Diamonds Are Not Forever

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Juliette

The week flew by pretty quickly.
The store was super busy that Friday, since Ashley had introduced a new promotion where people could bring in their old pieces of jewellery and get a free design consultation to turn the materials of that jewellery into something new. It drove business into the store and fit in with Ashley's vision to increase the sustainability of the business.
I was on my fifth consultation of the day, sat at the back corner of the store in the tan leather armchairs with a sweet old lady who wanted to turn her diamond tennis bracelet, a gift from her late husband, into two matching rings for her twin granddaughters as a graduation present. I pulled the design program up on my hand-held tablet and began to talk her through what I'd come up with.
"So, I've incorporated a hand full of the diamonds from the bracelet into the setting of the ring, I was thinking a channel style setting would fit perfectly with the size of the diamonds and it's really on trend at the minute, and we can melt down the white gold of the bracelet to make up about 30% of what we would need for the settings for both rings."
The old lady leant in to get a better look at my screen as I zoomed in on the structure of the rings.
"Then, I feel like the signature stones should be slightly bigger than the ones that are on the bracelet. So, I can give you some really good options if you're wanting to go down the diamond route, but are you at all open to suggestions?"
The lady peered over her oval shaped glasses and gave me a sweet smile. "Of course, honey you're the expert after all."
"Amazing news!" I gave her a grin and started talking her through the pros and cons of using Moissanite as apposed to Diamonds. Moissanite was more ethically sourced but still sparkled the same, it was also a fraction of the cost. I also promised to turn the remaining diamonds of her bracelet into a matching set of drop earrings for her granddaughters, free of charge.
When the consultation was finished, I'd shown the lady over to Carol to get her set up on a payment plan for the redesign and headed into the back to start talking Teddy through my vision for the rings and also to submit my necklace design for the Golden Gifts Project Gala.
I found Teddy hunched over the jewellery polishing machine hard at work, cleaning up a set of chunky silver hoops.
"They look great." I announced as I gave him a gentle pat on the back and took a seat at my desk next to Maureen Goulding.
Maureen was sketching away in her work pad when I powered up my Mac, she looked up briefly from her work to give me a smile, then proceeded to shade in the outline of what looked like a very elaborate and grand ring.
"Is that your submission for the Gala?" I tried to keep my voice level as I asked, as not to seem like I was snooping or that I was sizing up any sort of competition.
Only one of our designs from our store would get selected by the committee that was organising the charity gala, plus Ashley could only afford to spare the materials to make up one piece for the auction as one of the sponsors. We knew the best design would win, whichever one that was.
Maureen didn't look up again as she answered me, using her thumb to smudge one of her lines away. "Yeah, I'll show you it when its done. How about you, you completed your submission yet?"
As she asked, the design software loaded up on my computer and my digital rendering of the necklace I had been working on for the Gala popped up on the screen. Seeing the necklace on the big screen made me instinctively reach for my own neck. When my fingertips found nothing, my heart sank low in my chest.
I couldn't believe I'd lost my locket; it was my most treasured possession and I'd gone and lost it. It was a gift from my Grandma Alison that she had given me on my last trip over to Dublin around 5 years before. I hadn't found the courage to tell my mum that I'd lost it yet.
"Oh my God."
Maureen's words snapped me out of my thoughts, when I looked up, I found Teddy and Maureen gawking at the screen from either side of me. I flicked my eyes between them both in confusion.
"Juliette," Teddy's breath gently brushed my cheek, he was that close. "That's incredible."
Maureen reached her fingers up to the large screen of my Mac and traced the outline of my necklace design with her fingertips. "This is really brilliant Juliette." She looked back at me with pride, it made my heart flutter with appreciation.
The necklace was an ode to a diamond and pearl necklace my dad had saved up for and bought my mum one Christmas. Only, my version was grander and more opulent than the one my dad could afford.
A perfect row of interchanging oval and round shaped diamonds made the collar of the necklace, then it trickled down into a selection of clusters of smaller marquise diamonds and finally each cluster came to a point with a singular pear-shaped stone. Dotted between each point was a delicate cream pearl, the idea was that it should look like an upside-down tiara, set in perfect 18ct Yellow Gold.
I so desperately wanted to see this necklace in real-life, so the real-life stones and pearls could do the digital rendering of them justice.
"Have you shown Ashley this yet?" Maureen questioned me, reaching over my body to capture the mouse adjacent to my keyboard. As I shook my head no, she moved the curser so it came to life, scrolling to the top right of the screen and clicking to send a copy of the rendering to our shared office printer. "Don't change a single thing on it Juliette, its perfect. We're going to show her this now because I don't know how any of our designs can compare."

When the three of us headed back out to the front of the store, Maureen grasping a paper copy of my necklace design tightly in her hand, it had quietened down considerably compared to the rush we'd had a few hours previous. The store closed in about an hour, so it usually dipped off for the last part of the day.
There was only one customer left in the store, he was leant with his back to us, chatting animatedly with Ashley and Carol who were hung on his every word. The customer had a mop of beach blond hair on the top of his head that faded into a tighter cut around the back of his neck and the side of his ears. He towered over them both as he shoved his hands in his pockets and kicked an imaginary stone on the floor with his converse. He seemed really familiar.
When he let out a hearty laugh, then I knew instantly it was Frankie.
Instinctively, I did a sweep of both inside and outside of the store, my heart racing at the thought that Elliot might have been with him.
When my eyes found nothing but the three of them chatting over the counter, I let myself relax.
"Jewel, just the girl we were discussing!" Ashley beamed over Frankie's shoulder at me, beckoning me to join them.
Frankie turned on his heels and lit up when he saw me, I could see a glint of something in his light blue eyes, most probably mischief. "Hey Jewels, you seem shocked to see me. Where you hoping I was someone else?" He shot me a wink and I wanted the ground to swallow me up whole.
"No, not at all!" I ran my palms down the front of my green corduroy pinafore dress, to smooth it out and to also get rid of some of the sweat that was starting to perspire there. "Hey Frankie, what brings you here?"
"Frankie came to officially invite us all to his birthday party tomorrow." Carol answered for him, her chin propped up on her fist, her elbow rested on the counter as she looked up at Frankie with doe eyes. She really was like a teenage girl when it came to men.
Maureen had looped around the counter to stand next to Ashley, they chatted between themselves as she showed her my design. I strained to hear what they were saying about it as Teddy came to stand next to me and introduced himself to Frankie.
"Hey, my name is Teddy Green, nice to meet you." Teddy held out a hand for Frankie to shake, which he took all too gladly.
"Nice to meet you Teddy, I'm Frankie Truman."
A flash of recognition crossed Teddy's face at the mention of Frankie's name, but he didn't linger on it for long. He was first to break the handshake as he shuffled a little closer to my side.
"We met Frankie last weekend when we went out clubbing." Carol added into the conversation, still making eyes at the blond Adonis stood casually in the middle of the store, dressed down in his khaki capri pants and white polo shirt. I shot Carol a sideways smirk.
"Sounds like I missed a really fun night." Teddy smiled too politely; it came off as ungenuine. I didn't know what was up with him.
Frankie gestured towards Ashley, who had just broken away from her conversation with Maureen and had joined us at the counter.
Shit, I'd missed her reaction to my design.
"I was just telling your lovely boss that you are all invited to the birthday party I'm throwing for myself at The Sky Bar tomorrow evening." Frankie's eyes lingered on Ashley for a fraction longer than anyone else as he spoke and gestured around the group. I swear I actually saw her blush.
Ashley Goulding blushing, it was a revelation.
When Frankie's gaze landed on Mrs Goulding, he shot her a wolfish grin and sauntered around the counter, till he was stood beside her. "I haven't had the pleasure of introducing myself, I'm Frankie. You must be Ashley's sister?" He grasped Maureen's hand and brought it to his lips, bending to  kiss the back of it in a gentlemanly gesture.
Maureen batted him off and giggled girlishly. That was the Frankie Truman affect.
"Oh please young man, I'm old enough to be your Mother!" Mrs Goulding tucked her hair behind her ears and batted her lashes at Frankie, she was just as bad as Carol! "I'm Maureen Goulding, Ashley's Mum."
"You could have had me fooled; you Goulding women are getting to me!" Frankie did a fake swoon and we all laughed. Well, Teddy just tittered under his breath a bit.
"So, I expect you all to be there tomorrow. Dress code is smart casual, come ready to sing – cause it's a karaoke party! Doors open at 7.30pm."
Ashley shot her mum a look, who was still gawking at Frankie, then turned to him with a megawatt smile. "Don't worry, we will be there!"
"Great news! See you all tomorrow."
Frankie gave us a salute and shuffled out of the store, everyone letting out a breath they didn't know they were holding in when he was gone.
Carol fanned herself with her hand. "What a hunk, I can't believe Jewel slept with his brother." She spoke to no one in particular as she watched him  through the glass windows at the front of the store, Frankie jumped in his parked black Audi and sped off down the street.
"What?!" Maureen and Teddy cried in unison.