Prologue184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMtdzjpLEFH
It was him, she was instantly sure it was him. Minutes earlier she had switched off her bedside light. A creature of habit she had skipped one last time through the channels to stave off the inevitable drift into sleep. And there on the screen was his face. 184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaYvhEZMkEp
A tremor ran through her body and she was surprised to find she had been holding her breath. At first she could not believe her eyes, that it was a trick of the light, but knew it was just the shock. For so long she had worried whether he was safe, if he was still alive. The thought of him lying hurt in some dangerous part of the world had haunted her dreams and slowly eroded away the soft layers of her soul.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPCEpvq40IX
It had been 20 years since she had last seen him, driving away from her parents house with the Bonfire Night fireworks exploding in the sky above her head. For one gloriously idyllic summer and autumn they had been so much in love. Her heart had been broken when he had walked away, and at the hurtful things he had said.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMRvC9i8EPZ
She knew his face so well; every angle, every curve. A handsome face she had thought of often since that night. His hair was longer now, curled up at the back of his neck, darker than she recalled and had started to grey at the temples. Stubble covered his face and his body seemed thicker but still well muscled. His voice was deeper than she remembered, with the mature timbre of a man who had experienced the world. He wore a deep tan, as if he had spent many months in hot sunshine. He was so very attractive, a man now and he had aged well. Just as she had known he would. 184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPrqMPMGG85
As the programme credits disappeared from the screen she turned off the TV. The air seemed stuffy in her normally airy bedroom and she realised her skin, her whole body, felt unusually warm under the light nightshirt. The only sounds she could hear were the muted ticking of the television as it cooled, and her rapidly beating heart. 184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡydtiEprac4
They had once meant so much to each other. Seeing him again, which had seemed an impossible dream, could turn her comfortable, safe life upside down. Cassie stared into the dark of the bedroom and was taken to a time before the internet and the mobile phone, to when she was a girl, a teenage world of boyfriends, love letters, first kisses, punk rockers, flared jeans, cheesecloth shirts, mixed tapes and the school disco. To the music of the 1970’s, Top of the Pops and dancing with her sisters; to ABBA, Leo Sayer, Diana Ross and The Bee Gees .............
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Chapter 1 - Side 1 Track 1 – Getting Ready For Love (Diana Ross)184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9wuUdwpb3a
I’m getting ready for love, brand new start, here’s my heart,184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqfCwYBuuE2
I’m getting ready for love, I can feel this time its real,184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOSDbJ2qeY1
I’m under your spell, you can tell, I’m getting ready for love.......
The dreary streets of Maidstone matched her mood as she made the short walk from the bus stop. It was now almost two months and still Josh hadn’t written. Lost in thought she approached the kerb, and the green military fire engine had to ring it’s bell as it hurried passed on the way up the High Street. Cassie coughed as the black smoke from its exhaust caught in her throat.
It was the first week in December 1977. She ignored the twinkling lights scattered in patterns across the shop windows. Christmas was the last thing on her mind as she arrived at the cafe. Normally she only worked at the Rumpy Bar Cafe on Saturday.
Now the Fifth Form had broken up for the holidays, she had taken a few extra shifts to put some money aside, saving for a summer holiday in Margate she was planning to take with her best friend, Lucy, once they were seventeen. She thought of the scene to come when she told her parents of their plans and dreaded what her mum would say. If she ever found the courage to fight that battle.
After the mid morning rush Cassie was about to take a break when she looked up to the sound of a plastic beaker hitting the floor. She walked over to the booth just as the toddler started to whinge. ‘Don’t worry, little man’ she said reassuringly, picking up the beaker and avoiding the spreading puddle of blackcurrant on the floor.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZLAgBSc5ci
‘I’m so sorry’ said the toddler’s mum rising from her seat.
‘It’s OK, happens all the time. Let me just get a mop and bucket and I’ll clean it up’ she said brightly, looking at the boy. His face was screwed up with fat tears falling down his cheeks. ‘And I shouldn’t do this, but if you don’t say anything I will bring over another blackcurrant?’ furtively looking over her shoulder to see if her boss was in sight.
‘Thank you so much’ said the toddler’s mum. ‘Don’t cry Charlie, the nice waitress will bring you another juice’.
Cassie returned from the kitchen with the mop and a fresh beaker. The lively tousle-haired toddler had stopped crying and gave her a beaming smile as she placed the drink in front of him. She genuinely loved children and had a dream of becoming a teacher when she finished her education. ‘He’ll be a handful when he starts school’, she thought, looking at the toddler. Happy with his juice, the boy he looked cute as a button in his blue shirt and jeans.
She finished cleaning the floor and considered taking her break when Cassie noticed the tables left empty after the mid morning rush. Should she take a break now? If she did, and Stelios saw the used tables had not been wiped and cleared away, she’d be in for another lecture.
I’d better clean up. She cleared the tables and was singing Diana Ross softly to herself. Moving almost imperceptibly along to the beat, she’d a feeling she was being watched. She scanned the room looking for Stelios and it was then she first saw him. As she caught his eye across the room, she shivered and her body came alive, heating outwards from her core.
He was sitting at a booth in Lucy’s station. The only other customers were in her area at the back of the cafe. She regularly swapped stations with her best friend, as they both hated the icy blast blowing through every time the door opened. She was immediately envious it was not her turn to have the station by the entrance.
She thought the boy was perhaps seventeen or at most eighteen, slim but muscular with wavy brown hair. Apart from the short hair style Cassie thought he looked a little like David Cassidy. His eyes were on her, and for a second her breath caught in her throat. Was it normal for her stomach to leap as he looked at her?
The blood rushed to her face and she quickly looked away. She had only recently split with her first boyfriend and was struggling with their breakup. Cassie hated the way her face and skin involuntarily reacted and became red and blotchy when her emotions heightened. It’d become worse as she reached her teens and was one of the reasons she’d always been shy around boys.
The cafe started to fill up, and by the time there was a break in her orders Cassie was disappointed to find the boy had gone.
The connection, her attraction, had been instant. After months of heartbreak was it time to move on with her life? Was she ready to love again?184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIZ0hBp8hsN
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Two days later she saw him again. Cassie smiled tentatively as he took a corner booth by the window. He made himself comfortable, placing his suede jacket on the seat before opening his paper. She wasn’t sure if he’d seen her.
He pushed the ashtray away to the furthest corner of the table and took a pen from his pocket. Staring into space, while clicking the top against his white even teeth, she saw he was doing the crossword.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgxlF7v9GEo
Lucy brought over his order and he lifted the mug to his full lips and gently blew the top of the frothy hot liquid before putting it to his mouth. Josh never sipped like that. 184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgi7pMKFPIb
His lips were thicker, rubbery like Mick Jagger’s, and he slurped his drinks. Cassie was captivated watching him drink his coffee, and felt butterflies in her stomach.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVdb4BWkEpy
She had to force her eyes away before Stelios noticed her day-dreaming and came over to deliver one of his routine lectures.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNj5WH4q7xZ
Her eyes followed as Lucy returned to his table and swapped the ashtray for a clean one. She experienced a pique of jealously as the boy looked up and smiled at her friend. Lucy was bubbly and confident and was always popular with boys. Her bust was bigger and her bottom had a shape she knew boys liked. 184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmovpT3f0qq
She kept returning to wipe down the empty table closest to him, or fill up the shakers. ‘I hope he guesses what I’m doing’, she thought. She tried to get a look at the paper he was reading, but it was covered behind the shoulder high partition. She got her chance when a woman tried to back out of the door with her pram, and she made her way over to hold it open. The red jump suit she was wearing was an outfit she’d not be seen dead in and Cassie cringed at how big her already wide bottom looked.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4yEzmvYQTq
As she returned she walked right passed him and although she didn’t get a clear look at his face she saw he was reading ‘Melody Maker’. The boy seemed so grown up.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzoNw0KaEo2
He stayed for an hour, reading his paper, occasionally scribbling in the crossword. Once or twice she glanced across and caught him looking back. They both quickly looked away as if it were a game. She tried to hold his gaze with a shy smile but he again looked away.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3WCzrT8Diy
When he gathered his things, and made his way out of the cafe, she felt the sharp stab of regret. Don’t go, not yet. For the rest of the day she was surprised how many times she pictured him.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBufzpguI3i
That night, alone in her room, she recorded her confused thoughts of the boy and Josh in her diary. Would she ever see either of them again?184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqmTsmmjuXE
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Fernando was playing on the cafe radio and suddenly she’d been back outside the club, Josh's lips pressed to hers for the first time, his nose colliding awkwardly with her own. ‘Cassie, stop day-dreaming, customer is waiting’ snapped Stelios as he emerged from the kitchen. His Greek accent grated like fingernails on a chalk board. 184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE13uOW6jVV
She’d always been a dreamer, often disappearing into her own thoughts. Back in the Spring, at the local youth disco he’d asked her to be his girlfriend. Her first kiss had been wetter than she’d expected, but they‘d got better after that. Most of her friends had been so envious she had a boyfriend. Preferring books to boys, she’d been the last one they expected to have a boyfriend. At fifteen he had been a year older than her and they’d been friends since infants. To be his first girlfriend had seemed the natural thing to do.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqWWTgS5Dx0
But by the Autumn news of their breakup had quickly made the rounds at school. In the month up to the end of term a couple of overly confident, scruffy Sixth Form seniors had made it all too obvious they were interested. But until that week the split from Josh was still too raw, too painful, to think about liking another boy.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpubsTh6bhC
She had no memories of Josh from the cafe, he’d played for a local youth Saturday football team and mostly spent the day with his mates. As Cassie busied herself at the end of her shift, she realised thoughts of her former boyfriend had all but been replaced by images of the boy she’d seen twice in the cafe that week.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlzOKGOqpQX
She wondered what it would be like to kiss someone new, someone older. She shook her head and laughed at the ridiculous thought. Why would he ever be interested in a skinny fifth former with no boobs and a huge spot on the side of her nose that no amount of Clearasil had been able to shift, and whose hair stunk of fried food and cigarette smoke?184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH0jnLTuR6q
All that day she kept looking up as the door opened. But as Thursday afternoon drew to a close, she felt the disappointment grow heavy in her stomach. She was still hoping the door would open, and it would be him, when the owner started closing up. ‘Come Cassie, start now to finish tables and do floor’ ordered Stelios gruffly.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ4vrceLB13
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Saturday didn’t get off to a good start. Her regular bus didn’t turn up, making her late for the start of her shift. When she finally arrived, out of breath after running from the stop, Stelios was his usual unhappy self.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHkyup6zabo
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In the middle of a vain attempt to explain, he waved dismissively towards Lucy and the customers she was covering along with her own. ‘Start work now’ he said. She mouthed a silent ‘sorry’ to her friend, who cheekily smiled and responded with an equally silent ‘no problem’.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmVTseFpBQd
Moments later, Lucy made her way to the kitchen and whispered as she passed, ‘Need to talk to you later’, before departing under the ever watchful eye of the ‘Grumpy Greek’, as they both called Stelios behind his back.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxVxECCrMev
It was a private joke amongst the staff Stelios didn’t know what continent he was on, never mind what planet. The red booths installed the year before were American diner, the pictures on the walls distinctly Mediterranean, the waitress uniforms French bistro. They might laugh behind his back, they would never have made fun of him to his face. He was a large, loud man with greasy hair and dark jowls as if he hadn’t shaved. Everyone who worked for Stelios, and wanted to keep their job, was rightly scared of him.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl5CfMpRH6m
‘Maybe Lucy had overheard him saying something about firing her’, she thought – it was the second time she’d been late that month. Cassie remembered the day she took off when Josh had told her he was leaving. Stelios was still holding that against her.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIzydWYgITO
I hope those Sixth Formers don’t come in again. They are such a pain. For the last two Saturday’s some lads they knew from school had been in, trying to be funny and flirt with her and Lucy. Today it was the last thing she needed. Stelios had shouted at them both afterwards for encouraging them. She’d nothing to do with it; it was Lucy they all wanted to talk too. There was one of the group of youths she knew liked her. His nickname was ‘Spock’, for his pointy, sticky out ears. Before getting with Josh he’d cringingly asked her to go with him to the school disco; she’d politely said no. Thankfully he’d not spoken to her since.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv0UyrVpgYL
She worried what Lucy wanted, and if this would indeed be her last shift. She tried to engineer an opportunity but Stelios always seemed to be watching with his hooded dark eyes.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi9XIp1UUud
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Just when Cassie thought she’d have to wait until later in the day, Lucy was behind her and whispered ‘Guess who was in here asking about you yesterday?’184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtpwmoWpiFl
She stared at her with surprise. ‘Surely not Josh, he left weeks ago and he didn’t tell me he was back!’184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3tjuxEYvlV
‘No, not Josh’ replied Lucy, moving away quickly as Stelios approached from the direction of the kitchen.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp3vZNnNRxM
Cassie spent a nervous morning taking orders, her friend sending knowing smirks and winks her way. Bitch! It was obvious Lucy was enjoying her discomfort. 184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuwayHLjbVh
Suddenly she had an image of the tall brown-haired boy.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9rGSJeUg3B
But surely it couldn’t be him? Why on earth would he talk to Lucy about her?184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPsp62ugMdc
End of Chapter 1184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxMyuvSqcrt
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