CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER ONE
“Don’t be such a prude.”
“I...I’m not a prude,” Aggie stuttered as she pushed her long, mousy brown hair behind her ear and glanced around at the other shoppers on the high street.
“Oh come on,” Coco laughed. She grabbed her best friend by the arm and gave her little choice but to enter the popular s*x shop.
Feeling her face blush a deep shade of aubergine, Aggie stumbled beside her, hiding as best as she could.
Coco, on the other hand, was in her element, picking up bras, panties, feather boas, sequinhed bodices and...
Aggie gasped aloud when she saw her best friend pick up a vibrator, before it dawned on her that Coco was merely teasing her.
“Can we go now?” she whispered as her best pal hooted with laughter.
“Go?” Coco giggled, “but we only just came in.”
“I’m just not...not...comfortable.”
“Jeeze, Aggie, it’s about time you got over your nerves in places like this. It’s just a s*x shop, they sell lingerie and fun stuff for the bedroom. You’re not an eighty-five-year-old Vicar’s wife—you’re twenty-eight for God’s sake! Live a little. Come on, look at this,” she said as she pulled a blood red basque covered in feathers from the rails and held it up to her best friend’s slim physique.
Mortified, Aggie gulped and her nostrils flared.
Realising the extent of poor Aggie’s embarrassment, Coco relented and immediately put it back with a shake of the head.
“Okay, okay. Just give me a minute to pay for these things.”
“I’ll see you outside,” Aggie muttered as she tried not to trip over her own feet to get out of there as fast as she could.
The cold immediately hit her as she walked outside so Aggie rubbed her hands up and down her arms and crossed the high street. She waited around the corner near a popular newsagent, avoiding eye contact with everybody, her embarrassment still evident on her flushed face.
Five minutes later, Coco emerged with a huge grin on her face and another large pink carrier bag in her hand. Aggie watched as her friend’s smile faded, her head turning one way and the other as she scoured the crowds for her best pal.
Aggie waved from across the street as she stepped out of the shadows.
“I thought you’d buggered off and left me,” Coco shrieked and tottered toward her in three-inch heels perfectly suited for a shopping expedition. “Come on, let’s grab a coffee.”
Arm in arm, the two women walked toward Starbucks, just a few metres further down the shop-lined street.
“I’m dying for a cappuccino,” Coco added.
Aggie pushed open the door. Warmth and an inviting aroma of coffee enveloped her as she waited for Coco, who struggled with all the carrier bags. An attractive man in his forties rushed forward to help.
“Let me give you a hand,” he said in such a smooth tone that Aggie’s knees almost buckled. Men never rush to my aid like that, she thought while Coco relished the attention.
“Thank you,” she breathed. “You’re very kind.”
“It’s nothing. Can I buy you a cup of coffee?”
Coco stopped momentarily before she smiled, that beautiful bright smile that would cheer up many a toothpaste advert, and shook her head.
“No thank you, I’m here to have coffee with my friend. Perhaps another time?”
The man, who had a head full of thick silver hair, nodded with a cheeky smile, then reached into his inside pocket, removing a silver card holder. He withdrew his business card and placed it into Coco’s front jacket pocket.
“In that case, I shall wait for your call.”
And then he was gone. Aggie stood, still holding the door, with her mouth wide open.
“Shut the door will you, love? You’re letting the cold air in,” said an old lady to her side.
“Oh, sorry,” Aggie muttered. She quickly shut the door and followed Coco to the only available table in the corner of the cafe.
“Sit down, hon. I’ll get these. What do you fancy? Your usual?”
“Erm...yes please,” Aggie replied as she struggled to remove her bulky coat, almost hitting a nearby person in the face. Once it was off, she sat down with a sigh.
Several minutes later, Coco returned with a cappuccino and a soy caramel latte.
“Thanks,” Aggie smiled.
Sighing contentedly, Coco sat down and pulled out her flashy smart phone.
“So. Will you ring him?” Aggie asked.
“Ring who?”
“That guy?”
“What guy?” Coco asked.
Aggie rolled her eyes, “That gorgeous older guy who just gave you his card.”
“Oh him. I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Maybe? But he was...was...so handsome, so dreamy. If not a little old.”
“Yeah I suppose,” Coco murmured as she proceeded to flick through her text messages. “Oh look, I’ve won another competition.”
“What this time?”
“Oh, just some makeup. s**t,” she shrieked all of a sudden, “I mean, seriously OMG”.
Aggie jumped. “What? What on earth is it?”
“Aggie, honey. Did you check your messages this morning?”
“No, why?” Aggie replied.
“You need to check your email. Now.”
“Why, what’s going on?” she asked.
“Just do it,” Coco said, clapping the elaborate case of her mobile phone shut, before she gave her friend a rather sad smile.
“Please just tell me, Coco,” Aggie replied as she delved into her handbag and tried to retrieve her own phone.
“Oh alright then. I got an email from Amelia Hornblower. The library is closing down.”
“Wh...wh...what?” stuttered Aggie.
“I’m sorry honey.”
“Wh...wh...when?”
“At the end of the month,” Coco added.
“But why wouldn’t they tell me? And why does Amelia know about this before me? She doesn’t even work there.”
“Honey, Amelia is the town gossip. You know that. She knows you’re going to fart before you do. What will you do?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t have any idea this was going to happen. I thought the library was going well,” Aggie cried.
“Oh honey, even I knew it was having financial difficulties. I mean who really cares for a library that specialises in nothing but mythology?”
“I do,” Aggie whispered.
“Oh babe, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it.”
“What am I going to do?”
“Don’t worry,” Coco placed her hand over Aggie’s, “We’ll figure something out.”
