Page 77 of The Vintage Dress Shop in Primrose Hill
‘Never!’ There was still panic shooting through her body. She wondered if she should stick her head between her knees, because there was a real possibility that she might faint. ‘I’ll see you soon, right?’
‘I’ll be in in the next day or so,’ Johnno promised. ‘Are you sure it’s too early to call home?’
‘Yes, I’m sure,’ Sophy said and, as she rung off, shewas also sure that Johnno hadn’t really listened to a single word she’d said.
She could picture it now. He’d rock up to the shop for Friday-night drinks and look surprised to see Sophy vacuuming or cashing up. ‘You still here?’ he’d say. ‘I thought you’d be in Australia by now.’
Even so, Johnno took the news of Sophy’s dual citizenship a lot better than some of the other people in her life. When she trailed up the stairs to the atelier, where Cress was painstakingly mending the rip on the Ossie Clark dress (‘not even on the seam but right across the bodice!’), she wasn’t sure of what the reaction might be. She’d only got as far as saying, ‘So I just heard that I got my dual citizenship,’ when Cress burst into tears.
‘I’m not going right away,’ Sophy protested, knowing that she was going to end up bursting into tears herself before the day was out.
‘I can’t talk about this right now,’ Cress sobbed, holding her head at a weird angle. ‘I don’t want to get tear stains on this dress.’
They didn’t talk about it on the way to the station either. Instead of coming down the stairs at six sharp, Cress sent Phoebe down to deliver the message that she was staying on to finish the Ossie Clark dress and that they’d talk tomorrow.
‘She’s very upset,’ Phoebe reported, not with relish but with bemusement that Sophy’s imminent (though notthatimminent) departure from Cress’s life could cause so much upset. ‘So, were you wanting to give in your notice early?’
‘Oh my God, I still don’t know exactly when I’m going,’ Sophy exclaimed as she headed towards the stairs so she could go up to Cress and allay her fears. ‘Sorry, Phoebe, you’re stuck with me for a bit longer.’
Phoebe stood on the bottomstep, effectively blocking Sophy’s passage. ‘Well, we’ve rubbed along all right in the end, but I don’t think vintage fashion is your true calling.’
‘But I love working here!’
‘And we’velikedhaving you here, but it will probably turn out that you’re more into herding sheep or whatever.’ Phoebe made a shooing motion as Sophy tried to squeeze past her. ‘No, Sophy, I can’t let you go up there when Cress’s working on that Ossie Clark dress. She’s already got two tear stains on it and her invisible mending is looking a bit wonky.’
When Sophy got home and delivered the good news to Caroline and Mike, it was another case of please, don’t shoot the messenger. No, please, really!
Caroline took Sophy’s phone so she could read the email from the Australian PTB, then quickly handed it back like it was radioactive. ‘Well, that’s that then,’ she said flatly.
‘I’m not going right away,’ Sophy said for the umpteenth time in three short hours. ‘You still have to put up with me for a bit longer.’
‘You’re definitely going then?’ Mike asked, his back to Sophy as he chopped vegetables for dinner, but also because he hated confrontation so there was no way he was going to make eye contact. ‘Even though your mum says you’ve started seeing someone.’
Sophy shot Caroline a look, but Caroline was quite unrepentant. ‘Staying out all night,’ she said, as she’d said quite a lot since Sophy had come home last Sunday morning. ‘I thought that if you were starting something with someone, that Charles, then it meant that you weren’t going to Australia.’
‘I was always going to Australia,’ Sophy said a little desperately.
‘Then why have you started something with that Charles?’ Caroline put her hands on her hips. ‘Cause I know that’s where you’re planning on staying Wednesday nighttoo, young lady. Never mind all that nonsense about you sleeping over with one of the girls you work with.’
God, it wasjustlike being a teenager again. ‘I only said that because—’
‘You didn’t say, Sophy, youlied.’
‘Because I knew you’d give me a hard time, much like you’re giving me a hard time right now,’ Sophy pointed out. ‘Charles knows about Australia and we both know that we’re just hanging out, nothing serious, enjoying each other’s company.’
Caroline snorted. ‘How’s that working out for you?’
‘It’sfine. Everything’sfine.’
Sophy’s original mid-August deadline had meant that Australia had been this very exciting but also not-very-real thing in the near future. Now she was going to go upstairs, count down the moments until she could call Jean and then log into Mike’s computer and definitely maybe actually buy her plane ticket.
She’d miss her loved ones. Cress, her mum, Mike, even Johnno. And even though he wasn’t officially her loved one, she wasn’t going to just miss Charles; she was going to miss what they could have been, what they could have had. Also, she wasn’t looking forward to telling him that they might only have five weeks left before she flew halfway across the world from him.
‘Doesn’t sound very fine,’ Mike muttered, still not turning round in case the exasperated look on Sophy’s face turned him into a pillar of salt.
‘What time’s dinner?’ Sophy asked, hoping that the change of topic would be a welcome one.
It wasn’t.
