Destination Chile

‘Whoa.’ Shelley gasped. ‘Stunner McStunnerson alert.’ She turned and gave me a sympathetic look at the shock on my face at realising that this potential Victoria’s Secret model whose face currently filled my phone screen was the ‘old friend’ my boyfriend was hanging out with. ‘But it’s fine, yes she may be the most attractive woman in the world without a Kardashian surname but you trust Ben, so it’s fine.’

‘Is this defo her?’ I asked slowly.

‘She’s the only Alice listed as Ben’s friend.’ Shelley winced.

Alice Sherman was stood leaning against a balcony railing with some exotic beach behind her. She had her head tilted back and what looked like a natural laugh escaping from her plump lips. Her eyes were scrunched up, lost in some joke between her and the photographer and her glossy brown hair was dancing in the breeze around her tanned shoulders. She was flawless and had curves in all the right places that were accentuated by the classy but not slutty peach-coloured chiffon dress she was wearing. She looked like the kind of girl you would take home to your mum but who would also be filth in the bedroom. Great.

I stared at her profile picture for longer than was necessary, mentally beating myself up as I compared my own body with hers. I already knew which one I’d prefer to be hanging out with if I had a penis.

‘Maybe that’s just a really good angle – everyone always puts their best shot as their profile picture.’ Marie tried to look on the positive side.

‘Check out her other photo albums!’ Shelley said, as I scrolled my finger across the page. ‘Thank the Lord for people who don’t set their accounts to the highest privacy settings.’

Alice’s other albums were a collection of tagged images, old holiday shots and nights out with her friends where she looked more natural but still disgustingly gorgeous.

‘Yep, she may be the person I would want to swap my face with if I ever had a horrific car crash,’ I admitted. ‘But it still doesn’t mean that anything dodgy is going on with her and Ben.’

Not wanting to look at any more photos and send my self-esteem plummeting even further, I put my phone on the coffee table. Marie instantly snatched it back up and began scrolling as Shelley topped up my glass and listened to me going on about how much I trusted my boyfriend.

‘Wait!’ Marie cried, interrupting me.

Shelley and I both snapped our heads up in unison to look at her.

‘What?’ I asked, feeling a strange tingling rush up my arms as she passed my phone back.

‘Alice isn’t just an old friend…’ she paused dramatically ‘…she’s his ex-girlfriend.’

I waited for the page to upload as fast as I was scrolling down and saw what she’d been looking at. Right at the bottom were a couple of much older albums with a younger, grinning Alice wrapped around a clean-shaven and youthful Ben. My Ben. In other images they were holding hands and kissing as a friend with spiked-up hair did the peace sign as he photobombed the young couple. I felt a funny, sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Why was my boyfriend meeting up with his ex, and why hadn’t he told me?

‘Oh,’ Shelley said, a tiny bit relieved that her boyfriend was working out with a bunch of gay men rather than reminiscing about old times with this worldie.

‘Oh crap!’ I yelped.

‘What?’ Marie leant forward and knocked my glass with her tummy, sloshing wine onto my legs.

‘I accidently pressed like on the photo of her at an elephant sanctuary!’ I panicked.

‘Quick! Click unlike. Click UNLIKE!’ Marie gasped.

‘I am,’ I wailed, but the screen had frozen and now I wasn’t sure what I’d done. ‘Oh God, can she see that I liked it?’ I felt woozy at the thought.

Shelley grabbed my phone off me to check. ‘It’s fine, you haven’t liked it. Well you did, but it isn’t showing now and she’ll only know if she was online right then. But as you’re not friends with her we won’t know for certain. She probably won’t have been though.’

‘Probably…’ That didn’t fill me with much confidence. She probably won’t be online as she will probably be making out with my boyfriend for old time’s sake, my subconscious whispered.

‘Don’t worry, here have some more wine,’ Shelley said, topping up my glass. ‘Just try not to think about it. He’s going to propose to you for goodness’ sake!’

I nodded and wanted to change the conversation. ‘Yep, you’re right. So, erm, how are things with you?’ I asked Shelley, trying to get Ben out of my head. Since when had I turned into this jealous, anxious girlfriend? It was not a look that fitted well.

She scrunched her face up. ‘Well, I actually have some news of my own…’

There was a silence as she trailed out, pulled her hand away, and began busying with unscrewing the wine top. Marie was suddenly engrossed in picking off a piece of skin around her nail bed as if she knew something I didn’t. Shelley turned to face me and took a deep breath. ‘I wasn’t sure how to tell you this.’

When anyone utters those words you know the next part of the sentence ain’t going to be pretty. A chill danced along my spine as she glanced over at Marie and swallowed.

‘Shel? You’re both freaking me out. What’s going on?’

‘Georgia. I’m going to be moving back to Australia. To live. Permanently.’

The world stopped still for a second.

‘What?! You’re leaving? You and Jimmy?’ My eyes flickered across her face, desperate for her to break into her signature grin and tell me she was joking. But her expression remained sober and slightly pale.

‘Yep. I’ve been offered a job back home and Jimmy can head over on a visa. He’s already got interviews lined up for some personal trainer work so we can look at making it permanent, or possibly we get married ourselves…’

‘Oh wow. Erm, that’s great news.’ I paused to let this all sink in.

She winced and picked up her wine glass. ‘The other thing is, because of these jobs we’re going to be going soon. Like, in a month.’

‘No! A MONTH! Did you know?’ I turned to Marie who blatantly did judging by her pinched expression.

Shelley jumped in to save Marie from answering. ‘I was worried at how you’d take it. I wanted to ask Marie for her advice before I told you as she’s known you for so long,’ Shelley blustered.

I sat back in my chair feeling disappointed that my two best friends had had to confide in each other on about how to handle me taking big, stupid, life-changing news like this.

‘Right. I mean…wow. Shel, I’m chuffed for you!’ I said a few moments later, probably taking longer to say it than I should have done. ‘This is SO exciting!’

‘You sure?’ she asked, pulling out of the hug I’d grabbed her in as I tried to pretend I was embracing her when really I needed a moment to gather my thoughts on her shoulder.

‘Course. I mean, this is great news. Who wouldn’t want to go and live in Australia? Wow. How exciting, really, this is great.’ I then let out this strangled laugh that matched my high-pitched voice. ‘This is great. We should have champagne!’ I announced, getting to my feet and suddenly wanting to get some fresh air. ‘I’ll head to the shop right now!’

‘Georgia. Are you sure you’re okay?’

‘Positive! We need to celebrate! Ha ha, look at you two. You don’t have to worry about me. I’m fine. More than fine,’ I babbled, rummaging through my handbag for my purse. Where the hell was it? For fuck’s sake.

‘Georgia,’ Marie said firmly, placing a hand on the arm that was desperately tearing through my bag. ‘Just chill out a moment.’

‘I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be? I mean, look at you all blossoming and yummy mummy and then look at Shel going to live thousands of miles away and then look at me and…and…’ It was too late. The tears were falling as the enormity of the situation hit me. I was losing my two best friends to real life when I still wasn’t sure of the direction mine was heading.

‘Aww, hon, come here.’ Shelley tried to put her arm round me but I shrugged it off and roughly wiped my eyes.

‘I’m fine. Fine. Honestly. Although have we got any more wine?’ I said, a little softer. ‘I’m just being silly.’

‘You’re clearly not fine.’ Marie shook her head. ‘There might be a bottle in the drinks cupboard in the kitchen. I’ve no idea how long it’s been there as I’ve not had nice booze in the house since being pregnant.’

I glanced at the almost empty wine bottle we’d brought with us. ‘Oh, okay. Well then, who fancies one of Georgia’s special cocktails?’ I asked, jumping to my feet. Neither of them joined in.

Soon I was back in the lounge holding a glass of Georgia’s Special Cocktail that I’d rustled up in super quick time, which was basically a concoction of the dregs of a Baileys bottle and some green alcoholic syrup I’d found in the back of Marie’s cupboard. It was the best of what was available, you know the stuff you accumulate over the years after parties, for recipes, or over the festive season but never get through – as who the hell ever finds themselves craving a glass of Advocaat? But I didn’t care. Judging by the time those bottles had been in that dusty drinks cupboard, the alcohol must have tripled in strength, as it was strooooonnnggg and exactly what I needed.