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‘I’ve been busy,’ my neighbour says. ‘Big shake up at work. Luckily, I came out of it unscathed. In fact,’ he picks up his glass and holds it aloft, ‘I’ve got a promotion.’
‘Brilliant news!’ I pick up my glass too and we toast him.
‘It means I can work from home now. I’ll be travelling quite a bit but just in the southern region. When I’m not on the road, my office will be here.’
‘Nice.’
He clears his throat. ‘I’ll be around a lot more.’
Up until now Mike has had some terrible commute to Oxford or somewhere every day. He leaves at ungodly o’clock in the morning and is rarely home before nine. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons Terrible Tania upped sticks and left. You never know, do you? It’s hard to maintain a wonderful relationship when one of you simply, even through no fault of your own, isn’t there. Anyway, she was always a bit too glamorous for Nashley, and probably for Mike. I could see her more in a penthouse apartment overlooking the Thames or something, on the arm of an investment banker.
‘That’s great. Things are really looking up for you.’ I know that he still misses Tania every day but now, maybe, he can start to move on.
‘I thought I might even risk dating again now that I’ll have a bit more free time.’
I snort. ‘You’re braver than me.’
‘Do you know any available ladies who wouldn’t mind taking on a wounded soldier?’
‘I’m sure you could have the pick of the single girls in my salon but it would be like throwing you to the lions. I couldn’t do that to you.’
‘Doesn’t sound like my kind of thing. That’s part of the problem. The modern woman terrifies me.’ He shakes his head and gives a mock shudder. ‘It would probably be better if it was someone I knew already. As a friend, sort of.’
‘Keep your head still.’ I snip some more.
‘Ever thought of putting your toe in the water again?’
‘Me?’ I laugh. ‘Not likely. I’m quite happy as I am. Relationships seem to be so complicated now and I just don’t need it.’
I think of Nina and Gerry and decide that kind of relationship’s definitely not for me. Then there are the other girls in the salon. Their love lives are tangled enough to keep a soap opera going for years. I often wonder if the template for modern relationships comes from too much watching of Eastenders and Hollyoaks. Poor Cristal, who sleeps with a different bloke every weekend and falls head over heels in love with every one of them, is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s Steph who has a list of married lovers longer than my arm. Then we’ve got two lovely gay guys in the salon, Tyrone and Clinton, but they’re both green-eyed monsters and their relationship is best described as fiery as they both have roving eyes and, quite possibly, wandering hands. And don’t even get me started on the lives that some of my clients live. Believe me, one day I’m going to write a book about it. All that drama, that heartache, it’s not for me. I’m quite happy on my own.
‘Keeping Archie happy takes up all my time,’ I continue.
‘Perhaps we’ll just grow old and single together,’ Mike suggests.
‘Perhaps we will,’ I agree. ‘Now,’ I hold up my mirror, ‘short enough for you?’
Chapter Five
‘I’m not interested,’ I say to Nina. ‘I told you.’
‘He’s nice,’ she wheedles as she peels a banana, one of her twenty portions of fruit a day that have replaced her twenty ciggies a day. ‘It would be just one lickle-ickle date.’
I breathe out an exasperated sigh. Nina, against all my wishes, has coerced her cheating husband into fixing me up with a blind date. ‘How does Gerry know this bloke?’
‘He works with him.’
‘Have you met him?’ Is he anything remotely like Gerry? is what I really want to ask. Because if he is, then I want to run for the hills. I can manage without a controlling bully in my life no matter how charming he is, thanks very much.
‘Yes, of course,’ Nina says.
‘When?’
Now she looks shifty. ‘I can’t quite remember. It must have been at one of the office parties.’
‘So he didn’t leave a lasting impression on you.’
‘Well . . .’
‘I don’t want to do this, Nina. I told you.’
‘Is he married?’ Steph is in today. She only works part-time at the salon, preferring to do a bit of mobile business for her own clients during the rest of the week, cash in hand.
‘Divorced.’
Steph wrinkles her nose. ‘You should only date married men, like I do,’ she offers. ‘No hassle. See them when you like, dump them just as easily. No strings. All you have to do is call them when you want a bit. Fuck buddies are definitely the way to go.’
