Chapter 12
The man – boy really – came up to the counter and plonked down an enormous bottle of shampoo.
As he handed over a five-pound note, Bella glanced at his face. It was bright red. ‘Are you OK?’
‘Yeah, just—’ He cleared his throat and seemed not to notice that she was trying to hand him a penny and a receipt. ‘I just wondered if you wanted to get a drink sometime.’
She looked at him, briefly appraising. ‘Sorry, I’ve got a boyfriend,’ she said.
Millie looked up from her till as the boy sloped, shamefaced, out of the sliding doors. ‘Why did you tell him that?’
‘What?’
‘You haven’t got a boyfriend, have you?’
‘Well, no, but—’
‘Ah, he was cute! You should have given him a chance!’
Bella shrugged. In truth, she’d panicked, said the first thing she could think of. He had been quite cute. She probably should have given him her number or something. But too late now.
‘He’ll be back,’ Millie predicted.
‘You reckon? I think that shampoo will probably last him about a year!’
They both laughed.
Working in the pharmacy could be boring, but the other staff were fun and they often found something to giggle about.
Sarah had disappeared to uni two years ago and although they kept in touch with the odd email or text, her life had diverged so far from Bella’s that it was as if they were two strangers, staying in touch just for the sake of it.
But she’d found a new group of people at work, was trying to make something of herself. Kitty was always at her to get pharmacist training, but it just didn’t appeal.
‘You know it’s not too late to study, to do something different,’ Kitty was fond of saying. ‘I can help you, and Dad will.’
‘Dad doesn’t even remember I exist.’
‘Come on, that’s not fair.’
But even Kitty could probably hear the falseness in her words. Dad was wrapped up in a brand-new family, a brand-new life. Linda had given birth to two boys in quick succession and now they had half-siblings two decades their juniors.
She couldn’t explain to Kitty how her life, however small it might seem to her hot-shot lawyer big sister, was big enough. That she might not be stimulated, or particularly fulfilled, but at least she felt safe.