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Chapter Two
Polly’sforkful of julienned carrots and celery hovered mid-air between the plate and her mouth.
“Let me get this straight. He told the partners of this new law firm he has a long-term girlfriend called Alice. And now he wants you to play the part until he gets made permanent?”
Alice nodded.
They were sharing veggie and rice noodle salad at the kitchen table because it was Polly’s day two of the 5:2 diet before a weekend splurge. Alice knew she’d have to attack a bar of chocolate in her bedroom later to make up for it, but she liked to keep Polly company.
It felt good to support your friends. Mostly.
The one thing she’d been trying to persuade herself she’d never,everdo was be a certain friend’s fake date. Which was why she was now telling Polly the afternoon’s events. Saying it out loud, she figured, would cement her refusal.
“So how long’s his probation period?” Polly’s green eyes beamed in on Alice’s face.
“Three months, apparently.” The strand of noodles she’d managed to twirl around her fork coiled back onto Alice’s plate with a smallslurp. “I said no, of course.”
Polly’s eyebrows flew up as her fork slid into her mouth.
“Why?” she asked, chewing. “Isn’t this what you’ve always wanted?”
“Poll!” Alice spluttered. Only the other week Polly had advised Alice to put some distance between her and Aaron. All of a sudden it felt like she was being encouraged to skip into the forest like Little Red Riding Hood with a basket full of goodies.
“It’s afakerelationship,” Alice said pointedly. “The last time I checked the word fake, it meantsham.”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“But what?”
“Maybe it’s time to re-think the whole Aaron thing.”
Polly’s volte-face was unbelievable.
“There’s nothing to re-think.”
“Except your diabolically long-standing crush,” Polly pointed out, skewering a celery stick with gusto.
“I’m almost over him,” Alice muttered. “Your advice to not answer his calls really helped.”
“Sure did. He’s never been at the house so often.”
“That’s only because Mum’s away.”
Rowena didn’t like Aaron much. Not that Alice had ever whispered a word about her feelings to her mum. Imagine the fuss! The fact that Aaron only read legal textbooks and Instagram posts made Rowena’s hackles rise. “How can you have anything to talk about, darling, with someone who doesn’t read novels?” she’d once asked Alice in an outraged voice.
“And because I was helping him with practice runs for his interview,” Alice focussed on getting a noodle back on her fork.
“Good one.” Polly was grinning her head off. When Polly grinned, her corkscrew curls bounced ever so slightly like they were having their own personal snicker. “I think we need to workshop this over a drink.” Polly pushed back her chair.
“It’s your fasting day.”
“Extenuating circumstances. I’ll stop eating. That’ll make up for the extra calories.”
Alice threw her fork into her half-eaten dinner. “Why am I suddenly feeling anxious?”
“Because, Munchkin, anxiety is your default mode.”
Alice sighed and stared at her plate. Polly, as usual, was right. Though where the anxious gene came from was anyone’s guess. Certainly not from Rowena, who socialised with more ease than she breathed air. Maybe from her dad, but trying to find anything out about him was like sending a space probe into a black hole. Alice had given up years ago.
