Miranda Dickinson - Welcome to My World

MIRANDA DICKINSON

Welcome to My World

Copyright

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

AVON

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Copyright © Miranda Dickinson 2010

Miranda Dickinson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780007236183

Ebook Edition © October 2012 ISBN: 9780007352517

Version 2018-07-04

Dedicaton Dedicaton Chapter One - How It All Began . . . Chapter Two - Best Friends Chapter Three - All About Alex Chapter Four - Recycle Your Man Chapter Five - The Point of No Return Chapter Six - Hide-and-Seek Chapter Seven - A Question of Priorities . . . Chapter Eight - You’ve Got Mail . . . Chapter Nine - The Big ‘F’ Chapter Ten - I Never Normally Do This, but . . . Chapter Eleven - If Only You Knew . . . Chapter Twelve - Come Away With Me . . . Chapter Thirteen - So Many Girls, So Little Time . . . Chapter Fourteen - Business as Usual . . . Chapter Fifteen - The Date From Hell . . . Chapter Sixteen - Anyone but Her . . . Chapter Seventeen - All I Want for Christmas . . . Chapter Eighteen - Questions and Answers . . . Chapter Nineteen - Truth and Dare Chapter Twenty - Island Life . . . Chapter Twenty-One - Raise Your Glasses, Please . . . Chapter Twenty-Two - Stepping Out Miranda’s next novel - coming in 2010 Chapter One - The Most Wonderful Time of the Year? Welcome to My World - About the Author Thanksgiving from Author By The Same Author About the Publisher

For Phil Henley – who travelled round the world to find his heart.

Contents

Title Page MIRANDA DICKINSON Welcome to My World

Copyright

Dedicaton Dedicaton Dedicaton Chapter One - How It All Began . . . Chapter Two - Best Friends Chapter Three - All About Alex Chapter Four - Recycle Your Man Chapter Five - The Point of No Return Chapter Six - Hide-and-Seek Chapter Seven - A Question of Priorities . . . Chapter Eight - You’ve Got Mail . . . Chapter Nine - The Big ‘F’ Chapter Ten - I Never Normally Do This, but . . . Chapter Eleven - If Only You Knew . . . Chapter Twelve - Come Away With Me . . . Chapter Thirteen - So Many Girls, So Little Time . . . Chapter Fourteen - Business as Usual . . . Chapter Fifteen - The Date From Hell . . . Chapter Sixteen - Anyone but Her . . . Chapter Seventeen - All I Want for Christmas . . . Chapter Eighteen - Questions and Answers . . . Chapter Nineteen - Truth and Dare Chapter Twenty - Island Life . . . Chapter Twenty-One - Raise Your Glasses, Please . . . Chapter Twenty-Two - Stepping Out Miranda’s next novel - coming in 2010 Chapter One - The Most Wonderful Time of the Year? Welcome to My World - About the Author Thanksgiving from Author By The Same Author About the Publisher For Phil Henley – who travelled round the world to find his heart.

Chapter One - How It All Began . . .

Chapter Two - Best Friends

Chapter Three - All About Alex

Chapter Four - Recycle Your Man

Chapter Five - The Point of No Return

Chapter Six - Hide-and-Seek

Chapter Seven - A Question of Priorities . . .

Chapter Eight - You’ve Got Mail . . .

Chapter Nine - The Big ‘F’

Chapter Ten - I Never Normally Do This, but . . .

Chapter Eleven - If Only You Knew . . .

Chapter Twelve - Come Away With Me . . .

Chapter Thirteen - So Many Girls, So Little Time . . .

Chapter Fourteen - Business as Usual . . .

Chapter Fifteen - The Date From Hell . . .

Chapter Sixteen - Anyone but Her . . .

Chapter Seventeen - All I Want for Christmas . . .

Chapter Eighteen - Questions and Answers . . .

Chapter Nineteen - Truth and Dare

Chapter Twenty - Island Life . . .

Chapter Twenty-One - Raise Your Glasses, Please . . .

Chapter Twenty-Two - Stepping Out

Miranda’s next novel - coming in 2010

Chapter One - The Most Wonderful Time of the Year?

Welcome to My World - About the Author

Thanksgiving from Author

By The Same Author

About the Publisher Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

Chapter One

How It All Began . . .

Right at the start, there are two things you should know about Harri: one, she doesn’t usually make a habit of locking herself in toilet cubicles during parties; and two, she is normally one of the most sane, placid individuals you could ever meet.

But tonight is an exception.

Because this evening – at exactly 11.37 p.m. – the world Harri knew ended in one catastrophic event. In the space of three and a half minutes, everyone she loved collided in an Armageddon of words, leaving mass carnage in its wake – sobbing women, shouting men and squashed vol-au-vents as far as the eye could see. Powerless to stop the devastation, she resorted to the only sensible option left available – seeking refuge in the greying vinyl haven that is the middle cubicle in the ladies’ loo at Stone Yardley Village Hall.

So here she is. Sitting on the wobbly toilet, black plastic lid down, head in hands, life Officially Over. And she has no idea what to do next.

It was all Viv’s idea. Harri should have said no straight away but, being Harri, she decided to give her first Sunday school teacher the benefit of the doubt.

‘You know how useless Alex is at finding suitable girlfriends,’ Viv said, lifting a steaming apple pie from the Aga and in advertently resembling a serene tableau from Country Life as she did so. ‘He’s hopeless! I mean, twelve girlfriends in the last year and not two brain cells between them. Danielle, Renée, Georgia, Saffron, two Marys, three Kirstys, an India , for heaven’s sake – and the last two I can’t even remember . . .’