Free Virgin by Radhika Sanghani Page A

millionaire,” he admitted. “Especially because I’m definitely not a millionaire, and just had my wallet stolen today—which is why I’m in a shit mood. Sorry. I don’t normally go to parties and stand alone in a corner being unfriendly.”
    Okay, so he knew he was being unfriendly before and he didn’t normally respond with less-than-five-word sentences. This was positive news. I figured he wasn’t rejecting me, so I asked him what had happened and let him tell me his ten-minute sob story about getting pickpocketed on the 176 bus to Penge. We sat down on the sofa together and carried on chatting.
    It turned out Jack was twenty-six, originally from Nottingham but lived in South London, loved philosophy and art, hated all the music I loved and kind of
was
the Shoreditch stereotype I had guessed he was. But we still ended up talking for hours, and he laughed at all my jokes, even the ones I didn’t realize I was making.
    “Do you want a drink?” he asked suddenly.
    “Sure, I’d love another . . . erm, vodka and orange?” I said, looking doubtfully at the pale, sickly looking remnants of the drink left in my glass.
    “Is that what that is?” he asked, nodding his head wisely. “Wow, I’d forgotten the crap that students drink. Luckily, I bought a bottle of Beaujolais before my wallet got stolen, so shall I pour you some of that instead?”
    “Uh, yes, please,” I said, impressed by the fancy bottle of red that he pulled out of a canvas bag.
    He had started pouring the wine into two cups when Emma swooped up, a cup in her hand. “And one for me please, thank you very much.”
    Jack looked a bit taken aback but went along with it when he saw Emma envelop me in a bear hug. “Sooo, are we having fun, Ellie? Oh my God, I met the nicest guy. He is so much fitter than yesterday’s barman, who still hasn’t texted—what a wanker. Anyway, so Mike, the new guy, is a total cutie.”
    “I saw,” I said, raising my eyebrows at her. “There was some major flirting going on there.”
    “Not just over there,” she added, grinning, and looked pointedly at Jack.
    I flushed red and quickly said, “Yeah, okay. So, Jack, this is Emma. Emma, Jack.”
    She turned to face Jack and gave him a full hundred-watt smile. “Glad to see Ellie’s getting to know the only guy at this party who brought decent drinks with him.”
    “Well, hey, someone had to.” He grinned back at her.
    I felt the familiar Lara-jealousy creeping into my stomach as I realized they were flirting with each other, and even though I didn’t fancy Jack, I really didn’t want to be the rejected third wheel again. Except I had forgotten that Emma wasn’t Lara. When Jack had finished pouring her drink, she winked at me, blew him a kiss and disappeared with the drink in hand.
    “So, that was Emma!” I said brightly, recovering from my temporary lapse of self-esteem and inwardly telling myself off for ever having doubted her.
    “She seems fun.”
    “She is. Hey, what’s the mysterious Eric like?”
    “Not so mysterious at all, really,” he said, gesturing towards a tall, dark-haired guy standing at the back of the room with his arm around Hannah. Eric was very good-looking, at least six feet tall, with stubble. He wore a T-shirt with an image of headphones printed around its neckline, and he looked bored. Hannah was welcome to him.
    “So, do you know Hannah well?” he asked.
    “Um.” I paused. “Well, we’ve had a lot of classes together these past few years, and we have a lot of mutual friends so I guess I know her well enough. We don’t really hang out one-on-one though. Ever.”
    He laughed. “Okay, I get it. You’re acquaintances more than you’re friends. To be honest, I don’t really get on too well with her.”
    My face shone with delight but I quickly forced it into a concerned expression. “Oh, no way. How come?”
    He grinned. “Don’t play innocent; I can see that you don’t like her. It’s written all over your