Page 83 of The Vintage Dress Shop in Primrose Hill
She was gabbling but Charles nodded just the once. ‘I see.’
‘It was a nice thing that Johnno did. So generous. I’m not mad at him.’ It was the truth. Sophy had wasted so much time being mad at Johnno and it achieved nothing. He was what he was. Yes, annoying and careless, but also so charming and kind. ‘He just doesn’t listen to the details sometimes.’
Charles shifted his weight so his face wasn’t in shadow and Sophy saw hope lighten his expression. ‘If it’s money, then I don’t mind paying to change the dates,’ he said, which was very sweet of him but Sophy couldn’t take his money and she’d tried to do the exact same thing last night when she called the airline.
‘It’s a special ticket.’ She shrugged helplessly. ‘Johnno knows a bloke who did him a deal.’
No further explanation was needed. Charles’s sigh was one of defeat. ‘Ten days.’
‘I fly out next Friday.’
He stepped out from behind the Three Graces so Sophy had no choice but to follow him as he strode down the length of the sculpture gallery. Outside the windows, the rain was still lashing down, the evening ruined.
Then again, it wasn’t even nine o’clock. The night was still young.
Sophy had to scurry to catch up with Charles’s long-legged stride. ‘Come on, Charles, don’t be like this,’ she said, trying to take hold of his hand, but he evaded her grasp. ‘It just means that we have to make the most of what time we have left.’
‘We have no time,’ he said flatly, making short work of the small flight of stairs that led to the gift shop and the entrance hall beyond. ‘Ten days. Actually nine days. No, eight days because you’re flying out on Friday.’
‘Will you stop and talk to me!’ Sophy grabbed hold of his arm so Charles was forced to come to a halt. ‘This is not my fault. Why are you cross with me?’
Charles reached out to take a strand of her hair and hold it up to the light as he loved to do. ‘I’m not cross with you. I’m not, but you didn’t even tell me that you’d moved up your departure date by a month.’
‘I was going to tell you but only when there was something definite to tell,’ Sophy said as Charles shrugged his shoulders. ‘You know, you do seem cross with me.’
‘I’m cross at the situation. Cross with bloody Johnno but not with you, Sophy.’
‘Then let’s go back to yours like we planned, like we wanted to,’ she said, but he shook his head.
‘It’s not a good idea,’ he said resolutely, even though he’d made that decision without even consulting Sophy first.
‘It is! It’s an excellent idea,’ Sophy said, stepping aside to let two rain-soaked partygoers pass.
‘Itwaswhen there was three months and change but I’m not going to…’ Charles grimaced as if he were in pain as more people pushed past them. ‘Let’s find somewhere quieter.’
Sophy tailed after him as he walked back to the foyer, where there was a stone bench that they could sit on.
They sat there in silence for a moment. Everything that Sophy wanted to say boiled down to her begging Charles to take her home and make love to her. And it had to be worth a try…
‘Charles—’
‘I’m not the sort of man who’d sleep with a woman when I know that I might never see her again,’ Charles said harshly, as if Sophy had already begged and he was shocked at her audacity.
‘But you will see me again. I’m not going for another week,’ Sophy pointed out. ‘Over a week!’
‘We both know that you must have a to-do list that probably runs to at least ten pages.’ It was as if Charles had been speaking to her mother, whose to-do list that she’d seen fit to start on Sophy’s behalf had already hit five pages that morning. ‘At best, we’ll grab a moment here and a moment there and it’s just no way to say goodbye.’
‘It’s still better than nothing.’
‘I had so many plans for the next three months,’ Charles said sadly. ‘I wanted to take you away for the weekend, no boot fairs, no estate sales, just the two of us being together. I thought I had time and you’d change— Well, what’s the point of going into all that now?’
‘You thought I’d change my mind.’ Sophy could fill in the blanks for herself.
‘Hoped…’
‘But you knew I was going to Australia,’ Sophy said. She could feel her voice and her temper rising. ‘That was always the case.’
‘Yes, but lately you haven’t been that excited at the prospect of Australia. Not like when we first met, then you were definitely emigrating, but lately you’ve been talking about not emigrating, just visiting,’ Charles said, which was true because until she’d met Charles, carved a little niche for herself in the shop, there hadn’t been anything good in her life apart from the thought of going to Australia and having a do-over. ‘We should never have started this.’
