Page 4 of CowSex

The sad thing is that we had been good together, but I was over always coming second best to his work. We’d been together for five years, living together for three, and things had gotten progressively worse.

Or had they? Was it just me? Did I have unreasonable expectations when it came to relationships? I’d grown up with just my mum. She went out on the occasional date, but there’d never been anyone serious in her life, so really, I had no other relationships to set the benchmark by.

I take a sip of my wine and let out a long sigh.

“Business or pleasure?” The woman in the next seat asks.

“A bit of both,” I tell her. Offering what I hope is a warm smile as I do.

“You?”

“Oh, I’m going home. I’ve been over to London visiting my daughter, she works and lives there. Has for the past three years.”

I nod. My head’s spinning a little, and I’m worried that if I say too much, I’m gonna slur.

“Is the wine good?”

“The wine’s fantastic,” I tell her with a grin. She smiles back and presses her button to call the stewardess.

She orders her wine, and I get a top up, too.

“Whereabouts is it you live?” I ask.

“Greenwood Village. It’s on the outskirts of Denver.”

I nod. Having no clue where that is, there’s not a lot else I can offer.

“You, where is it you’re staying?”

“I’m renting a cabin in a place called Addison Creek.”

“Oh, I know it. It’s close to Aspen, a beautiful little town. You meeting friends?”

My heart gives a little stutter at her question, and I shake my head.

“No, just me. I was supposed to be travelling with my boyfriend, but we split up a couple of months ago.” I chug on my wine after putting that admission out there.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

I let out another sigh and shrug. “Yeah, me, too. We want different things, so it’s probably for the best.”

She nods in understanding and then puts her hand out. “I’m Dayna.”

“Gracie.” We shake.

“What do you do for work, Gracie?”

“I have a lifestyle blog and my own fashion line that I design.”

I don’t like to call myself a fashion designer because I have had no formal training and hold no qualifications, but after getting soaked and traipsing around in mud-filled shoes at Glastonbury two years running, I’d come up with some lightweight, and more importantly, water-resistant, funky designs for ponchos and Wellington boots. Thanks to my social media and blogging skills, I’d turned this into a small, second-income business within the space of a year. Eight years later, after finally plucking up the courage to focus more on my designs, my range includes festival-style clothing that’s lightweight and can be worn come rain or shine.

“Oh wow, how exciting,” Dayna states. I put her age at around sixty, so she probably wouldn’t have heard of my brand.

“What’s your blog called? I’ll have to take a look.”

“Gracie’s Way. Our fashion line is called Gracie Baby.”

“Oh, I know it. You make those funky rain boots. I have one of your umbrellas with the daisies on it.”