This Summer

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

Ashley stamped her foot like an immature five-year-old. “I hate this shop.”

I decided to ignore her and search around the shop for another dress which she could try on knowing that she was going to be ever so stubborn and say no. I glanced back and she was typing away on her blackberry oblivious to everything around her, I sighed.

I went over to the shop assistant. “Do you have any designer dresses in here, it’s just that my sister-“

She cut me off before I could even continue. “I’ll call down the manager.”

She quickly strode over to the old 1920s white telephone and couldn’t dial the numbers quickly enough. She spoke in a quiet voice and put the phone down.

“He will be down shortly.”

At that moment I knew exactly who he was as soon as he walked through the door at the back of the room. The same comb-over hair style and gentle brown eyes, he was always in here when I came in. He approached me and smiled.

“I have seen you in here too many times.” He smiled and the crow’s feet at the side of his eyes showed many years of laughter.

I laughed awkwardly “Yeah I love it in here.”

“So have you finally decided to make a reckless decision and get married?” He chuckled.

I smiled. “God no, it’s my big sister being reckless.”

He looked around me and raised his eyebrows at my sister. “I see, you look older than her for starters and her face doesn’t look impressed.”

“I will take that as a compliment instead of an insult. My sister is very hard to please.”

“Oh right, I do have this one dress but I’m not going to lie I was saving it until you came in and announced your marriage. I always see you in here browsing around the dresses feeling the material and the fabric, it’s an old dress and needs a lot of work and you look the sort of person with an eye for design.”

I blushed and shrugged. “I don’t know. I did art and textiles at school but it’s been years.”

He smiled. “So modest, come with me.”

I turned around to tell Ashley where I was going but she was so engrossed in brick breaker I decided not to. I followed the man through the door he had come through and started to climb up a spiralling staircase of thick sugar pink carpet.

Once I had reached the top he walked down a corridor of many doors before he took out a key from his suit jacket and unlocked the dark brown mahogany door. The carpet was pure white inside the room and had a golden leaf pattern laced into the fabric. The walls were an egg blue and there were floor to ceiling cupboards along the one wall in the room.

Then my eyes landed on the piece of fabric hanging on the mannequin bust in the corner of the room, I did a quick small run and my hands automatically collided with the material, the netting of the bottom half of the dress was smooth silk with beaded embroidered flowers on the train. The top half was sweet heart neckline with embroidered flowers snaking around to match the bottom half of the dress.

“It’s gorgeous.”

He chuckled. “You’re easily impressed, seeing past all that dust and all, it was manufactured wrong about ten years ago, it’s been sat in the spare material draw to be made into something else then when you came along I knew it was destined to be yours.”

I smiled. “I didn’t catch your name.”

“Harold.” He grinned back.

“Thanks, Harold.” I grabbed the material again running my fingers through the layers. “My sister will love this.”