Free Love Is Blind by Kathy Lette Page B

glanced up over her shoulder and caught Rupert looking appreciatively into the mirror – at himself.
    It was then that Anthea’s mild anxiety changed entirely into revulsion. She couldn’t hide a swift shudder of disgust. ‘Epiphany’ – an enormous breath of understanding – was the word she would use later to Jane. Her fiancé obviously kept fit by doing step aerobics off his own ego. Her sister was right. The man had love bites on his mirror. Rupert might have been the one to have eye surgery, but it was Anthea’s vision which was suddenly, miraculously, clear. They’d been so keen to get an apartment that looked out over the Thames, they had forgotten to take a good long look at each other.
    In the evening sun the river became a shining mirror – and Anthea didn’t like what she saw in it. Namely that the scratches on her were not the only superficial things about her. She’d been emotionally short-sighted.
She
was the one who needed her eyesight adjusted. She couldn’t believe she’d ever seen anything in Rupert. Or how blinkered she’d been to his faults. The rushing tidal waves of the Thames smacked against the embankment wall, as though scolding her for her stupidity.
    Rupert stopped stroking her thigh and flicked at a patch of dry skin. ‘Maybe you need a body scrub, babe? Or a day at the spa or something? Your skin is so dry, it’s audible!’
    Her angry expression evaporated into a look of distant, almost sweet, unconcern. ‘Really? My clever sister has found the perfect cure for that. Lanolin.’ Anthea thought quickly. If she gave in her notice at work, kicked out Rupert and sold the flat, that would give her three weeks in which to get back to Australia for Jane’s wedding. And time to convince Jacko that she was sorry for what she’d done, and that there was more to her than met the eye. How astounded Jane would be to see Anthea do something spontaneous for once! Jimbo had promised to take her caving, horse riding, panning for gold …
    She slapped away Rupert’s hand and crossed the room to switch off the air conditioning and throw open a window. ‘Oh, a little hint to help you find your next girlfriend, Rupert,’ she said over her shoulder. ‘Ugliness is purely in the eye of the beholder. You can get it out with Optrex.’

About the Author
    Kathy Lette first achieved success as a teenager with the novel
Puberty Blues
, which was made into a major film and a TV mini-series. After several years as a newspaper columnist and television sitcom writer in Los Angeles and New York, she wrote eleven international bestsellers including
Mad Cows
(the film starred Joanna Lumley and Anna Friel),
How to Kill Your Husband (and Other Handy Household Hints)
(recently staged by the Victorian Opera),
To Love, Honour and Betray
and
The Boy Who Fell To Earth
. Her novels have been published in fourteen languages.
    Kathy appears regularly as a guest on the BBC and CNN News. She is an ambassador for Women and Children First, Plan International and the White Ribbon Alliance. In 2004 she was the London Savoy Hotel’s Writer in Residence where a cocktail named after her can still be ordered. Kathy is an autodidact (a word she taught herself) but in 2010 received an honorary doctorate from Southampton Solent University.
    Kathy lives in London with her husband and two children. Visit her website at www.kathylette.com and on Twitter @KathyLette .

Also by Kathy Lette
    The Boy Who Fell to Earth
    Men: A User’s Guide
    To Love, Honour and Betray
(Till Divorce Us Do Part)
    How to Kill Your Husband
(and Other Handy Household Hints)
    Dead Sexy
    Nip ’n’ Tuck
    Hit and Ms
    Puberty Blues (co-author)
    Altar Ego
    Foetal Attraction
    Girls’ Night Out
    Mad Cows
    The Llama Parlour

TRANSWORLD PUBLISHERS
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A Random House Group Company
www.transworldbooks.co.uk
    LOVE IS BLIND
A BLACK SWAN BOOK: 9780552779197
Version 1.0 Epub ISBN 9781448167197
    First publication in Great Britain
Black Swan