The Second Chance Shoe Shop (20 page)

I
t had been
a few days since Riley had been fired, but she desperately wanted to see the competition through to the end. Online she was still the bright and bubbly Riley Flynn, manager of Chandler’s Shoe Shop and a judge in a competition. Offline she was miserable, weepy Riley Flynn, with a broken heart and no job.

She’d decided that she was going to go into Hedworth the next day. She’d text Sadie in the morning, ask her to let her know when Suzanne wasn’t in the shop, and then she’d gather the rest of her belongings. There wasn’t much that she had left behind, but she also wanted to take one last look around the place where she had been so happy. Then she would walk out with her head held high.

She would find another job, even if she had to temp and work her way up from the bottom. Taking part in the flash mob had given her the confidence she needed to realise she could do so much more if she wanted to.

As well as a new job, she would find a new Ethan. It had been a week since she’d seen him, spoken to him, or had any kind of communication with him. Still, her heart ached for him, her arms wanted to drape themselves around him.

Really, she didn’t want to find any new things. She was happy with the old things. Or rather, she had been until recently. Even Sadie and Dan had been quieter since they’d gone back to Chandler’s. Riley was glad, in a way. They had got their priorities straight, and maybe they thought it would be awkward for her to hear about the shop now.

‘Riley Flynn, will you listen to yourself,’ she scolded, out loud. ‘You’re not about to give up that easily.’

She was dozing on the settee when the buzzer to the door woke her. She glanced at the clock. It was 10:15 p.m. Riley frowned. It was late for anyone to be calling unless it was bad news. She rushed across to the intercom.

‘Hello?’

‘Riley, it’s Suzanne. I . . . could I talk to you?’

Riley stood still for a moment, shocked. Then she buzzed Suzanne into the building.

‘I’m on the first floor, flat 4,’ Riley said into the intercom.

Checking her face to see that she didn’t look too much of a mess, she quickly changed out of her pyjamas and into a pair of skinny jeans and an oversized jumper. A brush through her hair would have to suffice, as a knock came at her door.

Suzanne stood there, looking every bit as nervous as Riley felt.

Riley made a sweeping gesture to beckon her in. ‘Would you like a coffee?’

‘No thanks.’ Suzanne shook her head. ‘I won’t be staying long. But thank you for taking the time to talk to me.’

Riley pointed to the settee as she sunk into the armchair, drawing her feet up at her side. Unsure what this was all about, she waited for Suzanne to speak.

‘Beautiful place you have here,’ Suzanne said, looking around the room. ‘It looks like a lovely place to live.’

‘It is.’ Riley’s tone was snippy. She wanted to know what Suzanne had called for, and wished she’d stop acting all nicey-nicey. ‘Is there something that you want?’ she asked.

‘I think it’s best if I come clean straight away.’ Suzanne swallowed, wringing her hands as they rested in her lap. ‘I’m sorry for being so angry with you all the time. I thought I was acting for the best, and I now realise I wasn’t. But, as you said on that tweet, there are two sides to every story.’

Riley didn’t understand what Suzanne was referring to.

‘You had every right to be angry that Max was taking money from the till.’ Suzanne glanced at Riley fleetingly before her head dipped again. ‘I hadn’t realised until it was too late. I’m broke. Max has gambled everything away, our credit cards are up to their limits and I have no favours to call in.

‘Soon after Dad died, I made Max a joint partner in the business. I thought he wanted to make a success of the shop and then maybe we’d buy a few more around Hedworth. I didn’t know that he had a gambling addiction. Before he left, he told me that he’d only stayed married to me for so long because he wanted the money when Dad died. I gave him thousands, only now realising he had lost his job and had no income.’

‘I thought he was away, working in Italy?’ said Riley.

Suzanne shook her head. ‘I threw him out.’

‘Oh!’ Riley decided that Suzanne did have some balls after all.

‘Max bled me dry. That’s why I was so desperate for the shop to do well. I needed it for an income. I don’t have anything else. And I couldn’t let my father down. He worked so hard to keep Chandler’s going over the years and here I was, coming along and making a hash of everything and running the shop into the ground. You were the one who was keeping it going, Riley, and I wanted it to be me. I . . . I was jealous of your rapport with people, your business knowledge. You knew how to run the shop better than I ever would. And never has that been clearer than when I sacked you.’

Riley cringed. It had been the lowest moment of her life.

‘Since I sacked you, I’ve tried to run the shop single-handedly. I wanted to make it work all by myself, but I’ve realised how much you did. Dan and Sadie pull their weight and keep the shop floor running, smoothly I might add. But it’s the day-to-day running of the business that you do so well. I couldn’t do that without you. I made enough of a hash of it that Dan and Sadie wanted to leave too! I assume you know they walked out?’

‘They were only protecting me,’ said Riley. ‘I told them to go back. I don’t want them to lose their jobs too.’

‘They won’t.’ Suzanne shook her head. ‘I must admit, I hadn’t the heart to go in the day after it happened. So it was quite a surprise when I arrived to see that Sadie and Dan had not only returned that morning but had opened the shop. I thought they’d both walked out for good. I was sure that they wouldn’t come back after how terrible I’d been.’ Suzanne looked at Riley then. ‘I don’t want Chandler’s to close,’ she admitted. ‘And if I run it, it will. So I was . . . I was wondering if you would come back?’

‘To Chandler’s?’ Riley said the first stupid thing to come into her head because she was so shocked. She knew that it must have taken a lot for Suzanne to ask.

Suzanne nodded. ‘I want to help out more – don’t worry, I promise not to get in the way. I’ll learn the business alongside you, and you could even become a partner.’

Riley’s mouth dropped open. A year ago she would have gladly welcomed those words – but now? The business was failing, one of the partners had run up debt and, most probably, ill will. The prospect wasn’t entirely thrilling, to think that she would be walking into such a mess.

‘I . . . I’m shocked, if I’m honest,’ she said finally.

‘I can imagine.’ Suzanne nodded. ‘I should have trusted you more. Why mend what isn’t broken? And if I hadn’t tried to drum up trade with that stupid competition, then you wouldn’t have thought about doing the flash mob, which was a genius idea really. And then it wouldn’t have brought those two women into the shop and aired all your dirty laundry. I was just desperate to bring some money into Chandler’s. I was also envious of you running things so smoothly. People were flocking around the shop, talking about Chandler’s because of you.’

‘Me?’

‘Yes. It seemed the more promotional things you came up with, the more confidence it gave you. I half expected you to resign once you’d finished the campaign and go off and do something different anyway. It just seemed to change you.’

‘No, I don’t think it did. Well, apart from me being rude to you.’

‘That was warranted.’

‘No, it wasn’t.’ Riley shook her head. ‘I should have known better, and I’m sorry. But maybe you’re right. It did make me realise that I could do more, push myself further.’

‘So would you like to go into partnership with me?’

‘No. But I will take my old job back, if it’s on offer?’

Suzanne nodded eagerly.

‘And we’ll definitely need to buy in new stock. The marketing campaign on Twitter – all the photos coming in of shoes – I’ve been scrolling through them, making notes of what’s in fashion and where to buy them. Those sandals I bought in went down a storm. I reckon if we get a few more in different colours, and then one or two different designs, with Frank’s tote bags bringing in lots of the local college students it might work out well.’ She got out her notepad. ‘I can come up with some strategies, perhaps visit a few fashion shows, source some new things, and make Chandler’s what you always wanted it to be –
the
shop to go to for shoes. It wouldn’t cost much to implement, provided that the bank will help you with an overdraft if you’re stuck for cash. And most things are on sale or return. We can try a few lines and see what’s most popular. We could also start up a website, like I mentioned, sell things online and―’

‘You’re thinking way too far ahead for me.’ Suzanne held up her hand and Riley stopped talking. ‘I do like your thinking, though, and the way that you are planning more long-term. I had thought that Chandler’s wouldn’t be around come autumn, and that made me sad. When would you like to come back to the shop?’

‘Whenever you’d like me to.’

‘How about you take the rest of the week off and come in on Friday when we’re ready to announce the winner of the competition? It’s going to take a lot of work to sort out all the entries. I don’t think I’d know where to start. You can do it here with minimal chance of interruptions. I can keep an eye on the shop until then . . . I think!’

‘I’ve been working on the competition already, actually,’ said Riley, smiling.

Suzanne smiled too. ‘Thanks. I can drop off everything you need, if you let me know what you want. Perhaps you can keep the entries coming in until the closing date, if you go all-out on social media?’

Riley nodded. This was perfect. Time away from the shop would give her what she needed to get the competition sorted and get back in the game. Social media ate up time, so it would be brilliant to concentrate on it fully until Friday. Then she could go back to Chandler’s. And her head would definitely be held high.

R
iley leant
her head back in the seat of the bus as it made its way into the centre of Hedworth. Although she was excited about the competition that morning, and about returning to Chandler’s, she still hadn’t heard anything from Ethan. Now, as she had her job back, she’d found herself wanting to call him and tell him about it. No, she wanted to
see
him and tell him all her news. The shop was going to stay open, and there was only one thing missing from her life now.

Him.

She had been a fool to be so stubborn and not try to contact him, but she didn’t much care about that right now.

‘Do you think I should ring Ethan?’ she asked Ash, who was sitting next to her. ‘I bet he’d like to see the competition winner being announced. After all, he did get Urban Angels involved, and give me some great photos to use on social media.’

When there was no reply from Ash, she tapped her on the shoulder, waited for her to remove her earphones and repeated the question.

‘No.’ Ash shook her head. ‘He was in the wrong. Let him crawl back to you.’

‘But what if he doesn’t?’ Riley wasn’t sure she wanted to chance it. ‘Don’t you think I messed up as much as he did?’

‘No, I don’t! The man’s a loser if he can’t see what’s right under his nose.’

Riley frowned. It wasn’t like Ash to be so nasty about Ethan. But then again, Ash was her best friend. She was only sticking up for her. Maybe she was right. Riley couldn’t be sure how he would react anyway.

Suddenly, she sat up in her seat, turned her head and strained to see out of the window as the bus sped along. There was a piece of white card fastened to a lamppost.

‘Did you see that?’ she turned back to Ash, nudging her sharply.

Ash sighed, removing her earphones again. ‘Did I see what?’

‘I’m sure I saw my name on a sign.’

‘I doubt that very much.’

Riley sat back in her seat. ‘You’re right. Ignore me, I must be seeing things.’

She rested her head against the window, not bothering with the condensation that was wetting her hair.

At the next set of lights, the bus stopped again. There was another sign, and this time she could clearly see the words.

#BeMineRileyFlynn

Suddenly her phone started to beep. She took it out of her pocket and looked at the screen. There were over 60 notifications waiting for her. She sighed. The competition had closed the night before. She hoped people weren’t still tweeting images, thinking it was still running today.

But then she gasped. Her hand covered her mouth as she scrolled through the tweets.

Do it @RileyFlynn! #BeMineRileyFlynn

@RileyFlynn Go for it #BeMineRileyFlynn

She scrolled down further.

We’re with you @RileyFlynn. #BeMineRileyFlynn

‘Ash,’ she nudged her friend again. Noticing the Twitter handle of the
Hedworth News
included in one of the tweets, she clicked onto their feed. There was an article attached. With her heart in her mouth, she clicked on the link:

Riley looked at the byline, to see who had written the feature. It was Ethan.

‘What the . . . ?’ She turned to her friend with a look of bewilderment, showing her the screen. ‘Have you seen this, Ash?’

Ash flipped through the article before handing it back.

‘That will be good for the competition,’ she said.

‘But Ethan has written about something happening this morning on the High Street. Do you think he’s coming to take photos of the competition winners? I’d―’

Riley stopped as the bus pulled into the station. There was another sign attached to a waste bin a few feet in front of them.

#BeMineRileyFlynn

She turned back to Ash, and caught her trying not to smirk.

‘You
do
know,’ she cried. ‘Tell me.’

Ash stood up quickly. ‘I haven’t got the faintest idea.’

‘Ash! Ash!’ Riley grabbed her arm but her friend marched ahead. Just then, her phone began to ring. It was Ethan.

‘Ethan, do you have any idea what’s going on?’ she said, as people began to look at her.

‘Yes, come to the shop and I’ll let you in on a secret.’

The line went dead before she had time to say anything else.

‘Ethan?’ Riley cursed under her breath. ‘This is embarrassing.’

‘It isn’t.’ Ash shook her head. ‘It’s romantic!’

Riley disagreed. Even though minutes earlier she had wanted to see Ethan, she had hoped to do it a little less publicly. But her smile was huge.

‘Is everyone in on this?’ she asked. ‘Dan? Sadie?’

Ash nodded her head. ‘Come on.’

They jogged up the stairs and drew level with the High Street. Riley couldn’t wait to get to Chandler’s now. Ethan had obviously gone to a lot of trouble to arrange all this. She couldn’t wait to see him.

Just before they drew level with the shop, Ash stopped. She held out a pink envelope. ‘I have to give you this,’ she said, thrusting it into Riley’s hands.

Riley tore the envelope open. Inside was a white greetings card with a hashtag printed on it in gold lettering.

#missyou

Riley opened the card.

At the mention of Jimmy, Riley felt hot tears pour down her face, and she wiped at them furiously. Could she trust Ethan again? Could this be the chance she needed to rid herself of the demons left behind by Nicholas and find true love, someone to settle down and be happy with?

‘I’m not sure I can bear to have my heart broken again, Ash,’ she said quietly.

She looked up, to see that Ash had disappeared. But every shop window on the High Street was emblazoned with a sign:

#BeMineRileyFlynn

Her eyes widened. Did everyone know what was going on? She headed towards the shop, to catch up with Dan and Sadie. But then she heard the familiar notes of a tune. Ryan, her dancing partner from the flash mob, appeared and took her hand. He led her down to the shop. Three more dancers appeared and she grinned, although still embarrassed, when she realised what was about to happen.

She was in the middle of her own flash mob.

Through the people who were stopping to watch, she spied Serena in a doorway. But her eyes didn’t stop there, because she was searching for Ethan.

Dan shimmied along the pavement to the sounds of Pharrell Williams’ ‘Happy’
.

Then she spotted Ethan.

As Riley’s gaze met his, she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. This was too embarrassing, but she was completely enjoying the sentiment. As the music continued, she laughed as Dan, Sadie, Ash and Serena sashayed in a line and came to a halt in front of her. Ethan walked in front of them all. He was carrying a large bouquet of red roses.

When the music stopped, Riley stood still and silent. She half expected the whole High Street to pause while everyone listened to what he had to say. Luckily, the applause that followed hid their embarrassment.

Ethan stepped towards her, taking her shyly by the hand.

Riley didn’t know whether to burst into tears or to burst out laughing at the whole thing. She looked up into Ethan’s eyes, which were clearly telling her how excited he was to be back by her side.

‘I’m so sorry, Riley,’ he said, drawing her into his arms.

‘If this ends up going viral on YouTube again,’ she told him, ‘then it’s over. But if you can keep this between you and me . . .’

Dan and Sadie came rushing over to her. So did Ash, and Cooper, who had appeared too. Suzanne followed behind them a little more slowly, standing on the periphery of the group.

‘That was so much fun,’ said Sadie. ‘I think I might take up dancing lessons too,’ she said to Dan.

‘Not possible, I’m afraid,’ Serena informed her, as she too joined the group. ‘Streetwise Dance Studio has a waiting list now.’

Riley beamed. It seemed that her campaign had worked extremely well in some respects. She smiled at Suzanne, a smile that said ‘things are going to work out just fine’.

‘I hate to break up the fun, but we have a competition to judge,’ Suzanne laughed before she added her last few words. ‘Come on, chop-chop!’

As Riley headed back into Chandler’s, with Ethan’s hand covering hers, and her friends and the people she knew surrounding her, she began to feel positive about the future. Life would never be perfect, and people would no doubt disappoint her again, but for now she was back where she belonged.