Only one day to go. Here’s your final extract. Ursula’s first day at work. She stops to check herself in a shop window…
Annoyingly, her left boot was bunching at the ankle. She pulled it up, smoothed down her waistcoat and trousers, and told herself these were the clothes that would get her noticed. ‘Today will be a day I’ll remember for the rest of my life.’
She breathed in, closed her eyes and started counting. If she could get to fifty without breathing out, it would be a sign that everything was going to be perfect. The madness in her stomach was easing off but she gave herself a bonus ten for double insurance.
At sixty, she let her breath out and opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was a man staring at her from a few doors away. He was wearing a dark grey suit, a shirt with pale blue stripes and a blue-grey tie. His shoes were so polished, the sunlight was practically bouncing off them. Ursula noticed all of these things because her dad had been dressed almost exactly the same the last time she saw him.
This man had short dark hair, also like her dad, but he was younger than her dad. And good looking. Still too old to be staring at her though. Thirty maybe? It was hard to tell because he looked so serious.
Hazel Ward 