“I still can’t believe the prices women pay for a wedding dress.”

“It is crazy, but then there is a lot of work involved and the prices of fabrics are astronomical.”

I told him about my deal with the importer.

“You mean some lace is thousands just for a meter?”

“Yep, and when you think that some dresses have dozens of meters, you can understand why they are that expensive.”

“Heck, I never thought of it that way. Yes, I can completely see it now.”

“Of course, now I have made my ‘name’, so to speak, brides with money like to say they have a one-off designer gown. They don’t care how much they pay, they want the prestige.”

“Crazy.”

“That dress that was ruined, the one I lost track of you for. Well, that was seventy thousand and then we had to almost remake the whole thing in a day. Charlie gave the father a bill for another twenty grand when he picked the dress up, but he was overjoyed that his ‘little girl’ wouldn’t have a wrecked gown that he added a five grand tip.”

“Oh hell. That’s … shit.” He shook his head as I laughed.

“I split the tip between Carrie, Carina, that’s my head seamstress, and Charlie.”

“Gee, that’s a nice thing to do.”

“Well, I have good staff and I think they should be rewarded for the work they do. Anyway, I made an extra seven grand by the time I took off the cost of the fabrics we used, which means everyone is happy.”

“Ana, you said you have eight staff. I’ve met the doorkeeper. What do the others do?”

“I have a receptionist, Miriam. She does all the bookings, arranges things,takesthe money. Then Charlie is the manager. He runs the place like clockwork. I have two girls who do appointments, fittings that I don’t. Then there’s Carrie, she’s my head seamstress, I have two other seamstresses. Let me think. I have an off-site bookkeeper who works with my accountant, but I don’t count her as my staff as she merely does the books once a week.

“Then I have a young woman, Stacy, who’s recently finished college. She’s been working for me for the past five years while she studied. She’s twenty-nine and working out extremely well, and I’m actually getting her to design some bridesmaid gowns. I want to find someone who I can safely trust to work the business when I eventually retire. She’s looking very good actually.”

“I guess that makes sense to have someone run it later.”

“Oh yes. I don’t want to close it down just because I’m retired. If things work how I want, I’ll run it from afar, maybe I’ll eventually sell the name. Not sure yet.”

Somehow, we’d finished eating, I knew I had but… Anyway, we drove back to my place and I invited John in. We sat down on the settee, his arm across my shoulder, gently caressing my arm.

“Ana, would you like to come over to my place? Maybe on Saturday after work and stay for a couple of days?”

Oh wow.

My heart did a quick loop-de-loop as I nodded. “I’d love to.”

“Mind you, I haven’t got round to furnishing it fully yet, but maybe you can help.”

“Oh, okay. You said you’ve been having physiotherapy on your leg. What about your shoulder?”

“It’s fully healed now and so is my stomach, as long as I don’t lift anything too heavy yet. My leg’s improving every day. It’s possible I’ll always have a slight limp, but it isn’t as painful as it was.”

“That’s great news.”

“It is, because it means there’s nothing at all stopping me from making love to you whenever you want.”

“Nothing?”

“Nothing.”

“Whenever I want?”