Page 66 of The Vintage Dress Shop in Primrose Hill
‘It’s the top floor of an old house, so it probably was the servants’ quarters at one point,’ Charles insisted. ‘But I’ve done wonders with the place, if you did want to…’
‘I do want to.’ Sophy came to a halt in the middle of Theobald’s Road. ‘I want to more than anything.’
‘But you’re not going to,’ Charles finished for her, regret curled around every syllable. ‘Because at least one of us should be sensible about this.’
‘I hate being sensible,’ Sophy said with great feeling and, even though she shouldn’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t go back to Charles’s not-garret for a not-nightcap, she could still pull him, unresisting, into a darkened shop doorway for a kiss.
As ever, their kisses made Sophy come undone. She stood on tiptoe, her arms round Charles’s neck so she could lightly scratch his scalp in a way that made him groan while he fed her kisses that were sweeter than all the desserts in all the restaurants in London.
‘Oh my days, get a room!’
They broke apart as they were catcalled by a gang of shrieky, giggly girls heading into town.
‘Wehaveto stop,’ Charles whispered throatily, his breath tickling Sophy’s ear in a way that made her squirm a little. ‘Remind me again why we have to stop. Why all we can do is kiss and even though kissing you is my new favourite thing to do, I’m sure that there are other things we could do that would surpass it.’
For a moment Sophy couldn’t think of one good reason why they could only kiss and not move off first base, like well-behaved teenagers who’d signed a purity pledge.
Then she remembered.
‘Because we agreed, didn’t we? That I’m going to Australia and anything more serious would just complicate everything,’ she said, though the dates, these kisses, already felt serious and complicated.
‘How long have we got left?’ Charles asked.
‘Long enough,’ Sophy said because she couldn’t bear to think about the change in plans. If she did fly out a month earlier, then they only had three months. A quarter of a year. Twelve-ish weeks, which felt like hardly any time at all. It would fly by in an instant. Rather than being something she was equally excited and nervous about, Sophy’s plans to emigrate, even emi-visit, now seemed imbued with all kinds of doom and gloom.Like she was pencilled in for major surgery without an anaesthetic.
‘About four months, isn’t it?’ Charles asked heavily. ‘It’s mid-April now and you wanted to be there for mid-August.’ He lifted Sophy’s chin with his thumb and forefinger so he could stare at her face as if he wanted to spend the rest of those supposed four months memorising every millimetre, every freckle, even that one stray eyebrow hair that would never lie completely flat.
‘I haven’t got an exact date set. It might be a little sooner than mid-August but then again, my citizenship might not come through in time.’ Sophy said a little desperately. She knew she should tell Charles about the new developments. But talking about Jean’s dicky hips while they were having such a romantic evening would really kill the mood and also… plans changed. Maybe her plans were still subject to even more change. ‘Even if my citizenship does arrive soon, I may just go for a long holiday. A few months. Come home after Christmas. Hardly anyone would even notice that I was gone.’
‘I’d notice,’ Charles said. ‘But I’m a great believer in seizing any opportunities that come along with both hands. You should go to Australia with an open mind, with an open heart,’ he finished a little wistfully as if he knew that Sophy’s heart was full of him. ‘Now, what time is your mother expecting you home?’
Sophy snorted at that. ‘I’m thirty! I can go home any time I want. It’s not like I have a curfew and she’s going to take away my TV privileges if I break it.’ She paused. ‘Though she does wait up for me, which is really annoying.’
Charles tucked a strand of hair behind Sophy’s ear, his fingers caressing a spot that made her want to squirm all over again. ‘Well, in that case I’m going to walk you to Goodge Street station and then, like the teenagers that we’ve regressed to due to circumstance,I’m going to snog your face off before you get the tube home.’
Though Sophy loved spending a few more minutes with Charles, his arm round her as they walked to the station, and she especially loved the kisses goodbye, she was reminded of why she’d hated being a teenager and couldn’t wait until she was grown up and could do what the hell she liked.
What she hadn’t realised was that when you did become a grown-up it was even more impossible to do what the hell you liked and stuff the consequences.
The consequences arrived the following Monday morning. Or rather, Sophy woke up to an email from Freddy telling her that Johnno had finally found his passport, along with his birth certificate, and he was getting them notarised and signed that morning.
The silly sod gave them to me ages ago for safe keeping. They’ve been sitting in my safe all this time.
Now I realise that time is of the essence so if you give me all your bumf, I’ll put in the application for you. Hopefully they can rubber-stamp and process it a bit sharpish. I have a mate who’s an immigration lawyer who’s going to have a word in the right ear, so fingers crossed. We’ll get you emigrated ASAP.
But, to be on the safe side, I wouldn’t get that plane ticket just yet.
Regards, Freddy
PART FOUR
Chapter Twenty-Six
Just rereading Freddy’s email for the umpteenth time made Sophy cross with Johnno all over again. All this prevaricating and procrastinating, when his passport and birth certificate had been safe and sound in Freddy’s safe the whole time. She could already have her dual citizenship, if only Johnno wasn’t so disorganised.
Now, she was going to have to put all her faith into Freddy, Freddy’s lawyer mate and hopefully a kindly official at the Australian immigration office who’d take pity on her and put her application through as a matter of utmost urgency.
Sophy didn’t want to get her hopes up. She also wasn’t quite as excited about the prospect of Australia as she had been. Though maybe that was because after the last two months, she wasn’t the same woman who felt as if she had nothing left to lose. Now she had a job that she actively enjoyed about forty per cent of the time, and she got to work with Cress. When she wasn’t really annoyed with Johnno, it had been lovely to have this opportunity to see more of him, to feel their distant, stilted relationship move forward in a way that she’d never expected. They were definitely closer now.
