It Had to Be You Read Online Free PDF Page A

the first day of term in a suit and carrying a briefcase. They’d all gone out for a pub crawl round the city’s dodgiest bars, where Nic had got them chucked out of three places for minesweeping drinks and Poppet had actually wet herself twice from laughing so much. From then on the three of them had been inseparable.
    They might have clicked on a mental level, but physically they couldn’t have been more different. Nic was tall and broad-shouldered like a netball player. She was aggressively make-up free, unlike Poppet who bought a new MAC Lipglass virtually every week. Poppet’s real name was Anisha, but she’d got the nickname Poppet at uni because she was tiny and doll-like. Half-Indian and half-Persian, Poppet had inherited her high grooming standards from her mum, who always wore beautiful saris and red lipstick and was one of the most glamorous women Lizzy had ever met.
    ‘We’ve been really worried about you,’ Poppet told her. ‘I think it’s amazing you’ve actually gone to work. I wouldn’t be able to leave the house.’
    ‘I’m sure that will make her feel loads better,’ Nic said dryly. ‘This will all blow over,’ she told Lizzy. ‘Remember Rebecca Loos tossed off a pig, and she’s happily married and living in obscurity now.’
    Giuseppe came back with the olives and Lizzy dived in. She’d already mindlessly munched her way through four breadsticks. ‘I’m meant to be on the heartbreak diet,’ she sighed. ‘My mother is right. Not only am I single, I’m going to be
obese
and single for the rest of my life.’
    ‘Don’t be silly,’ Poppet said loyally. ‘You won’t stay single. Trust me, there will be loads of men out there, just waiting to snap you up!’
    ‘The bunny-boiler who got dumped on stage in a Henry VIII costume?’ Lizzy said gloomily. ‘I don’t exactly see them lining up, do you?’
    She was officially damaged goods. It didn’t matter that she’d managed to have two semi-successful relationships (three if you counted Aussie Andy, although he’d been away travelling for six months of it which meant they’d only really properly gone out for four months). Her track record had been wiped out in one fell swoop. Men would see her as the praying mantis of marriage. Her picture would be held up as a warning in pubs and sports changing rooms across the land.
    ‘Still no word from Justin?’ Poppet ventured.
    Lizzy shook her head miserably. ‘I went on Facebook earlier to de-friend him and found out he’d already done it to me.’
    Poppet looked outraged. ‘He didn’t even allow you that one dignity!’
    ‘The guy’s a complete dickhead.’ Nic hoovered up a breadstick. ‘He drank alcopops for God’s sake. That is someone with serious issues about their sexuality.’
    ‘C’mon, he drank a Smirnoff Ice
once
when he was really hungover from the all-day cricket,’ Lizzy protested.
    Nic looked at her strangely. ‘Why are you defending him? Justin hung you out to dry, Lizzy.’
    At that moment Giuseppe appeared brandishing their garlic bread. No one spoke until he’d gone again.
    ‘You’re right,’ Lizzy sighed. ‘It’s just so
weird
. Justin’s Alpro Light is still in my fridge. We had tickets to go and see Professor Green. He’d already asked me to go to his Christmas party! Why make all these plans if his heart was never in it? It was like I was with the guy for six months and I never really knew him.’
    ‘No one knows anyone in six months,’ Nic said darkly. ‘They’re just sizing each other up and deciding whether to stay or not.’
    ‘Oh great, thanks!’
    ‘It’s better you find out now than in a few years’ time when he leaves you standing at the aisle.’ Poppet’s eyes widened. ‘I didn’t mean it like that.’
    ‘Meanwhile I’m left looking like a deluded fantasist.’ Lizzy picked miserably at an olive. ‘Why
didn’t
Justin want to marry me, anyway?’
    ‘You said you didn’t want to marry him either,’ Poppet pointed