Carrie attempted to put her good mood for the rest of the work day down to the fact that she was feeling more confident in the bookshop and was enjoying being in this sweet little seaside town and seeing how well Poppy, now at holiday club, was settling in. But when she closed the shop and quickly raced upstairs to the flat before leaving to pick up her daughter, she found herself checking her reflection in the bathroom mirror, changing her top and putting on extra mascara.
It wasn’t really warm enough to go in the water again like Poppy had hoped, but they could at least go for a walk down to the beach with a bucket and spade...And they might even see Michael and Monty.
Carrie shook her head at her behaviour and stopped preening. She was acting like a teenager with a crush, and it wasn’t something she was used to. She’d fallen in love with Tony and then, when he’d left, she’d been far too busy dealing with life as a single parent to think about romance. She hadn’t actually been attracted to anyone since Tony. It was a strange feeling. But she couldn’t deny there was something about Michael that she really liked. It wasn’t just that he was good-looking, he seemed... like she could trust him. Maybe because she’d known him as an awkward teenager, even though they’d never got further than saying the occasional “hi” to each other back then.
Carrie had to rush to the community hall to be on time for Poppy and arrived hot and sweaty; the opposite of what she’d intended when spending extra time on her appearance before coming out. They walked slowly down to the beach, with Carrie trying to make herself look less dishevelled.
They sat down on the sand near the top of the main beach because Poppy couldn’t wait to start building a sandcastle. Carrie sipped on the water she’d brought down for them both.She focused on chatting with Poppy and not thinking about Michael or spending the whole time scanning the beach for him.
They stayed for an hour, by which point Poppy’s fabulous castle was complete and she was more than ready to head home for the spaghetti Bolognese she’d been promised for dinner.
Carrie found she was taking her time packing up their stuff and wiping the sand off her feet, putting off leaving the beach for as long as possible. She knew it was silly for her to be disappointed that Michael hadn’t shown up, but she couldn’t help it.
* * *
Carrie dropped Poppy off at holiday club again the next day and popped into Boots on the way back to the bookshop to pick up some sun cream for them both. The weather had turned sunny again and she’d only brought a tiny travel-sized bottle with them.
She quickly found what she needed and was wandering the aisles with a few minutes to spare, considering whether there was a single town in the UK that didn’t have a Boots chemist in it, when she spotted a teenage girl walking around. There was something about her which caught Carrie’s eye.
She was taller than Carrie, probably about five eight or nine with dark hair and pale skin. She wore glasses and was dressed in typical teen jeans and a hoodie despite how warm the day was. There was something strange about the way she was moving. Shiftily. Continually checking over her shoulder.
Carrie watched as the girl moved over to the hair accessories. She looked through them in a bored fashion, lifting them off the metal hooks and putting them back again. She glanced over her shoulder once more and, taking a small packet of pink hair slides off the stand, she pushed them up the sleeve of her jumper. With her head down she began to move towards the exit.
Carrie spotted a security guard eyeing the girl and beginning to walk towards her. Without thinking, she called out, “Sweetheart!” Her cheeks reddened as everyone in the store turned to look, but she ignored them and hurried to join the teenager, who’d stopped momentarily.
She reached her. “I’m so sorry,” she said to the confused-looking girl. “I forgot to get those hair things that you wanted from you. I was just going to pay. Let me have them and I’ll do it now.”
The girl slowly took the clips out from the sleeve of her jumper and handed them to Carrie, realisation hitting her as she spotted the security guard watching their exchange closely.
“Actually, I’ve decided I don’t want them after all,” said the girl, quietly.
“Are you sure? I don’t mind buying them for you,” said Carrie.
The teen shook her head.
“OK, let’s put them back then,” Carrie said.
The girl followed her back to the stand and Carrie placed the hair slides back on there. Carrie wasn’t sure whether the girl was still putting on a show for the security guard or actually wanted to stay with her.
Carrie paid for her sun cream and they walked out of the shop together.
“I’m Carrie,” Carrie said once they were outside.
“Layla,” replied the girl.
“I think you were right to decide against those slides. They didn’t look like the kind of thing you’d wear.”
The teenager shrugged.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Before Layla could answer, her name was called. Carrie turned and saw Michael coming up the road towards them.
“Hi,” he said when he reached them. “I see you’ve met each other then.”
Seeing the confusion on Carrie’s face, he said, “Layla’s my daughter. She was going to be spending the summer holidays with her mum, but there’s been a change of plan.” He put his arm around the girl.
“I can see the family resemblance,” Carrie said.
