Julia Williams - The Perfect Escape - Romantic short stories to relax with

Table of Contents

Title Page THE PERFECT ESCAPE Julia Williams, Miranda Dickinson, Claudia Carroll, Sophie Hart, Laura Ziepe, Stella Newman and Anna Lou Weatherley

Don’t Marry Barry Short Story

Don’t Marry Barry Social Media Note

Don’t Marry Barry Extract

Four for Home Short Story

Four for Home Social Media Note

Four for Home Extract

My Midsummer Miracle Story

My Midsummer Miracle Social Media Note

My Midsummer Miracle Extract

The Naughty Girls Hen Weekend Short Story

The Naughty Girls Hen Weekend Social Media Note

The Naughty Girls Hen Weekend Extract

The Pyschic Short Story

The Pyschic Social Media Note

The Pyschic Extract

The Goslathon Short Story

Footnotes

The Goslathon Extract

The Clause Short Story

The Clause Social Media Note

The Clause Extract

Copyright

About the Publisher

‘So, you’re going ahead with it then?’ Mel Andrews asked, as she watched Claire Corrigan flicking through bridal magazines.

‘Ahead with what?’ Claire looked up from the page she was perusing.

‘The wedding, you dope!’

Claire looked at the exquisite diamond ring, now adorning her fourth finger, and then out at the splendid view of London, that Barry’s fantastically airy loft apartment provided.

‘Of course I am,’ she said. ‘Don’t you start.’

‘But you can’t marry Barry,’ said Mel. ‘As your best mate, I have to be sure that you’re doing the right thing.’

Claire looped back her auburn curls over her shoulder.

‘Yes, Mel, I am. Barry and I love each other. What exactly is your problem with that?’

‘What about Steve?’

Steve. Ah, the if-onlys that were contained in that name.

‘What about him?’ Claire shifted slightly uncomfortably in her seat.

‘I seem to recall a time when you used to say you couldn’t imagine being with anyone else.’

‘Yes, well, I was wrong, wasn’t I?’ Claire got up, and looked out of the window. The late summer sun was setting across the river, and in the distance its light reflected in the London Eye, performing its stately dance around the sights of London.

She didn’t like thinking about Steve very much. Too dangerous. It was all too easy to conjure up a vision of him in his leathers, or riding his bike, oozing animal magnetism. There had been something earthy and primitive about Steve, and even now, after all this time, she went hot all over at the thought of him.

‘Steve couldn’t have given me all of this,’ she said waving her arms around at the luxurious apartment. ‘He hardly earned a bean.’

‘Money isn’t everything,’ said Mel.

‘You’re right,’ said Claire, ‘money isn’t everything. But that’s not why I’m marrying Barry. He’s prepared to commit to me, Steve never was. It’s that simple. I wanted the fairy tale wedding and happy ever after, and all Steve could promise me was this year, next year, sometime, never. It would never have worked.’

‘Whereas Barry …’ said Mel.

‘… Is everything I’ve ever dreamed of. He’s sexy, handsome, funny. And he’s solid and reliable. He can give me security and commitment. Two little words that Steve just can’t.’ And yet, said a treacherous little voice in her head, now you’ve got it, is it all it’s cracked up to be? She’d traded her leathers and DMs for Katharine Hamnett and Manolo Blahniks, but sometimes, she wistfully longed for the days when Steve would just pitch up out of the blue, and she’d hop on the back of his bike and they’d ride off, anywhere, just for the sheer joy of it. She had security now, for sure. But joy? Barry wasn’t good at joy.

‘Well if you’re sure …’ said Mel .

‘I’m sure,’ said Claire, as much to convince herself as Mel. ‘Barry’s good for me. We’re good together.’

‘So it’s not a rebound job then?’

It was true that Barry had followed hot on the heels of Steve. In fact, when Claire gave it any thought – which she studiously avoided doing most of the time – they had got together indecently quickly after she had finished with Steve.

But, she had been so furious with Steve by the end. He just hadn’t understood why she wanted to move to London and find a job in PR, when she could have stayed in Bolton watching him take a series of dead-end jobs.

‘It’s because I want to make something of my life,’ she had argued with him. ‘I don’t want to fester here forever.’

‘You mean you want to join the rat race,’ Steve had said. ‘At least if I don’t

tie myself to a job, I can be free to take off whenever I want.’

‘And how long can you go on doing that?’ Claire had demanded. ‘One day, you’re going to have to grow up.’

In the end, she had come to London anyway, and for a while they had limped along, with her going home or him coming to see her. But they had both known it was going nowhere. The final straw had been Steve driving down from Bolton on his motorbike and offering to take her on a cheap round the world trip. He had seriously expected her to get on the back of his deathtrap and follow him. Never mind the great job she had just landed, or the new flat she had just found herself. No, she was just supposed to up sticks and go with the flow.

So she had said no, and they had parted angrily. And apart from a couple of tortuous phone conversations, they hadn’t spoken since. Stubborn pride had prevented her contacting him again. That, and meeting Barry.

Three weeks after she split up with Steve, she bumped into Barry in the lift in the smart new offices on the edge of the City, where she’d just started temping as a PR assistant. The company Barry and Mel worked for was on the fifth floor, one floor above her office. Perhaps it was the fact that he was so different to Steve that first attracted her to him. But she couldn’t help admiring his clean-cut looks, his Armani suits, and hint of regular guyness. And because he was Mel’s new boss, she found herself running into him rather a lot.

At first it seemed accidental, the way she always seemed to meet him in the lift. Then it started to seem rather too coincidental. Till the day that they had found themselves in the lift alone. And the lift had broken down on the third floor. For a few moments they had tried to pretend they were ignoring each other, then it was as if a floodgate had opened, and they were all over each other like a rash. As Claire told Mel afterwards, it was the most passionate non-sex she had ever had. And from then it was just a short step to living together and getting engaged. Steve was history. And Claire told herself she had moved on.

‘No, I’m not just doing it on the rebound,’ she said firmly. ‘I love Barry, he loves me. End of story. Now which dress do you think it the nicest – the Donna Karan or the Katharine Hamnett?’

*

‘This is a bit posh for us, love,’ said Claire’s mum in awed tones, as Claire ushered them into her new home. Her parents didn’t like coming to London, and Claire’s romance had been so whirlwind, this was the first time they’d either met Barry or been to the flat. They’d come down for a pre-wedding get-together, but now they were here they looked out of place. Claire hoped they’d love Barry the way she did, but they seemed so startled by the open-plan design, and the huge glass frontage that overlooked the Thames; she wondered if it had been wise to meet here. So different from their dingy little terrace in Bolton.