I was genuinely pleased for Aggie. Terry was a decent, hard-working lad and he and Aggie were very well suited. I couldn’t help feeling just a tad jealous at the same time though. She had told me only the previous week that they’d already discussed how many children they wanted. Albie and I had never discussed anything of the sort and the one time I had tried to broach the subject, Albie had laughed it off, treated it as a joke.

I still hadn’t got around to telling Doreen and Eliza I was dating Albie. I had planned to, a few months earlier, when Doreen was loved up with Jimmy Foster.

All weekend I had rehearsed what I was going to say, ready to blurt out on the Monday morning that Albie had asked me on a date. But when I got into work that day, Doreen was bawling her eyes out with Eliza consoling her. ‘Whatever’s wrong?’ I asked.

‘It’s Jimmy. He’s married,’ Doreen sobbed.

‘Oh no,’ I mumbled. At thirty, Jimmy was a lot older than Doreen and he’d been a bit unreliable. A couple of times, he hadn’t turned up for a date and had come up with some cock-and-bull excuse. I had wondered did he have a girlfriend, but I was stunned he was married. ‘How did you find out?’ I enquired.

‘It doesn’t matter, does it? I lost my virginity to him. I feel such a fool,’ Doreen wept.

Seeing as I was the one who’d introduced Jimmy to Doreen and brought him over to our table, I could hardly then admit I was dating Albie Butler, the bloke Doreen’d had designs on in the first place.

So I kept schtum, said sod all. But secrets always have a way of worming their way out into the open, don’t they?

Queenie was showing the latest stock to Mrs Ackerman, an extremely wealthy Jewish lady who tended to buy in bulk, when she heard a familiar voice behind her asking the price of something.

Queenie froze. It was Trappy Linda, who worked behind the bar in the Beehive. Desperate not to be recognized, Queenie quietly suggested Mrs Ackerman try on the items she’d already chosen. The changing room was out the back.

‘No, thank you. I’d much rather try everything on together,’ Mrs Ackerman snapped.

‘Queenie!’

Cringing and blushing, Queenie had no alternative but to turn around. ‘Hello, Linda.’

Linda grinned. ‘Albie said you worked in a shop, but I didn’t know you worked in a posh one like this. Well expensive this clobber, ain’t it? Any chance of a discount for Albie’s favourite barmaid?’ Linda chuckled.

Feeling her face flush, Queenie glanced towards Doreen and Eliza. Both were looking her way. She glared at Linda, a warning look. ‘I know you’re Alfie’s favourite barmaid,’ Queenie said in a loud voice. ‘But I’m afraid I can’t give you a discount. My boss will kill me,’ she added, smiling nervously at Eliza and Doreen.

‘Oh right. Never mind. Best I go down the market to treat myself to something new. I couldn’t afford a pair of bleedin’ drawers in this gaff,’ Linda laughed.