Page 15 of The Winning Ticket

“Your dog is seriously the cutest. I wish I could get one, but we’re both out so much for work these days. It wouldn’t seem fair for a little fur ball to be trapped in here all day.”

“Yeah, I’m lucky to work from home a couple of days a week, normally. I’m not doing that while I’m at Mum and Dad’s, though. She’s got Mum for company while I’m there, and I wouldn’t get any work done if I had Mum flapping around me constantly.” I roll my eyes, and they both smile at me sympathetically.

“So your Mum is still the same, huh?” Tara asks, handing me a can of coke from the fridge.

“Worse, if you can believe it. At least when we were younger, she had work to keep her occupied, but now that she’s retired, she’s got nothing else on,” I say.

“I wish we had space for you here. We’d have you in a heartbeat, but it’s only a two-bedroom place,” Kylie says apologetically, and I wave her off.

“Don’t be silly. No one could have predicted I’d be back here needing a place to live. I’ll work something out eventually, and at least I have a roof over my head while I get my life back on track.”

“I can’t believe Richard did that to you, babe. What an absolute dick!”

I had hoped we would make it a little further before my break-up became the topic of conversation. Still, I know that my spectacular relationship explosion was the group’s latest gossip after I let it slip on Saturday night, so I shrug.

Thankfully, Tara has always been able to read people better than Kylie. She grabs my hand and drags me into the kitchen, leaving Kylie to take Maddie’s lead off so she can run free through the place.

“Come on, I’ll give you the tour.” Tara shows me around the apartment, which isn’t huge but is quite comfortable.

I had been jealous when they moved in together a few years ago. That probably should have been a sign that I wasn’t that happy in my relationship when I’d rather live with my girlfriends in Brisbane than with my super-rich boyfriend in a expensive apartment in Sydney. But there’s no point in dwelling on that now.

Kylie calls out that the food has arrived, and Tara and I join her in the kitchen again. We serve ourselves and head for the couch, where Tara starts flicking through Netflix for something to watch.

“We were thinking something light and fluffy, or do you need a tear-jerker?” she asks.

I shake my head. “No tear-jerkers, please. I actually haven’t cried much since it happened,” I say, choosing to leave out the panic attacks that I’d experienced in the first two days.

Kylie and Tara both gape at this confession, and I busy myself with shovelling noodles into my mouth.

“Really? I’d be a complete mess,” Kylie says.

I smile sadly at her. “Well, to be fair, I’ve had a lot to sort out since he blew up our life together.”

I can feel the emotions I’ve been suppressing fight to come out, and I squash them back down. I’ve never been big on crying in front of others, and I don’t want the first time hanging out with two of my oldest friends being marred by me having a breakdown.

Tara and Kylie exchange a worried look.

“Do you want to talk about it, Bri?” Kylie asks cautiously.

I shake my head. “Not yet. If I start talking about it, it all seems real, and I’m not ready to break down until I have my life sorted out.”

My phone buzzes from the armrest beside me, and I welcome the distraction in the form of another text from Jake. I am sure the girls are about to force me to talk about it, regardless of what I say.

Just Jake

I’m going to be back in town at the apartment this weekend. The others are coming around on Saturday for dinner and movie night in the theatre room if you want to come along.

I try to hide the smile that creeps across my face, but I do a terrible job, and Tara clears her throat.

“Who’s sending messages that’s got you smiling like that?” Something about the glint in her eye and how she says it makes me think she already knows the answer.

“Jake. He messaged earlier to apologise for how we woke up together on Sunday morning,” I say, forgetting that I haven’t shared the details of our impromptu slumber party with anyone.

“What? You slept with Jake?” Kylie squeals.

“No! We just slept in the same bed, so I didn’t have to sleep on the couch,” I reply.

Aside from Morgan, who had been thankfully oblivious, everyone else had still been in their rooms when Jake and I got up on Sunday morning. When Kylie and Tara didn’t join us for brunch, the others had assumed I’d bunked in with them. An assumption that I hadn’t corrected, and Jake had watched me closely while remaining silent.

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