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I know that there are a lot of stories about women who go abroad looking for love and come a cropper, but this is different. I just know it is. Dominic would never dream of doing anything like that, and though I haven’t known him long at all – by anyone’s standards – I just know that it’s not in his nature to be deceptive. With Dominic, what you see is what you get, and I very much liked what I saw. I’m not some silly impressionable girl or some desperately lonely divorcée. Apart from the odd moment of regret, I would have been quite content on my own, but Dominic has turned my world upside down. I want to be with this man and if I have a chance of future happiness with him, then I’m going to make sure that I grab it with both hands.
Nina has been very cool with me this week and I don’t know whether it’s simply that she’s finding it hard to come to terms with the fact that I’ve found love while she is watching hers slip away. I haven’t said a single word about Dominic in days, and I feel it’s somehow unfair that I can’t talk to her about him when I’ve always been there to listen to her unloading all her worries about Gerry.
My phone buzzes again and there’s another text from Lewis asking me for a date. I press ‘delete’. If only I could delete him as easily as his messages.
The salon is full this Friday morning – every station is busy. It will be like this from now until Christmas.
Mrs Norman is here, ready and waiting in my chair, for her ten o’clock appointment. Cristal has already washed her hair and combed it through for me.
I plaster a smile on my face to greet one of my favourite clients. ‘How are you today then, Mrs N?’
‘I’m fine, lass.’
‘Same as usual?’
‘Yes,’ she says with a pat of her hair. ‘Nice and tight. Got to last me the weekend.’
Sectioning her hair, I start to wind in the pink rollers.
Then, as she does week in, week out, Mrs Norman asks, ‘How’s your love life then, young Janie?’
‘It’s wonderful, Mrs Norman,’ I say too loudly. ‘My love life is very wonderful.’
Everyone else in the salon stops what they’re doing and looks up. In the mirror, Mrs Norman looks particularly shocked as this is not the usual mumbled response of, ‘same old, same old.’
‘I met a wonderful man on holiday,’ I continue for the benefit of everyone within earshot. ‘He’s kind. He’s funny. He’s handsome.’
The photograph of Dominic is in my pocket and I slap it down in front of Mrs Norman, making her jump.
‘That’s him.’
While I wind more rollers into her hair, Mrs Norman puts on her glasses and peers at my picture.
‘Is that him in the red dress?’ she asks. Given that there are only two of us in the photo and one of us is me, I think it’s a safe assumption.
‘Yes,’ I say. ‘That’s him.’
‘He’s as fit as a butcher’s dog,’ is Mrs Norman’s verdict.
‘He certainly is!’
‘I’m not deaf,’ Mrs Norman points out. ‘There’s no need to shout, Janie, love.’
But I think there is a need to shout. I think there’s a need to shout this from the rooftops.
‘He makes me feel like no one as ever made me feel before,’ I say at top volume. ‘When I’m in his arms, I lose myself. I lose myself until I’m no longer Janie Johnson, bloody boring hairdresser from Buckingham, but I’m anything that I want to be. And if this isn’t love, then I don’t know what is.’
‘That’s nice.’ Mrs Norman is now looking worried.
‘I love him,’ I announce. ‘And I don’t care whether that suits anyone else or not. It’s my life and I’ll do with it as I choose.’
I’ve finished putting Mrs Norman’s rollers in and I tie a pink hairnet tightly around them. I find myself breathing heavily. You could hear a pin drop in the salon. Scissors are poised mid-snip. If I’m not mistaken, there are people outside who’ve stopped to look in the window.
‘Cup of tea?’ I say into the voluminous silence.
‘Yes, please,’ Mrs Norman says meekly.
‘Right!’ I clap my hands together. ‘One cup of tea and two of your favourite caramel biscuits coming up!’
Chapter Thirty-Eight
For the rest of that day and the next day, everyone pussyfoots around me. Cristal does everything that I request without fuss or complaint. She even sweeps the hair from the floor before I even have the chance to ask her. Clearly, they all feel as if they are dealing with a scary unhinged woman. As well they might.
