Chapter 6 #2
‘The key thing to remember is I’d been drinking. A lot. I didn’t feel great and I had sick on my new shoes, which was making me feel even queasier, so I went for a wade in the lake.’
‘You did what?’
‘At the time it made sense – it was the quickest way to save my shoes and my dignity…’
‘Except?’
‘Except I misplaced my footing?—’
‘Because you were drunk.’
‘Exactly, and when my friends found me, I was arse-first in the water laughing so hard I was crying. My shoes were ruined, my dress was covered in muddy lake water and mascara was running down my face because I’d forgotten to wear waterproof stuff.
Who knew I was going to end up crying at a wedding? ’
‘So that’s why your friends won’t ever let you live it down.’
‘And of course everyone heard the guy’s version too, which honestly didn’t paint me in a good light at all. Yet despite the nightmare end to the last wedding – at least for me – my friends are still determined to hook me up with someone again.’
‘Perhaps they’re hoping for a happier outcome this time.’
‘I think they’re hoping for gossip.’
‘And being the centre of attention and talked about is the last thing you want,’ Rhys said slowly.
‘Bingo,’ Lola said. ‘I get it. They’re all married and trying to live out their single fantasies through me. But other people thinking they know best when it comes to my love life is the last thing I want.’
‘Is he here?’
‘What, the guy I puked on?’ At Rhys’s nod, Lola shook her head. ‘Fortunately not because he’s in a different friendship group to Mirabel. I think I might have put him off going to a wedding for life. I’m pretty certain if he ever laid eyes on me again he’d be sick.’
‘At least you made an impression.’
‘That’s one way to put it!’ Lola snorted. ‘So that’s partly why my friends meddling is frustrating and pissing me off, except I don’t want to say anything and make a big deal about it.’
‘Which is why you took yourself away from the situation and came out here.’
‘Ka-ching. Although this is only the first evening; I can’t keep reacting this way.’
‘I understand that. Trying to hide your true feelings for fear of upsetting others is exhausting.’
‘Ah! I’ve admitted my sad, embarrassing story. Time to share your reason for escaping.’
Rhys brushed the grains of sand on the wooden boards into the water sloshing against the jetty.
‘As you know, Fabs is one of my closest friends and there are a few of us here who all met at uni and stayed great friends ever since. An ex is here too, which wouldn’t be too much of a problem if she wasn’t here with another of my friends?—’
‘Oh shit!’ Lola swivelled to face him. ‘I know who you are! At least I heard the story from the stag do. You were involved in the punch-up.’
‘I was the one doing the punching.’
He didn’t seem the type: a mild-mannered teacher. ‘I don’t know all the ins and outs, but I’m guessing you had a good reason.’
‘Is there ever a good reason to punch someone?’ Rhys clenched his jaw. ‘I’ve never done anything like that before, but I was incensed. And drunk?—’
‘That’s never a good combination, as you well know from my vomiting incident.’
‘No, it wasn’t and maybe I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did because it showed me as the bad guy. I can’t say I was happy about Freddie being with Zoe – my ex – but it was the fact I found out she’d cheated on me with him when we’d been together at university that threw me. I flipped.’
‘And now you’re all here together with you feeling shit about the way you reacted and them parading their relationship in front of your face.’ He was in an impossible situation and Lola really felt for him.
‘And we’re all staying in the same villa together.
I know it’s a seriously big villa, so it’s not as if we’re going to be on top of each other all the time – so to speak,’ he grimaced, ‘but there’s no getting away from them.
Fabs suggested I could stay with them here, but it’s just the family. It wouldn’t feel right.’
‘And why the hell should you be the one to be treated any differently when you haven’t done anything wrong.’
‘Except the punch.’
Lola waved her hand. ‘I’d have done the same.
In fact, there’s an ex of mine I’d quite happily do that to…
’ She trailed off as the thought of Jarek and how he’d treated her came crashing into her head.
She didn’t need to go spinning off on that; dwelling on his behaviour and how easily she’d been taken in by his lies.
She needed to turn her focus to living in the moment and enjoy the experience of being on Sardinia.
Focusing on what she had and taking her life into her own hands was what she’d promised herself since leaving him.
So why couldn’t she do that now? An idea was beginning to form.
‘Do you know what we should do.’ She slapped her hand on her maxi-dress-covered thigh. ‘Team up.’
Rhys’s eyebrows furrowed. ‘Team up how? I can’t erase Freddie and Zoe being here, although maybe I can have a word with your friends, suggest they give you some space, but I’m not sure if that’ll help.’
‘Team up in the sense of being together. Pretending to be together. A fake relationship. Like they do in romance novels and romcoms. We pretend we’ve hooked up tonight.
’ Lola turned to face him, the idea growing, along with the possibility that it might actually work to help them both.
‘It would show your ex that you don’t give a shit that she’s here with one of your friends, that you’ve moved on from her, while it’ll get my friends off my back and stop them trying to set me up with whichever Italian takes their fancy.
I don’t want to make a fool of myself again. ’
Rhys nodded slowly, and she could tell he was thinking it through.
‘And what do we mean exactly by hook up?’
‘We kissed.’ Lola shrugged. ‘But an epically good kiss, mind, because of course that is how it would be if it had happened for real.’ She laughed, although inside she was squirming, wondering if he was thinking she was mad to be suggesting something this crazy.
Perhaps he’d laugh in her face and head back to the party to his cheating friend and his ex – he might think that preferable to spending time with a deranged woman.
‘That might work,’ he said slowly, making her insides less squirmy. ‘Although it’d be more convincing if we disappeared for the rest of the night.’
‘Make everyone wonder.’ Lola grinned. ‘I like it!’
‘They might notice we’re both gone and put two and two together?—’
‘Which will get the rumour mill going. We’re genius at this.’
‘So, um, shall we get a taxi back to the villa?’
‘For a nightcap and a pretend snog.’ Lola stuck out her hand. ‘We have a deal.’
Rhys took her hand and shook it firmly. They grinned at each other.
He wasn’t a dark and brooding Italian, but he had soulful eyes and was easy to talk to.
It would be no hardship to pretend stuff had happened so they could control the narrative.
She wanted to be left alone to soak up the sights and experience Sardinia, not think about men or mistakes.
Rhys seemed to be on the same page, so they might just have fun, playing the game their way. Perhaps she’d even gain a new friend.