But… maybe, if she timed it right, she could go speak to Lila in the toilets, casually, and somehow engage her in a conversation that would absolutely prove that wasn’t her dad in the pic. Maybe that guy was English. Or French. Maybe he had lived with her and her mum every day of their lives. Maybe he was a distant cousin who just happened to look like her dad. Maybe it was her dad’s twin, separated at birth and kept secret all this time. Maybe she’d had way too much gin.
Picking up her phone again, she dialled the number at the top of the screen.
There was only one way to get answers to her questions.
‘Hi, can I make a reservation for tonight please?’
18
Cammy
The ping of the doorbell at CAMDEN set off yet another twang of nostalgia. It was the same bell that had been there when the shop was La Femme, L’Homme and he, Josie and Mel had worked there. Every morning, it would start his day, and every evening, it would mark the end of another shift in the company of the woman he’d loved… and lost.
He shook the thought off. What the hell was going on today? He’d realised long ago that he couldn’t change what happened with Mel, couldn’t do anything about the fact she didn’t love him, couldn’t alter the reality that she was now happily married to someone else, so he’d put her out of his mind. Closed chapter. Done deal. Yet today she was round every corner and in the ping of every bloody door. Enough.
‘Hey man, how’s it going?’ Digby’s laid-back drawl greeted him.
‘So the place didn’t collapse without me then?’ Cammy asked, feigning disbelief.
Digby did a theatrical scan of the room. ‘Nope, still standing. Guess you’re dispensable after all.’
Cammy laughed. ‘I never doubted it for a moment.’
Digby nodded to Josie and Val as they spoke. ‘Have these two beat your romantic intentions out of you yet?’
‘Nope, but I’m a shell of the man that I was when I woke up this morning.’ It was meant to be a joke but there was definitely an element of truth in there.
Digby nodded conspiratorially to the two women. ‘Disappointed in you two. Thought for sure you’d have persuaded him against all that oppressive marriage stuff. You’ve let me down.’
‘Day isn’t over yet, son,’ Josie said, defiantly. ‘I’ve still to deploy firm persuasion, and if that fails I’m just going to take him hostage and keep him in my hut.’
Cammy had stopped listening. While Josie and Val parked themselves on the two leather chairs outside the changing rooms, he headed into the back office, reappearing a few moments later. ‘Digby, did my suit arrive from the tailor?’
Digby stopped polishing the counter top and thought for a moment. ‘It did not. He called. Said there had been some issue and it wouldn’t be back until Monday.’
He started polishing again, then froze, as he realised that three astonished faces were looking back at him.
‘What? What did I say?’
Josie and Val now swivelled their heads, in perfect synchronisation, to face Cammy, their expressions incredulous.
Josie was the first to speak. ‘Val, did you or did you not say this morning, and again this afternoon, that you could feel it in your water that everything was going to come good today?’
‘I did,’ she admitted solemnly. ‘But I was lying through my teeth to make Romeo feel better.’ Josie switched her gaze to Cammy. ‘Starting to feel like someone’s trying to tell you something yet?’
Cammy began to resist the notion, then just slumped against the door frame.
‘What’s up?’ Digby asked. ‘It’s only a suit. And I hate to point out the obvious,’ he said, his hand sweeping the room, ‘but you own a clothes store. You have options.’
Cammy knew he was right but still… He’d picked that suit especially, had it tailored, and yes, he could wear something else but that wasn’t the point. He wanted everything about the night to be special. And – for fuck’s sake – so far he had a substitute ring, an audience of French football players, nothing lined up to wear and Josie and Val were looking more self-righteous by the minute.
Nothing was going right.
The door dinged again and Lila walked in. What the hell…?
Actually, maybe something was going right after all. He had no idea why she was here, but whatever it was, it was lucky timing. He’d told her he’d be at the shop all day, so if he hadn’t popped in to pick up the invisible suit, he’d have been rumbled.
He did his best to act natural. Nothing to see here. Just an ordinary day. Nothing special at all.
