Page 32 of Crazy in Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop
Nina tried to smile breezily. ‘Maybe. But there were so many wash and sets, with so many old ladies, you know what I mean?’ Noah nodded, even as he looked slightly disappointed.
‘Anyway, I started there as a trainee and also went to college to do my NVQ. I mean, I have qualifications.’ That same defensive note crept into her voice. ‘I worked there for four years but I didn’t want to spend my whole life in Worcester Park doing the same cut and colour on the same customers week in and week out, so I got a job in town …’ Nina tailed off and shook her head.
‘How did that go down with Aunt Mandy?’ Noah asked.
‘Like a lead balloon,’ Nina said baldly. ‘I’m amazed that I wasn’t officially excommunicated. I got a job in a salon in the West End, which was a bit more happening and I moved around, worked in some quite edgy places, I did balayage, ombré, dip-dyeing, colour melding, so it wasn’t as if I was always doing the same thing.’
‘I have no idea what any of those things are,’ Noah said. ‘Ombré? Isn’t that a painting technique?’
Nina nodded but she was too far down memory lane to stop and explain how she achieved an ombré effect on someone’s hair. ‘My last salon even specialised in vintage and retro styles but I’d been doing people’s hair for the last twelve years and it just … I just … I wasn’t enjoying it and I kept getting the sack because of my attitude – there was this whole incident in my last-but-one salon where I ended up having a barney with the mother of the bride about a wedding package. I won’t bore you with all the details.’ Nina sighed again. ‘Then I met Lavinia. She owned Bookends … that’s what Happy Ever After was called before the relaunch.’
‘I know about Bookends and I knew Lavinia. She and Perry would come up to Oxford to take Sebastian out for lunch and he’d drag me along in the hope that they wouldn’t give him a telling off in front of company.’ Noah laughed. ‘It was a case of hope over expectation. I witnessed some pretty epic bollockings.’
Nina laughed too at the thought of Sebastian, the Rudest Man in London, getting a dressing down from his grandparents.
‘I forgot that you and Sebastian go way back,’ she said.
‘Way, way back, but we were talking about you, not me,’ Noah said quietly but in a way that made it clear that he wasn’t to be deterred from his goal of learning more about Nina’s chequered path through life. She imagined that the same quiet determination was a very effective way of dealing with Sebastian too. ‘The thing about Lavinia was, she could immediately see right through to the heart and soul of someone, couldn’t she?’
‘Oh, yes! She absolutely could. I met her by accident and after ten minutes I felt as if I’d known her forever and, more than that, she knew me. Saw a side to me that nobody else ever could.’ Nina raised her glass in a silent toast to her late mentor. ‘I miss her so much.’
‘Yeah, so do I.’ Noah raised his glass too. ‘To Lavinia. So, she saw the secret bookseller in you?’
‘Kind of. Or rather she saw my tattoos. Was very taken with them.’ It was Nina’s turn to hold her arms out for Noah’s inspection. ‘MyAlice in Wonderlandsleeve was complete though I’d barely got started on theWuthering Heightsdesign on the other arm, but she offered me a job on the spot, and I loved reading but I’d never have dreamed that I could work in a bookshop.’
‘Why not? If you love reading then it seems like the perfect job?’ Noah enquired, and Nina wanted to tell him that she wasn’t a problem to be solved, but she didn’t want to harsh their whisky-induced mellow. Besides, Noah was one of those rare people, like Lavinia, that you wanted to say stuff to. Your deep, personal, inside stuff because it seemed impossible that he’d take your words and use them against you. Or judge you for them.
‘Yes but … I’m not clever enough to work in a bookshop,’ Nina blurted out, before she lost her nerve. ‘It’s why the others don’t know that I used to be a hairdresser. They all have degrees. Like, Tom is working on histhirddegree and all I have are seven GCSEs and an NVQ. Listen to me! I think I’ve had too much to drink. You’d better cut me off.’
‘One for the road?’ Noah suggested with a smile. ‘I will if you will. And you can tell me more about those tattoos while we do.’
Nina could never turn down one for the road. ‘Oh, go on then, twist my arm.’ She did twist her own arm then, so Noah could see her tattoo, Cathy and Heathcliff, leaning against the gnarled tree. ‘Wuthering Heightsis my favourite novel.’ Was she going to? She barely knew him. But Noah was leaning forward, his eyes intent on Nina, his expression bright and alert, as if everything she said was endlessly fascinating. Nina couldn’t remember the last time someone had looked at her like that. She was pretty sure that it had probably been one of the last times she’d seen Lavinia, so yes, she was going to share the secret of what made her tick.
‘In fact,Wuthering Heightshas been my inspiration for the last ten years of my life. It’s why I quit Hair (and Nails) By Mandy, why I left Worcester Park, why I do most of the things I do.’
‘Why’s that then?’ Noah asked.
‘Passion. Cathy and Heathcliff were ruled by their passions. They didn’t settle for safe or mediocre.’
Noah didn’t respond at first but took a sip of his drink. ‘I’m all for following one’s passions, but I have to say that there are happier books to be inspired by.’ He shrank back a little as Nina stiffened. ‘I mean, things didn’t turn out so well for Cathy and Heathcliff, did they?’
‘Of course they didn’t and I know that Cathy and Heathcliff were both high maintenance and that if you knew them in real life, they’d absolutely do your head in, but if I’ve learned anything fromWuthering Heightsit’s that a life without passion is a life half-lived,’ Nina said with all the passion that she could muster, which was quite a lot of passion.
‘So, you’re passionate about working at Happy Ever After then?’ Noah asked reasonably enough.
‘Well …’ Nina dithered slightly. ‘I like working there. A lot. Like, really a lot,’ she insisted, picking up her glass and glaring at it. ‘God, these cocktails are like a truth serum. I’m happy enough, I just thought that at nearly thirty I’d behappier.’
‘I hear you,’ Noah said with great feeling. ‘I really don’t want to be that guy who quotes U2 …’
‘Please, don’t be that guy,’ Nina said but Noah shook his head. He wasn’t to be deterred.
‘I’ve literally been halfway round the world and I still don’t know what I’m looking for. Sometimes I wish I’d followed my childhood dreams and become a fighter pilot.’ He tapped a finger to the corner of his eye. ‘I’d probably fail the sight test.’
‘I did wonder,’ Nina said as delicately as she could for someone who’d drunk five whisky-based cocktails. ‘’Cause at school you wore really thick glasses.’
She froze, face hidden by her whisky glass. Would he pick up on her slip? Thankfully, it seemed five whisky-based cocktails were enough to make Noah a little fuzzy around the edges too.
‘Contact lenses. Bifocal contact lenses. But could you even imagine how horrific military training might be? At least at school, I got to go home each afternoon.’ Noah swatted his own words away as if he couldn’t bear to dwell on them. ‘What about you? What did you really want to grow up to be when you were a kid?’
