It Had to Be You Read Online Free PDF

out.
    ‘That’s not the point.’ How could someone know that early on that they didn’t want to marry her? Was she really that repulsive first thing in the morning? Were her little idiosyncrasies really so annoying that they’d cancelled out any thoughts Justin might’ve had about proposing? What about growing together as people and learning to love each other’s imperfections? To be told ‘No thanks’ by someone who hadn’t even found out a quarter of the stuff about you was
brutal.
    ‘What’s wrong with me?’ she asked despairingly. ‘Have I got a flashing sign above my head saying “FOR FUN TIMES AND MINI BREAKS ONLY”?’
    ‘Bollocks!’ Nic yelled in the manner that Len Goodman from
Strictly Come Dancing
shouted ‘Seven!’ ‘There’s nothing bloody wrong with you!’
    ‘So why didn’t he want to marry me?’
    ‘I’ll tell you exactly why. Guys like Justin have their perfect, boring little lives with their perfect, boring little routines. They’ll end up marrying some perfect boring girl with perfect boring shiny hair, because she won’t upset the equilibrium and make them realize how totally and absolutely
nothing
they are!’ Nic waved her glass around so violently the contents sloshed out. ‘This isn’t about Justin not wanting to marry you! It’s about the fact that deep down he knew that
you
didn’t want to marry
him
!’
    ‘Go Nic!’ Poppet shouted happily.
    ‘There are millions of bland and boring blokes like Justin.
You
on the other hand,’ Nic told Lizzy, ‘are a wonderful, unique, brilliant, warm, funny, lovely person.’
    ‘There’s only one Lizzy Spellman!’ Poppet chanted.
    ‘Don’t let that no-mark twat bring you down!’ Nic actually slapped the table.
    Lizzy looked at Poppet’s sweet little face and Nic, all fierce-browed and indignant, and felt a rush of love. They were the best friends in the world. Who needed a man? Who
cared
if she was a global laughing stock when she had these two?
    ‘To friendship!’ Nic said.
    ‘And codpieces!’ Poppet cried.
    Lizzy held her glass aloft. ‘To friends and codpieces!’
    ‘Alcopops.’ Nic looked smug. ‘Just saying.’
    It turned out that Nic was right. The next day the news broke that a Lib Dem MP had been caught in a dogging circle, and a Hollywood couple had split up amidst allegations of adultery. When Lizzy cautiously peeked out of the living room curtains the reporters had gone. For now at least, the storm had blown over.
    The tight knot that had been sitting in Lizzy’s chest since Saturday night suddenly loosened. She stood in front of her bedroom mirror in her dressing gown, able to think properly for the first time in ages.
    The last few days had taken their toll. There were dark circles under her eyes and what appeared to be a Worzel Gummidge wig had crash-landed on her head.
Had
she lost a bit of stress-related weight? Lizzy turned sideways. If she stood in a certain way, breathed in and pushed her hips forward, her stomach did look a bit flatter.
    If Lizzy had to describe herself she’d say she was Miss Average, but she didn’t mean it in a derogatory way. She was just normal: five foot five, shoe size six and generally hovering around the size twelve mark (or a size ten in GAP). Her bum and her sunny smile were probably her best assets, her wobbly belly not so much. Her corkscrew blonde curls had been the bane of her life when she was younger, but these days Lizzy just bunged on the anti-frizz and hoped for the best. Justin had always said he’d found girls with curly hair sexy, even if he had remarked once that Lizzy looked like Louis XIV after she’d got out of the shower.
    Justin.
What was he up to at that very moment? It was a Wednesday, so he was probably at his early-morning Pilates class. Lizzy imagined him in his Lycra cycling shorts, quads quivering with concentration. Those quads, no longer hers to run her hands over. Never again would she start a sentence with the words: ‘My boyfriend