up in tufts. But as he bent to sign, I noticed Jaz gazing at him with the tenderness of a doughnut addict walking past a bakery.
‘Here you go,’ he said, straightening up and holding out the pen.
‘No wife around to sign it?’ Jaz asked.
He looked embarrassed. ‘No, er, no wife.’
‘Or girlfriend?’ she persisted, which made me want to spontaneously combust with embarrassment and laugh at the same time. Jaz’s boldness was one of the reasons I loved her; I just couldn’t imagine being like it myself.
‘Nope, er, no girlfriend either,’ he replied, with a nervous chuckle.
‘He needs a girlfriend,’ came a small voice beside him, and we all looked down at Maya.
‘Shhh, Maya, that’s quite enough. Come on, better go home.’ His hairless cheeks had turned quite pink.
‘But you do,’ she persisted. ‘Mum said if you had a girlfriend it would make life much easier.’
The man’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘Oh, did she now? When did she tell you that?’
Maya looked down at her trainers. ‘I just heard her say that on the phone,’ she mumbled.
‘Sorry about this,’ he said, grimacing at us before taking his small daughter’s hand. ‘Right, Maya, we’re going to catch the bus and discuss your habit of eavesdropping on adult conversations. Good luck with the shop,’ he said over his shoulder as he led her back down the street.
‘George Spencer,’ Jaz said dreamily, once they were out of sight.
‘Huh?’
‘He’s called George Spencer, look.’
She pointed at the last scrawl on the list of signatures and ran her finger along the box to where he’d printed his email address in neat capital letters. ‘Do you think I can email him?’
‘What about?’
Jaz tutted. ‘Florence Fairfax, this is why you were single for so long. To ask him out! Didn’t you think he was cute?’
‘Him?’ I exclaimed loudly. ‘That guy? The human seal?’
She tutted again. ‘Don’t be horrid about my future husband.’
I frowned at her. ‘I think it might be illegal, taking someone’s email address from a petition and asking them out. Data protection or something.’
‘Rubbish. What’s that thing they say? Fortune favours the old.’
‘Bold.’
‘Oh, I always thought it was an age thing. Like, we all get luckier as we get older because, like, we know more?’
I shook my head. ‘Nope, definitely bold.’
She shrugged. ‘I’m going to email him. I thought he looked nice.’
‘What about her mother?’
She frowned at me.
‘Maya’s mother. Sounded a bit complicated.’
‘Oh that,’ Jaz said airily. ‘I think it sounded over. Don’t worry, Floz, leave it to me.’
I stayed silent, just hoping that this wouldn’t end up like the Solihull situation a few months earlier.
An hour later, having taken a photograph of George’s email address on her phone, she and Dunc went home. I folded up the table as the sun dropped, taking the shoppers with it.
‘How many names do you think you got?’ asked Zach, helping me downstairs.
‘Nearly a thousand,’ I said as I tried to manoeuvre the table round the banisters. ‘How many do you reckon we need for the landlord to take any notice?’
‘Well, the petition to stay in Europe got six million.’
‘I feel like that’s ambitious.’
He laughed as we dropped the table in the stockroom and went back upstairs where Eugene was cashing up.
‘Fancy a drink?’ said Zach. ‘I thought we might need one after today so I shoved a few beers in the fridge.’
Eugene tutted. ‘I’ve got an audition in the morning so I need to get home and practise.’
‘Florence, you up for it?’
‘Yeah,’ I said, although I felt nervous. Just me and Zach was weird; I didn’t have the energy to bicker for an hour but I couldn’t back out now. I looked at my watch. It had just gone six. I’d stay for one beer and ring Rory to see where he was.
‘Great, I’ll grab ’em, hang on.’
‘What’s this audition for?’ I asked Eugene, as Zach thumped downstairs again.
‘Hamlet. I won’t get it.’
‘Don’t be so down on yourself. What part you auditioning for?’
‘Hamlet.’
‘Oh.’
‘Thanks for the vote of confidence, my darling, but have fun. See you Monday.’
He rushed out and, since Zach still hadn’t reappeared with the beers, I stood at the top of the stairs and shouted for him.
‘Let’s have them down here,’ he shouted back.
I found him standing by the fridge. ‘Here you go,’ he said, handing me a bottle. ‘Shall we sit?’ He nodded towards the beanbags in the kids’ section.
‘There?’
‘Yeah, I can’t stand up any more today. Come on.’ He led me through and fell back on a beanbag, groaning, before reaching up to knock his