Page 2

‘He’s an artist too, all about creating the feels in people… Chase Miller can give you the feels alright. The kind you want F-all to do with. Believe me.’

‘Chase Miller?’ Bella repeated, as though recognising the name.

But then of course she would. Bella was Upper Crust New York.

Bella and ‘her set’ probably spent their weekends wandering the halls of art galleries as much as the shops along Fifth Avenue.

And Astrid wasn’t being bitchy. No, she was distracting herself from the image of Chase’s wife appearing at their hotel room door. Ashen and?—

‘What is wrong with these men?’ Bella suddenly exclaimed, rocking Astrid’s head back into the present. ‘Doesn’t marriage mean anything any more?’

‘I don’t think men get the concept of commitment,’ Sienna murmured. ‘Even the ones who seem to get it are just faking it.’

And now they were all looking at Sienna, knowing there was a story to tell.

‘Sorry.’ She gave a shaky laugh. ‘That’s a little dramatic, isn’t it?’

‘What happened?’ Bella said.

‘My ex kind of just… discarded me. It wasn’t like some big, dramatic break-up.

I didn’t even get the chance to throw plates.

’ Sienna waved it off, but she wasn’t fooling Astrid.

She’d seen that style of break-up too many times with Mum, and they were the worst , the most unbearable.

Because those were the ones that never made sense.

Not to Mum. And not to her. The child in it all.

‘I mean, we were just kids, but we were each other’s firsts, you know? And I thought we were going to have a life together, but he hightailed it out of town without a backward glance. Like nothing we had mattered.’

Astrid downed her drink with a muttered curse. Men. Bastard men, and the shitty hand of pain they dealt.

‘Can I bring you anyone’s head?’ Sienna asked Paige, who choked on a laugh.

The nervous titter had Astrid’s Spidey-senses tingling. People only ever wanted to give away what they were comfortable with… when the really interesting stuff lay in the un comfortable.

And this definitely had Paige on edge.

‘I broke up with my ex, Harvey,’ she eventually admitted, ‘after a brief, intense relationship and then he… posted naked pictures and video of me online. He’d taken them without my knowledge or consent.’

Every curse imaginable raced through Astrid’s mind along with the billion-and-one hit pieces she wanted to release into the world about this man she knew nothing about but already wanted to ruin with every fibre of her being.

‘Revenge porn?’ Sienna hissed.

Paige nodded. ‘I’ve never felt so degraded.’ Her fiery-haired friend dropped her gaze to the table in humiliation – humiliation ? – as she told them the whole sorry tale, from a dedicated law student with a bright future to a uni dropout with stunted career prospects, all because of a man!

Astrid shrivelled up inside. Ugh, men! She filled up everyone’s glass, trying to get a handle on her emotions before she trusted herself to speak.

‘They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it,’ Sienna suddenly declared.

Now that Astrid wholeheartedly agreed with. ‘Damn right they shouldn’t!’

‘Look, what if we…’ Sienna did a quick sweep of the circle and leaned in, encouraging them all to do the same. ‘I know this sounds crazy and I may be a little drunk.’ And the little cutesy hiccoughed which caused them all to chuckle. ‘What if we took it upon ourselves to exact some revenge?’

Astrid’s eyes widened. Revenge! Was she serious?

And if so…

‘I don’t mean murdering them or anything.

’ Sienna waved a hand that Astrid had to duck.

‘I mean, look, these guys have had everything go their way, right? They got to walk all over us. Or walk out on us. Why should they just get to live their best lives while we’re picking up the remnants of ours?

Why not have a little fun at their expense? ’

‘What kind of fun?’ Bella asked warily.

‘Nothing serious,’ Sienna assured. ‘Stuff that would inconvenience them. That we could have a laugh over. Like, signing them up to hundreds of mailing lists. Or putting a dead fish in their wheel hubs…’

Sienna kept reeling off ideas and Astrid stared at her in wonder, amazed that behind those big blue eyes hid such a mischievous mind. The woman was a genius!

‘Some of those things would require us to get close,’ Bella said.

‘That’s why we pick someone else’s ex.’

‘It’s an excellent plan,’ Astrid blurted. ‘So good, I wish I’d thought of it. Who would you pick?’

‘Harvey the horrible,’ Sienna said, without hesitation. ‘If he spends time regularly in the US, I’m sure I’ll be able to figure out something. You?’

Well, if Sienna had Harvey taken care of then…

‘I’d take your heartbreaker. Any guy who’d just walk out on a sweetheart like you deserves to be played a little.’

‘And I’d take your cheating, married, bastard ex,’ Bella announced, and Astrid wanted to giggle. In the two hours they had talked, watching Bella become a little unglued was fun in an adoring, newfound friend kind of a way.

‘Which leaves you with Olly.’ Bella looked at Paige. ‘And that’s perfect because he slunk back to England after the wedding. To his dad’s place in Cornwall. How’s your sitting schedule for the new year?’

And just like that Paige and Bella started talking deets. Actual deets!

They were really going to do this…

‘Are we really going to do this?’ Paige’s hesitant voice overrode Astrid’s eager inner voice.

‘Well, I sure as hell am,’ she confirmed, the fire Chase had lit months ago now burning bright with the tales from her friends. And the fizz. And the fondant fancies. ‘I don’t know about you, but I’ll sleep a little better knowing Horrible Harvey is getting his comeuppance.’

‘Look, this only works if we all agree,’ Sienna said, taking a more measured approach. ‘Nobody should feel pressured into doing it if it doesn’t sit right.’

‘God, fuck, yes!’ Astrid plopped a fondant fancy in whole to stifle her loose lips… though they were sinking a few men, not entire ships. ‘The last thing I want to do,’ she said over her mouthful, ‘is browbeat my new co-conspirators.’ She swallowed. ‘Sorry, besties.’

‘I do love a cream tea,’ Paige said, and Astrid blinked. Cream tea? Ah , Cornwall, Cornish Cream Tea. Gotcha! ‘I’d be safe there?’

‘Definitely,’ Bella rushed out. ‘For all his commitment-phobe tendencies, he’s a true gentleman. Painfully polite in that very English way. And I know he feels terribly guilty about the jilting. Which I’m perfectly okay exploiting to get you in there. I still have his number.’

‘Oh yes,’ Astrid said, her pulse picking up again. ‘That’s a great plan. You could text him now.’ She glanced at the trusty clocks. ‘It’s six in the evening over there.’

They all looked at each other, still debating until Sienna declared it a case of ‘kismet’… If Olly replied there and then, the plan was meant to be. If he didn’t, they’d all had a laugh talking the talk without the walk.

So, Bella texted and no one moved.

Astrid wasn’t sure anyone even breathed.

She felt like Hugh Grant stuck in the vanity cupboard while his mate finally got his end away in – yes, you guessed it – FWAAF . That was until an incoming text chimed sealing Olly’s fate.

The trap was set. Karma was afoot!

And that needed toasting.

‘To just desserts,’ Astrid declared, raising a fresh glass of prosecco to her new besties as ‘Last Christmas’ rang out through the PA system, and they all clinked glasses.

‘Now,’ Paige said to Bella. ‘Tell me more about Olly.’

‘And while you’re doing that’ – Astrid turned to Sienna – ‘you’re coming with me. We have your heartbreaker to discuss… and I need the loo.’

‘The perfect place to talk about him,’ Sienna muttered as Astrid hauled her to her feet and made for the ladies. ‘Aiden belongs in the toilet.’

She laughed. ‘So his name’s Aiden?’

‘Yup. I told you he was a twin, right?’

‘No?’

‘An NHL player, too. Well, they both are…’

Astrid almost lost her footing. ‘Are you kidding me?’

Sienna gave that cutesy hiccough. ‘Aiden and Blake Carter, they play ice hockey for the New York Titans.’

‘What the actual…’ Astrid stopped in her tracks, jarring Sienna back. ‘Aiden is the Aiden of the Titan Twins!’

Sienna wrinkled up her nose. ‘Yeah, but he wasn’t when we were together. He was just Aiden, my guy. Mom had died, Dad was a mess and heading for prison?—’

‘ Prison ?’

‘He was in a car accident. It wasn’t his fault but the authorities…

’ She took an unsteady breath. ‘Anyway, Aiden was my everything, the one person I could depend on, and he promised me the world, said he’d take me with him.

But hello , here I still am and he’s…’ She waved a hand skyward.

‘I was just the lowly fool who believed him.’

‘You’re no fool.’

‘And you’re too kind.’

‘Na-ah. He let you go; that makes him the fool in my book.’

She gave a lopsided smile. ‘A fool you could break a little for me?’

Big blue eyes blinked up at her and Astrid stared back at the woman.

Sweet Jesus! Dealing with an unknown entity was one thing. But dealing with someone whose face she’d seen plastered on billboards and commercials – a sports hero adored by the masses! – was something else entirely.

Hell, he was right there hanging behind the counter of Just Desserts, his great big permatanned head and freaking white grin chowing down on a strawberry sundae .

And no, she wasn’t paying attention to the tightly clad abs sitting just behind said sundae…

like what idiot believed you could get a bod like that with a dish like?—

‘Astrid?’

Blue eyes were still blinking, and she was still gawping!

She snapped her gob shut. Shock. That was all it was. Shock and the hit of reality now that she had a face to put to the man.

And of course, she could do this for Sienna. Sienna and her newfound friends. Because they’d made a pact that was bigger than one person, bigger than the four of them; it was about dishing out a little karma for all the wronged women of this world.

‘Yes!’ She hugged Sienna to her chest. ‘Yes, I can do this.’

She bloody well would do this.

If she could bedazzle Mr Crisp amidst a frenzied airport, she could sure as shit bedazzle an ice hockey all-star chillaxed in his own environment.

‘I take it by all the promotional stuff’ – she hooked her arm in Sienna’s and strode forth once more – ‘he isn’t media shy?’

Sienna gave a bark of a laugh. ‘What do you think?’

‘Perfect.’ She grinned. ‘Just perfect!’

Her job would give her a way in, all she had to do was come up with an angle.

‘Now tell me all you can and don’t skimp on the detail…’