than never, yes, before you say it yourself.’
‘Way to go! You dark horse!’ says Aaron, stepping across to give me a high-five. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, our shop’s very own poster boy David Campbell has passed his driving test at the grand age of twenty-one, just three years after his first attempt! Now, how about giving him a round of applause?’
I shake my head and look at the floor, then close my eyesas the small audience of customers, about five or six people in front of us, burst into a very enthusiastic cheer led by Aaron, who I swear will make it one day in theatre, just as he aims to do when he finishes his last year at university. He’s annoyingly observant, highly articulate and never misses a moment to take centre of attention, even when pretending to give adulation to others. I may be the eye-candy, or so they say, of this little town-centre corner shop, but Aaron has the charm and the comedic nature to make little old ladies swoon and young children want to be entertained from behind the counter, so it’s no surprise when the next little one who comes in goes straight to his side of things to be served.
‘Have whatever you want, Shannon. It’s not every day it’s your birthday, so choose an ice cream and whatever else you would like.’
Aaron goes into full performance mode when he hears it’s the child’s birthday, but it’s the person accompanying her who has my full attention. I’ve never seen her in here before, but there’s something vaguely familiar about her that I can’t place. She has highlighted brown hair that falls around her fine face, she’s delicate and pretty with a multicoloured neck scarf that brings out the turquoise shade of her striking cat’s eyes. Her flat biblical sandals, turned-up dark blue baggy jeans and white shirt tucked in is casual and cool, if rather too warm for this weather, but she looks unflustered and calm, unlike so many who have come in here today.
‘A balloon!’ says the little girl. ‘Can I have one? Please? The Minnie Mouse one!’
She glances my way briefly. Our eyes meet and she smiles.
‘Go on then. We’ll have a bubble-gum ice cream and a balloon as well, please.’
I swallow hard. I realize I’m staring but I can’t help it. She sounds local, as in she must be from the town itself and not from the countryside like me, where our accents are rounder and broader, and I wonder how I’ve never seen her before even though she looks so—
‘Everything OK?’ she asks me, catching me looking her way.
‘What? Sorry!’ I say, snapping out of my daydream, feeling my face go pink, which adds to my embarrassment at being caught. ‘Yes, yes, fine. How old is the birthday girl today?’
‘Six!’ says the little girl, her freckled nose crunching up as Aaron hands her a circle-shaped helium-filled Minnie Mouse balloon in one hand and a sticky blue ice cream in the other. ‘I’m having a party at my house, but no boys are allowed, except my daddy of course.’
The older girl tucks her hair behind her ear as she watches me, then puts a protective hand on the wee one’s shoulder.
‘Ah, that’s a pity,’ I reply, pretending to be terribly disappointed. ‘Well, you have a lovely day and I hope you get lots of presents.’
‘She will,’ says her minder with a smile and off they go,her eye catching mine one last time on the way past. ‘Nice T-shirt, by the way.’
Her compliment takes me by surprise, and my gaze follows them towards the door, not in the jaw-dropping, lustful way I looked at Sarah Edwards earlier, but still in a way that makes Aaron raise an eyebrow when I turn to face him again.
‘What?’ I ask him, thankful my blushing has subsided.
‘Nice T-shirt? Don’t tell me you knowhertoo?’ he asks me, his usually slanted eyes turning wide in wonder. ‘Is there anyone in this town who doesn’t come in here just to see you in the flesh, David Campbell? Is there any woman on the planet who doesn’t want to fall at your feet?’
‘No, I don’t know her at all actually,’ I tell him. ‘And she certainly wasn’t falling at my feet just because she liked my T-shirt. I just feel like I’ve seen her before, but I can’t think where. I don’t know her.’
‘She’s out of your league anyhow, sunshine, if you don’t mind me saying so,’ Aaron says, watching her disappear through the automated doors and out onto the street where she crosses the road at the traffic lights. ‘She looks way too intelligent and I think she fancied me, actually, which is a welcome first. Chicks do dig gingers sometimes, believe it or not. They aren’t all into smouldering, brooding types, you know.’
It’s nearly three, which means Aaron’s shift is unfortunately nearly over, but the good news is that it’s almost timefor my break at last. I burst out laughing at Aaron’s brooding remark and start totting up my till with the girl’s smiling face still on my mind. For some reason I know it’s going to stay there for a while, as if the clocks have stopped in my mind with her face on repeat. Maybe she’ll come back in soon.
