Time to be selfish,I thought. No should-be-divorcing parents, no worries about others’ feelings, and no rotten, cheating ex was going to get in the way of this beautiful break from reality now. Especially no men. If there was one thing I didn’t need to find when I stepped off this plane, it was a distraction in male form unless it was fictional. The girls beside me could do what they wanted with who they wanted.
Me, though? I forbade it.
I’d rather fly back home the next day than fall into the arms of another man any time soon.
I’d just hit ‘block’ on Rob’s number to ensure no distractions when Bailey’s voice rang out around our small apartment.
“It’s everywhere! Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be? This stuff only ever happens to me,” she whimpered.
We’d been unpacking our bags for a mere three minutes when a shampoo explosion in Bailey’s suitcase threatened to ruin her holiday before it had even begun. Reliable “The Matlock Rock” Rhea fussed around her, removing the clothes that hadn’t been soaked, sorting them into piles, while I began to rinse the affected bikinis out in the bathroom we shared. If you could evencall them bikinis. Baileys garments looked more like pieces of dental floss than actual clothing, but more power to her for being able to pull them off. I certainly didn’t have the confidence for them.
“You’ll look back on this tomorrow and laugh, Bails.” Rhea wrung out a barely-there top of Bailey’s that looked like two pieces of fuchsia cloth held together by the tiniest length of string, her brows creased as she studied it.
“It’s like you don’t even know me,” Bailey hit back with a huff.
I sure did love her fierceness and unwavering loyalty, as well as her readiness to burn the body of anyone who dared to hurt those she adored, but when Bailey wasn’t happy, the whole world knew about it. Especially Rhea and me.
“Silly me.” Rhea snickered. “For a moment there I forgot you struggle to laugh at your own misfortunes.”
“We don’t all hide behind our humour like you, Rhea.”
“You should try it. Gives you less wrinkles.”
Bailey reached up to brush her fingers over her furrowed brow, her lips parting as she felt for lines that weren’t there on her twenty-three-year-old forehead.
Rhea laughed again, and Bailey quickly reached for the rogue hairbrush on her bed before she launched it at Rhea’s head, only missing thanks to Rhea’s well-timed duck.
“Hey!” Rhea cried. “How many times do we have to go over this? Violence solves nothing.”
“Shut up and be a real friend.” Bailey turned my way, a ruined towel now in her hands as her sad eyes found mine. “This is why you should have been the one to share a room withher, Bee, not me.”
I couldn’t help my half smile and eyebrow raise. “You were the one who made us play rock, paper, scissors for our rooms and said all decisions were final. No transfers.”
“Fine. At least tell her not to start with me so soon into this trip, then.”
“Stop being so sensitive, woman.” Rhea rolled her eyes.
“Don’t gaslight me.”
“Why is every form of criticism considered gaslighting these days?”
I held my hands up to silence them both. “Here’s an idea. How about youbothstop, take a breather, and I’ll go down to the bar to grab us a cocktail each so we can at least get a little buzzed before we go figure this place out, huh?”
Rhea pressed her hands into a prayer, mouthing her thank you at me.
“This is why you’re the best of us, Bee,” Bailey said with a sudden smile on her face. “Whatever you order, make mine strong. My stress levels need calming.”
With a nod and a flat smile, I picked up my bag and slung it over my shoulder before I made my way out of there. As soon as we arrived at our apartment, I’d changed into my white bikini and a cute pair of cut off, denim shorts, which I was grateful for now as I stepped back out into the midday Greek humidity to make my escape. As much as I adored my friends and their commitment to making me happy, there was only so much of them I could take when they got that way with each other. I’d barely even let the door close behind me before I heard the two of them bickering again.
Bails and Rhea were like chalk and cheese, and neither one of them knew how or when to back down. My role in our three-way friendship had most definitely become the peacemaker over the years, and that suited me just fine. Confrontation and I usually went together about as well as oil and water.
Until recently, anyway.
Then again, I was surviving on my last nerves after the breakup with Rob, and then the whole saga with my cluelessparents and their loveless marriage. I’d spent years as their only child, sidestepping their battles, pretending to ignore the dangers of the warzone we lived in that they affectionately called our “home”. For the last fifteen years of my life, I’d prayed they’d just part ways and call time on their marriage, but every time I’d tried to voice it they’d shot me down, telling me they were perfectly fine; I’d been imagining their struggles. If Bailey wanted a real lesson in gaslighting, all she had to do was spend a weekend among my parents to realise Rhea had nothing on either of them.
Despite only being on the island of dreams for a matter of hours, the very thought of my parents had me automatically reaching into my bag and pulling my phone out to check for any missed calls or messages from my mother—the one parent who seemed to need me these days more than I needed her. Old habits die hard, and I was about to chastise myself and throw the phone back in my bag when the message alert caught my eye.
Mum
