‘That’s so exciting you’re going to have a puppy!’
‘Thanks for not being mad at me!’
‘Why would I be mad? Oh – because of the travelling thing? Don’t worry about that, it was only a really vague idea, I hadn’t even thought about it much.’ Alice didn’t mention that she’d wanted to meet here so they could hop straight over the road to a travel agent afterwards and start planning their route.
‘I mean . . . ’ Jill swirled the wine in her glass and stared into the distance for a moment. ‘I did think it would be pretty cool to be one of those Insta-chicks who travels with her dog.’
Alice sat up a little straighter. ‘You’d want to take him with us?’
‘It’s not the stupidest idea I’ve ever had. Where in Europe where you thinking?’
‘I don’t know. If we took a puppy I guess it would make sense to do more a countryside, beach, mountains-kinda tour than a bunch of cities strung together.’ She paused and drank some wine. ‘But that’s definitely not a bad thing.’
‘Could we do it by car? I don’t know the logistics of taking puppies on planes.’
‘A car might be a bit tight, but we could think about a campervan?’
Jill looked at her friend, a smile on her lips. ‘Are you serious? Would you really be happy doing this plan with a dog in tow?’
Alice shrugged. ‘What could go wrong?’
‘Absolutely nothing.’
‘It could be pretty funny.’ A campervan filled with two women and a puppy, making their way around the Continent. It wasn’t quite what she’d had in mind when she’d walked into the bar, but she was open to it. ‘I think we should do it.’
‘I think we should too!’ Jill cheersed her glass. ‘We have a lot to think about and plan. Where do we even start?’
Alice looked around, super-casual. ‘Ohhhh, I don’t know. I guess we could go over to that travel agent’s and get some brochures?’
