Cupcake Couture Read Online Free PDF Page B

flaw of adulthood, because as friends go, Roxy was the best.
    ‘Jesus it is chuffin’ chilly up here like. If you’re going to jump can you do it now before my tits fall off?’
    I sniffed, suddenly realising I had been crying and looked at my feet. Trust Roxy to get to the point and make the whole scenario seem ridiculous.
    ‘How did you find me?’
    Roxy waved a tango nail towards the village.
    ‘I followed the trail of scrunched up tissues like. I thought I was trailing a depressed Hansel and Gretel.’
    ‘Really?’
    I glanced at the ground.
    ‘Nah, man, I’m joking. I called your office.’
    I flicked my eyes up to look at her and then refocused on the ground as shame pricked my nerve endings.
    ‘Your secretary told me what happened. I’m so sorry, pet.’
    I shrugged.
    ‘She was worried about you when I said I hadn’t seen you and oh yeah, she said to tell you the petition’s got well over twenty signatures but that Cheryl might be a problem.’
    Roxy screwed up her nose. I didn’t elaborate. The waves crashed behind me, sending an icy spray up the cliff that wrapped around my lower back and made meshiver. Roxy pulled a second cigarette out of her soft, blue leather Balenciaga handbag (one of her many, many gifts from Thierry).
    ‘I don’t understand why you didn’t call us last night, Chloe. Heidi and I were well up for celebrating your birthday but when you didn’t answer your phone, we thought you must have had a secret hot birthday date.’ She paused. ‘You didn’t did you?’
    ‘Sure, Roxy, I celebrated my birthday redundancy with a champagne shagathon.’
    She lit the second cigarette from the end of the first.
    ‘Now that would be good for you. Loosen you up a bit. Here.’ She handed me the cigarette.
    ‘I don’t need loosening thank you. I’m not uptight.’
    Roxy rested one hand on the gold belt around her waist and pursed her lips.
    ‘So this is what you wear to chill out in is it?’
    I fiddled with the cigarette.
    ‘No… I…’ my voice trailed away on the onshore wind.
    ‘Then why are you dressed like you’re going to work when you’re not, like? I’m hoping it was an interview.’
    I shook my head.
    ‘A meeting?’
    I shook my head again.
    ‘An audition for
The
fucking
Apprentice
?’
    I concentrated on a family of ants carrying a cigarette butt across the grass. They looked like removal men lugging a sofa. The thought of never finding anotherjob and having to move out of my flat suddenly hit me and a sob erupted from my throat. Roxy’s face appeared upside down in my line of vision.
    ‘You’re not gonna be one of them mentalists who goes to work every day even though their office burned down ten years ago are you? Because if you are I might have to review our friendship, pet.’
    ‘But it didn’t burn down, it’s still there. They’re all still there carrying on without me.’
    I blinked as a tear tickled my cheek. Roxy sighed, wrapped her arm around my shoulder and guided me away from the cliff edge and back towards Front Street.
    ‘You know I would’ve come straight round and helped you drown your sorrows. I might not be good at much other than looking amazing, but if I’m champion at anything, it’s organising a piss up no matter what the circumstances.’
    ‘I know and I should have called you but I was embarrassed.’
    She laughed.
    ‘Embarrassed? Howay, Chloe, you daft cow, I know everything about you. I was there when you bought your first giant bag of sanitary towels. Remember them? Like fucking duvets they were.’
    I snorted, despite myself.
    ‘And when you went to get the morning after pill even though we later worked out you hadn’t actually lost your virginity.’
    I giggled.
    ‘So don’t go getting all secretive on me, man, I know what pants you wear.’
    I ran my hands through my hair, which had been backcombed by the wind.
    ‘I’m sorry, Roxy, I don’t think I’m dealing with this very well.’
    I held the cigarette to my frozen lips