Page 28 of Wrapped Up at the Vintage Dress Shop
Then she remembered that the staff, except Cress, didn’t know about her and Freddy. How right she’d been to keep things on the down-low.
‘He really is overdoing it. I still say that you shouldn’t have reacted the way you did, but Rosie Roberts did get fake tan on that dress,’ Sophy pointed out, which was the last thing Phoebe expected her to say. She’d expected Sophy to be drunk on all her new power.
‘And she ripped it,’ Cress added indignantly.
‘I took pictures for the insurance claim,’ Bea said. ‘There’s actual photographic evidence.’
‘Anyway, she’s a terrible influencer,’ Anita said with a roll of her eyes, even though if Phoebe had expected Sophy to be on a power trip, she’d have thought Anita would be dancing a victory jig by now. ‘She couldn’t influence me to do anything.’
‘I should have done my homework a bit better, but I was wowed by her follower count,’ Sophy said as she stood up and advanced towards the kettle. ‘I’ve sourced a new influencer, who hasn’t got so many followers but she does have the right vibe.’ She took down a couple of mugs from the cupboard in front of her. ‘And she doesn’t wear fake tan, I already checked. Now who wants a brew?’
It was one of the most boring weeks of Phoebe’s life. Toiling away in the basement like a Victorian orphan not allowed to see sunlight.
Though, to be fair, she wasn’talwaysin the basement. Roughly half of her time was spent in the back office sittingnext to Bea who was trying to show her how the website worked. She kept going on about things that didn’t have proper names, just random groups of initials: CMS, SEO. The only initials Phoebe was interested in were CC for Coco Chanel, obviously, YSL for Yves Saint Laurent or even DvF for Diane von Furstenberg.
Their social media accounts were still going haywire although Bea and Sophy advised Phoebe it was best not to look.
‘People can be very unkind when they’re hiding behind a false username and their keyboards,’ Bea said when Phoebe had a peek on Instagram and immediately found a comment that suggested they sold inferior vintage, which had given her heart palpitations.
She didn’t care that people were calling her a bully and a bitch.‘Someone else’s opinion of you is none of your business,’Mildred always said, but to cast doubts on Phoebe’s ability to source good vintage was another level of cruelty.
To make matters even worse, Sophy’s new influencer was coming in the very next day.
‘Not to do a shoot,’ Sophy assured Phoebe even though Phoebe wasn’t in charge of the shop and no longer had the authority to grant permission for another professional show-off to come in. She wasn’t in charge of anything. Not even her own destiny. ‘Let’s see if she passes the vibe check. The vibes have got to be right.’
The vibes hadn’t been right for days. On Thursday, Freddy came by just after the shop opened to issue yet another diktat about boring tasks he wanted Phoebe to accomplish. Today he wanted Sophy to take Phoebe through some role-play exercises for dealing with difficult customers.
‘Because the customer is always right,’ he said, his eyes fixed on Phoebe even though, time and time again, the customer was wrong and didn’t even know their Biba from theirBus Stop. It was hard to believe that this was the same Freddy who used to give her butterflies every time he smiled at her. Freddy’s smiles were now in very short supply and Phoebe was getting used to the new leaden feeling when he walked through the door. ‘We’ll catch up again tomorrow.’
As soon as he left, Phoebe turned to Sophy with a pleading look. Forced to plead with Sophy! ‘Even the idea of role play makes me want to break out in hives,’ she said but it was more than that.
This whole week, having her many faults pointed out to her by Freddy, the person who claimed to have feelings for her, made Phoebe feel like the years had melted away. She was five again. Seven again. Ten. Twelve. Then a teenager who was never good enough to be given the things that other children took for granted. A space to call her own. People to call her own.
The two most basic things in life. A home. A family. But Phoebe never got them because she didn’t deserve them. There was something about her that repelled rather than attracted.
Was it any wonder that every day she did her hair and put on her make-up and slipped into a perfect black dress and heels like they were a costume to hide her true self from the world? Because her true self was that girl with greasy hair scraped back and a grubby tracksuit who’d arrived on Mildred’s doorstep all those years ago.
‘I don’t like role play either,’ Sophy said, pulling Phoebe out of her memories. ‘But it might be worth a try . . .’
‘Please, Sophy, do you want me to quit? Is that was this is all about? Getting me to resign so you can take over the shop?’ Phoebe demanded.
‘What? No!’ Sophy sounded shocked and offended enough that Phoebe maybe believed her. ‘Yes, I want a bit more responsibility. Yes, I want to have my little rental dressthing so I feel properly invested in my job. Honestly, even after all this time, you’re still determined to think the worst of me.’
‘To be fair, Phoebe thinks the worst of everyone,’ Anita shouted from the shop where she was meant to be working and not eavesdropping on other people’s conversations.
‘All I’m saying is that banishing me from the shop floor, from my dresses, is punishment enough,’ Phoebe said plaintively. She wasn’t very good at being plaintive but Sophy grudgingly nodded. ‘Don’t make me role-play. Do you want me to beg?’
There was a moment’s awkward silence during which Sophy narrowed her eyes almost as if she was seriously considering making Phoebe beg but then she sighed. ‘No role playing but when Birdy comes in, will you be nice to her?’
‘Who’s Birdy?’ Phoebe asked.
‘My lovely micro influencer,’ Sophy said, as she added more hot water to her mug of tea, which had cooled in the time that they’d been chatting all this out.
Why did everyone assume that Phoebe’s default position was outright hostility? It was more that she took a while to warm to people. ‘I’ll be polite and friendly, maybe even verging on charming,’ she said.
Sophy looked extremely sceptical. ‘Really?’
‘Well, I’m going to try,’ Phoebe admitted and Sophy had to be satisfied with that.
