Page 4 of A Summer of New Beginnings
4
After the traumatic day she’d had Zara called a meeting of her best friends, Shelley and Marco, that would take place in the Dog and Parrot round the corner from the magazine HQ. Ironically outdoors-mad Josh was away camping with his buddies but she knew he would find this latest development hysterical. She’d reluctantly worked late researching the godawful trip that was looming in her nearfuture. She had a month to prepare. A bloodymonth. Okay, so she was already fit on account of the cycling so she didn’t really need to get in shape as such. But mental preparation for her trip to hell would take far more than four sodding weeks.
Much to her dismay it turned out her trip to the Maldives to check out honeymoon destinations for the magazine had been postponed indefinitely and thispissed her off something chronic, souring her mood further. The light at the end of the tunnel had been hit with a brick apparently.
The pub was heaving and in spite of the noise Zara sat there silently staring into her overpriced Shiraz, musing that she could have bought a whole bottle at the supermarket for what she had just handed over for a single glass. Her two closest friends had triedtheir best to chivvy her up when she had explained what Noah had asked her to do. But nothing they said had made her feel any better. It still sucked.
‘Are you going to that stupid high-school reunion, then?’ Shelley asked, presumably in a bid to change the subject that had dragged Zara’s mood down.
Zara shrugged. ‘I don’t know yet. I’m still thinking about it. What did you decide?’
Shelleyscrunched her face as if tasting something bitter. ‘Oh, I don’t know. I’ve been thinking I might give it a miss. Hated that lot when I was forced to spend time with them so why would I put myself through it now by bloody choice?’
‘To show them they were wrong about you? That you’re happy and in love with a very dishy bloke?’
Shelley laughed. ‘I don’t need their approval, babe, and neither doyou. Look at you. Travel journo extraordinaire. Successful, gorgeous, hunky boyfriend, need I go on?’
Zara continued the staring competition with the red liquid in her glass. ‘Oh, yeah. Super extraordinary now I’m going camping to bloody Scotland.’ Her voice dripped with sarcasm as she shivered at the thought.
Shelley nudged her. ‘Come on, Zee, it can’t be that bad. Josh has been trying to getyou to camp for months now and you might actually enjoy it when you get there.’
Zara raised her chin and tilted her head as she glared at her bestie with narrowed eyes. ‘Want to come along, then?’
Shelley gasped and held up her hands. ‘Hells no! I’m not sleeping in a bag for anybody.’
Zara pursed her lips and rolled her eyes. ‘Thought as much.’
Marco chipped in. ‘I just can’t believe Dillon’sgone and left Noah in the lurch like that. After all those years they’ve been friends. Talk about being stabbed in the back by Judas.’
Shelley snorted. ‘Judas didn’t stab anyone in the back, you numpty.’
Marco sat up straight and frowned at her. ‘Well whatdidhe do, then? You know, that time when they were in the Garden of Eden and he did that thing?’
Shelley’s religious upbringing was aboutto come into play and she puffed out her chest ready to lecture him as only she could. ‘Okay, for starters, it was the garden ofGethsemane, you plum. And secondly, it was a kiss that Judas gave Jesus, not a carving knife to his back. Good grief, didn’t you listen to anything at school?’
Marco crossed his arms and huffed. ‘All right, all right. Bloody show-off. And Ididlisten, actually,’ heinsisted, followed by a mumbled, ‘Just not in religious studies…’ The two women gave each other a knowing look.
Shelley cocked her head. ‘Oh, yeah? Why was that, then?’
Marco’s cheeks coloured and he fiddled with his hair. ‘Because the boys played footie outside the Humanities block so I was a little… you know… distracted.’
Zara and Shelley burst out laughing. ‘Oh, my God, Marco, you were crushingon boys in shorts when you should have been studying.’ Zara gave him a playful shove.
A wide grin stretched his drop-dead gorgeous features and his eyes twinkled. ‘So what if I was? The teacher we had was really boring and he had this awful droney, monotonous voice. Urgh, you should be thankful you didn’t go to my school. It was like purgatory for teenagers.’
Zara knocked on the table. ‘Hey,come on, guys, you’re supposed to be commiserating with me, here,’ she insisted. ‘I’m in mortal peril.’
Marco guffawed loudly. ‘What, of being eaten by tiny insects?’
Zara slapped his arm. ‘The fear is real, Marco. I don’t take too kindly to being nibbled on.’
Shelley leaned closer. ‘Oh, I don’t know, doesn’t that depend onwho’sdoing the nibbling?’
Zara couldn’t help laughing at that asan image of her sexy man popped into her head. ‘Yeah, okay maybe. But it’s work and Josh’ll be staying at home whilst I’m dodging Highland cow poo in Scottish fields, so there won’t be much ofthattype of nibbling going on, will there?’
Marco leaned his head on his hands and fluttered his eyelids. ‘Oh, I don’t know. You might meet some handsome laird who’ll sweep you off yerrrr feet and takye to his castle.’
‘Bloody hell, that was a truly crap attempt at a Scottish accent. He does have a point though, Zee.’ It still irked her that Shelley and Marco hadn’t yet warmed to her boyfriend. And what made it worse was they didn’t hold back in trying to find her a replacement. ‘And you might get some more inspiration for your novel. All those rugged Scotsmen. When do I get to read it anyway?’
