Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend Read Online Free PDF Page A

lost in a reverie about us announcing our marriage in The Times , maybe getting in a magazine - young society wedding of the year . . . I couldn’t wait to see Rufus’s country house, maybe we could have the wedding there . . .
     
    Interrupting my daydream, my phone rang. Dad. Gail must have been on at him about my credit card bill again.
     
    ‘Sophia, I need to speak to you now.’
     
    I winced. The party was getting busier and I could see some more people I knew coming in. Talking to my parent on the phone wasn’t the coolest way to greet them. ‘Dad, I’m really busy right now.’
     
    ‘We need to talk,’ he said.
     
    ‘Well, can it wait?’ I said impatiently. The music and chatter was so loud it would be patently obvious to a four-year-old that I was at a party. There was a long silence at the end of the phone.
     
    ‘Come home as soon as you can,’ he said finally.
     
    Feeling cross and sullen, I grabbed another drink and guzzled it, quicker than I normally would.
     
    I turned away, stumbling through the party looking for my boyfriend. Philly had disappeared to network frantically so I felt grumpy and alone. Rufus had said he’d be here on time, yet here I was, in this pretty, flimsy dress, marching about like it was the first day of school all over again. I tried his phone, but it was switched off.
     
    Finally, behind yet another flimsy sheet, right in the corner of the tent, I caught sight of him. He had his back to me. God, he was good-looking. His hair was dark and slicked back, and those white teeth. And the corduroy suit, of course.
     
    There was obviously some kind of Moroccan theme back here, and there were cushions and candles strewn everywhere; across the grass and in cunning little nooks like this one. The drapery had changed from white linen to red velvet. One side was still open to the garden but we were almost completely hidden from view.
     
    I turned off my phone, which had rang again with a call from Daddy - I didn’t pick up - and started to head over. Rufus was talking to someone, I couldn’t see who.
     
    ‘Haven’t you been a naughty girl?’ he was saying, in those familiar, flirtatious tones.
     
    ‘Oh, Rufus, do you think I need spanking?’ came the reply.
     
    I froze. It was Carena’s voice. It couldn’t be.
     
    I stood there, absolutely rooted to the spot. I couldn’t believe what was happening, right in front of my eyes. They were so close to one another . . . Carena was wearing an absolutely fierce super-mini skirt. Next to it my romantic dress suddenly felt utterly ridiculous.
     
    ‘Come here, you,’ Rufus said. It’s what he always said to me. But he wasn’t saying it to me. As if watching a film, two people I didn’t know at all, I watched as, in total slow motion, Carena moved her face up to meet his, and suddenly they were kissing.
     
    The second they connected, I came back to myself. And I heard myself screaming.
     
    ‘What the fu —!’
     
    The worst of it was, that they didn’t even leap apart. Rufus shook his head, looking like a confused dog. Carena looked at me with a pitying expression - one I’d seen so often at school but had never had directed at me before. It hurt.
     
    ‘What the hell are you doing?’ I screamed again, stopping the party in its tracks.
     
    Suddenly, a load of flashbulbs went off in my face. The paparazzi may not know who I was, but this smelled like a story.
     
    Carena turned round to me. ‘I know this looks terrible,’ she announced, unbelievably composed.
     
    You think?
     
    ‘But, Sophie - I think true love has struck us! And nothing could keep us apart.’
     
    ‘Um, hmm,’ said Rufus.
     
    My brain tried to compute what I was seeing. They were hiding in a corner. He had his hand on her arse. It didn’t look exactly like true love.
     
    But I thought of what I’d told Carena that afternoon. About how this was the man, the life, the fun - everything I wanted. And all those years we’d been friends