Liverpool Love Song by Anne Baker Read Free Book Online Page B

her. ‘I’ve booked a table at the Adelphi.’
    ‘I’m full of sand,’ she protested. ‘I need to go home to change.’
    ‘No, I’m starving.’ With the car boot sheltering them from the wind, he shook her coat and dusted her down. She combed the sand out of her tangled hair and replaced her Alice band.
    ‘You look great.’ He smiled at her. ‘I love that red dress. Now, where are your high heels? All you need is a few minutes in the ladies’ at the Adelphi and you’ll be the prettiest girl there.’
    He was stripping off his pullover and replacing it with a jacket and tie. He’d taken her to the Adelphi Hotel last week, and Chloe had loved the formality of the dining room: waiters in dress suits, starched white damask tablecloths and napkins, sparkling cutlery and china and fresh flowers. She knew it was reputed to be the best hotel in the city. She’d told the girls at work about it and asked if they liked it.
    ‘It’s heavy on style,’ they agreed, ‘and the food isn’t bad, but it’s very traditional.’ They told her where she could get more exciting foreign dishes, but she knew formal and traditional were what Adam enjoyed.
    After a wash, and a quick flick of her powder puff and lipstick, Chloe felt fine. Adam ordered wine and they lingered over the many courses while he talked of his career as an antique dealer.
    ‘You’re very young to have a house of your own,’ she told him. ‘Lucky to have achieved it so quickly.’ She wanted to know all about it.
    ‘It’s in Didsbury, a suburb of Manchester,’ he told her. ‘It was built in Victorian times but it’s in the Georgian style, which I like. You must come and see it.’
    ‘I’d love to, nothing I’d like more.’
    ‘Come home with me now. I could bring you back in time to go to work in the morning.’
    Chloe laughed. ‘No, Mum would have a fit.’
    ‘You know you’d love to.’
    ‘Yes, but I daren’t.’
    ‘Then come on the train on Saturday morning and spend the day with me. I’ll meet you at the station.’
    The prospect excited Chloe. Since he’d told her he had a house, she couldn’t stop thinking about it.
    ‘One day,’ he’d said, ‘I hope you’ll come and live there with me.’
    Any thought of a future with Adam thrilled Chloe. She could feel his love; every day he telephoned her at work, and often he telephoned her again when she was back at home. He was always booking theatre and concert tickets for them as well as taking her to restaurants. When he came to pick her up, she frequently found he’d bought a little gift, sometimes chocolates and sometimes a book he thought she would enjoy.
    Chloe was head over heels in love with Adam and knew it had been love at first sight for them both. He hadn’t yet mentioned marriage or an engagement, but she felt a more permanent relationship must be on his mind and that they were progressing rapidly towards it.
     
    In order to distract Helen, Rex got up and took both their mugs to the sink and started to wash them. She gazed out of the window. ‘Marigold wouldn’t even come to look at my new summerhouse,’ she said sadly.
    ‘Now you’ve had time to try it, are you pleased with it?’ He thought perhaps she wasn’t.
    ‘It needs fixing up inside. I put the old garden chairs in, but it needs more furniture and something to brighten it up. Come and see.’
    Rex followed her over. He could see what she meant. The inside smelled of new wood, but it looked bare. Helen’s wooden garden chairs were shabby, and the cushion covers looked faded.
    ‘At least I don’t have to bring them in every night to keep them dry,’ she said. ‘The summerhouse looks beautiful from the outside, and it’s quite easy to swing it round. But I need to buy new furniture for it, make it smarter. What sort of furniture would look good in here?’
    Rex looked round helplessly. ‘I’m not much good at interior design,’ he said. ‘Doesn’t Chloe have any ideas?’
    ‘All Chloe can think