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Monday Morning, 9th June

IZZY & LUCE

Vintage at the Cinema

What’s in a name – expletives, implosions, and introductions

SUBJECT: TANNING SHOP

To Dida and the crew,

Just heard on the bush telegraph that the Retro American shop is going to be called GI Joe’s - obvious for someone called Joe Kerr, but a damned good name, unfortunately for us. Was hoping they were going to call it American Tan - geddit??

Ollie Sent from Bangkok, Thailand

‘Oh crap bloody asshole shit.’ As Luce let out a stream of expletives, her phone smashed down onto the polished teak counter top, bounced off, traced a perfect arc through the air, and landed in a basket of jugs.

Izzy had been propping up the last of the Free Coffee and Bridal Studio signs she’d hurriedly painted yesterday evening, when the email had arrived on her phone, but she had managed to get to the end without going postal. She stared at Luce until her eyes wouldn’t go any wider, then blinked, and stared again. What was going on? Luce swearing? And not once, but a whole colourful string.

Oh crap bloody asshole shit – what the hell?

‘Are you okay sweetie?’ Izzy swooped in and put her hand on Luce’s wrist. By rights, her first move should be to pass Luce the swear box, given the way Luce jumped on Izzy if she swore in front of the customers, but something told her she needed to cut Luce some slack here.

‘No I’m bloody not alright as it happens. Look at that bloody email.’ Luce’s pale cheeks were uncharacteristically pink.

Izzy flinched. She didn’t think she’d heard two bloody’s in one of Luce’s sentences, ever, not even when she’d been in labour, having Ruby. ‘Yes, I was looking at the email, isn’t it mostly what we know already…?’

Luce hammered her hand on her forehead. ‘You don’t understand, I was the one who handed them the bloody GI Joe name on a plate. I didn’t say before, I was hoping they wouldn’t use it. They were going to call it The Diner, which is completely lame, and would have ended up with everyone being cross they weren’t being served burgers.’

Izzy raised her eyebrows, then knitted them into a frown. ‘Whatever, at least we’ve got a couple of weeks before they open, that should give time to raise our game. As Ollie says, GI Joe’s is a damned good name.’

‘That’s the other thing…’ Luce was taking through gritted teeth here. ‘What the hell is bloody Ollie doing in bloody Thailand? I thought he was in Goa.’

‘And this matters because…?’ As far as Izzy was concerned, all that mattered was that Ollie was away, which meant he wasn’t here. He sent her emails now and again, mentioning where he was, but one foreign destination sounded very much like another. That was the thing with far flung places, they only became significant when you were actually there yourself.

Luce’s eyes were flashing, and she was tossing her head. ‘Everyone knows Thailand’s the sex tourist capital of the world. What’s the tagline…“Land of Smiles”? Those smiles are for one reason only.’

Luce looked ready to implode.

‘I thought Thailand had jungles and pandas?’ Izzy was puzzled. It was hardly like Luce to pass judgement, especially on someone who definitely wasn’t on her Friday night list. Ollie and Luce hung around with the rest of the crew. They were friends, that was all. Izzy had once seen Ollie flare up on a night out and tell Luce she was worth more than some guy she was about to leave with, but apart from that, as far as Izzy knew, that was it. Izzy knew Ollie had always had a soft spot for Luce, ever since they made friends at school, but Ollie was punching above his weight as far as Luce was concerned.

When Izzy first brought Luce back home, back in the day, which must be twelve years ago now, Ollie had followed Luce around the house like a doe eyed puppy. Even if Luce had laughed a lot at Ollie’s jokes, Ollie didn’t have the rock star looks to make him a serious contender. That was the one time Izzy had to get fierce with Ollie, and insist that his sister’s best friends were totally off limits.

That was when Izzy was sixteen and prickly, and mortified at having to leave her upmarket school, and go into the sixth form at the local comprehensive. Izzy got a job at the coffee shop, to help with the dire family finances, and Luce, who worked there too had seen beyond Izzy’s growling, and befriended her. It helped that they were both doing art. A shared, if unhealthy, obsession with Busted and Robbie Williams cemented the deal. Luce, whose calm exterior was a front that hid a riotous sense of humour, considered Izzy, with her rarefied girls’ school background, to be underprivileged, and took it upon herself to fast forward Izzy’s real world education.

Since they’d all worked together at the cinema, Izzy was aware that Ollie sent Ruby into fits of giggles on a regular basis, and sometimes helped Luce out with babysitting, but as far as she knew, that was the extent of it.

‘Apart from anything else, think of the STD’s.’ Luce’s voice was verging on a wail.

If Izzy needed anything to prove Luce was off kilter today, this was it.

‘Yuk, this is my brother we’re talking about, please can we not go there.’ Izzy cringed. ‘Ollie’s old enough, he’s miles away. And it’s nothing to do with us anyway…Is it?’

Izzy watched, as Luce’s mouth froze in the open position, as Izzy posed that last question. It was almost as if someone had put Luce on pause, as if she’d suddenly been reminded it wasn’t anything to do with her. Which it wasn’t.

‘Errrr…’ Luce appeared to be struggling to pull herself together here. ‘No…You’re totally right…I wouldn’t have even mentioned it if I wasn’t kicking myself over that GI Joe thing.’

Right, Okay. Why might Luce be suddenly interested in Ollie’s sex life? It didn’t make sense at all. Even if Luce hadn’t been out of his league, the kind of one night stands Luce dealt in weren’t Ollie’s style at all.

Izzy had a sudden thought. ‘Have you emailed Ollie at all since he left?’

Luce pulled the corners of her mouth down, and shook her head. ‘No.’

Exactly as Izzy imagined. So there was no reason at all for Luce to be getting her thong in a twist over this then.

Izzy’s phone beeped, and she looked away from Luce as she opened the text. It was Dida. No surprise there.

GI Joe’s? Let’s have a Vintage Cinema Club Progress Meeting

Izzy banged off a return text,

Good idea - tomorrow before we open? xx

When Izzy looked up again, Luce was already half way down the cinema, and disappearing behind a large wardrobe.