She whirls around to me.
‘A woman brought in your balloon, and she wants to meet your dad.’
Amber’s face falls, which is not what I was expecting to see. ‘Oh no.’
My heart grinds to halt. ‘What’s happened?’
She shakes her head. ‘Dad met someone a few days ago, and he’s been talking non-stop about her ever since. I don’t think he’ll go out with anyone unless it’s this mystery woman. He even turned down Sue, the neighbour.’
‘Sue – the neighbour? The one he was confiding in about his loneliness?’
Amber nods. ‘It was a ploy on Sue’s part. She wanted a date with him. Anyway, he turned her down and told her he only had eyes for someone else. Sue was gutted. We won’t be getting an invite to her dreadful summer barbeques, though, which is a bonus.’
‘Who is this mystery woman?’
She shrugs. ‘I don’t know her.’
I think back to when Ben was in here a few days ago and how he couldn’t keep his eyes off Alice. Is there a chance he could be referring to Alice?
Amber sighs. ‘I spoke to him last night. He said he would only consider dating someone else if it was this stranger.’
‘Did you get any details?’
‘Brown hair.’ Amber rolls her eyes. ‘He’s useless at noticing things. Oh… I think he said her name was… Alice.’
I gasp and clap my hands. This is perfect. Ben and Alice are in for quite a shock. ‘Oh, wow, Amber.’
She looks at me with teenage suspicion. ‘Are you okay, Nelly?’
‘I know who Alice is,’ I say, feeling giddy with excitement. ‘She’s the one who wants to meet your dad. They met in here the other day.’
Amber’s eyes grow wide and she starts to dance on the spot. ‘OMG, Nelly. Was she the one who found the balloon and read my message?’
‘Yes,’ I gush, as my body is engulfed with excitement. In a moment of madness, I mirror her dance moves. She raises her eyebrows. ‘Nelly, you need to stick to selling books. Your dancing is cringe.’
I ignore her comment. ‘We need to get them to meet.’ I can’t believe how excited I feel at the prospect of bringing two people together. What has happened to me? ‘Amber, Alice lives next door,’ I squeal.
Amber starts to dance again but this time I remain still. ‘Is she nice? Does she give you evil stepmother vibes?’
‘What?’
Amber ignores me and taps her long nails on the spine of the book. ‘There’s only one way to find out. Dad is up a big tree today. I’ll have to persuade him to come down from it.’
‘Can you do that?’
‘He doesn’t like to be disturbed.’
‘Amber, I will leave that with you. Let me know when he can pop in, and I’ll tell Alice to turn up at the same time.’
Amber is looking troubled. ‘I don’t know how to get him to get down from that tree and come here.’
‘Use your imagination.’
I restack a few shelves, tidy up the children’s section, answer several queries on books about insects and rearrange some of the history books when I hear Miranda gasp.
‘Nelly,’ she shouts, ‘Ben’s here, saying Amber has called him to say she’s been taken hostage in this book shop.’
I let out a groan. Why the hell did I tell a fifteen-year-old to use her imagination?
