The New Girl

Maddie was mad, bad and dangerous to know, and she led me into all sorts of exciting situations…

A fun romance

Not much was happening in my life when I met Maddie Quinn. I went to work, visited my mum twice a week, and I went out with Sally and Chrissy on Friday nights. The singles club, we called ourselves, because we went to the Red Lion, which attracted families, and the only tasty blokes were dads and husbands.

Then Maddie Quinn turned up at work and my world, though I didn’t know it when I looked at her tartan skirt and chunky boots, would never be the same again.

“I know you,” she said to me.

“Where from?” I doubted it. I would have remembered that black hair pinned up into a fan on her head and the makeup… lots of it.

“I live in the flats on Grosvenor Way and I see you pass my window coming here.” She dazzled me with a 100-megawatt smile. “I leave my flat after you but now that I’m here we can come to work together.”

Great, I thought. We’ll make a right pair together. The party girl and the dowdy filing clerk.

Next to her I was dowdy. I hadn’t given my style much thought in ages. Next to Maddie I was stuck in a fashion rut. Something told me though that my work trousers and button through blouses were in for a bashing. Not that I was looking for fashion tips.

“You’ve got good legs Linzi. You could wear skirts or dresses. Something above the knee, or go for leggings and floaty tops and show them off.”

We were in the loading bay looking for some stray orders and I couldn’t believe my ears.

“You what?”

I gave her polka dot legs the once over to make my point but it was wasted. “I don’t wear stuff like that.”

She gave me a look that said you should-try.

It wasn’t just my clothes she wanted to tamper with, it was a number of things – including my journey to work.

“There’s a shortcut at the back of my flat. If we use it we can stop for breakfast at a cafe I know and still be on time.”

I was happy with my morning routine, but she was persuasive.

Her shortcut was more of a sloping dirt track that cut out the roads we usually used and took us past a small trading estate I didn’t know existed. The track was crammed with people piling into small businesses and executive cars purring into parking spaces.

“How have I missed this?” I asked as we skidded onto a side-street off the main road.

“Good idea?” she asked as we scrambled onto the pavement. “I’ve got plenty of those.”

I hadn’t heard of her coffee shop either and wouldn’t have gone in even if I had. From the outside it looked like a greasy spoon, but inside it was plush and atmospheric with Skandi style wooden tables, fabulous food and wall to wall tasty blokes grabbing breakfast before work.

“Nice coffee,” I said to Maddie said as we sipped cappuccinos.

“I’m not that bothered about the cappuccino,” she said, eyeing some eye-candy in suits.

“Me neither.”

I wondered if the cafe was open on Friday nights so that me, Sally and Chrissy could change our venue and increase our chances of finding love. My chances really. Apart from my mum and my colleagues and my Friday nights it occurred to me that I had a vacancy where romance was concerned.

A tasty man, all dark hair and blue eyes, was looking for somewhere to rest his tray of croissants and coffee until friendly and pushy Maddie moved along her side of the bench and patted a space for him to park his tasty self.

“Maddie,” she pointed to her black lace-swathed chest. “And this is my friend Linzi.”

Friend, I thought. It was nice to make a new friend.

“Dan.”

Dan edged himself into the space by

We fell over LAUGHING then ran as FAST as two women in HEELS can

Maddie and inclined his head towards another handsome specimen.

“This is Jake.”

Jake squeezed in next to me and I suddenly wished I was wearing something more chic.

The next day, and the one after that, I was early calling at Maddie’s. “Don’t want to miss that bus do we,” I said, fooling no one.

“Nice dress,” she said, understanding me all too well.

One morning as we went along the track, laughing like drains as we raced to see who was in the coffee shop, Maddie had a brainwave.

“See that car there,” she pointed into the trading estate to a slinky low slung car, the sort that goes Vrooom when the ignition is switched on. “It’s filthy.”

“I know.” Silly me, I didn’t see where it was going.

“Let’s write in the dirt.”

“We can’t! Someone will see us.” Maddie wasn’t listening. I saw her leopardskin-clad legs whizzing over to the petrel-blue number that hadn’t seen soap in ages.

I’m not pleased with what came next. I’d like to say I wasn’t feeling myself but I was. I put it down to the Maddie effect, being as silly as a schoolgirl even though I was a recently promoted filing clerk with a bit more responsibility and enough of a pay-rise to buy leggings and boho dresses and some cheeky pairs of shoes. We wrote silly things all over the car. No need to mention what, is there?

Needless to say we nearly fell over laughing before someone stepped out of a nearby building and we ran as fast as two women in heels can.

In the cafe, Dan and Jake were pleased to see us and commented on our jolly faces but we didn’t tell them what we’d done because it was silly and Maddie liked flirting with Dan, not worrying him.

I liked Jake and he liked me but there wasn’t that Vroom that happens when someone switches on your ignition.

“How’s work?”

He looked at me with his dark blue eyes but I couldn’t help thinking that if there was anything between us we should have advanced from chatting about work.

“Great.”

Since Maddie joined us it had been.

I’d listened to her fashion advice with half an ear, then decided for myself that a revamp was overdue. With new clothes and a spring in my step I convinced Sally and Chrissy that we needed to go to somewhere where all the tasty men weren’t spoken for. We started to go to Dino’s Wine Bar where there was a buzzy atmosphere and plenty of chat and laughs with other singles. ➙

I asked Maddie if she wanted to come but Friday’s were her night for putting on her punk gear and going to gigs with her musician boyfriend. “I let my hair down on Fridays,” she informed me and I wondered what that involved.

One morning I called at Maddie’s and she was poorly. Her eyes streamed and her voice rasped.

“I’ll try to be fit for tomorrow.” She was a pitiful sight in her red silk pyjamas with her hair like a black dish scourer around her shoulders.

It wasn’t the same going down to the cafe without her. I missed her antics and the chance that something whacky could happen at any moment.

“Excuse me.” An irritated voice made me turn around. “Yes, you.” It was a stranger who seemed to know me.

“Me?” My mind went into overdrive wondering who he was. A regular from the cafe, someone from work, school…

“Yes you. What do you think you were doing, writing stupid words on my car?” His face was a scowl as he balled his hands and dropped them to his hips. “I went to an important meeting with all that rubbish written on my car.”

His expectant face told me he was waiting for an apology. My common sense told me he deserved one. The old

I wasn’t NAUGHTY like Maddie, I was WORRIED we’d get into TROUBLE

me would have begged for forgiveness. Before I met Maddie Quinn I wouldn’t have touched another person’s property, let alone written silly things on it.

My mouth was ready to apologise, but my legs had a different idea. I legged it – almost. I stumbled a bit over some tree roots that upset my high heels but I was determined and left him behind.

What was he like?” I’d called to see Maddie on the way back from work and told her about it.

“Furious!”

We were laughing though we should have known better.

“No, I mean what was he like?”

That stopped me in my tracks.

“Nice.”

“What kind of nice?” Maddie stuffed a nasal decongestant up her nostril and sniffed. “So, what did he look like?”

“Brown eyes. Brown hair, a bit long and wavy.” I wanted to say handsome but the word got stuck somehow.

“You liked him, didn’t you?” Maddie laughed and I laughed with her, but she was right.

It took Maddie a few days to get better and I missed her unicorn T-shirts and striped leggings and bubbly personality. Her absence reminded me of how things were before she came.

“Can I borrow one of your coats?” she asked over the phone on the day she returned to work. “My coat’s still damp. I think I caught a cold wearing it.”

I dug out the most stylish warm waterproof that I had.

“Better than nothing,” she said when she saw it and we set off.

She linked arms with me as she still felt wobbly but she shook my arm off at the trading estate. “Let’s do it again.” “Not a chance!”

She wasn’t listening as usual and set off towards the low slung car with the big engine which was dirty again and begging to be written on by someone like Maddie Quinn.

“Come back, Maddie!”

I wasn’t a naughty girl like her, I was a naughty girl’s friend, worried about getting into trouble.

When she ran back to me laughing and coughing, no one had been out but I had a feeling that I hadn’t heard the last of it and was already planning a new route for the following morning.

She had probably dropped me in it – and I cared. The man who told me off for scribbling in the dust on his car had been stuck in my mind for days. Those brown eyes and lips that made me stare and realise I’d like to be kissed. Tall but not too tall, just the right build…

But if he’d seen Maddie in my coat, he might even think it was me again, writing nonsense on his car.

I was jumpy with irritation when my mobile rang.

“Linzi?”

“Yes, that’s me.” I didn’t recognise the number but the voice had a familiar ring.

“Your silly friend has written on my car again.”

“Oh, no! I’m so sorry.” I had hoped he hadn’t seen me.

“Really? She left your name and phone number and said you wanted to go out with me.”

“She did?”

I looked across the office at Maddie who was on the phone to a customer, concentrating on work for once. I felt like a schoolgirl, caught out. My friend wants togo out with you.

“She’s one for a joke.” My mouth was dry and I felt sick.

Maddie looked my way and smiled her 100-megawatt smile.

“You don’t want to go out with me?” My head was as light as cotton wool. I looked at the pattern on the wallpaper, then at my nails and then at the ceiling. “Actually… I do.”

“Tonight? Half seven?”

“That would be lovely.” I was already wondering what dress to wear.

“Text me your address. I’ll see you later. By the way, I’m Shane.”

“See you later, Shane.”

My voice was a squeak, but inside of me something went Vrooom… like when a key turns in the ignition of a racy little car.