Plum laughs. ‘I don’t think you do. It’s already decided!’
I stand up and squeeze past Shadow, who’s sitting up super-straight waiting for crumbs. ‘I’ll go and get another bottle from the fridge, to seal the deal, and I’ll bring out a dress or two to give you a taster.’
I go to the bedroom and take a couple of dresses off the pile I’ve sorted, then go for the wine. As I’m bending down getting the bottle I hear footsteps on the living room floor, so it’s not a complete surprise to find Kit resting his shoulder on the wall when I come through, with Shadow at his knee.
‘Hey you! This is a nice surprise.’ I make myself stop before I reach him.
‘Good social distancing, Florence Flapjack-face.’ He grins at me. ‘I’m sorry to interrupt your lunch, but Monica and Ellie, whom you saw earlier, would love a visit to your veranda if you can fit them in later?’
‘I’ll make sure the mermaids leave them some meringues. Anything else?’
He drops his voice. ‘Would you like to come over for supper later? Or a midnight swim? Or we could look for the Plough?’
Or we could just go to bed?I try to limit the width of my smile. ‘Supper sounds good. Text me when you’re ready for the deck visit.’
Kit’s thumbs are hooked through his belt loops. ‘Great, great and great. I’d better get back to Monica and Ellie. I could have messaged, but I wanted to see you in real life.’ He’s about to turn, but instead he steps forward and drops a kiss on my mouth. Then a second later he’s gone.
I take a moment to steady my galloping pulse rate, then fix my smile in place, call Shadow to heel and saunter back out onto the deck.
‘Today’s couple want to come over later. That was Kit checking I had enough ice cream.’
Plum laughs. ‘As if you’d ever run out.’
Sophie’s staring at me. ‘Am I seeing things? Did he just kiss you back there?’
Plum’s eyes widen but she doesn’t say anything. There’s just a gaping hole of silence.
‘Me? Kit?’ I’m opening and closing my mouth but nothing more is coming out. ‘W-whatever made you think that?’
Clemmie rubs her nose. ‘It must have been the angle. There was no contact at all from where I’m sitting.’
I laugh and hold the dresses in the air. ‘Nice try, Soph. It’s going to take more than that to distract me from your transformation.’ I toss the dresses over her chair arm. ‘Here, take these. I’ll go and get the seconds.’
37
Force10 Hair, St Aidan
Chop chop whoop!
Saturday
We’ve taken the last appointment on Saturday afternoon with Nikki at Force10 Hair, so apart from a couple of clients having their blow-dries finished we’ve got the place to ourselves. As Clemmie and I get Sophie ready in the hair-washing area, Plum is settling Milla, Tallulah and another five of their friends onto the burnt-apricot velvet sofas at the far end of the salon that overlook Nikki’s cutting chair and handing out the non-alcoholic fizz in bright pink flutes. I peep through to the neon sign on the wall above the seating and give Sophie a nudge. ‘I hope you’re ready tofind your wild side?’
Sophie looks at me through a curtain of dark hair. ‘Is Nell here yet?’
I shake my head. ‘It’s a shame she’s going to miss out on the fun.’ I’ve been waiting as long as I could to break this next bit to Sophie. ‘Mum’s not here either.’ I didn’t go into details when I invited Mum along because I didn’t want the St Aidan grapevine to get hold of it, but I said enough to expect she’d be here.
Sophie sighs. ‘No surprise there! All I can say is, she’d have come if it were you.’ And strange as it seems, I think Sophie’s right. All these years I’ve been oblivious, but now I’m looking for the signs Mum definitely does things more readily for me than for Soph.
As for my wig, Nikki could easily have styled that on a stand, but there would have been no drama in that, so Clemmie’s making last-minute adjustments as Sophie puts it on.
‘One more piece of blonde hair to tuck out of view.’ She looks down at Sophie, who’s running a long dark brown strand of hair through her fingers. ‘With those two capes on, there’s no sign of what you’re wearing underneath either, so we’re good to go out for the first reveal!’
All Milla and her friends know is that Sophie’s having a bit of a trim to go with her brand-new self. I’m hoping I’m not tempting fate, lending her the wig I wore when I lost my hair with chemo, but it makes more sense for it to be used than for it to sit at the back of my sock drawer. I covered myself by telling the gang that if I do need it again, I’ll simply wear it in whatever style Sophie has it cut into. Watching Sophie tossing those long glossy tresses over her shoulder, I acknowledge that they’re part of the past and how I was before I was ill; they bear no relation to my hair as it is now.
Sophie stops in front of a mirror opposite the row of sinks and peers at her reflection. ‘I look so different, I barely recognise myself!’ When we hurried her into my freshly laundered clothes earlier in the cloakroom she said the same thing, but we covered them over before she could back out.
Clemmie winks at me. ‘That’s what we’re aiming for!’ Then she catches Plum’s eye and gives her a thumbs-up to let her know we’re on our way.
