think of anyone who looked less like a Raymond. Probably because one of her headmasters had been called that and he was a huge, square man
who played rugby and spoke with a Lee Marvin voice. ‘Is that because you’ve got eyes the colour of cocoa?’
‘Floz, I’m in love with you,’ said Coco, clasping his hands together with delight. ‘What a lovely thing to say.’
‘No, it’s because he wants to be Coco Chanel,’ said Juliet. ‘His shop is covered with pictures of her. Plus it’s his favourite perfume.’
‘Anyway, back to my love-life: awful.’ Coco ripped a tissue out of a nearby box.
‘He falls in love at the drop of a hat. And they’re all dysfunctional bastards,’ cut in Juliet. ‘He couldn’t pick a good man if he landed in his lap with a
recommendation from God Himself.’
‘I don’t know what happened with Darren,’ said Coco. ‘One minute everything was fine, the next he wouldn’t answer my texts or take my phone calls. He just
disappeared. No explanation, no goodbye – nothing.’ His eyes filled up with bright tears.
‘Silence is a cruel weapon to use,’ Floz said gently.
‘I know,’ agreed Juliet. ‘Not having the decency to say “we’re over” to someone is gutless and vicious. And Darren would have known that Coco would rip
himself apart over it to find the reason why it happened. Not that he cared enough to spare him that.’
‘You’ll have heard this before, but you really are worth more than that sort of treatment.’ Floz’s voice was soft and kind. ‘It’s not respectful – and
do you really want a man who treats you with such little thought?’
‘I know,’ said Coco, dabbing his eyes. ‘At least, my head knows, my heart has a little catching up to do. Of course, he may just be taking some time away to sort his feelings
out. Men are like elastic bands, apparently . . .’
‘Coco, what possible excuse could he have? Unless he was the new Terry Waite and had both hands tied to a radiator by international terrorists, there is absolutely no excuse at all for
that sort of crap behaviour,’ said Juliet, a little impatiently now because they’d had this conversation too many times. ‘I can’t understand why you’d want him back
anyway. If he did have the absolute cheek to turn up in your life again, I would tell him to f—’
Coco clamped his hands over his ears as Juliet launched into a diatribe.
‘Closure helps to move us on,’ said Floz, counterbalancing Juliet’s Ian Paisley-type rant with her own softer perspective. ‘It’s hard when you don’t get
it.’
‘Coco, I’ve told you before: if they don’t give you closure, you have to take it for yourself. His gutless, bastard silence is all the sign of closure that you need.’
Aware that her words were hard, Juliet put her arm around Coco and pulled him into her shoulder. ‘Floz is right, you are worth so much more. And your dream man is out there somewhere with
your name tattooed on his arse.’
Coco half-laughed, half-cried at that.
‘Least he wasn’t a pervert like the one before.’ Juliet winked at Floz. She knew telling that particular story would cheer Coco up.
‘Perfume rep. Courted me, moved in with me and then decided he wasn’t sure if he was fully gay. He wanted to sleep with a woman to see if he’d like it. How bloody disgusting
can you get,’ snarled Coco through gritted teeth.
It made Floz giggle to see Coco shivering at the thought of such a major perversion.
‘I think we all need a decent boyfriend,’ Juliet said, remembering Coco’s recent idea. ‘ Yeeesss indeedy. Let’s sign onto a site and find some hot males. They
are as rare as rocking-horse dung at this age.’ She made a grab for her laptop on the bookshelf, opened it and logged on.
‘Try singlebods.com ,’ chirped Coco. ‘That’s what Marlene used. She said it’s the best one at the moment.’
‘So you don’t fancy your brother’s friend Steve then?’ Floz asked
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