Free Cathy Hopkins - [Mates, Dates 05] by Dates Mates, Sole Survivors (Html) Page B

began to get into it. That’s for dumping me, I thought, as I
whacked the cushion. And that’s for turning up at that party with another
girl…Whack! Thwump!
    At the end of the
session, I felt brilliant. Like a dam had burst. Everyone looked exhilarated,
even Prudence, whose hair had escaped her bun and was sticking out all over the
place. We should have done this session before the massage, I thought. It
wouldn’t have been so painful for me if she’d done this first. Chris was right.
I hadn’t known all those feelings were stuck inside. I felt much better about
Tony. I knew that I’d be able to handle it if I saw him at Nesta’s. We could,
as he always wanted, be friends.
    ‘I’m so fed up,’ said
Izzie as we filed out of the room when it was over. ‘I’ve got to go back to the
hotel for the evening and I’ll miss the lecture. It’s about Bach Flower
Remedies and I’m really into those.’
    ‘Til tell you all
about it,’ I said as Daniel caught up with us.
    ‘Maybe we could go for
a walk before the lecture,’ he said, and Izzie gave me the thumbs-up behind his
back.
    ‘Maybe after,’ I said.
‘But first I’m going to walk Iz back to her hotel.’
    My feelings about
Daniel might have done a complete turnaround, but that didn’t mean I’d
forgotten everything that Nesta had taught me. Don’t be too available. Don’t be
too easy.
     
    I got back from the
village an hour later and after putting on a little make-up, went into the
dining room. There was no sign of Daniel.
    All through the
lecture afterwards, I kept looking at the door, expecting him to come in. But
he didn’t. Now what? I thought as I tried to concentrate on the talk. Was he
peeved because I’d gone down to the hotel with Iz? Maybe he wasn’t as nice as
I’d thought he was. All my newfound inner peace evaporated like thin air as I
watched the door.
    ‘The Bach Flower
Remedies are good for correcting any emotional imbalance,’ said Chris. ‘A lot
of disease is literally that -
dis-ease
! Then she began reading a list
of the remedies out and what they were good for. ’Agrimony for mental torture
behind a carefree mask, chesnut for failure to learn from mistakes, impatiens
for frustration, mustard for gloom, scleranthus for mood swings, white chestnut
for mental arguments, wild oat for uncertainty.‘
    That’s me, and that’s
me, I was thinking as she went down the list.
    ‘You’ll only need one
or two of them,’ she said when she’d finished. ‘And they’re on sale in the
dining room.’
    After the talk, Chris
was surrounded by people asking about the remedies, so I didn’t get a chance to
ask her where Daniel was. I went and found Dad instead.
    ‘Can I have next
month’s pocket money as I want to buy some remedies?’ I asked.
    ‘Sure,’ he said.
‘Which ones do you want?’
    ‘
All
of
them,’ I said.
     
     
     
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    Dad wanted to leave at
the crack of dawn the next day so that he’d be back in time to open the shop at
nine-thirty. He dropped me off at home first and it felt wonderful to be back
in the cosy clutter of our kitchen with only Steve and Lai at the breakfast
table instead of a bunch of strangers. Mum had already left for work and Steve
and Lai soon went off to play tennis, so apart from the dogs, I had the whole
house to myself. It felt great to take a long, hot, foamy bath without a queue
of people banging on the door. To make a decent cup of tea and toast and
strawberry jam. As I wandered round the house, I felt that I was seeing
everything in a new light. The telly in the living room I could sit in front of
and watch whatever I liked. My lovely bedroom that I didn’t have to share. My
CD player. And there’d be no more getting up at six a.m. to contort myself into
unnatural positions.
    My bed was calling me,
so I turned off my mobile, switched on the answering machine and climbed under
the duvet for a few hours of divine