Page 13 of Fake It 'til You Make It

Dad has always been an esteemed businessman. He inherited multiple small to medium tourist businesses from Gramps and has grown them into the unicorn leisure and tourism operation that he runs today.

Whilst I’m lost in thought, Kiara has managed to navigate me to a plush velour sofa and has slipped my feet into the Aureli 85 shoes.

As she helps me stand, now six inches taller than just moments ago, Dee and Shernette reappear from where they’ve been adrift on clouds of fancy shoes.

Shernette takes out her camera phone. ‘Work it, girl!’

With the power of the shoes surging through me, I lean back on my wrists and flick my legs into the air.Snap.

I cross one leg over the other and pout.Snap.

Pulling my knees up and caressing the shoes, I laugh uncontrollably at what an utter fool I am making of myself.Snap.

That dopamine is strong stuff.

Precisely as Shernette takes one last picture of me laughing and pointing to the exquisite shoes, I see the reflection of the broad-shouldered man from apartment 8B in the mirror in front of me.

He seems to slow his walk past the Dior section – in reality, not just my imagination. He has two large Saks Fifth Avenue bags slung across his shoulder and he’s holding a blue shoe from one of the women’s collections.

Buying for a girlfriend, fiancée, wife, perhaps?

His eyes meet mine in the mirror, searching. I realize I’m staring at him because his face is really quite beautiful and his burly seems less burly today than it did on Saturday.

But why is he staring at me?

As soon as the question comes into my mind, I know the answer. He’s thinking: is that the girl with the enormous panties?

‘That’s him,’ I whisper to Dee and Shernette who are watching me ogle.

A store assistant approaches 8B and his attention is diverted as he, presumably, asks for the other shoe to match the one he’s holding.

‘That’s who?’ Dee says, not whispering at all. I flick her arm with my fingers and shush her, muttering the identity of the man she’s now scrutinizing.

Shernette appears between Dee and me, until we are all, ludicrously, gawping at the tall, handsome man.

‘The banging is definitely sex, babes. I would happily bang on your ceiling with that man alllllll night long,’ Shernette says.

Precisely as the store assistant leaves his side, the three of us burst out laughing and Chief Shagger from 8B glances our way again.

‘I think it’s time for the spa,’ I say, now very willing to splurge on more indulgence, if it gets me out of this store and puts out the flames burning my cheeks.

6

TED

It takes me a beat to work out where I’ve seen her before.

Her laughter drew my attention. Maybe I’m sensitive to it because it seems entirely at odds with how I’ve felt these last few days and how I am feeling right now, being forced to buy an Armani suit.

And wearing a glamorous outfit, trying on the kind of shoes my ex would flaunt, she is a complete contradiction to the kind of girl whose laugh is as gentle and pretty as hers is.

Wholly unexpected for someone with underwear as large as the pair she dropped in front of me two days ago.

What’s more bizarre than that is the fact that when I first met her, I overlooked altogether how attractive she is.

‘Can I help you, sir?’

My focus is pulled away by a store assistant, who gestures to the Jimmy Choo shoe I’m holding.

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