Please Don't Stop The Music by Jane Lovering Read Free Book Online Page B

over?’
    ‘ You
e-mailed me last night. To pick up the money from the first
buckle?’
    ‘ Okay, I did. But I didn’t mean – I didn’t think you’d come
straight away.’ He came out of the window display and squinted
around behind me. ‘Where’s the baby?’
    ‘ He’s my friend’s son, not my conjoined twin. Does this mean
you don’t have the money for me?’ I was relying on it to give Rosie
something towards this month’s bills.
    ‘ Are
you always this confrontational?’ Ben moved towards the back of the
shop but watched me over his shoulder. ‘I bet you’re a real success
in the dating world.’
    Touché. ‘Ha ha. All right, I’ll engage in a little social
chit-chat if you want, but since I’m here for the money I thought
I’d save us both some time by coming to the point.’
    Ben
rubbed the back of his hand over his forehead again. His pony-tail
was coming untied, wisps of hair curled onto his cheeks and made
him look like a scruffy teenager. But one with very old eyes. ‘Yes.
Yes, you’re right of course. I just thought maybe –’ He stopped and
went to the till. It was the old-fashioned kind with the push-keys
and the little front drawer that pings out. ‘We said a hundred and
fifty, yes?’ The till rang up a ‘no sale’ and opened. ‘I’ll give
you two hundred. The other fifty is on account until I sell one of
the other buckles.’
    ‘ You’ve got two hundred quid in there?’ I craned my neck over
the counter. ‘Wow, you must have some turnover.’
    ‘ Guitars are expensive.’ Ben pulled four fifties from a
compartment which contained many more.
    I
slipped the money into a pocket and was turning for the door when I
remembered my promise to Rosie. I turned back. ‘Would you like to
come to dinner one night?’
    ‘ What? ’
    ‘ Dinner. At my place. Look, it’s complicated, but my friend –
that’s the one with the baby – she doesn’t get out much at the
moment and I’m a bit worried about her, but she wants to have more
visitors and meet more people and she suggested …’ I saw his
expression and stopped talking. He looked scared. Not just creeped
out as I would have been by an almost total stranger inviting me
round to their place, but downright scared.
    ‘ I
don’t really do –’
    ‘ Believe me this isn’t a date. I’m right with you on the not
dating thing. This is … look, forget it. I’ll tell Rosie I asked,
but you’re – I dunno, spending the next ten years being criminally
skinny or something.’
    ‘ Do
you really think I’m skinny?’
    I
stared him up and down. ‘Honestly? Yes. And those tight trousers
don’t do you any favours, you know. What’s wrong with ordinary
jeans?’
    ‘ Is
this some kind of quiz?’
    ‘ Never mind. E-mail me if you sell anything else, and I’ll go
and make a few more bits to replace the ones you have sold so
far.’
    I
had my hand on the door latch and was pushing the truculent door
open when he spoke again quietly. ‘I’ll come.’
    Puzzled, I turned to face him. ‘Where?’
    ‘ To
dinner. Your short-term memory is really shot, isn’t
it?’
    Something deep inside me was relishing this
banter. It was – now, what was the word again? Ah yes, fun . Something I had
forgotten about, until now. ‘It’s all this having to restrain my
intellect, use little tiny words that you’ll understand. My address is on
the card I gave you. Little Gillmoor. Near
Kirkbymoorside.’
    ‘ Those are real places?’ Ben came past me and pushed the door
shut again. ‘This dinner invitation. It is … I mean you obviously
don’t – you don’t want to get to me for any reason?’
    ‘ No,
Mr “I fancy myself more than a bit”. I do not want to get to you,
whatever you might mean by that. I’m only asking because Rosie
wanted me to. Personally I don’t care if you never eat
again.’
    ‘ Wow. I bet you’re fun to be friends with. Look.’ He’d clearly
come to a decision, and one that had cost him. But he’d