Free The Trouble with Love by Cathy Cole Page A

the stairs. It was a ten-minute walk to the station. She couldn’t miss the train.
    What is wrong with me? she thought in despair as she hesitated at the top of the stairs. The urge to examine herself in the mirror again was overpowering.
    She returned to her room and wriggled back into her pink cigarette pants, the silver T-shirt and a fake leather jacket she’d customized with silver braid. With a chunky necklace she could get away without any earrings today. Brogues, check. Bag, check. Make-up, check.
    You have to leave now , Polly ordered herself, putting the blue earrings neatly on her dresser.
    Pausing hopelessly at the top of the stairs again, she closed her eyes. She had read somewhere about not pressuring yourself when you felt stressed. By choosing the right words, she could empower herself and leave her worries behind.
    You want to leave , she thought, breathing slowly. You are choosing to leave.
    She made it through the front door, pulling it behind her with a click. I am choosing this , she thought over and over again as she broke into a gentle jog, her bag bouncing by her side. It felt good.
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    Rhi said very little on the train, but Lila made up for it with her enthusiastic chatter.
    â€œWe’ll start in Camden. You remember we used to go there years ago, Rhi? All those awesome market stalls? There’s this fantastic jewellery place that does recycled beads that you’ll love, Polly. And they do these amazing veggie hot dogs by the canal. I think they call them veggie bean dogs or something. I think I should warn you, though, they make me fart really badly.”
    Rhi gave a little snort. Grinning, Lila squeezed her hand and offered her a Haribo.
    â€œRemind me not to sit next to you on the way home,” Polly said, laughing.
    Camden was around twenty minutes on the tube from the station. The tube was crowded with kids around their own age, and the chatter was loud and cheerful. Polly held her bag against her belly, leaned back against the window and listened to Lila describing her favourite shop.
    â€œIt’s awesome because there are these new designers that no one’s ever heard of, and their clothes are amazing but really cheap, and you can be the only person wearing their stuff and everyone’s, ‘Wow, where did you get that?’ and you can smile mysteriously and be this unique fashion person.”
    â€œPolly’s that already,” Rhi said with a quiet smile.
    Polly felt ridiculously pleased. She put one arm round Rhi’s waist and the other round Lila’s. Lila was right, as usual. They were going to have fun today.
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    Camden was full of cobbles and steps, brightly painted canal boats, street musicians and even more awesome vintage shops and market stalls than Lila had described. Polly bought a bag of old buttons from one stall, and an embroidered silk bag from a vintage shop, and a pair of large silver earrings shaped like birds which she put straight in her ears. Rhi limited herself to a neat brown leather bag stamped with little bones while Lila heaped her arms with T-shirts and bangles.
    â€œThank God Ollie didn’t come,” Lila gasped, as at last they staggered into a café near the canal and dumped their bags under a free table by the window. “He would have moaned the whole morning.”
    Polly’s heart jumped at the mention of Ollie. She smoothed her hair behind her ears, and felt her new earrings brush against her fingers.
    â€œHe’s great and everything, but I would have murdered him by about eleven o’clock,” Lila added. “Boys and shopping don’t go, do they?”
    â€œMax—” Rhi started, then stopped almost at once.
    Polly realized it was the first time Rhi had mentioned her ex-boyfriend all morning. “Is an idiot?” she suggested, laying her vintage buttons out in a neat row on the table in size order.
    Rhi smiled bravely. “When I saw Max with Eve on the boat