Never Can Say Goodbye Read Online Free PDF Page B

countertop. ‘And you did all the transactions
     in here, did you?’
    ‘Yes. Rita didn’t trust computers. Not for the business. Even the till is manual. It’s all very nineteen fifties.’ Frankie
     shook her head. ‘Which is nice and cosy and all that, and OK for what Rita was doing, but not for me and the twenty-first
     century. I intend to change all that.’
    Lilly nodded. ‘Mmm, Jennifer Blessing would have a fit. She’s ace at business, is Jennifer. She sent me on all those IT courses
     when she updated her systems at the salon and … ’
    Frankie wasn’t listening. Jennifer Blessing’s high-tech beauty salon was a million miles away from Rita’s Rent-a-Frock. Except,
     of course, it wasn’t Rita’s any more, was it? And she’d already decided to buy a computer from the capital allowance that
     the accountant had told her was in the business account forexactly that sort of purchase. And she’d ordered a whole mountain of Francesca’s Fabulous Frocks carrier bags in gold and
     purple. She was getting there – slowly.
    She suddenly frowned at the still-chattering Lilly. ‘Sorry, but what did you say earlier?’
    ‘About the courses Jennifer Blessing sent me on?’ Lilly wrinkled her forehead. ‘Oh, just that there weren’t many men on them,
     but I did meet that really cute boy, Daniel, the one with the piercings, and—’
    ‘No, what did you say before that.’
    ‘I don’t know.’ Lilly looked anxious. ‘I can’t remember that far back.’
    ‘Selling. You said something about selling.’
    ‘Oh, yes.’ Lilly beamed happily. ‘So I did.’
    ‘Exactly!’ Frankie clapped her hands in delight. ‘Because that’s what I’m going to do. Sell not rent. It’s not Rita’s shop
     any more, so there’ll be no more
buying
other people’s old clothes. I’ll just take donations of frocks. And no more renting or hiring, just selling. Paying for them
     isn’t good business, selling them is very good for business. Simples!’
    Lilly, looking slightly confused, frowned. ‘Well, yes. You should be making money, not spending it. Jennifer says—’
    ‘Jennifer Blessing makes Lord Sugar look like an enthusiastic amateur,’ Frankie said, laughing. ‘But of course she’s right.
     And so am I. When this reopens as Francesca’s Fabulous Frocks that’s what I’m going to do. I’ll take in the unwanted frocks
     and sell them. Which means –’ she picked up the duplicate books ‘– that these can go straight into the archives. As soon as
     I get the computer later this week, I’ll have to get a sort of stock-and-sale system up and running, and pricing and everything
     else.’
    The new system may well alienate some of Rita’s regular clients – people like the funeral-going Biddy – she’d have to work
     round that somehow and try not to lose customers, but otherwise it all made perfect sense.
    Lilly slid from the counter. ‘I can help you with setting up some of the computer stuff if you like. I do it for Jennifer.’
    ‘Can you? Do you?’ Frankie watched as Lilly swayed seductively between the heaps of clothes towards the blacked-out windows.
     ‘Honestly, Lilly, you’re full of surprises.’
    ‘Because I’m an airhead?’ Lilly looked over her shoulder. ‘Yeah, well, Jennifer is dead scary let me tell you. I had to learn
     that data input stuff over and over again until I got it right.’
    ‘Yes, sorry. I didn’t mean to—’
    ‘Yeah, you did,’ Lilly said happily. ‘I don’t mind. I know I’m not as stupid as everyone thinks I am. Well, not really.’
    Frankie laughed, then frowned. ‘And they’re terrible, too.’
    ‘What are?’
    ‘These lovely big double windows. All that space all piled with rubbish. Rita never had much of an eye for window dressing.
     She just piled stuff in there. She said everyone knew what the shop did so there was no need to make a meal of the windows.
     I’m going to clear it out and do a proper window display and change it