Page 78 of Crazy in Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop
Nina was full-on big ugly crying by now. ‘I love you too,’ she sobbed.
‘You are a silly girl,’ Alison said in a voice that was suddenly hoarse as if the tears might be contagious. ‘Come here!’
Her mother was far too bony to be a good cuddler but Nina was still happy to snuggle into her shoulder so what Alison said next sounded muffled: ‘I have to tell you, Nina, I was always a bit envious of your freedom. And I never thought I’d enjoy having a job, but I do! I bloody love it!’
Nina struggled to free herself. ‘If you love having a job, then can you even imagine how good it’s going to feel when you let yourself eat carbs again?’
‘That’s never going to happen!’ Alison pretended to cuff her. Nina was starting to wonder if her real mother had been abducted by aliens and replaced with a new and improved model. Or was she taking HRT or Prozac or some other tablet that had chilled her out in ways that she’d never been chilled out before?
But then Alison’s smile disappeared and she gave Nina a look. It was a look that Nina knew only too well. A look that asked, ‘How did I manage to spawn a creature like you?’ and was unable to come up with a satisfactory answer.
‘What?’ Nina asked defensively. ‘What have I donenow?’
‘You tell me,’ Alison replied. She shook her head as if she were trying to rid herself of an unpleasant mental image. ‘What onearthis going on with you and that Harewood boy?’
‘What? Who? How? I mean – I don’t know what you mean,’ she finished lamely.
‘I’ve had years of practice and I can tell when you’re lying,’ her mother said though Nina was sure she hadn’t twitched or scratched her nose or displayed any other tells. ‘Besides, Paul said that he was sure it was the Harewood boy—’
‘His name is Noah—’
‘—who picked you up from little Ellie’s birthday party,’ her mother continued. ‘And then Posy was telling me that you’d been seeing that Hare … Noah or whatever his name is, that he took you away,overnight, and when you got back the two of you were broken up and you were at death’s door!’
‘He didn’t make me ill. Not really,’ Nina tried to explain though a small part of her maintained that she’d have probably got away with a bad cold if the pain of having her heart broken hadn’t upgraded it to flu. ‘We went for a walk on open moorland and I wasn’t wearing a proper waterproof coat.’
‘Who goes for a walk on open moorland?’ Alison was horrified. ‘Honestly, that family! I expect he’s a vegan like that mother of his.’
‘He’s not a vegan, he’s actually really lovely,’ Nina said then burst into tears again.
‘If you ever looked at me once with what I know is in you, I would be your slave.’
On Monday morning, Nina decided that she was well enough to leave her quarters and re-enter the world of work.
She’d managed to wolf down a huge curry the night before so she was obviously on the mend, even if she still felt terrible. But now it was only an emotional kind of terrible. She was mourning the loss of Noah and also the fact that she’d gone down two whole cup sizes.
‘No, I’m not wearing that horrible grey T-shirt,’ Nina announced to Posy as she barrelled down the stairs from the flat to find Posy standing in the hall sorting through the post. ‘I currently don’t have the boobs to fill it out. But on the bright side, I haven’t been able to get in this dress foryears.’
Nina was wearing a tightly fitted black crepe dress with a black velvet Peter Pan collar – sombre to match her mood – though she was trying to put a brave face on things.
Posy squinched up all her features in distress. Nina came to a halt on the third step from the bottom with her hands on her hips.
‘Honestly, Posy, the Happy Ever After T-shirt ishangingoff me,’ she said plaintively.
‘It’s not that.’ Posy peered up at Nina, still looking mighty uncomfortable. ‘I really think you should still be convalescing.’ She made shooing motions with her hands. ‘Back to bed with you.’
Nina carried on down the stairs. ‘I’m going stir crazy up there. You don’t even want to know how many old episodes ofMasterchefI’ve watched this weekend.’
‘We can absolutely manage without you,’ Verity interrupted, poking her head round the office door. ‘I told you not to bother coming downstairs if you didn’t feel up to it.’
‘But I do feel up to it and you could hardly manage without me this weekend,’ Nina reminded them, because her back-to-back watching ofMasterchefhad been constantly interrupted by people texting Nina to ask about books that she’d put to one side for certain customers or to complain that the till drawer was sticking again and what was the special trick for hitting Bertha and countless other enquiries. ‘I’m not going to do any heavy lifting, but I can sit behind the till and take money. It’s not exactly brain surgery, is it? Posy! Get out of my way!’
Nina had to squeeze past a motionless Posy, who seemed to be doing her best to block Nina’s passage through to the shop. ‘We’re not even opening this morning!’ Posy squeaked, grabbing hold of Nina’s sleeve. ‘So you might as well go upstairs and put your feet up.’
‘Posy! Don’t manhandle the vintage,’ Nina said crossly. She’d never had to work so hard to actuallyworkbefore. ‘Why aren’t you opening this morning? Are you doing a stock-take? Why? We’ve never done one of those before, so why bother now?’
‘It’s not a stock-take,’ Verity said. ‘It’s a er, staff meeting.’
‘Shut up!’ Posy hissed at her and if Nina had been a dog her hackles would have risen. As it was, a little shiver raced its way down her spine.
