Shopaholic on Honeymoon Read Online Free PDF Page A

cubicle, to see Mindy hovering nearby.
    ‘Wow!’ Her voice is bright but her eyes are shocked. ‘You look …’ She coughs. ‘Awesome. It’s not too … tight?’
    ‘No, it’s perfect,’ I say, attempting a carefree smile. ‘I’ll take it.’
    ‘Great!’ She can barely hide her astonishment. ‘So, if you want to take it off, I’ll scan it for you …’
    ‘Actually, I’ll wear it.’ I try to sound casual. ‘Might as well. Can you put my clothes in a bag?’
    ‘Right,’ says Mindy. There’s quite a long pause. ‘You’re sure you don’t want to try the size 6?’
    ‘No! Size 4 is perfect!
Really
comfy!’
    ‘OK,’ says Mindy after a silence. ‘Of course. That’ll be eighty-three dollars.’ She scans the barcode on the tag hanging from my neck and I reach for my credit card. ‘So, you’re into athletics?’
    ‘Actually, I’m running in the Ten Miler tomorrow afternoon.’
    ‘No way!’ She looks up, impressed, and I try to appear nonchalant and modest. The Ten Miler isn’t just any old running race. It’s
the
race. It’s held every year in LA and loads of high-profile celebrities run it and they even cover it on E! And I’m in it!
    ‘How did you get a place?’ Mindy says enviously. ‘I’ve applied for that race, like, every year.’
    ‘Well.’ I pause for effect. ‘I’m on Sage Seymour’s team.’
    ‘Wow.’ Her jaw drops, and I feel a spurt of glee. It’s true! I, Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood), am running in the team of a top movie star! We’ll do calf stretches together! We’ll wear matching baseball caps! We’ll be in
US Weekly
!
    ‘You’re British, right?’ Mindy interrupts my thoughts.
    ‘Yes, but I’m moving to LA soon. I’m out here to look at houses with my husband, Luke. He has a PR company and he works with Sage Seymour,’ I can’t help adding proudly.
    Mindy looks more and more impressed.
    ‘So are you and Sage Seymour, like,
friends
?’
    I fiddle with my purse, delaying my reply. The truth is, despite all my hopes, Sage Seymour and I aren’t exactly friends. In fact, the real truth is, I still haven’t met her. Which is so unfair. Luke’s been working with her for ages, and I’ve already been out to LA once for a job interview, and now I’m out here again, finding a house and a pre-school for our daughter, Minnie … but have I even
glimpsed
Sage?
    When Luke said he was going to work with Sage Seymour and we were going to move to Hollywood, I thought we’d be seeing her every day. I thought we’d be hanging out by her pink pool in matching sunglasses and going for mani-pedis together. But even Luke hardly ever seems to see her, he just has meetings with managers and agents and producers all day long. He says he’s learning the movie business and it’s a steep learning curve. Which is fair enough, because previously, he’s only advised financial companies and big conglomerates. But does he have to be so resolutely non-starry-eyed? When I got a tiny bit frustrated the other day, he said, ‘For God’s sake, Becky, we’re not making this huge move just to meet
celebrities
.’ He said
celebrities
like he was saying
earwigs
. He understands nothing.
    The great thing about Luke and me is that we think alike on nearly everything in life and that’s why we’re so happily married. But we have just a few, teeny points of disagreement. Such as:
    1. Catalogues. (They are not ‘clutter’. They’re
useful
. You never know when you might need a personalized kitchen blackboard with a dinky little bucket for the chalk. Plus I like reading them at bedtime.)
    2. Shoes. (Keeping all my shoes in their original boxes for ever is not ridiculous, it’s
thrifty
. They’ll come back into fashion one day and then Minnie can wear them. And meanwhile he should look where he’s stepping.)
    3. Elinor, his mother. (Long, long story.)
    4. Celebrities.
    I mean, here we are in
LA
. The home of celebrities. They’re the local natural phenomenon. Everyone knows you