Page 23 of Unapologetic Love Story

‘. . . it’ll be off with your head, Alice!’

CHAPTER FIVE

‘He was one hundred per cent following you, Raina!’

Raina rolled her eyes as she lay on Pepper’s four-poster bed. Her long hair was fanned out against the silk pillows as she accepted a mint chocolate truffle from her best friend.

‘His sister works there.’

‘A likely story,’ Pepper said, darting over to her windows as if she expected to see Tom Branimir parked up outside her Notting Hill house. ‘He doesn’t have human siblings; he was hatched. This isn’t the nineties, Rai. Obsessive behaviours aren’t romantic any more.’

‘He’s hustling for a story,’ Raina said frankly. ‘That’s all. No romance even hinted at. I told you – he’s a shark. He can smell chum. So I’m going to give him a story. Not mine, of course. Not the real one, anyway. I’ll give him the story of the perfectly bland and well-behaved podcast host. He’ll get so bored and underwhelmed he’ll be gone in a week.’

Pepper hopped onto the foot of the bed and unwrapped a chocolate for herself. ‘I like that tone of voice.’

‘Tom Branimir,’ Raina said, smiling with careful triumph, ‘is about to get an education.’

Pepper laughed but then squeezed her friend on the ankle. ‘Don’t fall in love with him.’

Raina raised both eyebrows and examined Pepper with a bemused expression. ‘Why would you say a stupid thing like that? A genuinely stupid thing! And you know I don’t like using that word.’

Pepper was the helpless one between the two of them. Always had been. She fell in love quickly and fell out of it even quicker. Her affairs were fast and full of flames. Tears, torment and screaming were to be expected, and Raina had spent many hours with her friend, holding the tissue box and snatching the phone out of her hand.

It was how they’d met. Raina had been hired to clean for Pepper, replacing her usual housekeeper. Pepper had been involved in a loud and quickly escalating argument with her then-boyfriend, Teddy. Raina had been scrubbing the toilet when she heard the sudden sound of screams and aggressive male shouting.

She’d barged into the bedroom, brandishing a wet toilet brush like a mace. She happily beat Teddy with it until he fled the house. As his jaguar took off down the street, and out of Pepper’s life, the two women had stared at one another. Pepper, worked up and tear-stained, and Raina, still holding the toilet brush.

They instantly fell about laughing. It had been an inseparable friendship ever since.

Raina’s house in Barnes belonged to Pepper’s parents, one of their many London properties. Raina had insisted upon paying rent, but Pepper would only accept a tenth of the actual price.

Three years on, Pepper had fallen in love many times. Raina had not.

She’d gone through one painful breakup, and that was quite enough. The last straw had been when he’d invited only his friends to her birthday dinner, the friends that openly hated her. She was ignored all night and had left alone without anyone noticing.

‘I’m not going to fall in love with him, Pep.’

‘Good. Because he is one hundred per cent just using you.’

‘I know. I’m not being naive about this.’

‘I don’t know,’ Pepper mused, scratching Raina’s big toe. ‘I saw the way you two were looking at each other at the V&A.’

‘Wanting to sleep with someone doesn’t—’

‘I knew it!’

‘That’ll wear off the more I get to know him!’

‘Yeah, right. You know he’s a monster and it hasn’t stopped you getting horny for him thus far.’

‘Not a monster,’ Raina said softly. ‘Just . . . unapologetic.’

Her mobile suddenly lit up and started to vibrate on the bedside table. Both women stared at it in astonishment.

‘London landline,’ Raina said, more to herself than to Pepper.

‘Are you shitting me?’ Pepper yelped. ‘He’s calling already? It’s been two hours.’