Before another shower, she could really do with a lot of coffee and a lot of water and some breakfast. There was a menu on the bedside table and, yes, thank goodness, they did room service at any time of day.
While she was on the phone to Reception asking for an all-day pastry breakfast, her phone carried on pinging periodically. She couldn’t remember a time when she’d received so many messages. Thirty was obviously a big milestone age, but she didn’t actually know hundreds of people. Were her friends sending multiple messages or was it possible that they’d got wind of what she and Dan had done last night?
Okay. Deep breath. She was going to find out.
She opened up her messages. There were literally hundreds. Yeah, a lot of them were of the ‘OMG you got MARRIED’ and ‘Details NOW please’ variety. People had found out from the photos that she and Dan had apparently posted on social media. Eek. She’d better check them.
Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. They’d posted alotof photos including selfies.
OhGod. They’d posted semi-nakedphotos.
Evie closed her eyes and leaned back in the chair as a wave of nausea washed over her.
When her stomach had settled, she opened her eyes and took another look.
Wow. She and Dan had beenactiveon social media last night. They’d slapped ‘Married tonight’ stuff all over Facebook and Instagram. Everyone, literallyeveryonethat Evie could think of, had seen, loved and commented on the posts.
Some of the photos featured Dan looking devour-me-now sexy in only his jeans with no top. He did have a very nice six-pack. Some of the photos featured Evie sprawled across the bed with the skirt of her dress uphigh– not quite showing her pants, thank goodness – and her neckline downlow– showing her bra – and looking like she was about to have sex. And some of the photos – ohGod– showed the two of them in various poses, apparently at various stages of the night. There were photos of their bare legs tangled together. There were photos of them with their heads very close together with both of them with bare shoulders. There were photos of them kissing.
They’d also carefully photographed their marriage certificate and posted it.
The one positive thing about the photos – and given how trigger-happy they’d been on the posting-suggestive-photos front, it was clearly a genuine win – was that none of them were actually pornographic.
The other positive thing was that neither of their mums were on social media.
Dan had already, thank goodness, been back on this morning and had slapped a lot more posts on, all basically sayingJoke, ha ha. Evie posted someJokemessages of her own. Then she messaged Sasha and their schoolfriends Anita, Tola and Millie, who they were on this thirtieth-birthday mega-trip with, telling them she was totally fine but wasn’t going to manage to meet them for sightseeing this morning because she was too hungover but would see them at lunchtime. Then she googled how to get a divorce in Vegas. Yep, totally doable but a lot of hassle and quite expensive.
Bloody hell.
Once she had an almond and raisin croissant, a pain au chocolat, two cups of coffee and some painkillers inside her, Evie spent a very long time in the shower, and then a lot more time drying her hair and doing her make-up. It felt like she needed to look as good as she could manage for facing Dan and the world today. Dan, mainly, actually.
Obviously pretty much anyone in her position would be feeling embarrassed. But they wouldn’t necessarily be feeling like someone had taken their heart out, screwed it up and stamped on it, and then put it back in slightly the wrong place.
The thing was, though, when you’d slept with someone who you’d had a big thing for, since basically forever, and it had been amazing, but obviously a one-off, it felt like it might take a bit longer than it ought to to get over it.
And in the meantime, you wanted to avoid them, or look good for them if you did have to see them.
‘Happy birthday!’ Sasha swept Evie into a huge hug as she arrived in the hotel foyer to meet the rest of their group of friends for lunch, and whispered in her ear, ‘Are you okay?’
‘Thank you,’ Evie said, as chirpily as she could. She returned Sasha’s hug and whispered back, ‘Yes, totally fine.’ Utterly ridiculous that her eyes were pricking in reaction to Sasha’s concern.
‘So Angus, Dan and Rav are playing golf all day while we’re at the spa,’ Sasha said as they walked over to join Anita, Millie and Tola. Angus was Sasha’s truly lovely boyfriend – they were both vets, working in the same practice, and had been going out for years now – and Rav was Anita’s husband. They’d being planning this trip for a good year and a half to celebrate all their thirtieth birthdays happening over the next few months. Another schoolfriend had been coming but had unfortunately broken her leg last week and Sasha had persuaded Dan to join them instead because they couldn’t get a refund.
‘That sounds nice,’ Evie said. And a great relief, frankly. This evening, they’d booked to go to the Fremont Street Light Show in Vegas’s downtown, which hopefully would distract them all and mean that she and Dan wouldn’t end up having to talk to each other at all today. Evie felt like she needed a bit of time to process what had happened, and she didn’t want her first post-sex proper chat with Dan to be in front of all the others.
‘Happy birthday,’ chorused Anita, Millie and Tola.
‘Goodnightlast night?’ Tola asked as they all piled in for birthday hugs.
‘Thank you. Yes, thanks. I mean, you know, too much to drink.’ Evie emerged from the hug and stood back and looked at the others. When you’d known people for a good twenty years, you knew when they had stuff they wanted to say. Especially Millie. She always looked as though her cheeks were going to burst when she was trying to be tactful. Her cheeks were sofull-looking now. ‘So I’m quite hungover today,’ Evie said. ‘But I’m powering on through with coffee, carbs and painkillers.’
‘You have to tell us everything,’ Millie said, having clearly given up on tact. ‘About Dan, not your hangover.’
‘Nothing to tell.’ Evie went for a nothing-to-see-here shrug. ‘I mean, beyond what we posted on Facebook. We got married for a joke and now we need to get divorced. That’s it.’
‘How was the sex?’ Tola said, waggling her eyebrows.
‘Noooo.’ Sasha put her hands over her ears. ‘One, Evie never really wants to talk about sex and it’s her birthday so we should leave her alone, and two, Dan’s mybrotherand I donotwant to know.Pleasedon’t tell us, Evie.’
