Page 6 of The One That Got Away

‘Come on – spit it out!’

‘You know I said I was going to call The Love Hotel, to follow up?’

‘Yeah,’ I groaned.

‘I didn’t need to. Because look at this!’ He jumped up and flashed his phone in my face. ‘Natalie just forwarded it to me!’

I grabbed the phone and looked at the screen.

Congratulations! We’ve found your perfect match!

You are cordially invited to join us at The Love Hotel to meet the woman of your dreams…

‘Wait, what?’

‘They’ve found your soulmate!It’s on, baby! You’re going to The Love Hotel. Next week! It’s finally happening.’

Shit.

3

STELLA

‘Are these ready to package up?’ I asked Mum, pointing to the two lacy thongs.

‘Yep! All good to go.’

I put on a fresh pair of plastic gloves and plucked them from Mum’s workbench.

We ran a small business called Pretty Little Kitty, which provided personalised handmade underwear. Some of it was standard frilly knickers, but our biggest earners were the custom lace thongs which could be personalised with a name or short phrase in crystal letters.

I glanced down at the items to see what the customer had chosen.

Along the back of the black thong was the wordDaddy. And on the red thong it simply readMine.

Okay then…

I’d worked with Mum for eighteen months so I was used to the different requests that came through. Some just had the name of the recipient or their partner, but others like this order were a little naughtier.

‘I’ll get started on these now so they’re ready to take to the post office later. By the way, your laptop’s been pinging. Want me to check your emails?’

I knew it couldn’t be more orders because they always came straight through to my computer.

As the business started to grow, Mum struggled to manage it all. So when I got laid off from my graphic design job, I’d offered to come and help. With the market being more competitive than ever, finding a new role was hard. So moving back home with Mum and working alongside her seemed like the logical solution.

So far, I’d given her website and marketing materials a complete overhaul which I’d enjoyed and I’d set up some new systems for managing orders so that everything ran more smoothly.

‘Don’t worry. I’ll go. I need a break.’

‘Tea?’ I asked.

‘Love one!’

Mum left the workshop, which used to be her dining room, and headed to the living room where her laptop was resting on the sofa.

Just as I was about to fill the kettle with water in the kitchen, I heard Mum scream.

I dropped the kettle on the counter and raced to find out what was wrong.

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