‘Totally,’ I said.
She took them and slid them onto her face, then jumped up excitedly and made her way to the mirror on the wall.
‘You’re so right. These lookamazingon me.’ Amber was not a modest person.
She angled her face to the left, then the right, then swivelled around, admiring herself from every possible perspective. Nope, she did not suffer from low self-esteem; in fact, if Amber could bottle her self-confidence and sell it, she would make a fortune. I guess you had to admire her for that.
‘They looksogood on you. Like beyond,’ I said.
She pulled out her phone and took a very exaggerated selfie of herself blowing a kiss into the air. ‘Ihaveto get my boyfriend to buy me these. That’s what men are for, right?’ She laughed and flipped her hair. I laughed too, even though I didn’t think it was very funny.Buy your own shit, woman!I wanted to yell at her. And while you’reat it, get your own boyfriend too, preferably one closer to your age and not walking around with first-degree burns and a bald patch.
I was suddenly overcome with a desire to take her by the shoulders and shake some sense into her, especially when an image of Sharaz popped into my head. How would she feel right now if she saw this: Amber living her best life withherhusband at a romantic resort. But I banished that thought from my head. I couldn’t let my personal feelings get in the way of my professional obligations.
‘Wait, actually – you should justhavethem,’ I said.
Amber’s eyes widened. ‘No. I can’t.’
‘Yes, youcan,’ I insisted, pushing them back towards her.
‘Are you serious?’
‘Totally. You literally look so hot in them, they belong to you, bestie.’ Did I just saybestieandliterallyin the same sentence? I was out of control.
Amber hesitated, but only for a second, and then her face lit up. ‘Okay,fine, but only because you insist!’
‘I literally insist.’ I mentally face-palmed.
She pulled me into an excited and very surprising hug. I couldn’t remember the last time someone had hugged me, and she was a stranger. Was this what peopled did, hugged each other like this so effortlessly? I tried to keep my body relaxed, but every single one of my instincts was telling me to clam up. And clearly I’d failed, because when Amber pulled away from me, she kneaded one of my shoulders.
‘You seriously need a massage, girl,’ she said with what looked like genuine concern in her eyes.
‘It’s just . . . I’ve been pretty stressed lately,’ I heard myself say, which was honest, but too honest for my liking. What was happening to me? I could feel something stirring inside me, something unfamiliar and lemongrass-scented.
‘Oh no!’ Her genuine concern continued.
‘I’ve been having some . . . uh . . . confusing feelings, I guess you could say.’WHAT.THE.FUCK!Did that really just come out ofmy mouth? I hadn’t meant to say it at all. I had not given my mouth permission, and yet the words had just come rolling right out. And they kept rolling. I blamed the soothing music that was mingling with the gentle sounds of falling water from the large rose-quartz fountain. I blamed the jasmine; it must have intoxicated me in some strange way, because . . . ‘My fiancé and I, we’ve been going through some complicated things lately.’What the double fuck!
Amber placed both her hands on my shoulders. ‘I totally get it,’ she said.
‘You do?’ I asked, taken aback by what looked like a sincere show of emotion.
‘Love is complicated.’ Her voice had taken on a low, philosophical quality. ‘We crave it like air, but it’s the one thing that can break us apart from the inside. We give our hearts away not knowing if they will ever come back to us, and if they do whether they will be whole or not.’
I stepped back. Literally (the correct time to use this word). That was profound, and so accurate, and so, so . . . I’d given my heart away to Cam once, and it had come back broken. I thought I’d stitched it back together. Thought I’d fixed it and then packed it away in a box where it could never be touched like that again. But that conversation at the restaurant had made me realise that maybe it wasn’t as securely packed away as I thought it was.
Amber smiled and her philosophical demeanour was gone. As if she’d just flicked a switch. ‘I know, right. So insightful! I’m thinking of writing my own self-help book.’
‘You should,’ I said, and sort of meant it.
‘How long are you here for?’ she asked.
‘Another week or so.’
‘Great, so let’s totally hang. Bring your fiancé and I’ll bring my boyfriend; we’ll go out on the yacht or something. They can bond, we can have some girl time.’
I nodded. ‘Sounds amazing. Swap numbers?’ We both took out our phones. Honestly, that had been the quickest and easiest it hadever taken me to earn someone’s trust, and all it took was the handing over of a pair of $3,000 sunglasses – well, that and apparently bonding over matters of the heart.
‘Lily, your treatment is ready.’ An angelic-sounding voice floated across the room, and I turned to see a therapist in a radiant white coat standing there backlit by a soft glow.
