The Second Chance Shoe Shop (7 page)

S
adie sat
down on the settee. She put her glass of wine down beside her on the coffee table, shifted her feet up to her side and sighed. Losing her job was the last thing she wanted to worry about right now. And then there was working on Sundays.

She couldn’t afford to protest, not that Suzanne would even listen. She couldn’t bear to think how she would cope if the shop went under.

Sadie loved working with Riley. She combined being a great manager and a great friend perfectly, not like some of the bosses Sadie had worked for. And she had been brilliant during Ross’s illness, and far beyond. Sadie often wondered where she would be if it weren’t for her close group of friends − Riley, Dan, Ash and Cooper. Although, to be fair, she often wondered whether they’d ever get fed up of her inability to move on, especially as the anniversary of Ross’s death loomed.

She picked up her iPad and logged on to Grieve Together to see if Tanya was online or, if not, whether anyone else wanted to chat. Although she relished the silence when Esther was asleep, the loneliness started to creep in.

Tanya wasn’t online but she had left her a message. Sadie clicked on the icon.

Sadie typed a quick message back.

She pressed send, hoping that the message wasn’t too self-centred. Over the months that she and Tanya had become online friends, she’d given out a little more information than she had on the forum. Tanya had been great to chat to, especially in private. Somehow it had been easier to talk to a person behind a screen. Tanya knew what she was going through. She would sympathise with her when she needed, gently reprimand her when she was feeling too sorry for herself. Tanya could make Sadie smile in an instant with a silly comment.

She took a few sips of her wine while she waited for the message to be answered. When it wasn’t, she realised Tanya mustn’t be online. She flipped through a few comments and other people’s blog posts and then wrote a little in her journal.

The phone rang. It was Cooper.

‘Hi, how are my two favourite women?’ he asked her.

‘One is hopefully asleep and the other is fine, thanks.’ Glad of someone to talk to, Sadie took another sip of her wine and relaxed back in the settee. ‘Where are you?’

‘At the pub having a quick pint. I just wanted to see how you were.’

‘Esther wants me to tell you that she got another gold star for her essay on the garden, thanks to you for helping her out.’

‘I didn’t help her with the essay. I’m useless at storytelling.’

‘But you planted the seeds. Literally!’

Last month, Cooper had helped Esther clear a patch at the bottom of the garden to plant some flowers in a spot where mother and daughter could sit and remember Ross. Cooper had been a great help with the garden. Sadie would never have managed it by herself: she didn’t even have an interest in learning what was a flower and what was a weed. It had been something that Ross had loved, giving them separate interests. Sadie would rather bury her nose in a book than in a flower.

They’d been lucky enough to find a semi-detached house that boasted an extra-long rear garden, backing onto fields. Occasionally, the fields were used by the local school for sports days, but other than that it was peaceful. It had always been Ross’s dream to have a large garden, and he’d spent hours in it before he died.

‘The lawn needs a good trimming now,’ said Cooper. ‘Shall I pop over at the weekend and see to it?’

‘Thanks, that would be great. Will Sunday lunch do you as payment?’

‘I’m not sure yet. I might be going to watch the match. Can I get back to you on it? If not, I could come round early Sunday morning.’

‘Great, see you then. And you might want to make the most of it as Suzanne says Chandler’s needs to open on Sundays now, to keep up with the times.’

‘But I thought most of the shops on the High Street were still closed on Sundays.’

‘They are. In the main, it’s just the shopping centre that opens daily.’ Sadie sighed. ‘We’ll just have to eat later in the day, if I do a roast.’

‘I suppose. Is there anything you need?’

‘No, I think we’re good.’

After they had said their goodbyes, Sadie switched on the television to catch up with the news. She smiled to herself, thinking back over the conversation. It was as if they were a couple in a long distance relationship and Cooper was phoning after a day at work. She was telling him about her day; he was telling her about his. She found it more comforting than he would ever know, and was dreading the day when another woman would take him away from both her and Esther.

She checked to see if she had any new messages from Tanya but, again, there was nothing. She hoped she was out enjoying herself. That way, at least maybe one of them was doing something exciting.

Footsteps padded down the stairs and a head popped around the door frame.

‘What are you doing out of bed again?’

Sadie chose her most stern voice. This was the third night in a row that Esther had crept downstairs after she had been put to bed.

‘I need a drink, Mummy,’ she said, her voice full of sleep.

‘It’s too late, poppet.’ Sadie got to her feet.

‘Can I have a cuddle then, please?’

‘Just for a moment and then it’s back to bed.’

Sadie tried not to show her smile. There was nothing she liked better than cuddling up to Esther, running a hand over her fine, brown hair and pulling her tiny frame close, even when she was supposed to be fast asleep in bed.

And even if Esther was the only person whom Sadie could cuddle up to right now, she was the ideal solution for comfort anyway.

R
iley had gone
straight to the gym after she had finished work, and was now at home. Even though she had run five miles on the treadmill, which usually allowed her mind to switch off from anything stressful, she still couldn’t relax. She rarely brought work home with her, but tonight was an exception. She grabbed a cushion and hugged it to her chest, hoisting her legs onto the settee.

So far, despite their best intentions, the sale and the feature in the
Hedworth News
hadn’t brought in many more customers. There must be something they could do to stall the inevitable?

Ash’s words from the night before came back to her. They’d been coming home on the bus together when Ash nudged Riley away from looking at her phone. ‘Why don’t you start up a campaign online?’ she’d suggested.

Riley had frowned.

‘Well, we’re always on our phones. Twitter this, Facebook that. Why don’t you do something that will bring people into the shop?’

‘Like what?’ Riley looked on in exasperation. ‘The only thing I can think of is to walk around naked in the highest of heels.’

‘That would bring the wrong audience altogether!’ Ash giggled. ‘Can you imagine―’

‘It was a
joke
!’

Riley picked up her iPad and scrolled through her Twitter feed. Maybe she should open a Twitter account for the shop − a Facebook page too. She’d asked if she could open an account for Chandler’s many times, but Suzanne was sceptical about the benefits of social media, especially for a shop such as hers. But now that Suzanne wanted to play games, Riley decided not to wait for her approval. She would use her initiative and gather some followers, maybe tweet some photos of fashionable shoes and then suggest they have nothing similar but people should come down and have a look anyway, in a jokey way. Positive tweets always got retweeted. And funny ones too. She could do funny.

Within a few minutes, she had created an account for Chandler’s Shoe Shop and was wondering what to say in the first few tweets. She would have to think about it, but for now, there they were.

She’d wanted to set up a website for the shop for a while, but had always been told that it wasn’t necessary. This could be a chance to take the business online. She, Sadie and Dan could all run the account if necessary. Maybe they could get some local celebrities to retweet things for them.

Excitement bubbled up inside her. This could be a great form of advertising. She’d get on to it straight away in the morning after chatting it through with Sadie and Dan. But first she began to add all the fashion designers that she followed. Some of them she was quite friendly with online. Maybe they could help her spread the word a little.

O
utside on the High Street
, it was still fairly quiet as Riley walked down to the newsagent’s. She could feel the sun on her back and looked up for a moment. It was getting warmer day by day. She could definitely feel a change now that March was about to turn into April.

So far, all their hard work hadn’t paid off. The Chandler’s Twitter feed had gained a few follows and Riley was following people and tweeting photos and witty comments to try to interact with local people. All in all, it ate into her time but as she’d been on Twitter for quite a while she knew how long things could take to build up. Maybe she should look more closely at her own followers and see if she could get any of those people interested in following Chandler’s. Or maybe she could tweet about Chandler’s from her own account, to see if she could get some retweets.

Her eyes were drawn to a young woman walking past. She wore what looked like painter’s dungarees, one strap unfastened, an oversized red T-shirt underneath. Wedge shoes finished the look off, along with a multicoloured tote bag. Riley smiled as she walked past, for a moment remembering a time when she had worn something similar.

She stopped suddenly and hot-footed back over to the young woman.

‘Hi,’ she said. ‘I’m Riley, and I work at Chandler’s Shoe Shop. You might have seen me last week in the
Hedworth News
? I was trying shoes on in the window. I felt a bit mad really, but it’s because―’

‘I remember seeing that,’ the young woman interrupted.

‘Oh, did you?’ Riley was pleased. ‘Well, if you ever fancy coming into the shop, I’m sure I can give you a discount.’

‘Oh, no,’ the woman said, as she began to walk away, ‘the shoes are far too expensive and old-fashioned for me.’

‘Yes, I can see that.’ Riley looked down at her feet. ‘Your shoes are amazing!’

‘Thanks, I got them in Manchester.’

‘I know you might think this is crazy, but could I photograph them to add to our Twitter account? I’m trying to drum up business and what better way than to show off fabulous shoes like those?’

‘But I didn’t get them from your shop.’

‘That doesn’t matter. I can think of some way round that.’

The woman turned to the side and put out her right foot. ‘Go on, then. If you add my name to the tweet, then I can retweet it for you.’

‘Great!’ Riley took out her phone and snapped at the woman’s foot a few times. ‘What’s your name?’

‘Marsha.’ She looked slightly embarrassed as she tucked her long blonde hair behind her ears. ‘My Twitter name is RizzlesticksM’

Riley smiled.

‘I know, I know. I thought it would be funny at the time, but now I kinda like it.’

Riley stuck out her hand. ‘Well, thank you so much. Lovely to meet you, RizzlesticksM. That’s a great tote too, if I might say so.’

‘Thanks very much! My friend designed it for me.’

‘Did she?’

‘
He
did.’ Marsha took the bag off her shoulder and held it up so that Riley could see it better. The image was of a young woman standing in front of an easel as she put colour to her own painting. The attention to detail was incredible. ‘We’re both studying fashion and design at Hedworth FE College,’ Marsha added. ‘Frank’s always designing new ones. I have several of them.’

A thought popped into Riley’s mind. ‘Do you think he would be interested in selling them at our shop? We could perhaps showcase them in the window.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes, do you have his contact details? An email, maybe?’

Marsha nodded. ‘I do, as a matter of fact . . .’

A
sh flopped down
next to Riley on the settee. Riley’s head was down as she wrote frantically in a notepad.

‘What are you doing?’

Riley looked up momentarily. ‘You know our shoes aren’t fashionable enough,’ she said, ‘and Suzanne thinks we can sell anything, but we can’t? I might have come up with an idea.’

Riley told Ash about stopping Marsha, taking a photo of her shoe and being shown the tote bag. She had emailed Frank and he was coming into the shop the following day.

‘Wouldn’t it be great if a fashion and design student put a display of their bags in the window?’ Riley said, excitement clear in her voice. ‘Especially if that person has a local connection, and then went on to make it big later on?’

‘I think it would be a great idea, full stop,’ Ash agreed. ‘I’m sick of getting moaned at because people have to pay five pence for a carrier bag. Totes are going to be all the rage, you mark my word. All it needs is someone to come along with something snappy that everyone wants and we’ll all be buying them. I just wish I could design one!’

‘I was thinking he could work on a sale or return basis. If I made it sound irresistible, the chance to showcase the bags in our shop, he and Marsha might invite all their friends to Chandler’s. I don’t know − I’m just thinking aloud. We could do a display, in the shop and in the window.’

‘And you could take a small cut if you sold any?’

‘Yes. Do you think it would bring people into the shop?’

Ash sat forward. ‘It’s a great idea.’

‘I have been known to have them.’ Riley brushed her hair away from her face in dramatic style.

‘But won’t all that take time to set up?’ said Ash. ‘I don’t want to put a downer on things, but you don’t have long to run this stupid competition.’

‘You’re right.’ Riley sighed again. ‘What we need is something as well as the bags. A gimmick that will bring people into the shop.’ She sat forward again to speak but changed her mind.

‘What?’ said Ash.

‘What about sharing photos of shoes on Twitter? I could take a photo each day. Maybe I could do a roving reporter type thing, and everyone who gets a photo taken of their shoes goes into a prize draw. They could have a bag designed!’

‘I doubt you’d get any money from Suzanne towards a competition.’

‘There’s a couple of ways round that. Either we could have a fee to enter, say a pound a photo − which goes to a local charity. That might shame her into giving something to us. Or me, Sadie and Dan could chip in. If we split a prize three ways, it won’t be too much then. Do you think one hundred pounds will be enough?’

Ash nodded. ‘And it’s something that you could do really easily, too. But if you want to go the whole hog and create a media campaign, why don’t you do something like a video and upload it to YouTube? Or a flash mob?’

‘A flash mob?’ Riley frowned. ‘You mean like a group of dancers coming out of the crowd?’

‘Yes. You could do it one Saturday afternoon when the High Street is busy. You remember Serena, who used to work with me in Jazz? She owns her own dance studio now. She might be willing to help you.’

Riley’s mind went into overdrive as Ash continued.

‘At the end of the dance, you could give out leaflets about the competition. Anyone who tweets a photo of their favourite shoes to Chandler’s Twitter feed―’

‘Including a hashtag,’ Riley broke in.

Ash nodded. ‘They can all be entered into a draw for a hundred pounds’ worth of vouchers to spend in the shop, or to go towards designing your own bag.’

Riley’s eyes widened. ‘Brilliant. Everyone loves showing off their shoes!’ Then she came back to reality. ‘But how do we get a flash mob going?’

‘Serena could help you with a dance. And’ – Ash was getting excited now – ‘if you were in it too, that would mean even more publicity.’

Riley drew her head back in surprise. ‘I can’t dance to save my life! It would take me years to learn a routine.’ She grinned at the thought. ‘But I do have some great moves.’

Ash laughed. ‘Imagine if you had a few thousand hits, Riles? How much publicity it would bring to the shop. Especially if you run it with a competition. We could all tweet the video too, get more interest for your Twitter account.’

‘Any interest on social media would be good.’ Riley had checked the Chandler’s accounts earlier on. ‘Since I created the account, we’ve had twenty-seven new followers on Twitter − and some of those look dodgy − and only a handful of retweets.’

‘What about Facebook?’

‘Not much better. I wish I had something to advertise on there, though. So, this way, we could use a certain hashtag. How about ‘put your #bestshoeforward, RT and follow?’ That kind of thing might increase our followers quickly. Plus, if people share it, they will see a shoe and snap in an instant to join in!’

‘People love doing selfies − we can invent the shoe-ies,’ said Ash.

Riley laughed. ‘I like that, although I’m still not sure about being involved in a flash mob. Knowing me, I’d fall flat on my face!’

‘That would look good, too,’ Ash laughed, reaching for her phone. ‘Let me send a message to Serena. I bet she’ll be able to persuade some of the kids to join in. If we can get a group to do it
for
you, you could walk on at the last minute and hand out the leaflets. It’s perfect.’

Riley pondered. It did seem mad, even if they could get a dance group to join in at such short notice. But she had to admit, it might be fun.

‘Imagine doing something in the High Street, stopping everyone in their tracks on a Saturday afternoon, having them all snapping photos to join in the competition,’ Ash added. ‘Maybe Ethan could help out with the filming?’

At the mention of his name, Riley’s stomach flipped again. But although the thought of Ethan was a happy one, she didn’t have time to think about anything other than the shop. She looked up to see Ash staring at her expectantly.

‘It will take a lot of sorting out,’ she said.

‘You’re the queen of organisation!’ Ash grabbed Riley’s notepad and held it in the air. ‘It’s perfect, and it will be so much fun! I might join in too. They always look so brilliant when you watch them back.’

‘It couldn’t cost us much, though.’ As ever, Riley was the practical one. ‘Wouldn’t the dancers need to be paid?’

‘I doubt it. Serena could use a well-rehearsed routine. Do you think Sadie and Dan would join in too?’

‘Yes, I reckon they might.’ It really was a mad idea, and it could easily backfire, especially if Suzanne got to hear about it before it happened. But if there was a chance − even the slightest chance − that it might work, they had to give it a go. She nodded at Ash.

‘Okay, let’s look into it.’

‘Great! Now can we talk about Ethan? I’m dying to know how you’re getting on.’

‘I don’t think so,’ Riley pouted. ‘You haven’t even told me wonder boy’s name. I’m beginning to suspect that you’ve made him up.’

‘I haven’t!’ Ash shook her head. ‘It’s just early days yet. His name is Warwick.’

‘Warwick? That sounds . . . young.’

Ash threw a cushion at her and stood up. She walked across the room on her tiptoes, hips swaying, bottom sticking out, shoulders held high. She swivelled as a model would do and walked the few paces back to Riley, her right hand sticking up.

‘This is what you need to be concentrating on,’ she said, keeping her face straight until they both burst into laughter.

S
adie stretched
out her arms and yawned. She lifted her head up off the pillow. The room was fairly light as she glanced at the clock beside her. With a groan, she sat up quickly. She flicked the switch on and off but there was no power. Unexpected tears dropped down her face. This was all she needed after another night tossing and turning.

She checked her watch and shot out of bed.

‘Damn,’ she cursed. It was 8:30 a.m., the alarm hadn’t gone off and for some reason Esther had slept through, too. Most mornings Sadie would find her awake in her room, reading a book or playing on her tablet. Christine and Paul had treated her to one for Christmas. Esther loved taking photos and putting them into folders. She was getting quite good at it – although, when Esther wasn’t looking, Sadie had removed a few dodgy ones of herself that her daughter had taken.

‘Esther.’ She went into her room quickly. ‘Come on, poppet. The alarm didn’t go off and we’re late.’

Esther’s eyes opened. Just like her mum, she stretched her arms above her head and then sat up. ‘Is it a school day, Mummy?’ she asked.

‘Yes, it is.’ Sadie raced across to the wardrobe and took out a clean school uniform, laying it on the bottom of her bed. ‘Get dressed quickly.’

‘Why isn’t the electric on?’ Esther wanted to know.

‘I don’t know,’ Sadie replied patiently. ‘I’ll have to ring Cooper to see if he can sort it out for us.’

‘Yippee! Can Cooper take me to school?’

‘No, poppet. He has to go to work.’

‘But he is his own boss. That’s what he tells you, doesn’t he, Mummy?’

Sadie raised her eyes to the ceiling. It was exactly what Cooper kept telling her. When she worried that she was taking up too much of his time whenever she asked him to do anything for her, he would say he could work as he chose. She didn’t want to rely on him too much but this was one of those occasions when she had to ask for help. She missed her dad as much as Ross when there was something she couldn’t sort out for herself. And she certainly couldn’t afford to get an electrician out. There would be an astronomical emergency call-out charge, and what if it was something as simple as a blown fuse, that she could fix herself if she knew how? Cooper would show her what to do if the problem was easy to solve, in case it happened again.

Tears pricked her eyes − would she always feel this helpless?

By the time Cooper’s van pulled up outside the house, Sadie had managed to get in touch with Riley and explain that she would be late, praying that Suzanne wouldn’t choose this morning to do a spot check, as she often did. It seemed that the electric had been off for a few hours. If Cooper could get it back on soon, everything in the freezer might possibly be safe.

Esther was sitting at the kitchen table, eating a bowl of cereal. Sadie was putting together a sandwich for her lunch box as Cooper knocked on the back door and came in.

‘You rang, madam?’ he spoke with a cheerful tone. Too cheerfully, for Sadie. Honestly, wasn’t the man ever miserable? Pushing her self-pity to one side, she greeted him with a smile.

‘Cooper!’ shouted Esther as she spotted him, getting down from the table and running at his legs. She hugged his waist as best she could before running back to the table to finish her breakfast. ‘We’re very late!’ she shouted.

Sadie rolled her eyes. ‘If I needed kiddie power to run the house, I would be quids in,’ she exclaimed.

‘I’ll just go and check the fuse box, see if anything has tripped.’ Cooper jerked a thumb over his shoulder. ‘It’s outside on the wall, isn’t it?’

Sadie nodded, following him. ‘I need to know what to do if it’s just as simple as a blown fuse,’ she told him. ‘I don’t want to trouble you all the time.’

‘It’s no trouble,’ Cooper gave a sigh.

‘Oh, I didn’t mean anything by it. I just have to be prepared to do things on my own. So it’s useful to learn.’

‘I don’t mind helping you out.’ He grinned. ‘They don’t call me Super Cooper for nothing.’

‘They don’t call you Super Cooper at all,’ Sadie couldn’t help but smirk.

A few minutes later, Cooper had indeed located a blown fuse. The circuit had tripped, and once he’d flicked it back on again they went around the kitchen testing appliances. When Sadie flicked on the kettle, the electricity went off again. She picked it up to discover water around its base.

‘The kettle’s leaking,’ she explained.

‘I always said you make a dodgy cuppa,’ Cooper joked. ‘I can get you a new one this afternoon and drop it off later, if you like?’

‘I can get one from town,’ said Sadie, not wanting to put him to any more trouble than necessary. ‘A bloody kettle.’ She shook her head. ‘Thanks, Cooper.’

‘That’s what friends are for,’ Cooper grinned. ‘Now, as I can’t have a cuppa, can I scrounge a piece of toast? And then I can give you a lift and drop Esther off at school on the way. Deal?’

‘You’ll make someone a fantastic husband,’ she smiled, giving his arm a squeeze. ‘And, as you know, I can make a mean Sunday roast but other than that I’m hopeless at cooking. So, would you like your toast half burnt or burnt completely?’

‘Wow, I can hardly resist either, but half burnt sounds good.’ He pulled out a chair and sat down at the table with Esther. ‘What are you doing at school today, do you know?’

As she turned away at the intimacy of the scene, Sadie held in tears. Ross used to sit and talk to Esther for hours.

‘Mummy, can Cooper come for tea tonight?’

Sadie swivelled round to face them. ‘Of course he can.’

‘I’m actually busy, sorry,’ Cooper replied. ‘Maybe tomorrow?’

Sadie nodded. Although she was secretly disappointed in not having any adult company, she didn’t want Esther latching onto him any more than she already had. Cooper would eventually find a woman he loved and have a family of his own. She didn’t want Esther getting too attached, mistaking his friendship for a father’s affection.

She never wanted Cooper to feel obliged to come round all the time either. She had to learn to stand on her own two feet, no matter how hard that turned out to be.