Two days later Roxanne finds herself stood on the steps of Biba - one of the only places that she knew had decent clothes and was in close proximity to her flat, preparing for what was going to most likely be a difficult task in finding something to wear on her date with John which was in five hours.
She wasn't counting.
She's hoping that Mary is working today. That would be ideal because Mary is fashionable and knows what looks good. Roxanne is not.
For it only being a little after nine in the morning, the shop is a lot busier than she had thought it would be and while she starts going through the racks of clothes, she keeps an eye and ear out for Mary.
She sticks mostly to the sale racks where she finds a couple of cute shirts, a pair of jeans and oh! a lovely striped jumpsuit that she just has to buy...
"Roxanne?"
She spins around like a deer in headlights as Mary says her name, clutching said jumpsuit to her chest, "Mary!"
"Hi," she greets, "What are you doing here? We've barely been open ten minutes."
Roxanne doesn't really want to tell Mary that she's got a date with John. Somehow, Freddie would find out and then he'd tell Roger and although her cousin said that he'd be fine with it, she doesn't know if he was maybe just saying that because he maybe didn't think that Roxy would go out on a date with their bassist.
She doesn't even know what they're doing on this date though she doesn't really care what they do. The could just go for a walk around London and Roxy would be happy. She just wanted to spend some time with John.
"Roxanne?"
Mary saying her name again makes her snap out of it and she gives the blonde a shrug, "You know, fancied a little look...thought I'd beat the crowds. Though that hasn't happened, has it?"
Mary sighs, looking over her shoulder to the growing number of people, "Yeah, can't really do that when it's a sale week."
Roxanne goes back to browsing through the racks, "I was actually wondering if you could help me."
"Help you?"
She nods, "See, I'm looking for something that's smart but also casual. Something I could wear to a job interview - if I had one but also a party."
Mary nods, "I'm sure I'll be able to find you something. Let me go have a look, okay? Just...wait here."
She gives her a thumbs up, turning back to the current rack that she was going through but there's nothing jumping out at her.
It's a little while until she hears Mary returning but she's talking with someone else and she freezes when she hears the familiar sound of her cousin's voice.
"What do you mean she doesn't work Wednesdays?"
"I don't know what to tell you, Roger but she's not here."
"But," she can hear the confusion in her cousin's voice, "Why would she lie to me?"
"Did you ever think that maybe, just maybe, Roger that Alyssa doesn't want to go out with you?"
Great. Brian was here too?
"Piss off, Brian. Mary, you talked to her about me, right? I mean, you talked me up, yeah?"
"No."
Roxanne snorts but she is curious. Who's Alyssa? So she decides to make her presence known and steps out from behind the rack she's going through, "Maybe she thinks you're ugly."
She takes great pleasure in the fact that Roger jumps, spinning around to glare at her, "What are you doing here? I thought you were working."
"Shopping. What are you doing here?"
"He's trying to find this girl,"
"Alyssa," Roger interrupts, "I wanted to invite her to the gig tonight."
"You've got a gig?" Roxanne asks.
"Yeah, it's at the Lion and the Unicorn," Brian answers, "Can you believe that, Roxy? They're finally letting us play!"
"That's amazing, guys!" She's just a little disappointed that she won't be able to go, "You're going to smash it."
"Enough about the bloody gig," Roger huffs, "Mary, will you give me her number?"
"If it shuts you up, then fine. Now, Roxanne,"
She quickly steps forward and wraps her arm around Mary's, leading her away from the two very confused men, calling a good luck tonight over her shoulder.
"That was weird, right?" Brian asks but Roger shrugs.
"No more than usual."
++|++
John was skint. Like, really skint and he really didn't know how he was going to pull this date off.
It's one fifty now and he's pacing the pavement outside of Roxanne's flat before he stops and digs through his pockets for his wallet and his cigarettes so he can look and see just how much cash he has.
£15. Shit. That wasn't enough to take Roxanne out somewhere that she really deserved. It could maybe by them two toasties from Darnell's and some drinks but that was it and let's be real, who wanted to go to Darnell's for a first fucking date.
You're an idiot John thinks, Jesus Christ, you're a fucking idiot. She's never going to want to go out with you again after this.
Taking a look at his watch, he almost chokes on the smoke from his cigarette when he realises that it's five past two. He'd been panicking for almost fifteen minutes. Now I'm late.
So he puts his cigarette out and presses the buzzer for her flat.
"Hi John," she greets, "Come on up, the door is open."
The door clunks open but he's confused. How did she know it was him? Up on Roxanne's floor, he straightens his shirt before knocking on the door, hearing her footsteps on the other side and when she opens the door, he swears that she takes his breath away.
She's grinning at him and wearing a little summer dress that's yellow and has daisies on it and he's immediately reminded of the time in the park where she scattered them over his hair.
She is absolutely stunning.
But she takes his silene to mean something else and tugs at the bottom of the dress uncomfortably, "Oh god, does it look bad? I knew it. I knew I shouldn't have bought it but Mary said it looks good. Hang on, give me five minutes and I'll change."
"No...you, I mean," he clears his throat, "I mean, you look great. Amazing, no, beautiful."
"Oh," Roxanne's face goes red, "Thank you."
"Are you ready to go?"
She nods, "Just let me get my bag."
He waits patiently for her, smiling when he hears her saying goodbye to Casper and he holds her bag for her while she locks the door.
"So," Roxy grins, shouldering her bag once more, "Where are we going?"
John scratches the back of his neck, "Right, well I'm not...I'm not sure."
She smiles as they step out into the warm afternoon air, "Well that's alright."
"It is?"
She nods, "I quite like the spontaneity of it. It's kind of...I dunno, fun."
Thank god for that.
"Is that what you were so worried about when before you came up?"
John looks at her, "What?"
"We saw you pacing," Roxy says, taking his hand.
"We...?"
"Me and Casper," she grins, "He loves that fire escape."
"Ah."
"You needn't have been worried though, John. Believe me, I'd be happy with an ice cream in the park."
"Really?"
She nods, "I love the park. And it's sunny out."
"We could do that," he says enthusiastically, "Yeah, I mean, if you want. Could go for lunch at Darnell's as well...if you want?"
She grins and presses herself closer to his side, "That sounds great."
++|++
Like she had said, Roxanne couldn't have cared where they had gone. So he took her to Darnell's where they had two cheese toasties and where they'd talked about where he had grown up and how where he'd been born (Leister) had been growing up.
Now they were walking hand in hand through the park, each of them with ice cream - hers was mint chocolate chip while his was just chocolate and he had just finished telling her about the first time he'd picked up a bass guitar and fallen in love with it.
"Look at you now," Roxanne grins as they sit down on a nearby bench, "In a rock band with three of your closest friends. You guys are going to be big, I can feel it."
She nods when he gives her a disbelieving look, catching a drip of her ice cream with her tongue before he clears his throat, "Speaking of Roger...I just-do you think he'll be alright with this? If things were to progress?"
Roxanne bites her lip, "Do you think things are going to progress, Mr Deacon?"
"I've got a feeling they might."