the chocolate in her basket, almost tempted to swipe it, I was feeling in such a miserable mood. I was sure I’d seen it first, anyway!
She turned around and caught me glaring.
‘Sorry, did I just beat you to it, there?’ She grinned and scooped up the bar, handing it over. ‘Have it. I’ve been indulging myself far too much lately.’
‘Oh.’ Now that she was being so nice, I didn’t want to be rude. ‘No, it’s fine.’
‘Take it.’ She placed it in my basket. ‘You look as miserable as I feel underneath this clown smile of mine.’
‘Well…thank you.’ I felt guilty now. ‘Not having a good day, then?’
She groaned. ‘If this fella would sort out his lottery numbers and get on his way, I’d feel a whole lot happier.’
I grinned, my eye shifting to the eye-catching ring. ‘Are they real diamonds?’
‘Oh, yes.’ She frowned and brought up her hand to examine it. ‘Actually, you’ve got me thinking now. Maybe they’re paste. I wouldn’t put it past the mean bastard.’ She grinned. ‘You want to buy it? Because I’m telling you, you really don’t. This ring is cursed.’ She held it up again and wiggled her hand and the diamonds twinkled under the stark overhead light. ‘Eternity ring, my arse. I’m sure he only bought it because I was getting suspicious of all the late nights he was working.’
‘Are you separated, then?’
‘Yup. Divorced soon, hopefully. In fact…’ She pursed her lips and pulled off the ring. ‘Time to ditch it.’ She slipped it into her bag and sighed. ‘I was with Ed for twenty-six years, from the tender age of sixteen. Gave him two kids, all grown-up now and flown the nest. We’d been planning what we’d do when it was just us again – and guess what? The bastard tells me, on the day we were supposed to be booking a romantic trip to Venice, that he’s fallen in love with the woman who works in the post office and he’s leaving me.’
‘Oh, that’s awful.’
‘It was. I thought it was odd when he developed a passion for selling things on eBay. Turned out he was having his package handled in more ways than one.’
The man in front of me, who was wearing a yellow reflective jacket and carrying a hard hat, turned round at that point.
‘I keep telling you, Flo. He wasn’t good enough for you.’ He winked at her. Then he turned to me, and I noticed he had a really nice smile. ‘This one thinks she’s past it, just because she’s over forty. I keep telling her the best is yet to come but she won’t believe me.’
‘Oh, you’re so romantic, Mr Construction Worker,’ she said pertly, with a strong hint of irony. ‘You don’t know anyone who wants a cursed ring, do you?’
‘The name’s Paul, as you well know. And I’d slip that ring into a Christmas cracker, where it no doubt came from.’
She nodded. ‘Nice idea.’ Then she pointed at the counter. ‘Your turn to get served. Paul.’
He grinned at her, shrugged with mock hopelessness at me, paid for his newspaper and left.
‘He seems nice,’ I pointed out, handing over a note for the milk and the chocolate. ‘Do you know him well?’
‘No. We just keep bumping into each other in here, that’s all.’ She touched the slide with the pink flower on it, holding her fringe back. ‘He’s okay. Bit full of himself.’
I grinned, waiting for her to be served. ‘So is Ed, your ex, the reason you’re feeling bad today?’
‘No.’ She sighed. ‘The truth is, I’m over the hill and unemployed as of a month ago. Turns out it’s not a great combination.’
‘What happened?’
‘Oh…nothing worth talking about.’ She turned with her two bottles of wine clinking in a brown bag and started towards the door. And because I was leaving anyway, I followed in her wake. I thought she might just leave the shop and walk away. But she stopped at the door. ‘I was – um – made redundant,’ she said, staring down at the pavement.
‘Oh, I’m sorry. That must have been hard. So is the wine to drown your sorrows?’
She glanced at the bag. ‘Oh. No, no. I’ve got a couple of friends coming round tonight.’ She smiled up at me, and in a bemusing change of subject, asked, ‘You don’t know anyone who needs an accountant, do you?’
I looked at her. And I laughed at the ridiculous coincidence of it. Because an accountant was probably the very thing I did need –