Читать книгу The Vintage Cinema Club - Jane Linfoot - Страница 22

Monday Afternoon, 9th June

IZZY & LUCE

Vintage at the Cinema

Hand signals and hidden messages

Pssst. Stop messing about with cushions and get over here quick. Talent in the grey section x

Izzy hooked the ribbon garland she was hanging on the stepladders, took out her phone, and read the text message from Luce.

Luce could arguably have walked across the shop and said the words to her, in the time it took to send the text, but Luce had been playing hide and seek all morning, and still was this afternoon. Wherever Izzy had been – and actually she’d been everywhere, desperately assessing ways she could make things better – Luce had made sure she was somewhere else. Izzy wasn’t quite sure why Luce was avoiding her. It was obviously something sparked by Ollie’s email, but although she wracked her brains, Izzy couldn’t imagine what it could be, other than that Luce was feeling mega guilty about the tanning shop name.

As for Luce’s messages about talent, after Friday’s delivery fiasco, Izzy wasn’t sure she wanted anything more to do with Luce’s particular brand of talent spotting. The wave of crashing anticlimax that had engulfed Izzy since Friday evening made no sense at all. A guy she had no interest in was flagged up as unavailable, end of story. Right now, there was no space for romance in her schedule, regardless of whichever hot guy popped his head over the parapet. The radical re-styling of the stock she was working on in response to the Vintage Cinema Club crisis was a welcome distraction, that kept her mind off a certain man she shouldn’t be thinking about at all.

‘What do you want?’ Izzy squinted across the store to where Luce had now bobbed up behind the counter. She was handing a receipt to a customer who was propping up a gigantic mirror, by the main desk.

Luce gave a nod in the direction of a monumental grey armoire, and held up five fingers. Izzy got the message. Hot guy, five star rating.

But then Luce flashed her fingers again. And again.

In hand signal terms Izzy read this as a cross between a red alert and a mayday signal. She craned her neck to see, but despite being half way up a ladder, she failed to get a view past the massive butler’s pantry piece. Luce’s hands were both flapping now, so Izzy untangled herself from the ribbons, climbed down, and went across.

‘He’s here.’ Luce was hissing excitedly. ‘Over there by the chiffonnière, looking at the daybeds and the chests of drawers. It’s the guy you delivered to.’

Izzy felt her heart fray, and her stomach lurched, and landed somewhere down by her knees ‘Forget the hot. I told you, he’s taken.’

She fished in her pocket, pulled out some gum, unwrapped it, and chomped on it hard. One unavailable guy elsewhere, she could cope with. Having him dangled under her nose, yet again, seemed downright unfair.

Luce brushed away Izzy’s protest. ‘Whatever, he’s doing just what he did on Friday. Taking pictures on his phone, then talking to someone. Look out, he’s turning this way.’

Izzy chewed, narrowing her eyes to get a better view, then as the broad shoulders turned towards her, and she snapped her head away.

Luce breathed in Izzy’s ear. ‘Wow, from the look of pure lust he’s just given you, I’d say you’re in big trouble, of the best sort. I know a come on when I see one, and that’s the hottest one I’ve seen from twenty yards in ages.’

Izzy plunged down behind the counter.

‘Hide if you like, but I’m going to see what’s going on.’

Luce might look waif-like, but once she decided something, there was little point in arguing.

Izzy, crouched on the floor, grabbed a strawberry Hubba Bubba from her pocket. Whenever the going got tough, it always helped if she chewed. She began to rearrange the boxes on the shelves under the counter. Now she came to look, there was enough chaos to keep her down here for most of the afternoon. That sounded like half a hot man avoidance plan, but with Luce racing around the store in trouble shooter mode, there was no knowing what might happen. Izzy might be better to make a run for it. Through the slice of space between the counter side, and Luce’s rail of dresses, Izzy had a view straight through the shop doorway, to where Chou-fleur was parked, out on the road. She was just contemplating a dash for safety, when Luce’s yell echoed across the shop.

‘Izzy!’

Shit. What now? Izzy wasn’t sure how Luce balling across the shop fitted in with the improved customer service initiative. Izzy didn’t move. Sometimes if you stayed completely still, whatever you didn’t want to face would go away.

‘Izzy…’ Luce was definitely persistent. It just goes to show that the quiet ones were always the ones you needed to watch out for.

Hunched down, in the shadows under the counter, it reminded Izzy of how she used to hide under her bed and freeze when she was younger, and hope the shouting would stop when her parents were having their worst slanging matches, in the last few weeks when their mum had decided she wanted out, and family life had imploded.

‘Izzy…Where are you?’ Luce’s voice was nearer now. Definitely not giving up then.

Izzy looked up to see Luce’s face peering at her over the edge of the counter.

‘There you are.’ Luce shook her head, and gave Izzy a scolding scowl. ‘Can you come over here right now please, because Xander’s interested in buying your bed.’

So it was Xander now. Xander somehow sounded a suitably arrogant enough name for him. As for Luce, she certainly didn’t hang about, getting to know people.

To Izzy’s horror, a second later there was a blur of choppy brown hair, and then the face of a horribly familiar guy was staring down at her too.

Skip guy? Pink house guy? Hot guy? Or how about none of the above, because this was the original Mr Smoulder, and he appeared to be getting a view right up her dress, yet again.

Izzy grabbed at the folds of her skirt, scrabbling to pull it down. Somehow her footless tights offered very little cover at all the way she was sitting.

‘Xander, this is Izzy, she’s busy doing a spot of undercover tidying.’ Luce beamed down at Izzy. ‘I think you two already met.’

Izzy chomped furiously to steady her nerves. Nerves? That would include heart leap frogging out of her chest, too.

‘I think we have.’ Xander was talking in his best, husky, spine shivering drawl, and gazing down at her. He cocked one superior eyebrow at Izzy, from on high. ‘So hello Izzy, or rather, hello, again. Can I smell bubble gum?’

Bubble gum? Cheeky sod. As for her meeting him scrunched up on the floor, talk about setting off at a disadvantage. Again. Izzy gathered her legs together, and she pushed herself to her feet, but even when she pulled herself up to her full five foot three, and took a deep, deep breath, somehow both Luce and Xander still seemed to tower over her.

‘Right. Interested in a bed? Which bed would that be?’ And dammit that Izzy had just given a defiant flounce of her skirt. She really didn’t want to come across as pouty and head tossing and petulant, but something about this guy made her horribly fighty.

Luce butted in. ‘Xander’s shopping with a stack of interior magazine pictures on his phone showing exactly what he’s wanting, and the bed in your room at home is just what he’s looking for. And technically it is for sale, isn’t it Izzy, even if you’re using it right now? It’s the least we can do, given the amount of things Xander needs to buy.’

Luce gave Izzy a fierce “don’t you dare refuse, think of the sales” glare, then turned to Xander with one of her more melting smiles. ‘We always like to go that extra yard for our customers.’

Izzy’s heart sank. She wasn’t sure about extra yards, this felt like an extra mile at least, and definitely a mile too far.

But Luce was on a roll here. ‘Fine, that’s organised then, I’ll cover for you here Izzy, whist you whizz Xander round to yours, so he can check it out.’

Izzy gave a groan. ‘Fine. Looks like we’re going then.’

Not what she wanted, not what she’d planned. But the faster she did it, the sooner it would be over, and, as Luce knew, Izzy could do with turning the bed into cash. She only had it at home because it had been on display for ages and hadn’t sold.

As for Xander, the name sounded pretentious enough for the guy. Xander. Still unsmiling. Still unavailable. Still drop dead…

Whatever.

At least that got the introductions out of the way.