Wish You Weren't Here (A Romantic Comedy)

Chapter Two

So you're wondering how on earth I've ended up in this situation, right? How do a girl and a boy who don't remotely get along end up on a holiday alone together?

They win a prize.

And it's a good prize. An amazing prize, in fact. Ten days in Crete in a luxury suite, with its own private little pool. I mean, you can't really turn that down, right? You'd be a fool.

The problem is that neither the girl nor boy in question  actually entered the competition.

So let's travel back to the day when I, Ruby Rafferty, found myself blinking in confusion at my phone screen, wondering if the email I'd just received was genuine, a silly prank, or just a very good attempt at spam.

"You okay, Ruby?" I looked up to find Stacy - work bestie extraordinaire - watching me, a concerned expression on her pretty face. "You look like you've seen a ghost - a stark bollock naked one at that!" She had never been one to mince her words. Normally, I appreciated her somewhat crude sense of humour, but that day, I was too distracted by the mailbomb in my inbox.

"Apparently, I've just won a holiday to Crete?" I told her faintly, passing the phone over so she could sense-check it for me. "A fancy one, at that!"

I hadn't actually been on a proper vacation in years. I spent most of my annual leave catching up on sleep and binging TV shows. I was an expert in Netflix and Chill - except "chill" wasn't a euphemism in my case. I hadn't "chilled" in a long time. Relationships were terrifying, and even flings were too messy, in my opinion. My actual bestie, Lauren, thought I was missing out, but I liked my life the way it was. Without any man to wreck my head and ruin my zen.

Stacy scanned the contents of the email and nodded. "The email address seems legit, and the competition has been run by a reputable holiday company - it doesn't seem like spam or a joke." She grinned. "I'm so jealous; it looks like an excellent prize!"

I let myself relax a little. Maybe a solo holiday would be good for me . . . I had admittedly been feeling a bit antsy of late, wondering if I needed to rethink the boundaries of the comfort zone I'd created for myself. In fact, was it a holiday for one? Maybe it was for two, and I could convince Lauren to come with me?

"Wait, hold up . . . Who is Lewis Sheridan?" Stacy asked, and my blood froze in my veins.

"H-how do you know that name?" I asked shakily. A wet blanket of dread had already dampened the tiny flame of joy that had so briefly flickered for the shortest of moments. Unease started to creep its way through my brain at the very mention of Lewis.

Stacy tossed my phone back to me, and I nearly dropped it thanks to my shaking hands. "The email is addressed to him too," she explains. "It seems the prize is a couples holiday . . . And you two have won it as a couple." One perfectly groomed eyebrow rose questioningly. "Something you're not telling me, Rafferty?" She teased me.

What the actual fudge?

How could this be happening? I wondered bleakly. I sure as hell hadn't entered this contest . . . And I was fairly certain Lewis bloody Sheridan wouldn't have entered it on our behalf either. The two of us had never got on. In fact, it was a running gag that we should be kept as far apart as possible at any social events we were both obligated to attend. An unofficial restraining order, of sorts.

"I think this really must be a sick prank," I decided eventually. "My friends have been known to have a twisted sense of humour." I quickly pulled up Lauren's number on my phone and hit the call button.

As it turned out, it had started out as a joke. But the competition? That was real. And we had indeed won it.

I was very unhappy. In fact, that is a gross understatement. Initially, I was incandescent with fury.