Page 64 of The Vintage Dress Shop in Primrose Hill
‘Maybe you haven’tpermanentlylost your passport. Maybe you just need to look harder for it…’
‘It’s one of the reasons why I left, Soph. Australia is far too parochial a place for a free spirit like myself.’ Johnno shrugged in a free and spirited way. ‘I’ll get Freddy on the case. I suppose I might have given him my passport for safe keeping.’
‘It would have beenveryhelpful if you’d thought to ask Freddy earlier. I really need to get a move on with applying for my dual citizenship and, yeah, the Australian authorities, they do get a bit narky if you try to rush them.’ Sophy took a sip of her own tea. She hoped that you could get Yorkshire teabags in Australia.
Another shrug from Johnno. ‘Don’t be fooled by the easy grin and the tattoos; Freddy’s not to be messed with.’ His expression grew more serious, which never suited him. ‘There’s no rush though. You could go later in the year.’
‘There have been new developments.’ Sophy put down her mug so she could fold her arms and give Johnno a look that she’d inherited from her mother and which always made him squirm. ‘When was the last time you spoke to your parents?’
‘Christmas?’
‘Are you asking me or are you telling me?’ Sophy enquired tartly. ‘You haven’t spoken to them in ages, have you? No judgement. I’m just trying to get the facts here.’
‘You sound bloody judgemental,’ Johnno said, then subsided after another look from Sophy.
She sighed, because she didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news, then launched into the story of Jean’s dicky hips and how it was best to have them replaced sooner rather than later, especially if Sophy was there to lend a hand.
‘What about Barbara? Or Barbara’s girls, what are their names?’ Johnno asked after the nieces he’d never met.
‘Jessica’s having a baby in September and Jules has a job. She teaches high school, she can’t just drop everything. Besides, they all live in Melbourne.’ Sophy wriggled her shoulders. ‘How can you not know this? They’re your family!’
‘Don’t be like that, Soph.’
‘I’m not being like anything. Honestly, I don’t ask you for much, but this one important thing that I’ve asked you to do,weeks ago,and you haven’t done it! You know how much this means to me and you can’t even tell me, definitively, whether your passport is dead or alive.’
Sophy hadn’t even realised that her relationship with Johnno had shifted over the last few weeks. Had become more familiar, more light-hearted. She could see that now because she was back to being frustrated and angry with him.
‘I’ll get Freddy to sort out my documentation and OK, stop pouting, princess, I’ll phone the old folks.’ Johnno frowned. ‘What’s the time difference again?’
‘Oh my God! For someone who has at least one successful business that I know about, I sometimes wonder how you even manage to get dressed in the morning,’ Sophy snapped, though looking at Johnno’s Hawaiian shirt and pink jeans made her wonder if he got dressed in the dark. ‘I’m so disappointed in you.’
They both glared at each other, then, thankfully, Beatrice was sticking her head round the door.
‘How long does it take to make a cup of tea?’ she asked cheerfully. ‘Did you have to milk the cow yourself? We are so busy out here!’
Johnno left soon after that, his shoulders slumped, his face on the hangdog setting, and Sophy wondered if she’d been too harsh with him, as if she was the parent and he was the child.
‘Do you think this dress will fit a size ten?’ A silver lurex minidress was suddenly thrust in her face by a customer and Sophy was forced to get back to the job that Johnno was paying her to do, even though she’d insisted shrilly that she’d never asked him for anything. He’d given her a job that she was really grateful for and she’d just thrown it back in his face.
By the time they shut up the shop at six thirty, the new Saturday summer-hours closing time, she was still racked with remorse and also fading fast, energy wise. Not even the promise of a few hours in Charles’s company could buck her up as she reapplied her make-up in the mirror over the sink in the tiny bathroom.
There hadn’t been a chance to have the ominous chat with Cress either, so Sophy was sure to get a lecture as they walked to Camden together. But when Cress came down the stairs, if anything she looked even morefragile than she’d done that morning.
‘I’m exhausted,’ she croaked. ‘That pounding headache has upgraded to a splitting headache.’
‘Poor Cress has been having to sew white on white,’ Phoebe cooed sympathetically. ‘Then sew on the tiniest paillettes. I’m not surprised that you’ve got a headache.’
Nothing to do with the two massive glasses of wine that Cress had downed the night before. But it would have been unsisterly and unfriendly to point that out. As it was, Sophy was cringing as they started walking along Princess Road. ‘I’m not going home. I’m meeting a friend at the top of Gloucester Avenue.’
Cress was back in her dark glasses but Sophy would have bet money on her eyes having narrowed. ‘A friend, eh?’
‘Charles. I’m meeting Charles. Charles is my friend,’ Sophy said.
‘And what exactly are you going to be doing with your friend Charles?’
‘We’re walking across Regent’s Park and then we’re going out for dinner.’ Sophy could feel herself puffing up with indignation. ‘Do you have a problem with that?’
‘My goodness, can you dial down the attitude, please?’ Cress sniffed. ‘Have I said anything untoward about you meeting yourfriend, Charles, for dinner?’
