‘So your mum’s got a gallery?’ Colette asked Liane as she restocked the cigarettes.
‘Not yet. But that’s the plan.’
‘So she was – what? – trying to get investors?’
Liane nodded and then realised Colette couldn’t see her. ‘Yeah. And also I think just to get the word out? Get a bit of buzz going.’
‘Oh, aye. Like that new bar on Seal Street. They had men in short shorts handing out shots.’ Colette turned and leaned back on the counter, grinning at Liane.
‘Just like that, yeah,’ Liane said. ‘Only with no joy or fun. Or short shorts.’
‘Booze, though?’
‘Oh yeah.’
Liane flashed back to an image of herself in the garden of the house she grew up in, some guy’s hands up her skirt, her head tipped back and banging on the trellis. She’d kept worrying that some of the flower heads would get knocked off, which was a really weird thing to have worried about. She hadn’t asked his age, but from the looks of him he was easily mid-forties, so she got to tick someone twice your age off the Fuck It List at least.
If her mum had seen them – if the man mentioned it – Liane’s life would effectively be over. But last weekend, she’d drunk enough that she didn’t care. She didn’t feel great about it. But this was why she hadn’t wanted to go home.
‘So what’s she like?’ Colette said. ‘Your mum?’
A customer came then and tried to use the automatic checkout, even though Colette and Liane were standing right there. They stopped talking and just watched and waited for the inevitable ‘unexpected item’ alert. Once the customer had left, Colette said, ‘So? Your mum?’
‘She’s … not like your mum.’
Colette rolled her eyes. ‘God. Who is?’
Colette’s mum came into the shop every week. She brought Colette a dish of food – she called it leftovers, but Colette strongly suspected she made it especially – and talked them through pretty much every step of her week since she’d last been in: which neighbours she’d chatted to, what she’d watched on TV, everything she’d eaten, whether or not she’d been able to ‘go’ that day. (The first time she came in, Liane had innocently asked ‘Go where?’ and Colette and her mum had almost peed themselves laughing.)
‘She doesn’t act like a mum,’ Liane said now. ‘I mean, obviously I don’t have anyone to compare her with. But she doesn’t act like mums on TV. Or my friends’ mums. She kind of treats me like an irritating employee.’
‘Fuck,’ Colette said simply. ‘I’m sorry. Has she always been like that?’
‘She’s never really been affectionate …’ Was that true? Liane tried to think back to the last time her mum hugged or kissed her beyond a perfunctory air kiss whenever they met, and she couldn’t remember. ‘There’s photos of me sitting on her knee and stuff when I was little, but that’s all really. For Mum, it’s all about appearance. And achievement. She’s got worse since Dad left though. Definitely.’
‘Isn’t that your boyfriend?’ Colette said, nodding at a guy standing in front of the beer fridge.
‘Not my boyfriend,’ Liane said. It was Alfie though, she was pretty sure.
‘Nice little arse,’ Colette muttered, just as the guy turned round.
His eyes actually lit up when he saw Liane. They definitely did. She saw it. No question. He was happy to see her.
‘Hey,’ she said, holding onto the edge of the counter. ‘How did the Phish Food go down?’
‘Yep,’ he said, nodding. ‘Very popular choice. I’ve been back for more, but you weren’t here.’
He’d noticed, Liane thought. He’d noticed she wasn’t there.
‘Oh yeah,’ she said. ‘I went home for the weekend.’
Alfie was standing next to the trolley with the reductions on it and he turned a pack of yum yums around to look at the price before putting them in his basket.
‘Yeah?’ he said, looking around absentmindedly before focussing on her again. ‘Where’s home?’
‘Richmond,’ she said. ‘Surrey. How about you?’
‘Here, actually. Well, Crosby. But I live in town now.’
‘Cool,’ Liane said. ‘Me too. Bold Street.’
He stepped up to the counter then. ‘Yeah? I work there. In Bean? The coffee shop?’
‘Oh, yeah!’ Liane said. ‘I’ve been in there! I’ve never seen you.’ I would’ve noticed, she wanted to add, but couldn’t.
‘Well, next time you come in, coffee’s on the house,’ he said. ‘I mean, as long as I’m there.’ He grinned and Liane stared at his dimples. They were huge.
‘You are so in there,’ Colette said as soon as Alfie had gone.
‘He’s just being polite,’ Liane said, but she was still staring at the door.
‘What did he get?’ Colette said.
‘Um … beer. Yum yums.’ Liane hadn’t been paying attention, she’d just scanned the stuff and bagged it up.
‘Tomatoes, burgers, bread rolls,’ Colette said. She’d lifted the flap on the till and was reading the receipt. ‘Paracetamol, cheese … No condoms, that’s good.’
‘I would’ve noticed if he’d bought condoms.’
‘I don’t know. You looked pretty out of it.’
‘Did I?’ Liane shrieked.
‘Calm down, love. Not like he’d’ve noticed. But, yeah, you looked pretty smitten.’
‘Shit,’ Liane said.
‘That’s a good thing,’ Colette bumped her with her shoulder. ‘You want him to know you’re up for it, right? For whatever he’s offering?’
‘He’s really cute.’
‘He is, yeah. You need to go to that coffee place tomorrow.’
‘Tomorrow? Do you think?’
‘Yep. Get it while it’s hot. And before someone else sweeps in.’
Liane nodded. She could go and get a coffee in the morning. That would be fine.