The Holiday Swap: The perfect feel good romance for fans of the Christmas movie The Holiday

Flo scrunched her fingers into fists and counted to ten. Then looked down at her make-up bag.

She could do this. She could be single again and bloody enjoy it.

The make-up had been a gift from a local business that she’d run a spread on. For their magazine. Their joint magazine. Oh stuff him and his stupid magazine. Concentrate on concealer, foundation. She would obliterate him from her life, wipe every trace away, including the bloody dark smudges under her eyes. And they were because of the copious amounts of alcohol. Nothing to do with him and the fact she couldn’t stop crying.

She’d thrown all the expensive products into the bathroom drawer and laughingly wondered who the hell needed stuff like that.

Now she knew.

People that went out with cheating creeps.

Most of the time Flo stuck with a quick flick of eye-liner, a coat of mascara and smear of lip-salve, but she’d just discovered there were times that demanded something more drastic. Like right now.

The red-eye look wasn’t quite so in-your-face when your blusher and lipstick were several shades darker, and the concealer had almost obliterated the dark smudges under her eyes. She could probably explain everything away as a bad dose of hay-fever. Except it was winter. Hangover, they’d accept a hangover as a good enough reason.

Flo wasn’t sure that she really wanted to go out. But no way was she staying in and thinking about Oli.

When she’d got back from Paris she’d felt wiped out, and crashed into an alcohol-and grief-induced coma. And it didn’t seem to get easier as the days went on, even knowing that her friends were coming to stay – and take her mind off him. Off the whole fiasco.

Today, despite a bracing walk along the beach, shopping therapy and a quick chat to Anna and Daisy, she was still fidgeting inside. She needed to do something that didn’t involve throwing things he’d bought her at the walls.

And going out with old friends was far better than an evening with Spanish friends. As in ‘their’ friends. That was the trouble with being a couple, wasn’t it? Who had custody of the friends? At some point she’d have to face the inevitable questions from the Oli-appreciation fan-club – which all her mates seemed to belong to – but right now, with the memory of Oli’s bare bum partly covered by another woman’s hand still fresh in her mind, she’d rather try and think about something else.

She wasn’t quite sure what had got into her when she’d practically insisted Daisy and Anna come out to Barcelona, it wasn’t like her at all. But maybe that was how she’d get through this – by being less like her normal self. No hanging about waiting for him to turn up to meet her, no dropping everything to answer his calls, no working until midnight to meet his deadlines. Maybe it would help. Maybe it was time to do what she wanted, and not just try and please some self-satisfied idiot.

Flo stared at her image in the mirror. That’s what she’d just wasted the last few years of her life on. The reality hit her. Oli had been the centre of her universe, she’d actually morphed from the girl she used to be into the woman he demanded. She hadn’t stopped to think about it until now, but he’d gradually got under her skin, and, because she loved him she’d wanted to please him. Like some pathetic lap dog.

Which reminded her. She’d always wanted a dog, and he’d said no. Think about the mess, he’d said, and we’d be ‘tied down’ – yeah, she should have spotted that one for what it was.

She could get a dog now. And read in bed, listen to heavy rock, watch weepy films. Get totally rat-arsed on cheap wine.

He’d controlled her right up until the end. She’d been the worst kind of fool, trying to keep up a pretence of being the happiest person in the world, of living the perfect life, and she’d been so determined to succeed she’d ignored the warning signs that were hammering like a battering ram against her defences. Well Oli wasn’t going to do it for a second longer.

She just hoped that spending a weekend with her childhood friends wasn’t going to make her even more homesick than she already was.

***

‘Are you absolutely positive this is where Flo meant, and she said seven o’clock?’ Daisy stared at the firmly closed shutters, and the crowd of people which had been steadily growing in the five minutes they’d been standing there.

The route Flo had marked on the map had been easy to follow, but she was now beginning to wonder if Anna had sabotaged it. Despite the fact she’d even taken it to the loo with her.

‘You’re the map-reader.’ Anna grinned. ‘I wish they’d bloody hurry up and open the place though, I’m starving.’

‘Hey, you made it!’ Daisy glanced up to see the welcome sight of a smiling Flo.

‘Fab, you found it.’

‘We did, but we were just beginning to wonder if we’d come to the wrong place.’

‘Or you’d stood us up.’ Added Anna.

Daisy rolled her eyes and Flo laughed. ‘Get ready for the scramble.’ She nodded at the shutter behind them, which was slowly moving upwards. The crowd of people fidgeted and edged forward. The shutter stopped three feet up. They relaxed. It lifted a bit more, people edged closer and Daisy began to wonder just what kind of place Flo had brought them to.

***

The moment the shutter was lifted, Flo dived forward. She swung round to check that Anna and Daisy had followed, then put one hand out in a ta-dah gesture and waited for the reaction.

‘Wow.’ Daisy stared, her brown eyes opening wide, and Flo grinned in satisfaction as she spun round on the spot, taking in the blue ceramic-tiled walls, marble tables and the artefacts that fought for space on the little shelves running along each wall.

Anna giggled, unimpressed. ‘She did that in Placa Catalunya, she’s going to go home all wound up and need spinning back the other way. Daisy, stop it and sit down. Wow, look at those tapas, can we try all of them?’

Daisy sat. Craning her neck as she shifted on the narrow bench and tried to read the plaques on the wall above. ‘This place is incredible, it’s lovely, so cute. I want to live here.’

Flo grinned. She’d always loved the way Daisy just came out with what was in her head. ‘It’s amazing, isn’t it? I love it, even though it’s always cram-packed with tourists.’ She looked apologetically at Anna and Daisy, ‘sorry, but you know what I mean. The owner won’t let anybody change it though, the local Barcelonese love the house cava and traditional tapas, and as far as he’s concerned the visitors can like it or lump it.’ She grinned. ‘Most of them like it.’

‘I do, it’s lovely.’ Daisy nearly slipped off her seat as she twisted round again.

‘You are acting the complete tourist.’ Anna shook her head disapprovingly, but was laughing.

‘I don’t care, I am a tourist and I’ve never, ever been anywhere like this before.’

‘Wait ‘til you try the cava. It’s compulsory, I won’t let you drink anything else.’

A litre of the house speciality, bubbly, and three coupe glasses were soon on the table, along with tapas. Flo pointed. ‘Pan con tomate, obligatory round here, and anchovies.’

‘Anchovies?’ Anna shuddered and pulled a face.

‘You can’t come to Barcelona and not eat anchovies. Trust me, they’re the best with this cava.’

‘I trust you.’ Daisy forked one up, looking at it suspiciously. ‘I think.’

‘Good!’

‘Although I do remember you trying to get me to eat a mud-and-worm sandwich once.’

‘You’ve got a memory like an elephant, Daisy.’ Flo grinned, ‘It’s so good to see you guys again, I know I keep saying it, but it is. I’ve got to meet somebody about work tomorrow afternoon, but how about I give you a grand tour in the morning?’

‘Are you sure? I mean you don’t have stuff you have to do? We can just get on one of those tour buses.’

‘Don’t be daft Daisy, no way are you doing that. I need the company to be honest,’ Flo took a deep breath. There was something refreshing about talking to old friends, no pretence required, ‘I’ve just had the shittiest holiday you can imagine,’ she glanced at Anna, ‘and you’d be doing me a favour, give me something to think about and stop me drinking every bottle of wine in the apartment.’

Daisy was staring at her. ‘Oh I’m so sorry, Flo, you don’t deserve it. I’ve always wanted your life, you just look the most together person, you always did, not the type to experience shit holidays or turn to drink. That’s my job.’

‘No, it’s mine.’ Anna poked her own chest proudly. ‘I’m the one that has shit relationships, I hold a special certificate in it.’

Daisy and Flo both laughed.

‘Well, I always look like I’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards, and haven’t got a clue.’