How to Date a Millionaire Read Free

out, just wanted to meet Holly. And Ned, who also just wanted to meet Holly, and Justin, who … well, you get the picture. It’s because of Ben, Ned and Justin that I’ve been listening to my head more than my heart lately and spending most of my time with Alexa. And at home. Alexa and home are safe and make things feel a little more real. Less like the feeling that I turned my back and someone dropped the 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle that is my life on the expensive parquetry floor and I can’t remember what the picture looked like to put it back together again. Needless to say, over the past couple of months, I’ve learnt a lot about how people like Holly live their lives. Which led, only last week, to me getting The Talk (one of many, but this was the newest one in the The Talk line-up).
    I think Holly and Dad picked up what was wrong with me, and why I was hanging around the house so much, quite fast. Especially as the Ben/Ned/Justin thing happened in quick succession. Holly sat me down (and didn’t cry for five minutes! Or say that she was soooooooooo fat!)and told me that, yes, I was right in that I needed to be careful, but that I also shouldn’t let people like Ben, Ned and Justin stop me from letting new people into my life. She explained that she’d seen too many actors opt for the safe path I was choosing and end up with an inner-circle of yes men/women – their publicist, stylist, personal trainer etc – who they thought were their friends. But they weren’t. Not really. They were simply on the payroll. She went on to say that real friends were hard to find, but they were out there. You just had to keep sifting through the trash to find the treasure. Even after a nasty break-up, or a fight, when it would be easier to stay home and wallow in your misery, you had to somehow find the strength within you to get out there and keep right on sifting. Which was how she’d found us. As in, me and Dad – her two treasures (this is where they went all gushy again, as they tend to do, and I had to leave the room).
    Recently, I’ve thought a lot about what Holly said. I think she’s right. It’s like I learnt last year, in the lead-up to Holly and Dad’s wedding. I was going just a little bit crazy with the wedding planning (just a little bit!), and Alexa told me a lot of things I didn’t want to hear. That’s howI know Alexa’s really my friend. She’s always telling me things I don’t want to hear. In fact, I can barely remember Alexa ever telling me something I do want to hear, that’s how good a best friend she is. Whereas Ben, Ned and Justin – well, I didn’t know it to start with, but all their smooth talk was leading somewhere – straight up to the apartment to meet Holly, as it turned out. So, yes, I might have been a bit reclusive lately, but at least I’ve got a reason. I’ve been protecting myself – trying to figure things out. All these new people who are interested in me? It’s hard to know who to trust. I guess, as I also discovered last summer with the wedding, I just have to learn to trust myself. That I can deal with all this change that’s being thrown my way. And I know I can. It’s just hard sometimes to know what choices to make, I suppose. The choices I’m offered when I’m with Alexa (salt and vinegar versus sour cream and chives Pringles) and at home ( Cops or SpongeBob SquarePants with Holly on the sofa) are much easier to make and I feel a bit more comfortable making them than choices of the Ben/Ned/Justin kind at the moment. I’ll get there in the end, though. I know I will. I’ll be sifting again in no time.
    I lie down on my bed and stare at the ceiling. Hawaii. By pj. Yay. I really can’t wait. And something’s telling me I need this break as much as B and G do (geez, I almost sound like I’m buying into the whole ‘B and G need a break’