The Second Chance Shoe Shop (5 page)

‘You’re going to be a bridesmaid for Louise and Mark, I hear?’

‘Yes, and my sister had better not dress me up in anything too pink, either!’

Riley laughed as Nicci waved and went on her way. She attached the final loop of the banner in place, checked to see it was level and swiped her hands together. Perfect.

She made her way back to the shop, her thoughts returning to the newspaper journalist who was calling that morning. Although she was looking forward to seeing Chandler’s in the paper, she knew an article might only increase sales in the short term, if at all. It wouldn’t be enough to keep the shop afloat. Still, anything was worth a shot to get the message to the people of Hedworth that the shop needed their help.

H
alf an hour later
, Riley looked up from the till as a woman came into the shop. She strode across the floor towards her with purpose, long red hair flying behind her. She wore a grey trouser suit, a white shirt and black heels. Before reaching the till, she pushed black, designer, thick-rimmed glasses back up her nose. Green eyes shone from behind the lenses.

‘Hi, I’m Kim Nash,’ she said, holding out her hand. ‘We spoke on the phone.’

‘Hi, yes. I’m Riley Flynn, the manager. Thank you for coming to see us.’

Kim glanced around. ‘Do you have an office or do you want to sit here?’

‘Here will be just fine.’ Riley pointed to the leather cubes at the back of the shop. ‘I doubt we’ll be busy enough to get moved from these by people trying on shoes, but if we do, we can go and grab a coffee at Ray’s Cafe down the street.’

‘I thought business was good?’ Kim’s ears pricked up.

‘It is!’ Riley cursed inwardly. She’d better be careful what she said or else it might get printed. The last thing she wanted was to give the impression that the shop wasn’t doing well. She wanted this feature to celebrate Chandler’s having been on the High Street for over eighty years, the business having been passed down to Albert by his father, and then by Albert to his daughter, Suzanne. There was to be no mention of the fact that they were struggling. ‘It gets busy later. I chose the right moment for you to call,’ she sidelined. ‘Now, what is it that you want to know?’

After a few minutes of chatting to Kim, Riley’s nerves began to disappear. The journalist was personable, charming, and she only wanted to know about the business. She didn’t seem as if she was going to twist Riley’s every word or make her out to be a demon.

‘We’ll do a half-page piece,’ Kim told her. ‘We’ll get most of the facts and figures down, say how welcoming the shop is and how it is keen to stay local and proud. We can mention the sale this coming weekend, and then we can include a photo of you and the staff. That okay with you?’

Riley nodded. ‘That would be great, thanks.’

‘I was thinking . . .’ Kim stood up and pointed to the shop window. ‘How about if you set up a chair in the window and try on a shoe?’

Riley’s heart sank at the thought. But Dan had overheard, hovering around in the background as he had been ever since Kim had arrived.

‘Ooh, that’s what we suggested,’ he cried. ‘I could pretend to be slipping on the shoe, a bit like Cinderella!’

‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ Riley started.

‘I do.’ Kim looked at Dan purposely. ‘Would it take you long to set up?’

‘No, we could have it done in about’ – he glanced at his watch – ‘ten minutes?’

‘Great, let’s do it.’ Kim turned to Riley. ‘Anything to catch a reader’s eye. Ah, here’s Ethan now.’

Riley glanced towards the door to see a man who looked to be in his mid-thirties. His smile was as welcoming as his colleague’s. He popped the black case he was carrying on the floor as Kim approached him. She pointed to the window and told him her plan. He nodded, watching as Dan removed shoes from the display. He caught Riley’s eye over Kim’s shoulder.

Riley found herself smiling at him. He was a few inches taller than her, with brown hair and a flopping fringe which he swept out of his face so often that she assumed he didn’t even notice the habit. The navy suit he wore seemed slick enough to mark him out as the posing type, yet his mannerisms made him seem far friendlier. She imagined image was everything in his profession.

She ran a hand through her own hair, glad that she’d at least found time to freshen her lipstick, and walked towards them both.

‘This is Ethan, our brilliant photographer,’ Kim introduced. ‘He can make anyone look wonderful, can’t you, Ethan?’

‘Only when I feel the need to,’ Ethan replied pointedly.

It surprised Riley that his tone was quiet and assured, not cocky and loud as, for some reason, she had expected. As a photographer, she’d imagined he would be used to bossing people around all day. She felt her skin flush a little.

‘Once the window is set up, we’ll get you in there and have some fun.’ He grinned this time. ‘Best shoe forward.’

‘That’s what I said,’ Sadie nodded. ‘It’s a good headline, isn’t it?’

‘It is.’ Ethan looked around. ‘Do you have anything in your size?’ he asked Riley. ‘We want as bright a colour as possible. And, maybe’ – he turned to look towards the door – ‘I can take a photo from outside looking in, and inside looking out. We might get a crowd to stop on the pavement while we are doing it.’

Riley sighed inwardly. She was going to be on display in the shop window. Oh, how she was looking forward to that.

‘Can’t you do it instead?’ she asked Dan.

Dan shook his head. ‘It has to be you, Riley. You run the joint.’

‘No, I don’t! It’s a team effort.’

‘But we won’t all fit in the window.’ Dan laughed at Riley’s face as she protested. ‘It has to be you!’

‘In that case,’ she said, pulling a pair of red heels from a bag, ‘it’s a good thing I brought these with me!’

O
nce all the
shoes and display racks had been removed from the window, the chair was covered in red crepe paper, bought from the stationers’ two doors down, and a few silver stars were stapled onto it, to make it resemble a throne. A piece of paper with the words ‘Are you one step ahead?’ written in black marker pen in large capital letters was taped to the wall by Riley’s side.

‘I can’t believe you have me doing this,’ Riley whispered to Dan as she sat on the chair. ‘It looks like a set from a pantomime!’

‘All in the name of business, darling!’ Dan whispered back.

‘It’s a good job I had a pedicure last weekend,’ Riley pouted as she removed her socks and shoes. ‘I wouldn’t want anyone to see my feet at the best of times.’

‘Riley, can you look this way?’ asked Ethan. ‘I’ll just take a few photos to get the angle right and then we’ll get going. Okay?’

Riley nodded, her smile stiff.

‘Stop squabbling,’ cried Sadie, from where she was serving an elderly gentleman. ‘You’re like a pair of five-year-olds!’

‘If you can just sit still a minute, Riley,’ Ethan encouraged as he snapped away. ‘And smile.’

‘I
am
smiling,’ she grimaced. ‘My face is hurting I’ve been smiling so much.’

‘Dan, can you just slide on the slipper?’

‘Slipper? It’s a bloody great big heel!’

‘Shall I do it like Albert used to?’ Dan whispered to Riley, running his hand up her calf.

‘Don’t you bloody dare!’ She slapped his hand away. ‘I don’t know how he got away with touching so many women’s legs without getting accused of sexual harassment.’

‘Don’t speak ill of the dead.’

‘You do!’ Riley protested.

‘If we can have just you on the chair, Riley,’ said Ethan. ‘And perhaps you can hold up the sign.’

Dan took it down from the wall.

‘You could use it as a hashtag,’ Ethan continued. ‘Is the shop on Twitter?’

Riley snorted. ‘No. Mr Chandler refused to get on with these new-fangled ideas of ours.’ She smiled fondly. ‘He was a fuddy-duddy.’

‘Look.’ Sadie pointed outside. ‘We have an audience!’

Riley turned around. Three teenaged girls were holding up their phones and taking photos. Joanne and Brittany, who worked in the café, stood having a chat. Two workmen behind them, who were filling the planters with flowers, were leaning on their shovels. An elderly couple stopped to see what was going on and a woman tutted at them as she tried to get past.

‘I don’t mind photos of the shop,’ Riley said, ‘but please don’t say I’m going to be all over social media looking like a fairy queen!’

Everyone laughed, except Ethan.

‘You’re doing fine,’ he reassured. ‘But if you can just sit still for a while―’

‘How long?’ she spoke through a forced smile.

‘A couple of minutes. I just want to make sure I get you in the right light.’

‘The right light!’

‘Stay still, Riley!’

Riley gritted her teeth as she sat like a statue. ‘This is ridiculous. I can’t sit here like a waxwork dummy. I have work to do.’

Ethan grinned. ‘Okay, Cinderella, I’m done. You can get off your high horse now, before it turns into a pumpkin.’

‘Oh, ha ha,’ Riley responded, but she was smiling as he helped her get down from the window. ‘Did you get what you were hoping for?’

Ethan nodded. ‘I think so. I’ll email over some photos later, if you like? Can’t promise which one will get used, though.’

‘It will be the one that makes me look the oldest, the ugliest and the fattest, I expect.’

‘Oh, I don’t think I have a photo like that.’ Ethan stared at her for a moment, eyes twinkling, before looking away.

Riley felt her skin burning up and rushed over to the safety of the till. When she turned back she realised Ethan had followed her.

‘If there isn’t anything else,’ he said as he picked up his case, ‘I’ll be on my way.’

‘When will we be able to see it?’ asked Dan.

‘Tomorrow or the night after, I expect. Kim will write it up, get it online and in print. I’ll bring you a few print copies when it’s out, too.’ Ethan smiled again. ‘Thanks a million. You all did a great job.’

Riley watched as he left the shop, finding herself disappointed that he was leaving so quickly. She should have offered him another coffee but, then again, he’d probably be off to his next job so wouldn’t be able to spare the time.

‘Be still, your beating heart,’ said Dan, as he waltzed past her with three mugs to wash and fill. ‘I can feel the tension from here.’

‘What do you mean?’ said Riley.

‘I can tell you like him. It’s written all over your face.’

‘It isn’t!’ Riley almost shouted. She lowered her voice. ‘It isn’t, is it?’

‘So you do like him!’

‘She’d be mad not to like him,’ Sadie joined them. ‘He’s quite dishy and’ – she paused for added effect – ‘no wedding ring.’

‘That doesn’t mean anything nowadays,’ said Riley. ‘Some men don’t wear rings, and he might be in a relationship but not married. I’ve―’ She stopped short, remembering they didn’t know what had happened with Nicholas.

‘He’s single,’ said Dan. ‘I asked him.’

Riley frowned. ‘When?’

‘When I’d seen you eyeing him up a few times. I thought it was my duty.’

‘I was not eyeing him up!’

Riley felt her skin flush again and gave up trying to protest. While Dan went off to serve a man with a teenaged boy who looked like his double, and Sadie made a start on putting the window back to normal, Riley pondered their words. Sadie was right, plus Ethan seemed nice.

But for now, she didn’t think her heart would take another battering. And she had far more important things on her mind, like how to keep Chandler’s open and her friends together.

A
glutton for punishment
, Dan had arranged another date. He met Lorraine in the foyer of Cineworld. It was obvious from the start she was older than she had admitted on her profile − he reckoned she was pushing forty rather than thirty. Riley would say she was mutton dressed as lamb: black leggings and stacked ankle boots, leather jacket over a tight, clingy and low-cut red top. Her skin had an orange tint to it and her make-up was a little on the brash side. Long blonde hair finished off a complete stereotype.

‘What do you fancy seeing?’ Dan asked after they had introduced themselves.

‘
Star Wars
?’ Lorraine questioned.

‘Fine.’ Dan could think of nothing worse. He’d never been a fan.

He tried to make small talk before the film started, but had only been met with one-word answers and the occasional forced smile. Glad when the lights went down, he relaxed into his seat. At least he could stop trying for a while.

‘That was great, don’t you think?’ he fibbed as they joined the throng of people in the aisle on the way out. He hadn’t enjoyed it one bit and had nodded off for a time somewhere in the middle. Lorraine didn’t seem to have noticed.

‘It was okay,’ she shrugged. ‘Not my thing, really.’

‘But I assumed you liked
Star Wars
, seeing as it was your choice.’

Lorraine shook her head as they came out into the brightly-lit foyer. ‘It was my ex-husband. He enjoyed
Star Wars
films.’

Dan frowned. ‘So you don’t like them?’

Another shake of her head.

Dan held in a sigh. He’d just sat through a film that neither of them wanted to see.

They stood in silence in the foyer as people moved around them, some heading out of the building, some gathering tickets and refreshments to take into the next showing.

‘Would you like to go for a drink?’ Dan asked. Really, he only wanted to be polite, but he also didn’t want to go home just yet.

Lorraine nodded. ‘Why not?’

In a line outside were several familiar eateries − Coast to Coast, Nando’s, Pizza Hut and Gourmet Burger. Dotted here and there were a few independent bars. People rushed inside them all like ants.

Dan pointed ahead to Harley’s Bar. ‘Shall we try here?’

Lorraine nodded again.

He sighed openly this time. This was too much like hard work. Why hadn’t he just called it a night?

Harley’s Bar had a 1960s theme, with red leather-seated booths around its edges, and walls covered in mirrors and metal plates with images of long-forgotten singers. In the middle of the room, scatterings of high stools and tables were full of people chatting, some animatedly, after the film. They waited to be served at the bar. Luckily, The Beatles played softly in the background to fill the silence between Dan and Lorraine.

Once they had their drinks, they found a table that they could stand at. Lorraine gazed around the room, still not talking.

‘How long have you lived in Hedworth?’ he asked, for want of something more interesting to say.

‘All my life,’ she replied. ‘I did think of moving out of the area when Damien and I split up, but I couldn’t. You know, in case he changed his mind.’

Dan frowned. Changed his mind? Did people often do that after they divorced?

‘How long were you married?’ he asked next.

‘Ten years. Ten wonderful years.’

Another silence.

‘We divorced seven years ago,’ Lorraine told him as he moved aside to allow a glass-collector to pass.

‘Seven years?’ At Dan’s calculations that would make Lorraine twelve when she and good old Damien were married.

Lorraine didn’t look fazed as she nodded her head. He wondered if she’d even realised that he now knew she’d been lying about her age.

‘We have a daughter too,’ she added. ‘She’s fifteen.’

Dan checked his watch after he couldn’t think of anything else to say. He wasn’t one to make excuses and leave because things weren’t working out. After all, he had invited her for a drink, so he needed to see it through to the end. He didn’t have to see her again after that but he was too much of a softie to hurt her feelings now.

He glanced around the room, checking out the paraphernalia from the golden years. As his eyes came back to Lorraine, they widened. She was fighting back emotion.

She caught him looking and burst into tears.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘You’re the first man I’ve been on a date with and I― I just want to forget Damien, move on and start my life again. But being with you reminds me that I miss him so much . . . I still love him, you see.’

‘Hey, come on now.’ Dan didn’t know where to look when she then began to sob loudly. People were looking over at them, at
him
. Some were even frowning. He froze with embarrassment. Did they think he’d said something to upset her? Oh, this was turning out to be the worst date yet.

‘I never should have introduced him to my friend,’ she stressed, suddenly knocking her drink back in one go. She banged down the glass. ‘I would still be with him if I hadn’t. She was my best friend too, the bitch. They live together now.’

Dan made a big deal of checking his watch. ‘Is that the time? I have to go soon. I have an early start in the morning.’

It was the oldest trick in the book, but he couldn’t handle any more.

Lorraine had other ideas. She grabbed his arm and clung onto him. ‘You can’t leave me,’ she said. ‘That’s what he did. It would be cruel of you to leave me, too.’

Dan tried to release her grip on his arm. More people were beginning to look their way.

‘Please, stay and finish your drink,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry, sometimes I come on a little strong. It’s only because I’m so lonely. You must be lonely, too?’

‘Excuse me,’ said Dan. ‘I need to use the bathroom.’

As he quickly walked off, he wondered if he should go. But he couldn’t leave her there on her own. She’d be mortified if he didn’t return. Instead he passed the exit and went into the gents’.

Pacing the men’s toilets for what must have been minutes, he tried to pluck up the courage to go back to her. But he couldn’t do it.

He stared at himself in the mirror. ‘You can do this,’ he spoke to his reflection. ‘It’s only an hour, and the poor woman will be wretched if you leave before.’

By the time he finally emerged from the bathroom, he peered through the crowd to see someone else standing where he had left Lorraine. Glancing around, Dan realised she had ditched him.

Almost laughing with hysteria at the absurdness of her leaving him in the lurch while he battled with his conscience, Dan dived for the exit and raced out of the pub.