perfect boyfriend.
The music drummed loudly in the packed club. The rammed dance floor bobbed like a choppy sea, dark silhouettes moving against the multi-coloured lights.
Sophie watched from the table, perched on a stool and swayed to the music, sipping her drink. She used to love dancing, but now she feared the hassle of it. A girl couldn’t just get lost on the dance floor. It was practically a cattle market, with men watching the women like farmers picking a prized cow. She didn’t fancy that bit any more. Yes, she would probably meet a nice enough guy, eventually, but how many others would she have to waste her time on before she found him? How many might hurt her?
However, if she’d conquered the fear, gone out more, rather than just down the White Lion on a Friday evening, she wouldn’t have needed Adam here this weekend to hold her hand.
“So, come on, spill the beans - where’d you find him, Soph?” Cassie said loudly, leaning against the tall table they’d all circled around. Natalie sat next to Sophie, grinning, waiting patiently to hear her gossip. Cassie sipped her wine, then turned back to another girl, nudging her. “Sophie’s got one hell of a man. Drop. Dead. Gorgeous.”
“Cass, please.” Sophie fought the urge to tell her friend the truth. After the wedding, in a month or so, she could admit it, if she had to.
“Come on, where did you meet him?”
“At work – we were both at some guy's retirement party and hit it off.” Sophie took a sip of her own wine. She wanted to gulp it down, but knew she needed to keep her head straight. She hated lying to her friend, a good friend whom she wouldn't normally keep secrets from. But if she confided, and the lie got out, she’d look more of an idiot. So would Adam. It was best kept between her and Adam.
“You hold on to him, girl.”
“Yeah, he’s a good one,” Natalie said, raising her glass.
“I intend to,” Sophie replied, swallowing the lie as she swallowed more of her wine. Although somewhere lurking in the back of her mind, a small voice wished she could keep Adam. That kiss had really been no more than a peck, like lovers kissed, but she could still feel the pressure of his lips against hers and hoped she’d feel it again. More than likely she would. Lovers had to kiss, right?
But they hadn’t discussed kissing – she hadn’t even thought about it. She hadn’t been kissed in a while and she hoped it didn’t show. Adam had said ‘experienced’ in the car, and she doubted he was only talking about his job. A man like Adam knew how to make a woman tremble at the knees just by smiling at her.
Sophie's mind wandered back to Simon and his display in the bar earlier. Seeing Simon again had put her head in a spin and brought back memories, as she'd feared. Some good, but mostly bad. After all this time she still found it hard to face him. Had he brushed past her accidentally or deliberately? When they’d been about to leave, that had been most definitely deliberate.
Had Adam noticed Simon's hand on her backside? She'd wanted to say something to Simon right then, but knew it wouldn't be good to make a scene. This was Gareth and Natalie’s weekend. But what was he playing at? It had been over four years since she’d seen him. She’d been successful in avoiding him, thanks to her parents insisting on visiting her, rather than Sophie coming home.
Was he jealous and trying therefore to make Adam jealous? Sophie resisted laughing to herself. Adam wasn't going to get jealous - but would he act that way for her, for this weekend’s performance?
But then jealousy wasn’t a quality she liked. So she hoped Adam would rise above it and not show any reaction, making him the better man. He was a better man.
A much better man who she couldn’t have. Pretend, remember?
She sipped her drink. Luckily, Natalie and Cassie had dashed off to the ladies’, leaving her alone with her glum thoughts.
“You’re not for me, Sophie,” Simon had said. Excuses of course, but had there truth in them? He’d thundered into her life, then back out again, like a storm. “We’re not right for each other like I thought we were. You don’t know how to love.”
She didn’t know how to love. Apparently, she was … No, don’t go there. She obliterated the words from her mind and finished her wine to loosen the tightness in her throat.
If only she could prove him wrong. But for real. Not with pretend boyfriends.
He doesn’t need know it’s fake.
Simon’s touch had surprised her, too. She was shocked at how much she didn't like it any more. She didn't remember Simon being like this before – not really. A flirt with the ladies, yes. But acting like an arse now certainly wasn't going to help improve her feelings towards him. Was Adam getting on with him? She shouldn't worry. Adam looked like a man who could handle himself and besides, Gareth was there. He'd be fine.
Natalie squeezed through the busy club and stood beside her at the table. “Save me from Cassie,” she said, swaying, shaking Sophie from her thoughts. “I swear, she drinks like a fish and cannot be removed from the dance floor without heavy machinery!”
Sophie giggled at her friend, who had a hideous fluorescent pink veil stuck in her hair – it was a good distraction from her bleak thoughts. Her smile dropped as she saw a woman go up to the bar, luckily ignoring Sophie.
Zoe.
“I didn’t invite her here tonight,” Natalie whispered. “She still lives locally. Probably meeting friends.”
“Good.” Sophie grabbed her next drink lined up on the table and took a gulp of it, turning her back on the woman. Zoe was another reason why she didn’t like coming home.
“But she might be coming to the wedding – only the evening do though,” Natalie nervously confessed, wincing. “Sorry.”
Sophie shrugged and took another gulp of her wine. Maybe getting drunk was the answer. She would blank the woman, pretend she didn’t recognise her – unless she had Adam on her arm, of course. Oh, now she liked that idea.
“Shall we go to the beach tomorrow morning?” Cassie said, intruding drunkenly into their conversation, nestling between Sophie and Natalie.
“Uh, I don’t know … ”
“Go on, Soph. It’ll be a laugh. We’ll all go. Smarmy Simon did suggest it and you can show him what a fool he was to let you go – you know, drape yourself over Adam in your very best bikini.” She grinned at Sophie, then hiccupped.
“I didn’t bring one.” Compulsive liar, now.
“You can borrow one of mine.”
Sophie swallowed. Cassie’s idea of a bikini was three triangles and bits of string, or the equivalent thereof – and she had the boobs to fill them.
“Sounds like a great idea! We can kill a couple of hours, top up our tans and play volley ball,” Natalie said.
Sophie
