Late Night Shopping: Read Online Free PDF Page B

face cream from the tester pot and rubbed it into her hands, then blasted herself thoroughly with the No. 19 tester bottle.
     
Spotting her sister on the other side of The Store's locked glass doors, she hurried over.
     
Outside the two hugged hello, then looked each other over approvingly for fashion pointers. Whereas Annie was labelly and slightly 'glam conservative', Dinah at the age of thirty-three was still a high street shopper, totally dedicated to fashion.
     
'Not just a pinafore, but a tulip -shaped pinafore, now that is very on-trend. Totally wouldn't work with my boobs though,' was Annie's first comment as she stroked the material of her sister's mustard-coloured dress and admired the bravery of teaming it with striped tights, a flowery blouse and a blue beret. But then Dinah did work at an art college. There were certain standards of zaniness which had to be maintained.
     
'Lovely material, really good quality and the exact colour of your shoes.' These things did not escape Annie's notice.
     
'Aha, yeah, I bought them together, matching set, at Barnardo's for twenty-five pounds.' Dinah gave a smug little smile. She just loved to subvert Annie's mantra that great quality only came at a price.
     
'Bargain,' Annie had to agree: 'possibly because you are the only person in the Western world who suits mustard yellow.'
     
'Mmmm . . . I'm liking your necklace.' Dinah was now homing in on the ornately coloured and twisted brown, black and golden whorls round Annie's neck.
     
'Totally plastic, Brixton market, £4. It's yours for £3,' Annie offered.
     
'Hand it over and I'll buy you a drink,' was Dinah's offer.
     
'OK. Where are we going by the way?' Annie asked, 'and is the Dry One meeting us there?'
     
'Oh yeah. I've made sure there's a selection of mineral waters available,' Dinah replied, rolling her eyes.
     
'To think, we used to really like him . . . and what very, very good times we used to have,' Annie said with mock sadness, as arm in arm, heels clicking rhythmically together, the sisters set off down the street in the direction of one of the more secluded wine bars in Kensington.
     
'It can't go on for much longer, surely?' Dinah asked.
     
'Who knows?'
     
They were talking about Connor, their long-term friend. Once gay, vivacious and hilarious, a highly successful TV actor with a starring role in a prime time Sunday series, he was now a far too highly successful TV actor, about to renegotiate his contract, still gay but, instead of vivacious and hilarious, stone cold sober and almost as obsessed with his health as his career.
     
Both Annie and Dinah were convinced if they could just force one tiny little chilled Chablis into him he'd be back to his old self. Unfortunately, in Connor's opinion, 'That's just the booze talking, you're all just as dependent on it as I used to be.' Which was just totally irritating and boring.
     
The sisters were already settled down with large glasses of wine when Connor arrived, looking even more tall, dark and utterly knicker-droppingly gorgeous in real life than he did on the box.
     
After greeting, kissing and hugging them with plenty of fuss, Connor found a barman, who obviously recognized him, hovering at his elbow offering to take his order and bring his drinks to the table.
     
'Perrier with plenty of ices and slices,' Connor told him with a dazzling smile. 'Anything for you, girls?'
     
When Annie and Dinah shook their heads, Connor took off his slinky black raincoat and pulled up a chair.
     
'Service, girls,' Connor beamed at them, his newly whitened smile splitting his beautifully boned face: 'That's what we want.'
     
Pushing back his luxurious black hair, he stretched out his muscular arms (well, he did have a daily personal trainer) and, hands clasped behind his head, he leaned back.
     
'So what's the news? What's happening? How many handbags has Annie bought this week?'
     
Annie snorted in reply to this.
     
'Is Dinah still married to Bryan?' Connor