Page 109 of Our Secrets and Lies

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Sarah looked at the photo. It was a picture of Beyoncé.

‘That’s what I want to look like tonight,’ Janice said.

Sarah heard Lucy coughing beside her.

‘What do you think, Lucy?’

‘About what?’ Lucy feigned ignorance.

‘About Janice wanting to look like Beyoncé tonight. Any thoughts on how to achieve that look?’ Sarah’s eyes were twinkling.

Lucy chewed her lip to stop laughing out loud.Janice was a fifty-year-old woman, with shoulder-length black hair and skin as pale as a ghost.

‘It’s for me new fella’s birthday. He’s younger than me. I’m a cougar.’ Janice cackled. ‘He’s mad about Beyoncé, so I thought I’d try and do myself up like her.’

‘What’s a cougar?’ Ollie came out of the back room with his maths book.

‘It’s when an older woman goes out with a younger man,’ Janiceexplained.

‘What age is your boyfriend, then?’

‘Thirty-five.’

‘What? But you’re about eighty.’

‘Ollie!’ Sarah glared at him.

‘Feck off, you divil, I’m only forty-ish.’

‘Well, you look way older.’

‘Go and do your homework, Ollie,’ Sarah hissed.

‘I need Lucy to help with my maths.’

‘I’ll be with you in a minute. I’m just finishing the wages for your mum.’

‘So what can youse do to turnme into Beyoncé?’ Janice asked.

‘Extensions will fill your hair out and lengthen it, and we can curl it to make it look wavy,’ Sarah suggested.

‘Beyoncé!’ Ollie turned around. ‘You’re white.’

‘Well, I know that, I’m not blind. I want to look like a white woman version.’

Ollie frowned. ‘But you’re old enough to be her granny.’

‘No, she isn’t. Now go.’ Sarah pointed at the back room.

‘Well,Janice mightn’t be blind, but her fella must be,’ Ollie muttered.

‘Come on, Sarah, let’s get going. Transform me.’

‘I’ll do my best, Janice, but you do know you won’t look like Beyoncé? You’ll look like Janice with long wavy hair.’

Janice beamed. ‘Ah, yeah, but when I’m all dressed up and have me fake lashes on, I’ll be pretty close.’

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