Breaking the Ice (17 page)

‘
Should I have pretended to be Barack Obama?’

‘
Maybe, at least there’s less chance she’s met him and you might have been able to do a more convincing accent.’

‘
I can do Northern, Duck.’

‘
That wasn’t very good.’

‘
Well, anyhow, Mrs Randall told me about the meeting and she said the council would be more than happy to hear any proposals you had to make on improvements and future potential of the hall at that meeting. It would all be taken on board when the decision making process is in progress,’ Jimmy informed her.

‘
Hear my proposals? I don’t
have
any proposals. What have you done? I’m not the manager here, I’m just a box office assistant,’ Samantha exclaimed in horror.

‘
I think that will be changing soon. I suggested you as my replacement, me as in me being Dave and Mrs Randall said she would be giving you a call about becoming the temporary manager,’ Jimmy continued.

‘
Temporary manager,’ Samantha repeated her eyes glazing over as she considered the job title.

‘
Yes, but temporary doesn’t mean temporary. I’m sure it will become permanent, it’s just a formality,’ Jimmy responded.

‘
Manager of the Civic Hall,’ Samantha spoke, the words almost taking away her breath.

Her, Samantha Smith, in charge, running things, managing. She would be able to ensure that the Berry Fruits situation never arose again!

And then the excitement she felt was suddenly swamped with a feeling of terror. Being in charge meant the buck stopped with her. There would be no one to confer with, no one to advise her, no one to fall back on and no one else to blame for mistakes. And what if the hall
did
close and she had been the manager in charge of the failing amenity? She would be to blame for the job losses, Felicity, Jane, Karen, Aaron, Milo and Margaret and Mabel in the restaurant.

‘
I know what you’re thinking, but I know you can do this,’ Jimmy stated hurriedly as if able to read her mind.

‘
I don’t have any ideas or proposals. I can’t speak in front of a council meeting, I can’t do it. I cannot do it!’ Samantha exclaimed in almost a scream.

‘
And you said that last night about the spiral and what happened? By the end of the session you really had it,’ Jimmy reminded her.

‘
That isn’t the same,’ Samantha replied.

‘
It’s exactly the same. It’s all about you not having any confidence in yourself and what you’re capable of,’ Jimmy spoke and he held both her arms and looked at her sincerely.

‘
I don’t know the first thing about proposals, or public speaking, I…’ Samantha began.

‘
We can work on it. I said I’d help you and now we know what we need to do. We need to find out what the other hall has that the Civic Hall doesn’t. We need to implement some new schemes to get more people through the door and I’ve given a friend of mine a call about developing a web page for posting a diary of events and doing on-line booking,’ Jimmy informed.

‘
But I shouldn’t spend money. We need to save money and…’ Samantha spoke as she again began to worry, fear pummeling her chest.

‘
Relax, it won’t cost the hall anything. He owes me a favour,’ Jimmy insisted.

‘
Why are you doing this? Why do you want to help me?’

‘
Well, for one I’m getting a very capable and improving student ice dancer to work with and secondly - I think you’re genuine and loyal and you need a bit of a break. There aren’t many genuine people in my world right now,’ Jimmy told her sincerely.

Samantha took a deep breath and then she realised he was holding her arms. She caught sight of the Minstrel eyes and quickly stepped backwards in a sudden and awkward motion, knocking Dave’s packet of biscuits off the desk and onto the floor.

There was a knock on the door and Felicity appeared.

‘
Sorry to interrupt but there’s a phone call for you and I thought it sounded important,’ Felicity spoke as she watched Samantha’s face turn red as she picked the biscuit packet up.

‘
It can’t be for me, I don’t get personal calls here,’ Samantha retorted nervously pushing her hair back behind her ears.

‘
It isn’t a personal call. It’s Mrs Randall from the council - she asked for you specifically,’ Felicity continued.

‘
Hey, see! I told you, go and take the call,’ Jimmy said encouragingly.

Samantha’s cheeks reddened even more and she hurried from Dave’s office to the front desk where the call awaited.

Twelve

The temporary manager. She was the temporary manager of Woolston Civic Hall. They were even going to pr
ovide her with a new name badge. Samantha Smith, Manager. Dave had left. He had phoned the council from the airport. He was joining his cruise ship, setting sail on his new career journey pissing off holidaymakers and probably arranging COCKS (Cruise Operatives Certificate for Keen Service). It would no doubt involve a large meal onboard and a grope behind the lifeboats. His reign had ended and Samantha was now in charge.

She hadn’t known what to say to Mrs Randall and when the call finished she couldn’t remember exactly what she
had
said. Fortunately, Mrs Randall had done a lot of talking so Samantha’s stunned silence had probably just come across as attentive listening, or so she hoped. She did remember that she had had a lump in her throat when Mrs Randall told her of her appointment. That, she decided, was probably a good thing as it partially blocked her urge to hyperventilate. She was sure she had managed a ‘yes’, a ‘thank you’ and a ‘goodbye’, although she couldn’t really be sure.

Even now, as she watched the ice show going on in front of her, she still couldn’t believe she was in charge of the hall and all its functions. It was both terrifying and exciting. A bit like ice skating really.

Samantha was so engrossed in her thoughts, trying to determine how she was going to convince the council the Civic Hall was a local necessity that she didn’t see Cleo approaching.

‘
Is Darren here?’ Cleo whispered as she sidled up to Samantha’s shoulder.

‘
What? No, no he isn’t. What are you doing out of your seat? There’s fifteen minutes before the interval,’ Samantha remarked, checking her watch.

‘
Well I’ve seen the show haven’t I, I know what’s coming. This is the boring bit - that skinny Russian chick being flung around on a chair,’ Cleo spoke and indicated the performers taking to the ice.

‘
Sshh, keep your voice down. It’s very difficult to use a prop on the ice you know - they’re very unpredictable,’ Samantha informed her.

‘
So, when are you going out with Darren again?’ Cleo questioned.

‘
Sshh,’ Samantha hissed as a woman in a row near to them looked around at their chatting.

‘
Sorry! So when are you seeing him again?’ Cleo asked, lowering her voice a notch.

‘
I don’t know. Go back to your seat, you’re causing a fire hazard by standing here,’ Samantha informed her sister.

‘
Two women in the toilets were saying that Jimmy Lloyd must be back on the booze. Apparently he dropped his partner the other night, almost blood on the rink. You never mentioned it,’ Cleo continued in hushed tones.

‘
That’s a complete exaggeration. He didn’t drop her and it was her fault actually,’ Samantha replied hurriedly and rather more loudly than she had anticipated.

The woman who had looked at them before turned around again and glared.

‘
Well the women in the loos said they saw him after the show and he had a really ruddy complexion and
starey
eyes - you know - like he’d been downing scotch in the interval,’ Cleo carried on.

‘
I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous. That’s how gossip starts. You shouldn’t listen to it and you definitely shouldn’t be passing it on,’ Samantha exclaimed angrily.

‘
Sshh Sam, you’re shouting,’ Cleo told her as the woman looked around again and this time gave a loud tut of disgust.

‘
Well, fancy starting a rumour like that! Especially spreading it around in a public place,’ Samantha continued, beginning to perspire.

‘
Calm down Sam, and keep your voice down. God I wish I hadn’t told you now. I didn’t think you were going to go all crazy on me,’ Cleo replied.

‘
I’m not going crazy I just don’t think people should spread gossip like that, particularly when there’s not an ounce of truth in it,’ Samantha told her sister.

‘
Whoa! OK, don’t shoot the messenger. I’m sorry I relayed the awful, untrue gossip and I won’t repeat it to anyone else. Will that do?’ Cleo asked her.

‘
What are you doing here anyway? You only saw the show a few nights ago,’ Samantha commented as she tried to gather her composure.

‘
Well, I gave some tickets to these clients I met when I showed them round a house the other day, but Sarah, the girl, had to go and visit a sick aunt or something. So Jeremy and I have Paul as our gooseberry. He insisted we accompany him. I think he thinks he can get us to knock ten grand off the house he likes,’ Cleo explained.

‘
Well perhaps you ought to go back to your seat and help Jeremy. It’s only ten minutes until the interval and I have to get my skates on before I get weighed down with ice creams,’ Samantha spoke, wanting to get rid of her sister.

‘
Yeah OK, I get the hint. But I will wait up with hot chocolate and I expect all the information on Darren. By the way I know what happened last night, Jeremy told me. We had coffees, Worcester sauce crisps and curry here - bless you,’ Cleo spoke with a smile, backing away from Samantha.

Samantha smiled back at Cleo, glad Jeremy hadn’t noticed her outrageous flirting with Jimmy and also glad he hadn’t mentioned the puking down the side of the taxi.

When she was sure Cleo was completely gone and not returning
, her smile dropped. She had defended Jimmy rather too fiercely and again without thinking before opening her mouth. What did she really know about him and his problems? All she knew was that he had perfect eyes, perfect hair and a perfect smile. He was kind and funny and, although she knew she shouldn’t, she liked the way he held her when they skated. And this morning she had managed a whole conversation with him without having a panic attack. That had to be a good thing didn’t it?

‘
Miss Smith, Civic Hall manager! How was your first evening in charge?’ Jimmy asked her as she skated onto the rink to join him after the show.

‘
Uneventful, which is good. Down to less than two thousand Berry Fruits which is even better,’ Samantha spoke.

‘
What?’

‘
Oh, sorry, just stock control on the ice creams.’

‘
Stock control - you’re talking like a true leader,’ Jimmy told her, taking hold of her hand and smiling.

‘
But it’s just ice cream. It isn’t standing up in front of Woolston Borough Council trying to save the hall. Maybe dealing with an ice cream situation is my limit,’ Samantha suggested as they began to skate around the rink to warm up.

‘
Well I don’t think anything much has changed. Dave may have had the fancy job title but I think you know you ran the hall,’ Jimmy stated.

‘
No offence but you’ve only been here just over a week, how can you…’ Samantha began.

‘
I’m a terrific judge of character! Ask anyone. So, shall we skate? Try the routine again? Learn a little more?’ Jimmy suggested to her.

Samantha nodded. At the moment, with Cleo on her back about the imaginary Darren and the hall in crisis with her at the helm, meeting Jimmy in the solitude of the auditorium was what she looked forward to more than anything. And when she skated she somehow changed from Samantha Smith Miss Self-Conscious to Samantha Smith Ice Queen. Well, maybe not quite worthy of the title of Ice Queen yet, but she was definitely improving.

The routine Jimmy was teaching her wasn’t one from the show, but one he had performed in a previous ice tour, ‘Pop on the Ice’. Although not very technical it did include some overhead lifts, some tricky footwork and spins. So far they had only got a quarter of the way through learning it.

‘
Are you ready to learn a lift?’ Jimmy enquired as they stopped skating at the end of the section they had learned.

‘
No, no thanks,’ Samantha answered straight away and she hurriedly skated away from him.

‘
Come on, it isn’t really all that hard. We could just start with a roll up into a crucifix hold or something. It’s simple really, once you learn how to position your body,’ Jimmy spoke as he followed her across the ice.

‘
It’s fine, I’d rather not. I’m a keeping my feet on the ground kind of girl,’ Samantha answered, upping her pace to try and shake him off.

‘
Now hang on, you promised me you’d let me teach you - let me teach you this,’ Jimmy spoke, skating in front of her so she couldn’t avoid him.

‘
Yes and you said skating, not lifting. I didn’t sign up for being thrown in the air. Besides I’m sure the crucifix position was what did for Jesus,’ Samantha spoke as she attempted to swerve out of his way.