The Chocolate Lovers’ Wedding Read Free Page A

want prolonged close contact with him to threaten that.
Thus, it has left us ladies all wandering aimlessly through inferior cafés and, in my particular case, inferior jobs too. But, in times of darkness, I don’t know what I’d do without these girls in my life. They have gone from being mere friends to the sisters I never had.
Chantal Hamilton is the oldest among us and, more often than not, the wisest too. She’s currently in the throes of divorcing her husband, Ted – which, despite being reasonably amicable, is still taking its toll. She also has a delicious baby, Lana, who we all adore. She was previously a journalist on a magazine featuring stunning homes throughout the UK, though she’s not working at the moment as she can’t bear to leave Lana every day. I guess, after the divorce is finalised, that might have to change. Lana must be coming up to a year old soon and I have no idea where that time has gone.
Autumn Fielding is the youngest member, the earth mother among us. She is optimistic, idealistic and would have been far better working at Green IT than I ever was. She would have made them turn off the air conditioning. She would have made Mr Simmonds smile. Probably. Usually she’s the calm and laidback one but, at the moment, she’s got a lot on her plate too. She fluffs her unruly mop of auburn curls and my heart goes out to her.
What can I tell you about, Nadia Stone? She’s curvaceous, a real beauty with gorgeous caramel skin and a skein of dark hair. Her son, Lewis, is four now and she’s had a struggle bringing him up alone after the death of her husband, but I think she’s finally met someone to put a glimmer back into those stunning hazel eyes of hers.
Last, and maybe least, there’s me. I’m Lucy Lombard. I’m the wrong side of thirty, still a spinster – but not for much longer. I’m overweight, overwrought and if I can mess something up, then I invariably will. But I’m loyal and steadfast and I’m loved by the loveliest man on earth. And I may get a lot wrong – an awful lot – but I was good at running Chocolate Heaven. I really was.
Staring down at my sandwich, I’m disconsolate. ‘Look at what we’re eating.’ I cast another particularly withering glare at Chantal’s salad. ‘This is not the stuff of life.’
‘I’ve lost pounds since we stopped going to Chocolate Heaven,’ she remarks. ‘This is the first time I’ve been pre-baby weight.’ She strokes her admirably flat stomach lovingly.
It’s true that Chantal is slowly regaining her pre-pregnancy glossiness. Now that Lana is a little bit older, she’s no longer cutting her own fringe with the kitchen scissors or nibbling her nails off instead of getting expensive manicures. Her hair is groomed and shiny once more, her nails slicked with pink pearl varnish. I think this has more than a little to do with the fact that she now has the lovely Jacob Lawson in her life on a more permanent basis. ‘I don’t like to remind you, but you’re supposed to be losing a little bit of bootilicious too, Lucy.’
‘Yes, but this is all wrong,’ I protest. ‘I’m having to comfort eat. This is not our spiritual home.’ I gesture inadequately at the equally inadequate café. ‘We are meant to be at Chocolate Heaven.’
‘But we are boycotting it because of Marcus,’ Nadia says.
‘It was your idea,’ Autumn chips in. ‘And we fully back you,’ she adds hastily.
‘We are wandering from unsuitable café to unsuitable café trying to find somewhere that you do like because you never want to clap eyes on him again,’ Chantal adds. ‘Remember?’
‘Ah.’ All heads swivel to look at me. I hesitate to tell them. I really do. Because I know what they’ll say.
They wait, mouths pursed, for the revelation.
‘I sort of saw him at lunchtime,’ I confess.
‘Oh, Lucy.’ Collective voice.
‘What? I didn’t mean to. He turned up outside my office and begged me, really begged me , to go back and run it for him.’
‘You