Page 85 of The Vintage Dress Shop in Primrose Hill
Five days.
Sunday was spent at Brent Cross shopping centre with The List and Her Mother: a fatal combination.
Two hours in they had a very heated debate outside John Lewis when Sophy insisted that she’d just bought three new bras, she didn’t need any more bras and, ‘Newsflash! They have shops in Australia! Strange but true!’
‘They don’t have John Lewis. Oh, and we still need to go to Boots. You need to get compression stockings for the flight so you don’t develop deep vein thrombosis.Sophy! Come back! Come back right this minute!’
Four days.
Three days.
Two days.
And then it was the last day in the shop. There was cake from the Primrose Hill Bakery, though Phoebe wouldn’t let anyone eat it in shop hours.
Freddy dropped by with Sophy’s last pay packet and a hug. There were hugs from all the girls, even Phoebe, who said brightly, ‘Well, if you’re ever in the area, do drop by and say hello.’
‘It all feels very anticlimactic,’ Sophy said to Cress as they walked to Chalk Farm tube station together for the very last time. ‘The shop has been such a huge part of my life these last few weeks and now… it’s over. Just like that.’
‘It doesn’t have to be just like that. If you changed your mind at the last minute, no one would think any less of you. I’m sure Phoebe would give you your job back,’ Cress said because God loved a trier and, also, she was the worst judge of character.
‘I think Phoebe would rather burn the shop to the ground than ever give me my job back,’ Sophy said and Cress’s head, which had been sunk down, Eeyore fashion, lifted.
‘So, have you changed your mind then?’ she asked hopefully.
‘My mind is still unchanged,’ Sophy told her. ‘But if there are any new developments, you’ll be the first to know.’
Then it was home to Caroline, who didn’t just have A List now. Mike had got in on the act too and made A Spreadsheet. That evening was blocked out for a trial run at the packing, despiteSophy’s protests that packing wasn’t the sort of thing that required a dress rehearsal.
One day.
There were no more days. Tomorrow Sophy would be at Heathrow to check in at ten a.m. ‘Though I do like to check in early, so we should aim to get there for eight thirty at the latest,’ Caroline said. ‘Who knows what the traffic will be like at that time in the morning?’
‘Look, I really appreciate Mike wanting to give me a lift, but I think it would just be quicker to go to Paddington and get the Heathrow Express train,’ Sophy said, as she had said several times before.
As a fitting goodbye, they were having a last supper at Sophy’s favourite Italian restaurant, Cress invited along too.
‘Because who even knows if they have Italian restaurants in Australia,’ Caroline wondered aloud since she’d now decided that Australia was pretty much a third world country.
‘They do, love,’ Mike ventured as Sophy twirled her spaghetti round and round on her fork but couldn’t face actually eating any. ‘There are very big Italian communities in Sydney and Melbourne.’
It was just the kind of fascinating fact that Mike always had ready to go. Cress kicked Sophy under the table and they shared their first smile of the evening.
What with the packing, the prospect of the long flight, all the goodbyes, it was hard to look forward to what was to come when Sophy was so painfully aware of everything that she was leaving behind.
Including her mother, who had now produced a sheaf of papers from her handbag. ‘I almost forgot,’ she said, thrusting them across the table at Sophy. ‘I printed these out for you. What to do if you get bitten by a snake. They have eastern brown snakes whereyou’re going. They’re the most venomous,’ she added grimly.
‘Good to know,’ Sophy sighed as she took the papers and glanced at the top sheet to show willing.
‘Also huntsman spiders, they’re nasty little buggers,’ Mike chimed in.
‘And if you do see a koala bear, I know they look cute…’
‘They’resocute, I’d love to cuddle one,’ Cress agreed, then wilted when Caroline fixed her with a look. ‘Sorry.’
‘You would be sorry Cress, because most of them areriddledwith chlamydia,’ Caroline revealed with some relish and, although she’d promised herself that she wouldn’t, Sophy delved into her bag to retrieve her phone just to see if anyone had been trying to contact her.
She didn’t know why she was even bothering, until she saw that she had five missed calls, four WhatsApps and three texts. All from Charles.
