Whatever Happened to Vicky Hope's Back Up Man? by Laura Kemp

Author:Laura Kemp [Kemp, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784977009
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 2016-11-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

K

Cardiff City Centre

Shoe shopping. Kate just didn’t get it.

Whilst the thrill of searching for a new pair sent most women into raptures, she found it too close to public soul-searching.

For every time she braved a rack of heels and flats, she felt the pressure of having to face up to who she was and where she was going wrong. Consequently, she’d developed a survival technique: whatever M&S had in dark mid-heel courts did for work, then decent wellies and trainers or beige imitation Birkenstocks were suitable the rest of the time.

Today though was wedding shoes day so she had no choice but to throw herself into the path of danger – she could hardly wear her Hunters down the aisle. Well, she could if it was up to her but even she drew the line at that.

As she entered the department store’s tasteful shoe boutique, she felt momentarily dazed and wobbly as if she was a newborn foal in stilettos. Luckily, with it being a Monday morning, there were very few people to witness her wobble. Spotlights directed her eyes to shelf after shelf of glamorous styles as though she was viewing works of art. A quick scan revealed Vee was yet to arrive: if she was going to be found out as an amateur then she needed to have Vee by her side. She found a corner couch and bowed her head, pretending to check her phone so she didn’t have to make eye contact with any assistants.

As a child, Mum had always picked for her: Clarks with ‘extra square’. Oblivious to the concept of thinking for herself, she’d continued going for the safe option as a teenager when all the other girls were doing their best Sugababes impression in strappy Faith and Dolcis heels. At uni, she had the chance to begin to wonder what she liked out of the multitude of looks which were happening around her. Definitely not the clunky Timberlands of Girls Aloud and Britney, which would’ve made her skinny legs look like golf clubs. Neither Carrie Bradshaw’s ostentatious skyscrapers, owing to her height, nor the cowboy boots of the football Wags that required pink hot pants to carry off. Instead, she’d veered towards a relaxed but personal style, teaming Converse with a prom dress or wedged trainers with jeans. She figured she’d have plenty of time for career heels when she went to the City. Then it all went wrong when she got back from travelling.

Looking back, how didn’t her family see that she was heading for a breakdown by her choice of footwear? Who in their right mind went out in the rain and severe gales in studded dominatrix ankle-breakers or went to the shop in slippers?

The ensuing tumble to her knees had forever left its mark: scarred, she had placed practicality above all else. So she could run if she had to. But practical wouldn’t work for a wedding. That's why she'd asked Vee to come: she'd judge it right. Her mother would’ve insisted on ladylike – which given her past she was anything but.

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