“You should have asked me if you wanted to get some new clothes, Tessa. It’s not appropriate for Mrs Owen to buy you things anyway. Some sort of suit is good for an interview but you have no use for a suit at your age. You’re only fifteen. You could wear a skirt and blouse, and sandals? No, not sandals. Perhaps your tackies or your school shoes. I could buy you some flat pumps?”
She has zero dress sense. I have very little, to be honest. Rosie has it in abundance, and she’s just itching to get involved, but there isn’t a hope in hell Mum would see any of her suggestions as appropriate.
“But I didn’t go with them. It all came about because I told them Danny said he’d like to buy me an outfit. Moira thought she and Gill would be more useful and offered to take me to get some ideas in town on Saturday. I said I needed to ask you first, and here I am, asking, and you’ve said no. She wasn’t going to buy me anything, just take me for a look around.”
What Moira actually said was, “Good God! Never, ever, ever go clothes shopping with a man in tow, girl. We can help you out, can’t we, Gill?”
Mum sighs. “We’ll go into town on Saturday then and I can buy you a blouse and maybe some lace-up shoes that are a different colour to your school shoes.”
I can hear Rosie sniggering, even though she’s in the dining room, doing her homework.
“No, forget it, Mum. I’ll wear my uniform. At least all the parts actually go together and are, well, 1970s instead of 1940s.”
Less than a month to go until my job interview. It’s all a bit… odd.