Chapter 23 #2
‘You win some, you lose some. You should know that better than any of us. You’re the only person I know to have exhausted your Tinder app,’ agrees Tash. ‘You didn’t sulk when any of them disappeared off.’
‘Exactly. You’ve been through more men than I’ve had hot dinners. No, wait. More men than I’ve had…’ Cherry loses her train of thought, and no one can be bothered to wait.
‘We go! Go now!’ bellows Jorge, climbing onto the minibus. He probably can’t believe the difference in our arrival compared to last time when we were pissed, barely clothed, and all fun, frolics and giggles. The atmosphere is currently turbocharged with resentments and judgy vibes.
Liberty flicks her hair extensions over her shoulder and gets on the bus with a huge, frustrated sigh.
‘Just ignore her,’ Tash says. ‘She’ll come round.’
Ged and Liam give me a worried look.
‘It’ll be fine,’ I reassure them. ‘I promise.’
Luckily, Ged and Liam sit together, Tash and Cherry sit together, Big Mand and Big Sue sit together, and Liberty says she needs some alone time to process.
That leaves me free to sit at the back and do some emergency googling.
I desperately need to sort out where we will eat for the first night we arrive in Las Vegas.
I really hope Matteo hasn’t made plans for us, and he will be in the mood for a group gathering.
I search trending restaurants that have big tables to seat nine of us together.
Ged definitely wants to go to EggSlut for breakfast, so I will book a table there for the following day.
Before I run out of data, I also try to quietly book shows and fun activities for us to do in Vegas on the nights we won’t be singing.
My heart drops when I see that some of them need to be booked months in advance.
The Grand Canyon skywalk is much, much cheaper than a helicopter ride over the Canyon, so I’ll book that.
Then the helicopter ride over Vegas at night comes in much cheaper again, so I will book us all on to that too.
The Emerald Cove kayak trip keeps coming up, but I’m not sure I can imagine the Dollz wanting to do that.
I’ve never seen Tash in flat shoes. Same with Death Valley.
I couldn’t bear the thought of Tash’s spikey heels digging into those poor horses as we trek through the dry, dusty mountains.
There’s a lot of zip-lining through shopping malls on offer, and something happening at the High Roller that might be a thing.
In a panic, I book us an unlimited pass for the STRAT Tower rollercoaster where you hang off the edge of the highest building in Vegas, staring death right between the eyes.
Ohgodohgodohgod. I’m panic-booking. I take a deep breath in, praying my credit card will withstand this amount of pressure, and scroll through the list of which celebs are currently touring.
Kylie Minogue or Harry Styles would be ideal. And a meet ’n’ greet is essential.
By the time we arrive in Benidorm, I have more or less sorted the pre-moon spree itinerary. I just need to pull it all together into chronological order so that everyone knows when and where they need to be. The last thing I need is anyone getting lost or going AWOL.
A message from Matteo pops up. He will FaceTime me in half an hour.
I send a reply before my phone runs out of charge.
I’m on 1 per cent. Hopefully, we will be able to get all the luggage off the bus and into the villa so that Jorge can run me and my luggage over to Voices, where I have use of the sweet little apartment above the bar.
It has a glorious view from the roof terrace all the way down to the beach.
And, of course, a shower cubicle that fits two.
I can’t wait. I can FaceTime Matteo from there, in private.
I want him to know how much I have missed him, and how excited I am to see him in a few days.
I should also tell him that I won’t be arriving in Vegas alone. I mean, I will tell him.
‘No, Cherry. You’re wrong,’ Tash is arguing as the bus pulls up outside of the villa. ‘Connie, isn’t Cherry deliberately sabotaging my dreams of happiness with Sister Kev?’
‘I’m not,’ says Cherry wearily. ‘I just think that having children is a terrible thing to do, never mind surprise ones.’
‘But you have children,’ Tash accuses, yanking her cases from the roof.
‘Yes. And don’t think a day goes by that I don’t regret having them.’
There’s a collective gasp as her words sink in.
‘What? Don’t judge me. I’m allowed to change my mind.’
‘They’re not shoes, hun,’ says Big Sue, her voice full of empathy. ‘What’s going on with you?’
Cherry’s eyes fill with tears. ‘Nothing.’ She points to the biggest suitcase.
‘Boys, that one has all the Barbie and Ken outfits in,’ she says, changing the topic.
‘Take it with you so that you can try them on for size. But don’t get them mixed up or get any stains on them.
It’s taken me days of work to customise them. ’
‘Which one has the pink glitter cowboy hats and the whips in?’ Liam asks, casting his gaze to the piles of bags still on the bus.
‘Cowboy hats…’ Cherry whispers to herself. ‘A pink glitter cowboy hat and sunglasses. Oh Christ.’ She chews her lip, her face dropping as though she is having a terrible flashback.
‘They’re in that one,’ Tash says, pointing to the roof rack buckling under the weight of all the oversized cases. ‘I refuse to lift any more cases because I’ve just had my nails done.’
‘Me too,’ says Liberty, wiggling her sharp talons at us.
‘My arm is still in recovery,’ adds Big Mand, doing a shoulder roll.
Jorge, with an air of quiet defeat, silently retrieves the remaining cases just as Nacho, or Enreeky as the Dollz call him because he reminds them of a young Enrique Iglesias, arrives.
He is the villa owner and Matteo’s half-brother.
He pulls up on his moped to greet us with the keys.
He is still as devastatingly handsome as we all remember.
He gives us a wide smile, casting a confused gaze around the grumpy group.
This is the exact opposite of how we welcomed him the last time.
There’s no lining up for kisses. No giggling over whether he’s packing a substantial piece.
Instead, Cherry takes one look at him and bursts into loud sobs.
Liberty tuts loudly. ‘Oh my God, could you be any more attention-seeking?’
Tash is also unimpressed with Cherry, and instead of going to pieces over her crush on Nacho (he is fancied by all women everywhere), shrugs apologetically before following Cherry through the main gate.
‘Enreeky, pet. Lovely to see you,’ says Liberty, recovering. ‘How have you been? Still a filthy slut, I hope?’
Nacho laughs at her flirtatious behaviour. He will not have understood a word she just said. He shakes hands with Ged and Liam, who are trying hard not to swoon. I give him a hug, before he kisses everyone else’s cheeks in greeting.
‘You have heard from Matteo, no?’ he asks me.
I blush instantly. ‘Yeah. I’m… like, going out to Las Vegas to… like, erm, go and visit him.’
Why? Why am I like this? Matteo and I are an item. A bona fide item. I should be embracing it, not acting like I can’t believe it’s not butter.
‘That’s so good. He likes you a lot,’ says Nacho, which causes my face to go full furnace.
‘We’re all going,’ interrupts Liberty, sounding jealous. ‘It’s a work trip. Connie’s not the only one who jet-sets around.’
‘You are all going to Las Vegas?’ Nacho smiles quizzically at me before he hands out the keys, and because we already know where everything is, he says he will catch up with us at Voices tonight.
My chest tightens at the thought of him blabbing to Matteo before I get a chance to tell him.
As we wave him off, I encourage them to help me haul the suitcases off the bus.
Big Mand, who has taken a break to do some vaping, has an idea.
‘Liberty, babes. Enreeky could be just what you need to get over Luke.’
For the first time today, Liberty perks up. ‘Yes. It’s like riding a horse. You have to get straight back on it.’
‘I bet he’s hung like a horse,’ quips Liam.
‘Hello?’ Ged interrupts. He is the only one helping me. ‘One dance isn’t that much to get over. It’s not like Luke and Liberty had a full-blown love affair. Can we get some help here, please?’
He sounds catty. And the finger quotation marks have not gone down well. Liberty looks outraged before flinging him the keys to the cottage. She picks up her cases and heads into the villa.
‘Don’t leave me to drag everyone’s cases in,’ yells Big Sue.
Jorge gives me a pleading look. He has sweat dripping down his cheeks. It is almost forty degrees. He is clearly exhausted and deeply disappointed that we aren’t half drunk and making a huge fuss of him like last time, by fluffing his hair and pinching his cheeks.
I glance at the mountain of cases abandoned on the path outside the villa gate.
‘Let’s go,’ I say to him. ‘For once, they can sort their own stuff out.’ I glance at the time.
I have ten minutes to get across town to my apartment, charge up my phone, and make myself look beautiful before Matteo video-calls.