The Little Clock House on the Green. Eve Devon

stared hard at her cousin and then nodded at the genius of it all. ‘Yes. Thank you. I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of that.’

      Kate winced. ‘I get that pickings are slim around here, but maybe it’s time to try online dating.’

      ‘You think all my problems will disappear if I do online dating?’

      ‘I know it’s not easy–’

      ‘Oh you do, do you?’

      ‘Okay. I don’t. And I’ve obviously oversimplified. Obviously there’s more to this than the cat thing.’

      ‘I’ve tried online dating.’

      ‘Seriously?’

      Juliet put down her drink. She’d only had half of it and couldn’t believe the words had popped out like that. ‘It was a disaster.’ A serious disaster. She didn’t think she could ever do it again. She was too shy. Too reserved. Too tentative. Too unattracted to every man bar one…

      ‘You never wrote to me about this.’

      ‘You never wrote to me about what happened with Marco.’

      Kate stared into her drink. ‘So we’ve been keeping secrets.’

      ‘Yes. Secrets.’ Juliet felt the familiar weight of hers and, not for the first time, thought that if she could just once shout it out at the top of her lungs, everything would be better.

      ‘If I tell you about Marco, will you tell me your secret?’ Kate asked.

      ‘Is it so wrong to want to concentrate on something other than a man?’ she asked, fully prepared now to sulk. ‘The world doesn’t revolve around them, you know. Maybe I want a new challenge in my life.’

      ‘Okay. Who is he?’

      ‘What?’

      ‘Someone’s done a number on you.’

      ‘No they haven’t.’

      ‘Rubbish. Some guy has done a number on you and frightened you off all men.’

      ‘No. He really hasn’t. Wouldn’t. Couldn’t.’

      Kate’s eyes narrowed. ‘You sound like you’re talking about someone specific.’

      ‘Nope,’ Juliet answered, shoving more alcohol down her neck.

      ‘You want to talk about anything else, don’t you?’

      ‘I really do.’

      ‘Okay. You have ten minutes.’

      ‘Ten minutes?’

      ‘Ten minutes to talk about anything else and then we’re going back to this because something’s going on here.’

      ‘And to think I was thinking of going into business with you!’

      ‘Business?’

      ‘Yes. The Clock House. Business. Together. You and me. You running the day spa. Me…’ she took a much-needed sip of her cocktail and then rushed out, ‘and me running a hair salon.’

      ‘You want to open a hair salon in The Clock House?’

      ‘Not anymore, I don’t.’ She sniffed. ‘I changed my mind.’

      ‘This is about the “killing two birds” thing you were talking about earlier this morning? You want to stop being thought of as the Cat Lady and you want to open a hair salon?’

      ‘Finally. She gets it. So, what do you think?’

      Kate took a sip of her drink.

      Juliet wasn’t completely surprised to discover she’d already finished hers.

      ‘I think it’s the most brilliant idea in the world.’

      ‘You do?’ Juliet let out the breath she hadn’t even been aware she’d been holding. ‘I mean, you really do?’

      ‘I really do. But Juliet, let’s be serious for a moment. We have zero experience…’

      ‘That’s not true,’ Juliet defended, suddenly feeling a lot more confident now she hadn’t been laughed out of her own house.

      ‘Right,’ Kate said. ‘I totally forgot the part where we’ve both had oodles of manis and pedis and the part where we’ve both had our hair cut.’

      ‘Exactly. Plus, what with your business degree and me actually being a hairdresser…’

      Kate smiled. ‘Oh yeah. This calls for more honey martinis.’ She grabbed the shaker out of the sink and pulled the bottle of gin towards her. ‘So, we’re really about to think about doing this?’

      ‘Seems like. Oh. Wait here. I need to go get my business plan.’

      ‘You have a business plan?’

      ‘Of course.’

      ‘Am I the only one who hasn’t actually done a business plan?’

      ‘Yes, but that was probably because you needed to be here first and, you know, see if you could, do it.’

      ‘I guess.’

      She left Kate happily hacking the rest of the ice into tiny shards while she raced upstairs to get her laptop and files. Catty McCatface was sitting on the bed and looked up at her when she burst through her bedroom door.

      ‘What?’ Juliet whispered as she looked at the cat’s permanently dour expression. ‘A girl has to grow up. Move on. Make a life for herself. Find a dream that could actually come true, and work towards that. Oh, you know I’m right,’ she added when the cat merely sniffed and put its head back down on its paws and closed its eyes. Quietly she left her bedroom and jogged back down the stairs.

      ‘So what’s the other reason you want to buy into The Clock House?’ Kate asked before Juliet had even set the laptop on the kitchen table.

      The file Juliet was holding slid to the floor. ‘What happened to me getting ten minutes?’

      ‘They’ve been and gone and I’m onto my second cocktail of the morning and suddenly I’m thinking something doesn’t add up.’

      ‘It d-doesn’t?’ she stammered as she dropped to the floor to pick up the file.

      ‘No. It doesn’t. For starters, what does your mum think?’

      ‘You know she’s always encouraged me to go it on my own one day. And the timing couldn’t be better,’ she rushed out, blowing a strand of hair out of her face as she rose to her feet.

      ‘Really? Why is that? And don’t tell me it’s because of cats, because it can’t be.’

      ‘Well, then let me show you my plan. Let me pitch to you.’

      ‘Okay, but I get a full Q and A, after.’

      ‘Fair enough.’ Juliet put down the file, switched on her laptop and then tucked her hair behind her ears. ‘So, as I was saying, mum has always encouraged me to think long-term. You know we’ve always been a team, so in the beginning it felt super-logical to work with her when I qualified. But then I kept working with her because it was easy. Too easy. I find it difficult to…’

      ‘Push yourself forward?’ Kate inserted.

      ‘Yes. Push myself forward. Thank you.’ She pulled up some graphics and turned the screen towards Kate. ‘Obviously I didn’t tell the bank manager any of the personal stuff. This is just to help explain to you.’

      Kate nodded and then sat forward in her chair, not looking at the screen but looking at Juliet with a serious expression. A completely business-like expression. ‘Juliet, have you thought about how much starting a business is about pushing yourself forward?’

      ‘I have and… hey, I thought