Rose Tyler always loved helping her mother with her hairdressing business so she decided to get some professional training after the store she'd worked in for a long time finally closed down due to budget cuts. She wouldn't have minded but the store had survived a fire back in 2005 and re-opened but the board of directors had called for the store's closure and Rose was faced with being out of work.
"Never mind Rose," her mother was trying to console her. "Why don't ya try something different?"
"What, like hairdressing?" Rose managed to smile, putting the evening paper down after seeing no jobs advertised she could apply for.
"Why don't ya apply to the hairdressing college? Ya can work while ya train," Jackie suggested.
"Yeah, the pay is abysmal," Rose joked. "Oh, where did ya say cousin Mo had moved to after she got tired of The Peak District?"
"Yeah, funny she suddenly decided to move again? What was the place she went to? Somewhere near Portsmouth was it?" Jackie asked. "Sandbrook, that was the name."
"Never heard of it," Rose laughed. "Call her and ask if there's a hairdressing college then, it'll be cheaper down there and I might get a job easier as a trainee."
"You, leaving home," Jackie remarked. "Never thought I'd see the day."
So two weeks later, Rose packed her bags and got the train to Sandbrook, their cousin being willing to put Rose up in the spare room until she got sorted. Rose found it easy once the course started, having had plenty of practise on the women of the estate she lived on and began to look for a part time job where she'd get time off for college.
She was walking down the main road one morning and wandering down a side street, came across a hairdressers with the name of 'Dragon Scissors' which made Rose smile. There were no ads in the window but she thought she might just take a chance, since the place was busy. She waited by the desk until someone was free.
"We can't fit you in today," a woman with brown hair and a Welsh accent told her as she went to the desk.
"Oh, I'm not wanting an appointment," Rose replied, trying not to look flustered. "I wondered if the owner was around?"
"That's me luv, I hope you've not got a complaint?"
"What? No," Rose replied as who she now knew was the owner took a customer's payment.
"Well don't just stand there, what do you want?" she was asked, the woman shouting 'who's next' over Rose's shoulder. "Just take a seat over there," she carried on telling the other woman.
"I'm enrolled at the hairdressing college, I was just wondering if you had a vacancy for a trainee?"
The woman looked Rose up and down.
"Bit old to be a trainee?" the owner scoffed.
"I started late, I used to work in a department store until it closed down," Rose replied, aware she was keeping the woman from her customer.
"Right. Well, take your coat off then and go wash that woman's hair over there," she pointed to the woman who was waiting.
After the last customer was leaving, Rose had picked up the brush and was sweeping the floor.
"So, who are you then?" the woman Rose had learned was called Claire asked her, since Rose had noticed she called everyone 'Luv'.
"I'm Rose Tyler. This place is busy, to say it's off the main road."
"Must be the name," Claire laughed, the others joining in. "Hey everyone, this is Rose. So, you're from London, what are you doing here?"
"I have a cousin here, who I'm staying with. I thought it would be easier to get a job here, rather than in London," Rose admitted.
"So, how much training have you done?" Claire asked her.
"I used to help my mum so I found the hairdressing college easy. My instructor said I should get some experience."
"Well, Rose. I can't pay you much but you can keep any tips you get and you can work Fridays and Saturdays, if you're free on Friday?" Claire asked her.
"I only have to go to the college for three days a week," Rose replied "I can pick my days. So, how much will I get paid?"
She was rather hoping she could get a place of her own but until she graduated as a hairdresser, she'd have to stay where she was. She soon fitted in at the salon, getting one day off during the week with still going to college and she soon made friends with everyone, even getting invited to join them for a drink after work, though Rose still wasn't getting paid much.
Some of the regular customers Claire was friendly with even invited her to parties and Claire decided to ask Rose to go with her one Saturday night.
"Oh, I couldn't," Rose was insisting.
"Oh come on Rose, never been to a party before?" Claire teased her.
She had but she didn't think Claire knew what parties were like on a London council estate. So she agreed to go, telling her cousin not to wait up for her. Her younger cousin though wondered what had come over her.
"You never stop out late," it was pointed out to her.
"Well, she's my boss so I have to make an effort," Rose smiled as she put clips in her hair.
So getting a taxi to the address Claire had given her of the customer, she was just getting out at her destination as a man was getting out of a car so the cab was in the middle of the road.
"Bloomin' cheek," Rose muttered to herself as she paid the driver.
"Too right," the cabbie agreed. "Parking's terrible at night. They should put no parking signs up."
"Yeah," Rose replied as the man she'd seen getting out of the car seemed to be looking around. "Do ya have a card with the taxi number on?"
The cabbie fished around on the shelf and handed her a card. She thanked him and joined the man on the pavement.
"I don't suppose you're going to a party around here are you?" he asked her.
"You mean Eileen's?" Rose wondered. "Hey thanks for parking there just as my cab arrived."
"There are no parking restrictions, get over it luv," he replied, throwing the remains on his cigarette on the ground. "I don't know why I smoke these things. So, do you know where this party is?"
"Number 23, so I was told. So, do ya know Eileen well then?"
"Nope, I was doing some work for them, new floorboards and they just invited me. What about you?"
"She's a customer at the hair salon I work in. She invited my boss who didn't want to come on her own. It's freezin' out here, that's the house we want just there," Rose spotted the number on the door. "I hope my boss has said I was coming."
"Don't worry too much, they'll probably be letting anyone in," the man grinned at her. "I'm Lee by the way."
"Hi, I'm Rose and yeah, half the neighbours are probably invited so there are no complaints about the music," Rose smiled.
"Shall we?" Lee grinned, leading the way and gesturing towards the driveway.
That was all it took. Lee got them some drinks and was making her laugh at his dry jokes and Claire was giving her filthy looks as if to say she fancied Lee but Rose wasn't about to just give in, not even to her boss. Claire followed her upstairs when Rose excused herself to the bathroom, Lee leaning over to whisper for her not to be long.
"Well, there might be a queue," Rose laughed as he flicked a strand of her hair back, Rose hoping no-one was taking any notice the way he'd been paying attention to her.
So as Rose heard someone behind her on the stairs and saw two women already waiting, she could hardly avoid Claire, who stopped her at the top of the stairs.
"Who's the bloke Rose?" Claire nudged her.
"I don't want to fight with you Claire," Rose told her. "He's just a bloke, I probably won't even see him again."
"Who says I want to fight?" Claire laughed as the other two looked at her and the bathroom door opened.
"Oh, hi Claire," the hostess greeted her. "Who's your friend?"
"This is Rose, she works part-time," Claire told her. "She graduates from the hairdressing college soon, don't know if I'm taking her on full time yet, it depends on a few things."
Rose just hoped giving Claire a chance to get to know Lee wasn't one of them, she was just getting to like him. He was so different to Mickey. When she got back downstairs, Lee complained she'd been gone too long for his liking.
"I did warn ya," Rose smiled, taking her drink back and hoping if he was going to ask to see her again, he wasn't going to be the bossy type.
"Well I suppose I'll have to let you off then," he whispered as he touched her cheek with his finger. "Fancy getting out of here?"
"Sure you should be drivin'?" Rose dared ask as he was on his second glass of lager.
"It's the non-alcoholic and it tastes terrible. There's a pub near my place, if you want to go?" he suggested.
Rose didn't know anyone apart from Claire, who was now busy in a corner snogging the life out of a bloke whom she'd noticed as she'd come back downstairs. Well at least Lee had suggested they left before he tried anything, Rose supposed.
"Yeah, I don't suppose we'll be missed?" Rose replied.
Claire did notice Rose getting her coat and Lee helping her put it on but shrugged her shoulders.
"Leaving so soon?" Claire asked, since she'd managed to detached herself from the man she was with.
"I'm off to the pub with Lee, parties aren't really my thing when I don't know anyone," Rose replied as Lee got his jacket.
"Come on then Rose," he called her, seeing Claire. "This your boss then?"
Rose nodded. "Yeah, this is Claire. Claire, this is Lee. Sorry, didn't catch your last name."
"I never said but neither did you," he reminded her.
"It doesn't bother me," Claire told them as the man she was with was now leaning on her shoulder from behind.
"I should hope not," Lee replied sarcastically as he got his car key out of his pocket.
They finally left, going out into the cold night air and drove off. Ten minutes later, Lee stopped outside a house, passing a pub on the corner.
"Still want to go to the pub or we could go to my bedsit?" Lee asked her.
"Let's go to the pub, we can discuss going to your place," Rose grinned, still not sure about him.
He got them some drinks, Rose had opted to go into what passed as the lounge, since the public bar was crowded and it was standing room only, there was a darts match going on.
"So, we need to discuss going to my place then?" Lee asked her.
"Don't get me wrong," Rose started to tell him. "So, what exactly do you do for a living then?"
"I told you. I do maintenance services, odd jobs like fencing, new floors, the odd bit of painting. I have jobs booked into next month, want to see my diary? I'm registered, just so you know."
"Sorry. It's just half the blokes where I used to live, well they'd never admit they were unemployed," Rose apologised.
"So where's that then? London somewhere?" Lee asked her.
"Somewhere," Rose replied, not sure if she should tell him exactly where but this wasn't the best part of the town either.
"Well I do a lot of sub-contracting," Lee admitted. "I don't tell everyone. I know this bloke, Ricky Gillespie, he has his own business and he finds it easier than taking anyone else on. He's been doing a lot of work on this new estate, just on the outskirts of town."
"I don't know my way around that much," Rose told him.
"Well, that could change, if you want?" Lee replied, putting his arm around her. "So, when do you graduate as a hairdresser then? This Ricky, he was telling me he was going to invest in a couple of houses on the estate and keep one for himself and rent one out. Good places to rent are hard to find, I don't know why I came here."
"You're not from here then?" Rose asked as she finished her drink.
"How did you guess?" Lee replied.
"Well if you don't wanna tell me?" Rose joked.
"That depends if you're going to stick around? Where are you living then?"
"In my cousin's spare room?" Rose smiled. "I can't afford a place of my own."
"Well I'm not allowed to have anyone living with me, visitors have to be out by ten on weekday nights."
Rose giggled, since this was her third glass of white wine with lemonade.
"It's Saturday," she pointed out.
"So it is. Well, want to come back with me? Or are you going to play hard to get?"
Rose thought about it. Lee seemed to be the most decent man she'd met in a long time, apart from a temp who had worked at the store but he hadn't seemed to want to be serious. She liked Lee's dry sense of humour though, it was different. Before she knew it, they were finishing their drinks and had walked back to where he lived, climbing the stairs to the attic room he rented.
Rose hardly knew what had hit her as they tossed and turned under the duvet in his three-quarter sized bed, then as he fished for their underwear, he hovered over her.
"Must have been a while for you?" he grinned.
"You have no idea," Rose laughed. "How come you've not got a girlfriend?"
"She left me. Apparently I wasn't good enough for her circle of friends."
"Huh? She must have been a bit of a snob then?" Rose asked.
"You have no idea," he replied, going to kiss her neck. "So, what do you think? Can I see you again or is this just a one-off? Only I saw this mini-series a while back where this woman took a bloke home and she couldn't get rid of him, it didn't end well. I don't want to seem the pushy type."
"Yeah, I know which programme you mean and no, I don't think you're pushy. Yeah, I want to see you again Lee."
Over the next few weeks, they saw each other twice during the week, when he'd take Rose back to where she was staying, then she would stay over at the weekend. Lee was trying to persuade the landlady there was room for two in his rented attic but he got turned down, being told it wouldn't be fair on the other tenants.
The day Rose got her hairdressing diploma, they went out to celebrate. Since someone was leaving Claire's salon to have a baby, Rose had been offered the job. Lee said they had a double celebration and had taken her to a fancy Italian restaurant.
"Rose, Ricky told me those houses are ready, how do you feel about us taking the one he's thinking of renting out?"
"Wow, you really think he'll rent it to us? Can we afford it?"
"If you've got that job? Work's picked up Rose, he said he wouldn't advertise until I let him know. Your mother was complaining about not being invited down to meet me."
Rose had been dreading the two of them meeting. So they went off to visit Ricky, his wife and daughter the following evening, Ricky showing them around but Lee had done some work on it, laying the laminate flooring so it was mainly for Rose to see.
"So, what do you think?" Lee asked Rose, since Ricky had agreed to supply the electrical appliances in the kitchen and pay for Lee to put them in.
"Yeah I like it. How much is the rent then?" Rose wanted to know, since she wasn't sure how much Claire would be paying her. "Do we need carpets?"
"Rose, there's laminate flooring downstairs and I'll sand and polish the rest. We can just get some rugs. I know it's a big step for you but I think it's right. How about you?" he asked her.