What goes around comes around (Lily’s Story) Read Online Free PDF Page B

than the
first time, but something about her personal magnetism draws me to her, and I can’t
help but smile back.
    “I hear we might be sharing a room,” I say, looking up at
her shyly.  She laughs, a great joyous laugh that draws the attention of the
room again and makes me laugh in response this time.
    “I can’t wait, Lily.  I’m so overdue a bit of fun.  I don’t
know about you, but some play time with a bit of walking for a good cause
thrown in sounds really good.  I think you and I’ll hopefully have a great time
in between the exercise,” she says with a wink.  I explain to her I still need
to sort out some things at home before I can definitely confirm, but if it’s at
all possible I will try to make it. 
    Something about her has me looking forward to going.  She
grins at me and takes my mobile number, immediately entering it into her phone,
insisting we will need to meet up in advance of going to agree who’s going to
bring what, and that she’ll text me to arrange a day and time in case we don’t
bump into each other again at the gym. 
    I nod obediently before hesitantly raising my hand in
farewell and then scurrying my way over to the first apparatus on my revised
programme, surreptitiously watching Annie out of the corner of my eye all the
while.  She’s magnificent, with a body to die for.  Not stick-thin, but womanly
with legs which stretch on seemingly for miles.  She laughs her way around the
gym, appearing to know everyone.  I watch their faces light up when she pauses
to speak to them, especially the men.   Kind of like a red-haired gym version
of Princess Diana , I muse, feeling small and invisible by comparison.  I know
immediately when she’s left because the electric hum that seems to accompany
her has gone, and the gym seems just a bit less brightly lit and cheerful, so I
buckle down to trying not to fall off the treadmill at the new gradient Stuart
had set me.

Chapter 5
    By the time I get home that evening, all the boys are
already in.  They have now adjusted to my new routine of going to the gym after
work, happy to wait for food a little later if it means they don’t have to cook
for themselves.  I had been mulling on my way home over how to position the
trip away, worrying about how the boys and Greg were likely to react, but it
seems as if the fates are smiling on me for once in my life.  As I’m serving up
plates of chicken with salad and potatoes (the rotisserie in the supermarket has
recently become a personal lifesaver and worth the cost of a few of my personal
luxuries), Ethan announces that the agency has found him a new job.  There are
general encouraging noises from around the table as he explains he will be
doing silver service waiting on tables at posh events.  The agency apparently keep
a supply of people trained, whom they then draft in when a client has a big
event that they need extra staff for. It seems the job would involve a weekend
training course, because apparently there was a certain etiquette and technique
which needed to be adhered to.  But after that, assuming he passed his
assessment, he had been told they tended to be needed most weekends and some
weekday evenings too; and the money was excellent.  I don’t hear much more
after he mentions the training weekend is the same weekend as the planned Peak
District trip.  One down, two to go. 
    It’s like some sort of divine miracle when Adam, who’s
waiting to start an English degree course at Exeter in October, pipes up.  “Well,
since Ethan is buggering off and won’t be around at weekends, there isn’t much
point in me hanging around much longer at home.  My room in University Halls is
available from the middle of September, so if one of you can take me down there,
I’ll head off the same weekend to give myself a chance to settle in and get the
lie of the land before term starts properly.”  I hold my breath, not daring to
show the hope on my face.
    Greg grunts before