The Lie Read Online Free PDF Page A

know a guy who used to work for Manumission who could get us free tickets.”
    “Did you shag him?”
    She gives me the middle finger.
    “That’s a yes, then,” I say, and she laughs.
    “So? Ibiza, then? Ian will give me the time off, and I’ve got a month until my next runner job. Whoop, whoop! Ibiza, here we come.” The bed squeaks in protest as Daisy bounces up and down.
    “How long for?” I ask. “I’ve got three weeks’ holiday left but I was hoping to save one of those weeks for Christmas.”
    “Quit. Honestly, Emma. It’ll be the best decision you ever make. Go to Ibiza and get another job when you come back. You can afford it. You’ve got three months’ emergency money saved up, you said as much last week.”
    “Actually …” Leanne tentatively raises a hand but Daisy ignores her.
    “Go on, Emma, it’s for Al. She’d love a couple of weeks in Ibiza. She went last year, didn’t she?”
    “Didn’t she go with Simone?”
    “How’s that a problem? She won’t be there this time. Will she?”
    “I don’t know, but she’ll have lots of memories of going there with Simone, and—”
    “Emma!” Leanne snaps. “Can I get a word in, please?”
    “Why are you having a go at me? I wasn’t the only one talking.”
    “As I was saying” – she peers over her specs at Daisy – “I think we should go on holiday, but we should go to a place where, a) she’s a long way from Simone, and b) she hasn’t got access to the internet, and c) she get can her head together.”
    “Like where?”
    “Nepal,” Leanne says.
    “Where?”
    “Nepal! It’s in Asia, near Tibet.”
    Daisy wrinkles her nose. “Why would we want to go there?”
    “There’s an amazing retreat in the mountains called Ekanta Yatra. My yoga teacher told me about it. Look!” She flashes her mobile at Daisy then taps the screen. “Amazing fresh, home-cooked food, yoga, a river you can swim in, a waterfall, massages, facials. We could spend a day in Kathmandu then do two weeks at the retreat, then we could fly to a place called Chitwan and go on a jungle safari. It would be the adventure of a lifetime.”
    Leanne’s face is aglow. I’ve never seen her look so energised; she normally looks so wan and tired. She’s desperately thin, and Daisy and I have speculated several times about whether or not she might have an eating disorder.
    “Could I see that?” I reach out a hand for her mobile. She presses it into my palm without saying a word.
    I scroll through the website. It would seem Ekanta Yatra’s run by a group of Westerners who met when they were travelling through Asia and decided to start a “retreat from the world” nestled in the Annapurna mountain range, an area popular with hikers. It’s beautiful, and the idea of spending a couple of weeks being pampered, reading novels and swimming in a crystal-clear river appeals, but …
    “There’s no Wi-Fi,” I say.
    “Is that a problem?”
    “Well, yeah. I’ve started applying for new jobs and I won’t be able to check my email.”
    Leanne slips off the bed and takes five steps across the room to the kettle. She picks it up and refills it from the tap. “You don’t have to come, Emma. No one’s forcing you.”
    It’s not that Leanne and I actively dislike each other; we are
friends
but only when we’re with Daisy or Al. We don’t go for drinks together or have text message marathons. We’ll laugh at each other’s jokes and buy each other birthday presents, but we’ve never developed any kind of closeness or warmth. I don’t know why that is. Maybe it’s because I didn’t like the way she looked me up and down the first time we met. Maybe it’s because I forgot to get her a drink when I went to the bar to get a round. Or maybe it’s because, sometimes, when you meet someone, you get a vibe that they just don’t like you, and that vibe never quite disappears.
    “I’ll bloody force her,” Daisy says, jumping off the bed and onto my lap. “You’ll