The Vintage Cinema Club

Thursday Morning, 5th June

LUCE, DIDA & IZZY

At Izzy’s house

It sounds like a plan

‘Brace yourself for fighting talk, I hope Izzy’s got the coffee on.’ Luce took a deep breath, as Dida swung the car into Albert Street, and pulled up next to an ornate lamp post. Luce and Dida got out of the car, turned in at the smart grey gate, and picked their way along the neat herringbone brick path. The lofty Victorian semi’s, with their tight plots, and steep patches of garden were popular for divorcees, offering lots of space at half the price of the more desirable family areas. Izzy’s mum had landed here years ago, along with her four kids, and this was where they’d stuck.

Knocking on the door, they watched Izzy’s shadow approach through the frosted glass. The number eight, cut out on the fanlight etching, impressed Luce whenever she came here, with its clean modern lines, but then Izzy’s whole place was like that. It was so obvious that Izzy’s absent mum was a whizz at interior design. What’s more, Luce never failed to be amazed that Izzy managed to have so many of the rooms full of junk in the course of her renovations, without appearing to make a mess of anything except herself.

‘How’s you? Half past eight, and already painting I see.’ Luce, bobbing towards Izzy’s ear, got a blast of candy-sweet scent from her hair. Air kissing might be frowned on, but for today it was the only way to avoid the paint smears on Izzy’s cheeks.

‘Pretty pink geraniums.’ Dida said, strangely quiet this morning, stroked the petals in the planter, as if she was on remote control.

Izzy stood by the open door, ushering them in with the wave of a paintbrush. No doubt she was using work to take her mind of the bigger problems.

‘I got the plants from the market in the park yesterday.’ Izzy nudged her visitors further into the hall. ‘That bright fuscia colour reminded me of the prom dress you made me Luce. That giant peony print was so awesome wasn’t it?’

Izzy had arrived in sixth form, traumatised by being forced away from her prissy private school. It had taken a month of working with Luce at the local coffee shop before she’d thawed out enough to dare to speak, but shortly after they were best-friends-forever.

Izzy raised an eyebrow at Luce. ‘I got up early to paint. I’ll tell you about last night’s haul later.’ As Izzy led them down the stairs to the basement kitchen, the scent of warm baking met them head on. ‘Don’t worry, the kettle’s on, caffeine’s on its way.’

‘Something smells delish.’ Luce was regularly in a state of open mouthed awe at Izzy’s drive, and her capacity to obsess over both work and home. Whereas Luce had one small girl and a tiny flat to look after, since Izzy’s mum had headed off on her extended four year holiday, Izzy had been in full charge of this big house and her three brothers. And it wasn’t just the brothers Izzy ran around after. She invariably ran around after everyone else too, including Luce and Ruby.

Today, most of Izzy’s rampant strawberry blonde curls were caught up in a high ponytail that left her dimples on full show. Standing at the work top, in faded T-shirt, thumbs looped through the straps of her gigantic dungarees, she looked particularly childlike and vulnerable, which just showed you shouldn’t be taken in by appearances. Izzy’s inner Rottweiler was something she channelled on a regular basis.

‘New cups on the dresser too I see.’ Dida made more distracted comments, as she raked her hands through her hair. ‘What’s the khaki coloured stuff on the table?’

Izzy picked up a square plate. ‘They’re Susie Cooper, like you asked for on your email, unearthed from the back of Ollie’s garage. I think they came from that house clearance he did with you Luce, just before he left.’

‘Possibly.’ Luce gave a shrug, and took in the familiar calm shades of the long spacious kitchen, which all looked as if it might have happened entirely by accident, except Luce and Dida both knew better. Luce tried to ignore how it felt a little bit sadder and so much emptier now Ollie wasn’t here, with his blustery banter, and boyish grin.

‘Wow, lovely detail on this.’ Dida ran her hand over the carving on the half pained sideboard which stood on a dust sheet at one end of the long kitchen, then sank onto one of the cream painted chairs.

Three guys to run around after, and Izzy still managed to keep the place immaculate. At least there had been three before Ollie headed off so suddenly. If only Luce had handled things differently, and hadn’t stuffed up so spectacularly, he’d be here to help them now. It wasn’t that Luce ever felt the need for a guy. But Ollie not being here made her realise that if he had been, she’d have been very grateful for his reassurance. Something about his broad shoulders and laid back attitude had made him a very comfortable person to share her troubles with.

‘Thanks for that, I bloody need it.’ Dida took the steaming mug Izzy handed her.

‘Anyone fancy a cronut? They’re what happens when a croissant meets a donut.’ Izzy didn’t wait for a reply, but slammed two down in front of each of them. ‘The holes in the middle are calorie free, and I’m hoping they’ll help us with our brain work.’ She licked a flake off her finger.

Luce broke off a piece of pastry to nibble. ‘These taste amazing.’

‘So…’ Dida swallowed as Izzy sat down, and her chest heaved under her topaz cashmere cardi.

Luce braced herself as Dida began to speak.

‘First I need to say sorry, this fiasco is my fault for so many reasons.’ Dida puffed her cheeks out. ‘If I hadn’t made a fuss about the birthday celebrations, Aidie would never have noticed how well we were doing. And I should never have let the peppercorn rent go on long term, I should have negotiated a proper lease with Aidie a lot earlier. So I’m truly sorry for all those things.’

Izzy’s nostrils flared. ‘This is like bloody déjà vu, It’s taking me right back to when my dad left – it’s all about one guy with money, who is calling the shots, and having the control, and the power to take everything away. Only this time instead of my dad screwing the family over, it’s Aidie ripping Vintage at the Cinema away from us.’ The volume rose as she spat out the words. ‘I hated it then, and I hate it now, but this time I’m older, and I’m damned if I’m going down without a fight.’

Luce took in the thunderous look on Izzy’s face. The fiery anger, that so often got Izzy into trouble, could be just what they needed.

Izzy was in full rant mode. ‘I can’t believe I’ve let it happen again. If anyone should have learned, it’s me. All this time I’ve been congratulating myself, and thinking I was standing on my own two feet, when all the time our happiness was in the hands of someone like Aidie, who only cared about the bottom line and who is now about to take it all away.’

Luce chewed her lip. ‘Good points, but we need to move forwards. So what are we going to do?’

Dida gave a grimace. ‘The good news is, I reckon we might have a month or two before Aidie finds a buyer, and after that the conveyance will take time. It’s possible that anyone who buys might give us a lease, or, if we put together a really attractive offer, Aidie might even be tempted to give us one himself instead of selling. But we need to get our act together, and we’ll need to sort out a business loan.’

‘Right.’ Izzy and Luce both nodded.

Dida opened her iPad. ‘So, we need to pull out all the stops, maximise the income from the business, and get our hands on as much cash as we can.’ She leaned back in her chair. ‘Any ideas?’

Izzy sat up, and folded her arms through her dungaree straps. ‘We need to do everything we can to get more customers in. I’m thinking stand up signs out in the street, pushing the Facebook page, improving the website…and we could also do free coffee.’

‘Great. Free coffee is a brilliant idea. It’ll pull people in, and they’ll buy cake to go with it too.’ Dida’s lips, pursing into a determined red line, gave Luce the idea this was only the start.

‘I’ll need to do more analysis of our figures, for a loan application.’ Dida narrowed her eyes. ‘It would be great to know the seasonal breakdown of turnover for different types of stock too. That way if we survive long-term, we can make sure we’re providing what the customer is searching for. That would work for sales, as well as happy shoppers. How’s your customer service thing going Luce?’

Luce looked up. ‘Well, what about broadening out and offering extras, like deliveries? There’s other stuff we could do too.’

When they’d first moved into the cinema building, they were only the second antique shop on the road, but as more shops selling old stuff opened up, filling the cluster of un-let units on the street, the customers had arrived too.

Luce went on. ‘These days Derwent Street on a Saturday afternoon is swarming with thirty somethings with their designer push chairs, out trawling all the shops. We’re a retro destination, but we need to make sure the hordes come to us.’

Dida took a swig of coffee. ‘What was Ollie’s name for them?’

Luce remembered, with a twist in her stomach, how often Ollie had made her laugh about this.

To her relief Izzy chimed in. ‘He called them DRRABs. Dressed up, Rabidly Running After Bargains, or something like that.’ Izzy gave a grimace. ‘Geeks in tweeds and designer specs, scouring the shops for the perfect piece to complement their retro styled lives. Not that I’m knocking them, their tweedy pounds are phenomenal for business.’

Dida tapped her pen on the table. ‘The point is, the more we offer people, in terms of service, and variety of what we sell, the more likely they are to spend with us rather than the other shops.’ She frowned as she considered. ‘That’s the other news, this morning I spotted another potential vintage store opening in the tanning place.’ She added a huge eye roll. ‘I’ll send an email to the rest of our crew and see if anyone knows any more.’

Luce hesitated, then decided to take the plunge. ‘Talking about quality stock, are you going on a buying trip to France this summer Izzy?’

There was a long silence. Luce knew this was something Izzy usually did with Ollie.

Her friend pulled a face. ‘I hadn’t thought of going on my own…’ She hesitated. ‘But I’ll see what I can do. In the meantime I promise to keep my motor mouth under control with the customers, although the swear box takings might drop.’ She sent Luce a wry grin.

Luce drew in a breath. Pushing the business was going to mean them all pushing themselves out of their comfort zones. It was going to be a challenge, but wasn’t challenge supposed to be good for you?

‘One more thing…’ Dida turned to Luce. ‘I know your clothes and textiles do really well, but it would be brilliant if you moved the bridal side out of your flat, and into the cinema. Wouldn’t the projection room work brilliantly as a Vintage Bridal Studio?’

Luce opened and closed her mouth without any sound coming out. Her bridal sideline had been growing, but she wasn’t sure she was ready for such a big step.

Izzy cut in. ‘That’s a fabulous idea. It would be great for the business, and for you too Luce.’

‘I’m not sure.’ Luce was hesitating, although she didn’t know why. It was a great opportunity, and another step back towards being a real person, and not just a mum. ‘I have some “vintage look” wedding dress designs that are almost ready too, but…’ There were times when she kicked herself for not daring to be more ambitious and confident. So much for moving out of their comfort zones.