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As Coral called out another drink order Mary replaced the horoscope and the magnet, then made the drinks, which she took out to the clients.
‘So, where are you off to tonight?’ Coral was painting her nails as she chatted with a client.
Everyone was getting ready for Saturday night. Dinners, bars... Anniversaries, catching up with friends... Mary listened to the loud chatter above the hairdryers, and every now and then she could feel Coral’s eyes drift to hers.
Half the clients, it seemed, were going on blind dates tonight, and surely what Coral was suggesting was much the same? The money would mean she could add to her interview outfit and bring forward her secret plans to leave.
‘Have you thought any more about it?’ Coral asked as the annoying bell on the door jangled when the final client left.
‘I can’t.’
‘Eric really needs a date. Leventis will bring a knockout—you can guarantee that! Eric doesn’t want to be there sitting on his own...’
Mary wavered. One of the reasons that Mary never ventured anywhere more exciting than the nearby coffee shop or the local library was that she felt conspicuous alone.
‘Eric’s a sweetheart,’ Coral said. ‘If you don’t have anything to wear you can borrow a dress...’
‘I have something,’ Mary said, thinking of the vintage dress she had bought. It had been an impractical buy but she had been unable to resist, even though it had remained unworn.
‘You’re sure?’ Coral checked dubiously. ‘It’s a very high-end hotel.’
‘I have just the dress,’ Mary assured her. ‘I’ve been saving it for something special.’
‘Great!’ Coral beamed. ‘Go and have a seat, then, and I’ll sort out your hair.’
‘Shouldn’t it be washed first?’ Mary asked, thinking of the deep conditioning treatments and the scalp massages which she saw being given each and every day.
But Coral shook her head. ‘You can’t wash it if you’re wearing it up, and there isn’t time to cut and style it. You’ll have to meet him soon.’
Mary sat, watching her hair being straightened and then loosely curled at the front. She leant forward a little as Coral pinned it up and thought of her seven-year-old self in the old school report.
Reckless, mischievous, mettlesome... Except there had been another resounding theme...
Mary has to learn to consider consequences...
‘Head up,’ Coral said.
Mary met her own vivid blue eyes in the mirror for a second, and then closed them as Coral doused her in hairspray.
For so many years now she’d been considering consequences. Over and over until she was too scared of her own shadow to move. She was bone-weary of watching others have fun while she held herself back. So tired of being alone.
Maybe this Eric felt the same way.
‘Done!’ Coral said. ‘I’ll leave you to do your own make-up. I really have to get going. I’ll see you on Tuesday.’ That was when the salon opened again. ‘Make sure you do the high dusting.’
‘Of course,’ Mary said.
‘And the towels...’ Coral reminded her.
The bell jangled as she dashed out the door—not that Mary was paying attention.
Tonight, on her twenty-first birthday, Mary was going on her very first date!
CHAPTER TWO
‘YOU’REMARY?’
Standing in the opulent lobby of the most stunning London hotel, hearing the ridicule in her date’s voice, Mary knew that she had made the most dreadful mistake: Eric Ridgemont could not be described, by any stretch of the imagination, as ‘a sweetheart’.
