He had bottled it and sold it on the council estate they lived on and bought the patent for it and ten years later, they had moved to Sandbrook, had a big mansion on the outskirts of the town and now had a son called Tony, who liked to mess around at school and lived on junk food, much to his mother's dismay but she expected all teenage boys were like that.
It was 2012, Alec Hardy had made it to being a DI in the town's main police station and he'd been married to Tess for just over twelve years but now, he was just about free and so was a suspect from a murder investigation, the young victim's older cousin still being missing whom Alec half suspected she had run off with the suspect, since he'd left his wife behind.
He also thought that Claire Ripley was holding something back after she turned on her husband and now wanted to go by her maiden name and she was involved somehow. He had no proof though and he had no idea where she had disappeared to after he refused to help her and she had yelled at him and said she'd trusted him.
He'd told her if she ever wanted to tell the real truth about the night the two girls disappeared and one ended up in the river, he'd lock her husband up and she'd have nothing to worry about. Since that was several months ago and she'd not taken him up on his offer, he surmised she either still didn't trust him or she really had been involved.
It was approaching Christmas and Alec wasn't looking forward to it but the last few years had been just as bad. His thirteen year old daughter probably wanted the latest gadget and he'd have to try and ring her to find out, his now ex wife was hardly likely to tell him.
So with just a few more Saturdays to go, he had to make the effort and start by getting his daughter a Christmas card, not one from a pack he could buy in a supermarket, though he'd no-one else really to send any to, Tess had always taken care of sending them out but he supposed this year, she'd leave his name off.
He set off into town, using his police sign to avoid paying the car parking charges and hoping the attendant wouldn't question it when there was no ticket on display and took the stairs down to the shopping precinct in the centre of the main shopping area.
Rose Tyler had made her card list out, having got a large pack of cards the last time she'd been in town with her mother but she had left her in a shop trying on another new outfit for the upcoming Vitex charity evening at a posh hotel on the other side of town and she'd had the pleasure of organising it, since she was her father's personal assistant.
Now, she needed some cards with mum and dad and brother on, not that Tony would appreciate one unless it had money, a winning lottery ticket or scratchcard inside so she thought she'd maybe call and get a complicated scratchcard from the post office nearby and forget getting him a fancy card and just get the simplest one she could find.
Alec was browsing the cards for 'Daughter' on the other side of the display stand and finally picked one he thought was suitable. Rose had already been around that side and had moved off as Alec had approached it but now, she wasn't so sure the one for 'Mum and Dad' was what she wanted and was going back to take a second look.
Alec turned to walk around the other side, since that was where the cash desk was and he'd seen the queue as he'd entered and didn't fancy squeezing past the customers waiting to pay and the edge of the display, since shoppers were gathering in the doorway looking at silly Christmas hats and other items that had been dumped in a bin with Christmas paper around it.
His life was about to change as both he and Rose reached the corner at the same time.
"Hey, look where you're going," Rose called out as she tried to fend him off and he was doing the same.
"Excuse me, how was I to know you would choose to come around the corner at the same time?" Alec argued as Rose stood staring at him and there was nowhere for him to go with yet another display of Christmas crackers in the corner.
Rose recovered and supposed he did have a point but she wasn't going to admit it.
"Well are ya gonna move?" Rose asked as she held onto the two cards and may just keep the card she was going to change.
"There is nowhere to go unless you stand sideways," Alec pointed out.
"Oh. Bit of a stupid place to put a pile of Christmas cracker boxes," Rose replied, twisting her hoop earring with her free hand.
"Yes, indeed. I need to get to the cash desk," he reminded her, since she wasn't moving.
"Yeah, sorry. I was just going back to change this card but never mind, it'll be easier if I just went the same way as you," she admitted, hoping there was enough room to turn around.
Alec could only agree, since the other side had been busy and he wondered why there wasn't anyone wanting to go the same way as he'd done. Rose turned around and thought she would just go back the other way but then saw the crowd in the doorway and then changed her mind again as it meant squeezing past those waiting to pay and they might think she was pushing in.
Alec tapped her on the shoulder.
"I hope you were not going round the other side?"
"I was but not now. I wish I'd not left getting some cards now."
"It was probably just as busy in November?" Alec mused, getting some money out to pay and now realising there were people behind him.
It was very rare for him to visit such a shop but he'd learned a few things and one of them was to approach the corner carefully to avoid colliding with someone but the woman he'd almost knocked over looked very familiar.
The queue didn't seem to be going down very fast and Alec thought people at the front of the shop were jumping the queue or maybe the assistant at the end was encouraging them. He saw a woman standing behind the two cashiers and wondered why she wasn't operating the spare till in the middle, since he could see a gap.
"Geez, what's going on?" Rose wondered out loud.
The woman in front of her turned her head.
"You tell me love, wish they'd get a move on."
Rose tried to suppress a laugh and half turned to Alec as he learned forward.
"Maybe if you told them who you are, they may open the other till?" Alec told her quietly.
"Yeah, like that would make any difference? You know who I am?"
Alec thought didn't every single or otherwise male in town know as it had come to him she was Rose Tyler.
"You can trust me," he half smiled, recalling her father's slogan.
Rose could never remember if he'd said it right or it was 'You can trust me on this' and she should, since she'd had it drilled into her since she was ten.
Rose just spluttered and moved forward one place and wondered if the staff were being slow on purpose to make the shop look busy. They moved another pace forward and Alec thought he detected a few cheaters not bothering to join the end of the queue.
He debated getting his ID out of his pocket and confronting who was clearly the manager about it but now, Rose was about to finally get served.
"Geez, about time," she muttered, making Alec smile again.
Rose Tyler was obviously not a patient person as she had twisted her hoop earring several times whilst waiting and let out her breath noisily and making the woman in front of her half turn again. Alec moved past her and saw where the hold-up had been, since getting past the second till was quite awkward and people looking at silly hats and various other items had seen their chance and the cashier had not bothered there was a queue. He approached the till as a woman from the front was about to beat him to it. Rose had seen and was dying to laugh as Alec huffed and put the card on the counter, making the woman back off.
"Hey love, there's a long queue back there," Rose told the woman who was now waiting behind Alec as Rose came away from the desk. "We could have all jumped in if we'd wanted, we've been waiting ages and now we know why."
Alec turned away from the desk.
"Yes, I suggest you walk around the display and join like the rest of us," Alec told the stunned woman. "I saw you trying to get in before me."
"Well," was all the woman could say, since she'd missed her chance again while Rose and Alec kept her talking.
Rose dashed outside, bursting out laughing when she had.
"I see you found that amusing?" Alec stopped to ask her.
"Yeah, a bit, sorry. You didn t have to join in ya know?"
Then she realised how cold it was outside compared to being in the queue inside the shop. She popped the cards into her shoulder bag and fished around for her gloves.
Alec spied a famous coffee house across the other side of the wide precinct that had a large tree in the middle.
"Would you care to join me for a hot drink? I'm Alec Hardy by the way."
He didn't normally drink coffee but he did like the odd one now and then as he opened the door for Rose, seeing it was rather busy.
"You go find a table," Alec suggested.
"Okay, just a latte for me but ask for it in a takeaway carton."
"Why?" Alec wondered.
"I don't like the cups, my mum says they're like soup bowls," she replied, going off as she spotted a table by the window.
Alec shook his head and joined the queue to get their drinks, wondering why Rose had so eagerly agreed to join him. When it was his turn, thinking this was the second time he'd queued today, he got a funny look when he asked for cartons and said they were for in.
"My friend does not like the cups," he told the young man serving him. "Is there a rule that says we cannot drink from cartons inside?"
The server just shrugged his shoulders and went off to the machine. Alec thought it would be quicker if they had a self service machine like in motorway stops. Rose had got her phone out and was texting her mother to see if she was on her way home as Alec joined her, putting the cartons down and the spoons and some sugar sachets.
"Be careful," he warned as Rose put her phone down and took the lid off her drink. "So, I know who you are?"
"Yeah, I get that all the time," Rose replied, blowing on the hot drink. "Still, you have the advantage."
"Seriously?" he asked as he sat opposite.
He thought everyone in town knew who he was, that reporter certainly had since she'd only just left him alone.
"Why, am I supposed to know you?" she asked him. "Oh, you're that detective, aren't ya? I remember you from that girl getting killed. Sorry that bloke got away."
"It happens," he replied as they drank their coffee.
Alec wondered if she'd only recently moved to the town, since she didn't sound like one of the locals.
Rose had picked up her mother's bad habits of speaking with a slight Cockney accent, even though they'd been in Sandbrook for a number of years, since Rose was almost ten. Her younger brother however spoke in slang only he could understand.
"You got me then. Sure you want to be seen with the worst cop in Britain?" he smiled.
Rose just smiled back over her coffee carton.
"Well I'm always in the papers over being seen with a reject from Britain's got talent, like they'd be in this town. Even if they were, I wouldn't get caught being seen with them. So, being seen with the worst cop in Britain's a step up."
"Then I am glad you think so. Would you maybe have dinner with me later?"
Rose put her drink down. She'd not had a proper date in ages, not since dating James Smith, who had worked at Vitex and he'd gone back to work in London, Rose had not wanted to move. Her father had moved them out to Sandbrook and opened offices there, the main production plant was still back in London.
"Yeah, I'd love to. Know any good places?"
Alec hadn't really been out much since dating Tess and before Daisy came along.
"Maybe I should check?" he asked, seeing the free Wi-Fi sign and there would probably be no signal on his phone. "Another drink?" he offered.
After he returned, he gave a list of places suitable for a date, well he assumed it was a date, since Rose was still here and was considering the options.
"Italian sounds good," she offered.
"Then Italian it is," Alec agreed, showing her the details.
"So, who was the card for, I take it that it wasn't for your wife or girlfriend?" Rose smiled.
"My daughter, a teenager so she's difficult to satisfy."
"Yeah, tell me about it, I've got a teenager brother. There's this Vitex charity do just before Christmas and he's expected to go. I bet he'll try to get out of it."
"I expect you will be busy around that time?" Alec asked her.
"Yeah, there's the charity do, the Vitex Christmas party and not forgetting my mum's party on Christmas Eve. Geez, how do the press think I have time to go on dates?"
They finished their drinks and went back outside.
"See ya tonight then?" Rose asked, wishing she'd stayed inside and called a cab.
"Do you need a ride home?" he offered.
"Nah, it's fine, I can take a cab. Walk me around the corner to the taxi rank?"
Alec waved her off after Rose got in the front cab, wondering how he'd ever managed to get a date with Rose Tyler.