How Not to Shop Read Online Free PDF Page B

almost believe his soothing words. With Ed's support, she sometimes felt she could do just about anything.
     
'You're great,' she told him, putting her hands over his, 'I really don't know what I would do without you.'
     
'You'd be just as fantastic,' he insisted.
     
'No, I definitely wouldn't!' she objected. 'And you need to know that.'
     
She held his hands tightly in hers for a few moments. 'Thank you for having so much faith in me,' she told him: 'it helps. It definitely helps.'
     
'Wear the boots,' he urged, 'and I love you in that skirt, it makes your bum look like a ripe . . .' he pinched her buttock to make the point.
     
But that was it: she dropped the skirt on the floor in horror. If the camera was going to add ten pounds to her already quite ripe enough behind, the skirt would be staying here.
     
'Let's just try not to burn too big a hole into my savings over the next few months,' Ed warned as he watched the skirt being tossed aside.
     
'No! Definitely not, I'm going to be working so hard,' she said, 'I won't have the chance to go shopping or spend anything.'
     
At this, Ed's eyebrows shot up and a broad smile broke over his face. 'Right well . . . this will be very interesting,' he said, certain that just because Annie didn't work in a shop any more, that was hardly going to stop her being seduced by beautiful things.
     
'And no cheating with your credit cards,' he warned. 'You're on a tiny budget!'
     
With a parting kiss, he went to take a shower, leaving Annie, still in a frenzy of indecision, in front of the mirror.
     
'KIDS!' she directed a loud shout at the ceiling, because Owen and Lana had attic bedrooms directly above, 'GET UP!'
     
It was ten past eight when Ed, Lana and Owen were finally dressed, breakfasted and ready to walk to school. Annie stood at the front door to kiss each of them goodbye.
     
Ed was first in his music teacher uniform of tweedy jacket, thin silk tie, slightly too baggy chinos, holding a battered brown briefcase. His hair was still all over the place because he liked it that way but Annie made him stand still so she could take off his little gold-rimmed glasses and clean them for him.
     
'C'mon,' he hurried her, 'I have to get to the staffroom early today . . .'
     
'Ooooh, the headmaster's handing out big new promotions,' she winked at him.
     
'No, it's my turn to bring in the biscuits.'
     
'Ah.'
     
'High powered, eh?' He put his arms round her waist and kissed her firmly on the mouth.
     
'Good luck, you're going to be great.'
     
Then it was Lana's turn.
     
'Bye-bye, babes,' Annie told her, kissing her on the cheek. She was very proud of her daughter right now. The sulky, Gothy, irritating phase seemed to be over and in its place Annie had a model teenage daughter. Maybe this was a phase too. But, please, please, let this phase last for ever.
     
Lana's long, dyed black locks had been replaced with a natural brown choppy bob, her uniform was neat and ironed and her skirt was respectably within sight of her knee. Plus, she was working impressively hard for her exams. She'd even gone straight to her room to do homework as soon as they'd come in from the party the other night.
     
Annie knew who she had to thank for this improvement. Lana had had this charming boyfriend Andrei (yes, yes, Annie perhaps hadn't appreciated his charms as much as she should have done when Andrei was around) but although Lana and Andrei had called it a day, his swotty, sporty influence seemed to have had a very good effect on Lana.
     
Owen, now 12 was maybe in need of a good influence of his own. As she bent down to kiss him, she couldn't help noticing his overgrown, unbrushed shock of hair and his anorak, half on, half off with the hood twisted inside the collar. Even his bags were in a muddle; his rucksack and his swimming bag had got tangled up together in the journey to his shoulders. On his feet were shoes as scuffed and muddied as they'd been yesterday morning when she'd decided to