Page 4 of How to Get Even

‘Absolutebastard,’ Sienna agreed furiously.

The table fell quiet and Bella wondered if the others, like her, were imagining suitably painful punishments for Paige’s evil ex.

‘They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with that kind of crap,’ Sienna said eventually.

Astrid slapped her glass down on the table. ‘Damn right they shouldn’t.’

‘What if we…’ Sienna glanced around the circle and leaned in a little. ‘Look I know this sounds crazy and I may be a little drunk…’

Bella wondered if they werealla little drunk.

‘What if we took it upon ourselves,’ Sienna continued. ‘To exact some revenge.’

Bella frowned, curious despite herself. ‘How do you mean?’

‘I don’t mean murdering them or anything,’ she dismissed, which was, Bella thought, a shame in Harvey’s instance. ‘I mean… look, these guys have had everything go their way, right? They got to walk all over us. Or walkouton us. Why should they just get to live their best lives while we’re picking up the remnants of ours?

‘Why not have a little fun at their expense?’ Sienna continued. ‘Nothing serious. Stuff that would inconvenience them. That we could have a laugh over. Like signing them up to hundreds of mailing lists. Switch out their clothes for a size or two smaller. That kind of thing.’

The idea struck something in Bella, like a tuning fork finally hitting the perfect note.

For years, Bella had done everything in her power to do the right thing.Don’t cause a scene, don’t make a fuss. Hell, she even co-ordinated the unpicking of her own wedding even though she hadn’t been the one to call it off. But while she was considering being a little naughty, it didn’t mean she’d suddenly become reckless.

She leaned in. ‘Some of those things would require us to get close,’ she said, almost at a whisper. ‘They’ll know it was us. There’s no way we’d get away with it.’

Sienna smiled triumphantly. ‘That’s why we pick someone else’s ex.’

Oh, that was good.

‘Who would you pick?’

‘I’d take your cheating, married,bastardex,’ Bella declared, cheeks flush with an anger she’d spent far too long suppressing. Chase Miller had pulled the rug out from beneath not one buttwowomen and he deserved to pay.

As the girls divvied up the rest of the ex-boyfriends, the idea gained momentum in Bella’s mind.

‘Look, this only works if we all agree,’ Sienna said, suddenly serious. ‘And nobody should feel pressured into doing it if it doesn’t sit right.’

‘God, fuck yes,’ Astrid declared, slightly less enthusiastic than she had been before. ‘The last thing I want to do is browbeat my new co-conspirators. Sorry,besties.’

Best friends. The phrase caught at something in Bella’s chest and pulled. The truth was, she wanted to do this. Not just for herself, but for them too.

As if feeling the same, she felt Paige’s gaze on hers. Paige would, if they all agreed, be tackling Olly; her job as a house-sitter making her the perfect person to invade the pristine hidey hole he’d slunk back to in Cornwall, England.

‘I do love a good cream tea,’ Paige said with a small smile. ‘I’d be safe there?’

‘Definitely,’ Bella reassured her. ‘For all his commitment-phobe tendencies, he’s a gentleman. And I know he feels bad. Which I’m perfectly okay with exploiting to get you in there. I still have his number,’ she offered.

Paige looked a little hesitant, and suddenly it felt absolutely vital that Paige say yes. That this happen. Because if it didn’t then Olly’d got away scot-free and?—

‘Look. How about this? What if Bella texts and then we leave it up to the universe,’ Sienna suggested. ‘If he texts back while we’re all still sitting here at this table we randomly ended up at, then it’s a go. If he doesn’t? We’ve all had a laugh and filled in a few hours. No harm no foul,’ Sienna offered with a shrug.

‘Ooh, I like that,’ Astrid added.

‘Me too,’ Bella said, and she did. Because it meant that the universe had decided it. Not four women who had quite possibly consumed more alcohol than was advisable.

‘Okay, yeah,’ Paige said, nodding once, definitively. ‘Okay.’

Bella felt everyone’s eyes on her as she took out her phone.

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