Destination Chile. Katy Colins
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romantic trip and all of the problems they had at home will disappear. The truth is, you bring them thousands of miles with you and they become even more magnified in this strange, unusual environment.’
‘But, if you can’t get along on some idyllic tropical beach when the only thing you have to worry about is applying more sun cream and which book to read next, then you won’t be able to get along anywhere. It is the ultimate test.’
I scoffed. ‘Yeah maybe, but Ben and I work together, we live together and we talk about travel all day, every day, so I honestly don’t think there will be any issues with us going on holiday.’
‘It could be good for you to get some time away to properly talk through all the London stuff that’s niggling you,’ Marie suggested.
I nodded. ‘Yeah, you’re both right. Our first couple’s holiday needs to be a priority on my to-do list. Oh, pass us a slice will you?’
I nodded to the pizza box on Shelley’s lap. Marie, Shelley and I were having a girly night in at Marie’s house. It was an impromptu night as I’d actually hoped I would be doing something with Ben. We’d hardly seen each other outside of work since dining-room-table-gate. We’d called a truce on it and both become skilled at literally – and figuratively – skirting around the thing.
‘So, where’s lover boy tonight?’ Shelley asked as if reading my mind. She was mid mouthful of pizza, the grease from the stuffed crust base glistening on her chin.
‘Out with a friend, I’m not sure where.’ I shrugged, picking off a rogue olive that had found its way onto my slice.
‘A friend?’ Shelley raised an eyebrow. ‘Well it’s not Jimmy as he’s taking some body blitz class in the gay village, which I know wouldn’t interest Ben in the slightest.’
‘He didn’t tell me where he was going, only that he was meeting up with an old friend as she’s just moved to Manchester.’
‘A she?’ Marie’s eyebrows were now at the same raised height as Shelley’s, both threatening to merge into their hairline. I nodded. ‘Your boyfriend, sorry, your soon-to-be fiancé has gone on a date with a girl you don’t know to a place you don’t know, and you’re okay with this?’
I rolled my eyes at the pair of them. ‘I trust him.’ Even after what had happened with Alex, I did trust Ben. It had taken a lot for me to get to this point, but we shared the most important thing in my life – our business – as well as our bedroom, and we wouldn’t have got this far without trust. ‘And it’s not a date. God, you two are so melodramatic sometimes!’
‘Yeah you might trust him, but are you not a little bit curious about her?’ Shelley had now finished off her slice and picked up my phone, like a woman on a mission. ‘Right, what’s her name?’
I laughed at the absurdity. ‘I’m not Facebook stalking her. I told you, I trust him.’
‘You’re not Facebook stalking, we are,’ Marie said, with her eyes alight at the prospect of some real-life gossip that wasn’t baby related. ‘Okay, name?’
They weren’t letting this go. They’d even paused an old episode of Sex and the City that had been on in the background to focus on the task in hand.
I sighed and closed my eyes, thinking. He’d only mentioned heading out in a passing comment, giving it as much thought as it probably deserved. But apparently, according to these two, these were things I was meant to get all psycho, bunny boiler on his ass about. This whole playing games thing was not something I was interested in; having a relationship and everything that comes with it in discovering each other’s boundaries was hard enough at times, let alone adding in this sort of crap.
‘You weren’t even a teensy bit intrigued to know more?’ Shelley pushed.
‘I honestly didn’t give it much thought. He mentioned it as we were both in-between speaking with clients, so I didn’t sit and analyse what he meant, no.’
‘I would have found out the girl’s bra size by the time he’d finished speaking,’ Marie said, without a hint of humour.
Maybe I should be more concerned, I began to think. Looking at their faces it seemed I should be taking this more seriously.
‘I don’t want to worry you or anything, but you did say that he’d been even quieter than usual recently,’ Marie piped up.
Damn, why did she have to have such an elephant memory? That was true, but I’d just put it down to him sulking over not being able to use a tape measure correctly or even that he had been silently plotting my elaborate proposal. Now I was worried.
‘Alice something,’ I said, suddenly remembering that when he had told me I’d thought it sounded like a pretty name.
‘Right, I’m on it,’ Shelley cried, automatically knowing my phone code and heading to the Facebook app, as Marie bit her bottom lip and rubbed her belly.
‘This is silly though, I mean, yeah he’s been a bit quieter recently –’
‘And you’ve been fighting about whether to open a London office or not,’ Marie called out.
‘Well, no, we haven’t been fighting.’ I turned to face her. ‘It’s just been a slight sticking point, that’s all, but it doesn’t mean he’s off having sex with old friends –’
‘Found her!’ Shelley grinned, forgetting that she wasn’t playing some TV quiz show but was actually digging up dirt on my own life. ‘Ah. Shit.’
‘What?’ I asked, craning my neck to see the phone screen. Marie gasped loudly and blocked my view as she leant forward to see what Shelley was pointing at. ‘What?!’
She slowly passed me my phone. Oh God. Alice was utterly gorgeous.
‘Whoa.’ Shelley gasped. ‘Stunner McStunnerson alert.’ She turned and gave me a sympathetic look at the shock on my face at realising that this potential Victoria’s Secret model whose face currently filled my phone screen was the ‘old friend’ my boyfriend was hanging out with. ‘But it’s fine, yes she may be the most attractive woman in the world without a Kardashian surname but you trust Ben, so it’s fine.’
‘Is this defo her?’ I asked slowly.
‘She’s the only Alice listed as Ben’s friend.’ Shelley winced.
Alice Sherman was stood leaning against a balcony railing with some exotic beach behind her. She had her head tilted back and what looked like a natural laugh escaping from her plump lips. Her eyes were scrunched up, lost in some joke between her and the photographer and her glossy brown hair was dancing in the breeze around her tanned shoulders. She was flawless and had curves in all the right places that were accentuated by the classy but not slutty peach-coloured chiffon dress she was wearing. She looked like the kind of girl you would take home to your mum but who would also be filth in the bedroom. Great.
I stared at her profile picture for longer than was necessary, mentally beating myself up as I compared my own body with hers. I already knew which one I’d prefer to be hanging out with if I had a penis.
‘Maybe that’s just a really good angle – everyone always puts their best shot as their profile picture.’ Marie tried to look on the positive side.
‘Check out her other photo albums!’ Shelley said, as I scrolled my finger across the page. ‘Thank the Lord for people who don’t set their accounts to the highest privacy settings.’
Alice’s other albums were a collection of tagged images, old holiday shots and nights out with her friends where she looked more natural but still disgustingly gorgeous.
‘Yep, she may be the person I would want to swap my face with if I ever had a horrific car crash,’ I admitted. ‘But it still doesn’t mean that anything dodgy is going on with her and Ben.’
Not wanting to look at any more photos and