Page 67 of A Colourful Country Escape
‘It can’t be Drew; you binned him ages ago.’ Sky paused, looking almost pensive. ‘Wait a minute. Are you listening to “Stockholm Syndrome”? Shit, Lex. What did they do to you?’
Grace exploded with laughter. ‘She won’t tell me either! But I swear something went down in London.’
‘Shh, Jeez, both of you! Look, if you must know, there was anincident. But it was just an embarrassing mistake and there certainly won’t be a repeat performance. I’m going to concentrate on my job and myself, and forget all about it.’
‘Anincident. Like what? Because you know she basically ended up onCrimewatchafter her travels with that Inkie guy?’ said Sky, aiming the final sentence at Grace.
‘Piss off, Sky, I was not on bloodyCrimewatch,’ Lexie hissed at her sister, standing up to reduce the volume on her blabbering mouth. ‘Ben and I had a kissing situation, if you must know. I got a bit tipsy and leapt on the poor guy. It did not end well.’
Sky’s surprised eyeballs appeared large on the screen.
‘I knew it!’ Grace shrieked, with a barrage of unnecessary pointing.
Lexie wished Grace had a volume button too. ‘And you wonder why I’m reluctant to tell you this stuff! Be quiet, seriously. It was nothing.’
‘My God, you have to tell us what happened. You HAVE to!’ said Grace, clearly failing at being less shrieky.
‘Totally have to.’ Sky nodded, from her field somewhere in Lancaster.
Lexie felt her skin sweating under two pairs of interrogative eyes as she tried to concoct an edited version. ‘We had too many cocktails – things got a bit intense. There was this strange lingering moment and for some reason … ’ She inhaled a shuddery breath as she was transported back to the moment. ‘I … just couldn’t help myself.’
‘You find himirresistible!’ said Grace, as though it had been obvious all along.
‘No! I … urgh. It was just for that second.’
‘Was it good kissing?’ asked Sky, with far too much innocence for someone shacked up in a foursome.
Lexie tried to keep her breath even and prayed her face wasn’t as flushed as it felt. This was surely just the tail end of all that humiliation.
‘It was … ’ Oh God, why was it so hard to talk about it? ‘Hot?’
‘Hot!’ the other two all but screeched.
Lexie regretted the word as soon as it escaped her mouth. ‘But just for that moment. You know, like a release of frustration or something. We were caught up in a kind of magic. And then it was over, like someone waved a wand and ended it. By the time we got back to the hotel, he’d sobered up and realised it was a dreadful idea. That was pretty much it.’
They didn’t need to know she’d given him a striptease, he’d turned his nose up and she’d puked all over the bathroom. She’d never hear the end of it.
‘Did you talk about it?’ Grace asked.
So much for curbing the interrogations.
‘He brought a bacon sandwich to my room the next morning and we decided to pretend it never happened and that he should continue with the matchmaking.’
‘Woooow,’ said Sky, her eyeballs still impossibly huge. ‘I’d kill for a guy who brought me bacon.’
‘This is Ben Carrington,’ said Grace. ‘Crap at communicating, even worse at finding himself a woman. How do you know what he’s thinking if the sum total of your discussions involved charcuterie and something awkward about his mother’s bloody matchmaking?’
‘It wasn’t awkward.’ Lexie slumped down on a dust sheet and started fiddling with the hem of her overalls. It totally had been awkward. ‘And I don’t want to discuss it any more.’ That much was true.
After a few moments of trying to ignore Sky and Lexie’s swivelling eye communications, Lexie composed herself.
‘Right, Sky. Why did you call?’
‘Ooh, yes, me,’ her sister replied.
Sometimes Lexie was grateful for her sibling’s gnat-sized attention span.
‘I wanted to invite you to my commitment ceremony with Billy-Bob.’
