Never Can Say Goodbye (28 page)

‘So, this Joseph?’

‘Arrived when I’d been back at Masons’ for a couple of months. Not only was he drafted in to be my opposite number in the
menswear departments, but he was also the Masons’ son and heir.’

‘Ah.’ Dexter nodded, topping up their spritzers. ‘The family golden boy learning the ropes from the ground up?’

‘Exactly.’ Frankie sighed. ‘He was a couple of years older than me, and when I first started as a trainee he was away at university,
and he lived in London, and although I’d heard about him, we’d never met.’

‘And it was love at first sight?’

‘More or less. Or at least, I thought so.’ Frankie sighed. ‘God, I was so gullible.’

Dexter leaned across the table. ‘I think I can guess the rest. You don’t have to tell me.’

‘No one can guess how stupid I felt,’ Frankie said hotly. ‘I’d had plenty of boyfriends before and thought I’d been in love,
but it was nothing like this. I was three million per cent besotted and I assumed he was too. He certainly appeared to be.
At least when we were on our own.’

Dexter pulled a face. ‘But not at work?’

Frankie shook her head. ‘At Masons’, Joseph and I worked as equals, and went to fashion shows together, and had meetings with
designers together. Ostensibly as colleagues. Nothing more. Only we knew. Our lives were completely entwined, and I really
thought he felt the same way as I did. So when he suggested that he should move out of his flat in London, and move into my
flat to save the commute, I was the happiest person in the entire world.’

The pretty young waitress returned, expertly carrying several dishes.

‘Mushroom and spinach open ravioli?’ She looked seductively at Dexter.

‘For the lady.’

‘Oh, right.’ She put the massive bowl in front of Frankie, still looking at Dexter. ‘So you’re the polenta, blue cheese and
red onion pie?’

‘I am.’ He smiled at her.

She placed the second huge bowl lovingly in front of him. ‘And here’s the creamy country baby vegetables, and a portion of
steamed potatoes with garden herbs, and some of Billy’s famous Ballater scones. Enjoy.’

‘We will – thank you,’ Dexter said softly as the waitress skipped away.

‘Stop it.’ Frankie laughed. ‘She was blushing.’

‘She was sweet – and we will never in a million years eat all this. And if we do we’ll never move again.’

Frankie inhaled the delicious fragrances rising from the bowls of incredible food. ‘Woo – this is all amazing. But you’re
right – we should have ordered one dish and shared. OK, let’s see how far we get.’

‘While you tell me more about Joseph the bastard.’

‘You’re right – it’s like being in therapy. Are you sure you really want to hear the whole sorry tale? Oh, wow, this is incredible.’

‘Mine too,’ Dexter agreed. ‘And yes, I do want to hear the rest. So, he moved into your flat and … ?’

‘We played happy families,’ Frankie murmured round her ravioli. ‘I was in heaven. I loved sharing my entire life with him.
And because of Masons’ pretty old-fashioned attitude to inter-staff relationships we still kept it quiet at work, so not one
person knew or guessed about us, which added an extra
frisson
to the whole affair. We had a blissful time for nearly a year.’

Dexter spooned more creamy baby vegetables onto both plates.

Frankie shook her head. ‘I’ll pop if I eat all those.’

‘No you won’t. And it would be a sin to leave any. So, go on.’

Frankie swallowed. So far it had been easy. Not quite so now. ‘This particular day, the Masons’ hierarchy were visiting. Joe
Mason senior, Joseph’s father, was the MD and he had an office in the store, but his two brothers, Joseph’s uncles, were
also joint majority shareholders, held the purse strings, and didn’t often visit Winterbrook. So them being in the store was
a really big deal. We all had to make sure everything was perfect. Joseph and I had been stocking our departments, making
sure everything was just so, and had been down in the basement collecting some point of sale things advertising our new lines
… ’

Frankie stopped and took a gulp of her spritzer.

Dexter helped himself to more potatoes and looked across the table. ‘OK, now stop. Please don’t upset yourself.’

‘I’m not. Honestly. Well, we piled all these placards and posters and things into the service lift, knowing we only had about
an hour to get everything in place for the uncles’ visitation. And we were laughing and messing about, the way you do. And
I … ’ Frankie stopped and laughed. ‘And I just grabbed him and kissed him.’

Dexter paused in eating, his fork suspended. ‘Right? And kissing is against the law in Masons’, is it?’

‘No, but as I said, I’d never, ever even given any hint at all that Joseph and I were an item at work, so it seemed sort of
madly daring.’

‘Yeah, OK, but you were in the lift. Alone in the lift. So … ?’

‘Our departments were on the second floor, but the lift suddenly stopped at the ground floor. The doors opened and there was
Mr Mason senior and the two uncles who’d arrived early.’

Dexter chuckled. ‘Getting a full-on view of an X-rated floor show?’

‘Getting a full-on view of me and Joseph kissing, yes.’

‘And they all had mass heart attacks, or fits of the vapours? They sound like a lot of old maids.’

‘They all laughed.’ Frankie swallowed. ‘Laughed. And made a lot of weird remarks about keeping up the family tradition and
everything.’

‘OK,’ Dexter said slowly. ‘And … ?’

‘Oh, and OK, to cut the rest of it mercifully short, Joseph laughed too and pushed me away and said something really strange
about it being the way he’d been brought up. And he was keeping a tally of all his shop-girl conquests. And that he didn’t
even remember my name.’

‘What?’ Dexter frowned. ‘Was he mad?’

‘No, just a cowardly bastard. He denied knowing me. He kept referring to me as the ladieswear manager, that’s all. We lived
together, he’d tumbled out of my bed that morning, and he still made me sound like some silly cheap tart.’ Frankie stared
away across the restaurant, watching Ash and Ella in the kitchen laughing together, clearly madly in love, as they cooked.
‘I felt like he’d slapped me in the face in public. I couldn’t believe it. The Masons all crammed into the lift and started
talking about business as if I wasn’t there. And Joseph carried on ignoring me. When we got to our floor, he was still talking
Mason business and walked away with them, and left me and the point of sale stuff just, well, there.’

‘Wow.’ Dexter exhaled. ‘And you thought I was bad.’

‘Oh, I’m sure you’ve had your moments.’ Frankie smiled sadly. ‘But I doubt even you could behave like that. Anyway, that was
it. I was walking about in a daze. When the uncles did their royal tour, Joseph was with them, and they all sort of sniggered
at me. I didn’t know what was happening. I mean, I knew that our relationship was secret, I just hadn’t realised quite how
secret.’

‘And once the uncles had gone?’

‘Joseph just said he was moving out of the flat and that I mustn’t ever tell anyone that he’d lived there or that we’d ever
been lovers. If I did he’d deny it. He was in a real panic and talked like someone out of the nineteen thirties … He said,
as heir to the Mason fortune, he could never consider settling down with someone who worked on the shop floor. He actually
said his father wouldn’t allow him to marry anyone in
trade
.’

‘Christ. He’d been got at? By the whole family.’

‘Big time. He, apparently, was all lined up to marry someone else. The daughter of another department store king. He also
said his father had suggested I was paid off, to avoid any complications.’

‘Bloody hell. It’s like something out of the Victorian era. They couldn’t do that, surely?’

‘Oh, they could, and did. They trumped all sorts of falling sales figures in my departments, and several misdemeanours, and
all sorts of rubbish. I didn’t care. All I cared about was that Joseph, who I loved with all my heart, had been lying to me
all along. We had a row, of course. In private. Later. He actually told me I was nothing to him. My flat was just a handy
bolt-hole to save him commuting to and from London each day, and I was, well, a bit on the side. A dalliance, I think he said.
And that I had to be mad to think he’d even consider marrying a shop girl.’

‘Who the hell wrote his script? Noël Coward?’ Dexter took her hand across the table. ‘But didn’t you fight it?’

Frankie shook her head. ‘I was so confused, so hurt, so bloody heartbroken, I just wanted to get as far away as possible.
I never wanted to see Joseph or Masons’ again. So, I took the pay-off and left. Joseph sent someone else to clear his stuff
out of my flat – a friend he could trust, I suppose – straight away.
And I holed up in my flat for the worst weeks of my life, and then, when the money was running out and I knew I had to stop
crying and start eating and get a grip on reality and look for another job, well, I saw Rita’s advert for an assistant in
the
Winterbrook Advertiser
, and she said she knew Lilly was looking for someone to share her house.’ She looked down at their hands entwined across
the table and smiled. ‘And here I am. Bloodied but unbowed or whatever it is they say.’

Dexter said nothing for a moment. Then he sighed. ‘Right, I
am
going to kill him.’

‘You’ll have a long trip,’ Frankie chuckled. ‘The other-store heiress was from Sydney. Apparently they live in amalgamated
post-continental entrepreneurial bliss in Australia.’

‘Global village.’ Dexter sniffed. ‘Only twenty-four hours away. I can still get him.’

‘Leave ’im, Dexter – he ain’t wurf it.’ Frankie giggled.

He shook his head. ‘OK, now I understand a lot more, and I don’t blame you for not trusting anyone, but, honestly, men like
Joseph-the-slimeball are rare. It was awful for you that he was clearly one of the worst, but there are decent men out there.
Plenty of them. Haven’t you been out with anyone since?’

‘Oh, yes, a few. But only on a very casual basis. Men I’ve known were safe and weren’t likely to hurt me – certainly no one
serious, and no one that I really cared about. It’s the only way I can cope with relationships, you see.’

‘Yes, but you shouldn’t let –’

The waitress arrived to clear their main course dishes. She and Dexter did the flirty thing again as she handed them the pudding
menus and shimmied away.

‘I absolutely can’t eat anything else, which is such a shame.’
Frankie gazed down at the list of delicious and incredible desserts. ‘Oh, look it says they’re all made by Ella – she was
the pudding queen on
Dewberrys’ Dinners
, I remember now. Oooh, the hazelnut and Irish cream meringue sounds pretty scrummy, doesn’t it? Actually I think I might
just be able to manage that.’

‘You’d better not be sick in my Mercedes.’

‘We could do one pud and two spoons?’

‘OK.’

‘You are such a pushover.’ Frankie laughed. ‘Anyway, now I’ve bared my soul, it’s your turn.’

Dexter shook his head. ‘No way. Not tonight. And I hope you’re not still beating yourself up over it. None of it was your
fault … ’ He paused and, with the same flirting with the pretty waitress, ordered the required pudding.

When she’d gone, he looked at Frankie again, then he reached for her hand. ‘And anyway, as I know only too well, none of us
can help who we fall in love with, can we?’

‘You’re such a clever girl,’ Brian said admiringly to Cherish as they pushed their way through the last-minute Christmas shoppers
in Winterbrook, late on a grey and bitterly cold afternoon. ‘This is a much better idea than mine.’

Cherish, snuggled warmly in her faded mink-coloured coat and with her brown and fawn knitted pull-on hat pulled down low over
her forehead, blushed. She’d not been called a girl for years, and had never been called clever before. Not even by her parents.

‘It just seemed to make sense,’ she said, being buffeted backwards and forwards by the crowds who all just wanted to buy something
– anything – for their nearest and dearest and get home, out of the Siberian weather, before proper darkness fell. ‘I mean,
if we’re both having our Christmases alone, and buying ourselves gifts, then I thought buying each other’s made much more
sense. At least, that way we’ll have some surprises on Christmas morning, won’t we?’

‘We will, gel,’ Brian said cheerfully. ‘So, we’re both spending
exactly the amount of money we agreed on? No more, no less? What was it? A quarter on the Christmas stocking fillers and three-quarters
on the other things? And we’ve got an hour before we meet up again?’

Cherish nodded. She hadn’t had so much fun for absolutely ages.

‘And we’ll meet up in the coffee shop in Masons’, gel?’

‘In exactly one hour,’ Cherish said happily. ‘Shall we synchronise our watches?’

‘Uh?’ Brian looked a bit startled. ‘Oh, right, check the time, you mean. OK, gel, let’s go for it. We have exactly one hour
starting from … now.’

Cherish watched Brian, tall and dishevelled in his duffle coat, his wild hair looking like candyfloss in the wind, as he pushed
his way across Winterbrook’s main street. She laughed to herself, wondering what nonsensical presents he’d buy for her. She
knew exactly what she was going to buy for him. She’d planned it all carefully, as she planned everything.

It was so exciting, choosing presents for someone who might actually appreciate them, and, Cherish thought, frowning as several
teenagers barged into her without even saying sorry, Brian deserved to have a really happy Christmas.

Making sure he was well out of sight, she took a deep breath and plunged into the heaving crowds in the first shop.

Forty-five minutes later, Cherish, carrying masses of bags and feeling happier than she could ever remember, inhaled the rich
exotic scents in Masons’ ground-floor perfumery department. She’d never worn scent. Well, her mother had favoured Tweed, and
she’d sometimes had a little spray of that, but it wasn’t something she’d ever really indulged in. No, her nice lily of the
valley bath cubes and matching talc did her very nicely. Perfume, she’d always felt, was completely wasted when there was
no one else there to enjoy it.