Page 2 of An Island Promise

‘Running your own business,’ Belle said without hesitation as she scooped up a nacho topped with cheese and guacamole.

Laurie raised her glass of gin and tonic. ‘Exactly what I was going to say.’

Belle wiped the guacamole from her lip and nodded. ‘You’ll have shitloads of money, a seafront apartment somewhere swanky and will travel all the time.’

‘So I’m definitely escaping our shit-boring town where bugger-all happens?’

‘Absolutely!’ Belle said with passion. ‘You could always move to London with me.’

‘Maybe, after I’ve been travelling. I fancy living in Paris or Barcelona. God, anywhere but bloody Norfolk. I need to get out.’

‘You’ll have a string of guys after you in the process,’ Laurie chipped in.

Gem frowned. ‘You don’t see me with Dan?’

Belle choked back a snort and censored her reply. ‘You’re going travelling without him, so really the question is doyourealistically see yourself with him?’

A sly smile snuck across Gem’s face. ‘Nah, course not. At least not long term. I just like to keep my options open.’

Neither Belle nor Laurie commented further. Belle knew Gem’s relationship with Dan was doomed, if the last week in Ibiza was anything to go by. She may not have fully sampled the local totty, but she’d kissed enough of them. Nope, Dan certainly hadn’t been on her mind and Belle was hard-pressed to see how they could possibly have a future, not when she was taking six months out to go travelling with a friend from university who also loved to party. Belle knew exactly what she’d be getting up to without them to keep an eye on her.

‘Seriously though,’ Belle said as she gazed across the terrace to where people were dancing with their hands in the air in frontof the electric-blue Café Mambo sign. ‘Apart from continuing to pull hot Spanish guys, where do you really see me?’

‘Well, you already have a dream job lined up in London,’ Laurie said. ‘So that’s a fabulous start. I see you meeting someone, falling in love and getting married. You’ll have a dream man, dream house, dream kids and dream life. You’re going to have it all just like Gem suggested for me.’ She raised her glass and clinked it against Belle’s. ‘And Gem will have it all too, with or without Dan!’

‘Ditto to that.’ Gem’s glass joined theirs in a drunken clunk. ‘And we make a promise now to have a reunion holiday here in ten years to celebrate living our best lives!’

Belle downed the remainder of her vodka cocktail. Yes, she had a job lined up, the move to London sorted and a clear path to the career and life she wanted, yet she felt certain she’d be leaving her heart behind. Unless of course her infatuation with Diego was just that and once she was home starting her new job all thoughts and feelings for him would drift away.Of course they will, she reasoned. Diego was a holiday fling, nothing more. It couldn’t possibly be true love. Could it?

2 a.m.–Laurie

Laurie retched. Oh God oh God oh God oh God did she feel crap. It was as if she was floating in a weird kind of distorted fishbowl, other people’s movement large and in slow motion.

She was definitely sitting on a stool, her legs dangling, her arms sprawled on the cold metal of the polished bar. She remembered leaving Café Mambo and she’d felt okay, happy drunk rather than whatever the hell this was. They’d stopped atsome Irish bar on the way to the club, but after that… She lifted her head again and her stomach muscles constricted as a wave of nausea gripped her.

Where were Belle and Gem? She wanted to search for them but the slightest movement sent her head spinning and sick racing up her throat. The lights behind the bar were too bright yet fuzzy around the edges, the barman a sickening blur as he busied about. People jostled her, elbows jabbing into her arms, her sides.

Her throat was sore from having had a conversation with someone where they’d had to shout to be heard over the intensity of the music. He’d seemed a nice guy who hadn’t been intent on trying to snog her or anything like that. He’d bought her a drink, said he was on holiday with friends. She’d said something about Ade. They’d definitely had another shot or two and that was where her memory failed.

An arm slid across her shoulders. Laurie tensed. She was out of it but not enough to realise how easily she could be taken advantage of.

‘You okay?’

A voice, warm and familiar in her ear, instantly calmed her racing heart. Belle.

‘I feel sick.’

‘I’m not surprised.’ Laughter wrapped around Belle’s words. ‘Do you think you can stand?’

Laurie groaned. ‘Not sure. Was talking to some guy. You think he spiked my drink?’

‘Nope.’ Belle picked up an empty shot glass and sniffed it. ‘Pretty certain you snorting vodka did this. I’ve been keeping an eye on you.’

Laurie retched again. ‘Gonna be sick.’

‘Oh shit.’ Belle’s hold on her shoulders loosened momentarily, then her grip tightened as she helped her off the stool.

Laurie’s legs felt like a combination of shaky jelly and heavy concrete as Belle supported her. Everything spun, a sickening swirl of flashing lights, heaving bodies and laughing Joker-like faces. She might as well have been staggering across the deck of a ship in a storm, her stomach was lurching that much. It took a huge effort to stop herself from vomiting in the middle of the club as the waft of sweat and sickly perfume assaulted her. Belle’s fingers dug into her skin as she shoved open a door. Laurie’s relief when they entered the relative quiet of the toilets was immense as Belle manoeuvred her into an empty cubicle.

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