Playing by the Rules Read Free

from a regrettable taste in loser men.’
    This stung.
    ‘Alain is not a loser!’
    Jo (having finally emerged from the wardrobe) fixed Kate with a stern stare.
    ‘Hon, he took you out for dinner, the night before you were due to start your lovely summer holidays together, and told you he was in love with someone else. What would
you
call him?’
    Nothing printable
, thought Kate murderously, wincing at the memory of that night. Although she’d called him plenty at the time.
    Fortunately, Jo didn’t seem to require an answer. Dumping a shoebox full of earrings on her bed, she gave Kate a quick hug and steamrolled on.
    ‘Never mind! I have a sure-fire cure for the blues, and you, my dear, are
almost
wearing it.’
    ‘What do you mean, “wearing it”?’
    ‘
Almost
wearing it, I said. A fabulous outfit, of course.’
    In spite of herself, Kate had to laugh.
    ‘Is that your answer to everything?’
    ‘Is what my answer to everything?’ replied Jo, rummaging through the sparkly pile on the bed. ‘Do you think the pearls, or the plain gold? No, don’t answer that, it’s definitely the plain gold for you,’ she said, discarding the others.
    ‘Is there anything you think a fabulous outfit can’t fix?’
    ‘Not much. Stand still, can’t you? And hold your hair out of the way.’
    ‘And now,’ she said, having finished attaching two extravagantly large gold earrings to Kate’s ears, ‘I rest my case.’
    Jo spun her friend around to face the full-length mirror.
    Kate gasped. The outfit was definitely
something
. The soft bronzy stuff of the dress was suspended from a gold ring on one of her shoulders, but from the way it was hugging her curvy bits she suspected it would stay up of its own accord. Kate had long since come to terms with curviness being a fact of her life, but she’d never seen it like this before. Now every undulation of her body was outlined in a colour somewhere between autumn leaves and her hair, in a fabric that shimmered and caught the light as she moved. The dress seemed simultaneously to cover and reveal everything.
    To her surprise, once she got over the shock, she found it didn’t look bad at all. But it didn’t look like her. She looked like someone else. Someone dangerous.
    ‘Jo, I can’t wear this to the reunion!’
    ‘What, you’re going to wear it to do the gardening in?’
    ‘No, of course not! I’m just not sure it’s exactly . . . 
me.
’
    ‘Me, schmee! You want to make a good impression, don’t you?’
    ‘Of course, but . . .’
    ‘No buts! Listen, Kate, you’ve been moping around long enough. Are you going to let that bastard ruin your entire holiday, or are you going to get a grip, move on and have some fun?’
    Kate had a brief mental image of Alain getting a grip and moving on with Sophie. Jo was right. It was time for her to pull herself together. Hadn’t she been telling herself the same thing? She squared her shoulders and looked her friend in the eye.
    ‘Fun,’ she answered firmly. ‘I want to have some fun.’
    ‘Well then?’ It was a challenge.
    Kate turned and looked again at her reflection. It certainly wasn’t her usual style, but wasn’t that exactly what she had decided she needed? And it did look pretty good. Glamorous, even. No more Ms Mousy Kate! She turned to her friend with a smile.
    ‘All right – I’ll do it!’
    ‘Attagirl! Now get out of that rig, so we can do your hair.’
    Kate was complying when she remembered something that the dress had temporarily driven out of her mind.
    ‘Jo, I can’t go – I don’t have a partner.’
    Jo looked up from untangling the cords of more hairstyling equipment than Kate had ever seen outside of a hairdresser.
    ‘Why should that stop you?’
    Kate sank onto the bed among the earrings, suddenly exhausted again. She fiddled with the jewellery, avoiding Jo’s eyes. ‘Because I told them I was bringing . . . when I replied to the invitation . . . I told them I was