Connected (F1 Story)

Chapter Eleven: Surprise

Lizzie's mum wiped her eyes for the tenth time and I passed her a tissue. Pip, Lizzie's older sister, got Lizzie to do another twirl in the white dress.

My friend looked stunning and this was the third time I had seen her in it.

"Of course if I hadn't been eating as much then I would look a little less fat and it wouldn't have this bit here..." Green sighed, patting her imaginary stomach. I pulled my jeans up more to try and hide my one two many handfuls of granola evidence. Whoops.

"Shut up!" Mariela put on her stern voice. I'd met her a few times before- she was Lizzie's oldest friend. They had known each other since primary school, except now Mariela lived at the tippity top of Scotland, owning her own little farm with her husband. In the few hours I had spent with her, I knew that she was dead set against kids. Really dead set against them. Daniel, therefore, wasn't a fan of her for that and various other reasons. "If you stick to only juices this week then you should be absolutely fine."

The thought of merely liquids and no actual substance made me feel sick. I hadn't told the others but I had a little pot of dried banana and three Go-Ahead bars stashed in my bag for starters. I certainly wasn't letting Mariela get a sniff of those otherwise I would have been frozen out of the group for good. And I didn't want to be deleted from the Whatsapp chat or banned from going to the gym followed by a frozen yogurt date at the beach. Even Daniel wanted to get involved with the yoghurt.

I took a tiny sip of my orange juice and gave Lizzie the thumbs up. Her dress suited her to a tee. It was elegant, ivory and patterned on the top half with embroidered beads that continued right the way to the end of the long train.

"Just think, it'll be for real next time." The lovely assistant came in with Lizzie's Louboutin shoes. I was working out a way to be able to afford a pair for the White Party in Singapore. I couldn't come up with a valid solution unless I took out four different loans and a mortgage. No thank you. I suppose with two loans I could rent a pair of Jimmy Choos. Sigh.

"Awww. I know." On went the shoes as she fanned herself with her hand.

"How are the nerves?" Pip asked, combing her fingers through her long blonde hair. She was a splitting image of her sister. In fact, after one too many cocktails I had got them mixed up.

"Um, fine. No nerves at all, which I thought there would be." I knew Lizzie was bullshitting. Paul had told me that she was up at three a.m. sorting out table decorations.

"When do you go away, Saskia?" Mariela smiled, flashing me her impeccable teeth. Turns out even in the middle of nowhere you can get good dentists. I then gave her a funny look. I was not moving from Monaco for the next twenty days.

"I'm not. I'm around for the duration...sorry." I chuckled. Was she looking disappointed? Hmm...I'll pretend I didn't see the flicker in the eyes. Perhaps one of her eyelash extensions was giving her a bit of bother. I didn't think you could get falsies in John O'Groats either.

"Saskia, look!" Lizzie interrupted the awkwardness by showing a message that had come through on her phone. "Look at the name places!"

"Glitter?"

"Glitter." Good call. That was our evening's task to finish all sixty of those off.

---

Glittered out, it was dark outside our apartment as Daniel was putting his washing away in the bedroom. I had been warned not to go in since it was in a bit of a state. The Australian's usual tactic was to empty everything out in a heap and go from there.

I played my music out of our sound system while giving our kitchen a good de-ming. It was getting pretty bad before we left for Hungary and the maid wasn't coming for another week so I had decided to brave it and whip out the bleach. And gloves. Was not going to touch the plughole without those.