I shrugged. ‘I used to work in a restaurant.’
‘You should go into catering or something. Open a café.’
‘Maybe one day. Right now, I couldn’t take on running my own business.’
‘Yeah.’ Rowan shoved in another forkful. ‘It’s a lot of work. When I open my beauty salon with Kim, you could get a place nearby, somewhere for the clients to have lunch once we’ve got them all spruced up.’
‘So you’re planning on becoming a hairdresser?’ I asked. ‘Is the music career on hold?’
She shrugged. ‘While Callie needs me here, anyway. I’m trying to find someone who’ll take me on as an apprentice but it’s tough. Hester says you have to keep trying if you want to fulfil your destiny; it doesn’t ever come easy. One day, someone will see the potential inside me.’
I smiled. ‘You know Hester; she’s usually right. And in the meantime, you’re still doing my wedding hair?’
‘Too right!’ She stuffed in her last piece of omelette, leaning over to grab a chunk of my hair.
‘Oh, sorry.’ As I ducked away to avoid her eggy fingers, she reached about for a piece of kitchen roll and wiped her hands on it. ‘Rosa showed me what your dress is gonna look like, so I’ve been thinking about what hairdo will suit it best.’
‘She showed you my dress?’
‘A picture. It’s amazing, isn’t it? When I get married, she’s definitely making mine.’
She tugged out my hairband, and deftly twisted and twirled for a moment behind my head before tying it back up.
‘Something like that.’
I took a look in the mirror above the fireplace. ‘Wow.’
She grinned, cheeks flushing.
‘When you next have an interview at a salon, bring me along.’
We were interrupted by Hester clapping her hands together. ‘Choir, while most of us are here, I will share the details of the Community Choir Sing-Off national final.’
There was some jostling and nudging as we prepared to listen. ‘The next round will be held in Derry-Londonderry, the City of Culture a couple of years ago.’
‘Derry or Londonderry?’ Millie asked, scratching her hat. ‘I’m confused.’
‘Isn’t it the same place?’ Janice said. ‘Or are there two now?’
‘No. It’s one place with two names. Derry-Londonderry.’
‘What? Both of them together? Why?’
‘I don’t know why. Because some people call it Derry and some call it Londonderry and nobody wanted to taint a cultural event with a political statement.’
Hester closed her eyes for a moment, reaching into her head to find the Hester zone of tranquillity and eternal patience. ‘We have a thirty-minute lunch break scheduled, Millie. Twenty-one minutes of that lunch break are already over. Shall I use the remaining nine to inform you about the competition or answer questions you can easily find the answers to via an internet search?’
‘Sorry, Hest.’
‘Apology accepted. Now, we will be needing flights, plus two nights in a hotel and transport either side of the airports. Food, outfits, sheet music. That comes to an estimated three hundred pounds each. Or four thousand eight hundred in total.’
‘Flights?’ Rowan asked. ‘Will I need a bikini? Can we have a hotel with a pool? If I’m going to leave Callie with Mum for a whole weekend, I’m gonna make the most of it.’
‘Derry-Londonderry, which I shall be calling Derry from now on in order to remain on schedule, is in Northern Ireland. We will fly to Belfast. The average temperature in October is ten degrees. By all means bring a bikini if you must. No, we cannot have a hotel with a pool unless you want to pay three times as much. I’m sure we can find a leisure centre.’
‘Three hundred pounds each?’ April had gone pale. ‘That rules me out, then.’
There was some general murmuring and shaking of heads. A couple more people agreed that the price was going to be a big problem, even with several months to save up for it.
