A few days later she was cutting a lovely little old lady’s hair when a phone call arrived at the salon. Pat was in-between appointments and took the call.

"Mary, that was Richard on the phone." Pat called "He says he’s coming in tomorrow to meet you and see if there’s anything that needs doing in the salon."

Mary went pale with nerves, and the little old lady smiled. "Don’t you worry love, he’s a lovely young man, and always gets on well with the ladies"

Great, thought Mary. That was just what she needed. Someone just like Tim to remind her of what she’d been trying to get away from.

"You ought to go after him you know. He’s got quite a bit of money now and he’d make a wonderful husband." the lady said grinning at her from under a mass of permed hair.

This made Mary feel even worse and she went to sleep that night really worrying about the meeting. Everything had been going so well, and now this had come along to spoil it.

.

Mary got up early so that she had time to get herself ready. If she was going to meet the owner she had to make a good impression so her hair had to be absolutely perfect. She felt quite sick with worry and listened to her 'Please Please Me' LP to cheer her up as she had breakfast.

He arrived early in the morning when the girls were unpacking new stock and getting the salon ready for the customers. Mary was stood on a buffet in the back room organising tints on the top shelf when he arrived, and Cilla told him he would find her there.

"Hello. I’m Richard, you must be Mary" he called from the doorway. His voice sounded almost familiar to her. She spun round to speak to him, and fell backwards onto the floor. He leapt forward to help her as she sat there almost hyperventilating in shock. She almost burst into tears.

"Oh my God, are you O.K?" he asked worriedly. She sat on the floor trying to breathe properly and staring at the grey fabric patterns of his trousers. He tried to help her up, and she felt a pain in her ankle. By this time the girls had come running in to find out what all the noise was about, and helped her to a chair. Cilla and Pat rushed back to let the customers in whilst Richard attended to Mary. She was shaking uncontrollably as he knelt down on the floor to examine the ankle. She gazed at his soft brown hair as he removed her shoe, and wondered why she hadn’t realised it before. She had met his stepfather Harry the day before, and should have known Richard’s name wasn’t Greaves. Richard’s name was Starkey, Richard Starkey. The real name of The Beatles’ drummer Ringo Starr. The one who had said he was going to open a chain of hairdressing salons after he’d finished in the group. There was a Beatle knelt down in front of her with his hand resting on her ankle. She had to keep calm and not make a fool of herself.

He looked up at her and she stared into his deep blue eyes with a worried look on her face. "I think you’ve only twisted it" he said comfortingly. She almost swooned at the sound of his voice and felt instantly better with him there talking to her gently. "But I don’t think it’s a good idea standing around on it all day today. I’ll go and see if the girls can manage the clients for a while. Will you be alright here for a minute?"

"Mmmmmm" she murmured, gazing at him as he turned and walked into the salon. She let out a big sigh and tried to straighten herself out. She bent to stroke her injured ankle. He’d touched her ankle. She smiled as he walked back in.

"Feeling a bit better? I suppose you were in shock from falling over." He said. She was in shock from something, but it certainly wasn’t the fall. "The girls can easily cope with the salon today, and I need to talk to you about a few things anyway, so would you like to sit down for a few hours whilst we discuss the salon?" She nodded happily at the idea.

He helped her out of the salon and into his car as he explained about a cafe that he knew where they could discuss the salon, have some lunch when they’d finished, and then head back.

She stared out of the window as they drove along, trying to keep calm and remember that he was just a normal person. He was her new boss. He might have been a Beatle once, but all that was over now.

As they sat in the cafe with lists of hair products and salon figures all over the table, she became quite used to the fact that she was sat opposite a Beatle. She gazed lovingly at him as he bent over the figures reading things out to her that were important. The sound of his voice warmed her inside, she could have listened to him reading hairdressing lists for hours. They chatted over the meal about the salon and themselves. She was quite upset when they finished eating and it was time to leave. But the way he held her as he helped her from her seat back into the car soon made her feel better. She had never realised that so much fun could come from twisting your ankle.

.

After a good nights sleep, dreaming about her new boss, her ankle was back to normal. She spent the entire day thinking about him as she carried on with her work, and it was quite remarkable that she didn’t make any mistakes when her mind was so far occupied with something else. She imagined running her fingers through his hair as she stood there backcombing and teasing various ladies hair into shape.

He popped into the salon just as she was closing up to tell her that there was a meeting next week in Woolton about the latest hairstyles, products and equipment. He thought it would be a good idea to go to these meetings regularly in order to keep up with all the new trends. Mary agreed and Richard said he would put their names down and pick her up at seven.

.

She sat at the meeting yawning through every demonstration and finding it hard to concentrate. "Did you find it boring?" he asked as they stepped into the car.

"No, it’s not that. I’m just absolutely worn out. There’s such a large amount of stock to go through every week when I’m stocktaking and writing out order lists that I don’t get so much sleep one night each week. It just happened that I needed to write up the new list last night."

"Why didn’t you tell me you were struggling with it?" he asked, sighing.

"Oh no, I can cope with it." She worried that he would think she was incapable of doing her job. "It just takes so long to do".

"Don’t worry about it. I’ll come ‘round and help if you tell me which nights you’re stock taking. The two of us will get it done in no time."

"Thanks." She breathed a sigh of relief. It was so nice of him to offer to help, not many bosses would be so eager to go through boring stock lists in order to lend a hand. And not only would it give her more free time, but it would give her more time with him.