Free It Had to Be You by Ellie Adams Page B

me out for a drink, but I’m not sure,’ Lizzy puffed. ‘He keeps calling me “young lady”, and his profile picture is of him holding a dead pheasant.’
    Nic took a swig of her water. ‘You say that like it’s a bad thing.’
    It was Monday night and they were power walking on the treadmills at the gym under Nic’s apartment block. Lizzy was struggling to keep up, even though she was only on gradient three and Nic had hers hoiked up to Mount Everest levels.
    ‘Would
you
ever do online dating?’ Lizzy asked.
    ‘I haven’t got time to see you guys, let alone waste it going out with some random doofus.’ Nic glanced cursorily at a man on a nearby chest press. ‘Maybe I should start going to BMF again.’
    Lizzy’s legs and lungs felt like they were on fire. It was horrifying how unfit she was. She gazed at her wild hair and red face in the mirror. She would never meet her Mr Right in the gym, fact.
    ‘By the way,’ Nic said after a few minutes of focused concentration. ‘Remember I’ve still got your five hundred quid. Let me know when you want it back.’
    At first Lizzy thought she’d misheard her over the music. ‘What did you say?’
    Nic threw another jab at her reflection. ‘The five hundred quid you drew out from the cash machine. It’s lying on my kitchen worktop. I’ll go up after this and get it for you.’
    Lizzy slammed her hand on the emergency ‘stop’ button. The machine ground to a halt. ‘I thought I’d lost it, or given it away to a homeless person! Why didn’t you tell me?’
    ‘I thought you knew. We had a conversation about it in the street.’
    ‘Did we?’
    ‘Yeah, you were trying to feed it back into the machine for ages and then some dodgy guys came over, and at that point I said I’d take it for safekeeping. Don’t you remember?’
    ‘No!’ Lizzy cried. She’d got three white hairs from the trauma of all this!
    A skinny blonde in top-to-toe Lululemon came over and stood in front of her treadmill. ‘How much longer are you going to be?’
    Lizzy was still recovering from the fact that she hadn’t lost five hundred pounds of her hard-earned money after all. ‘Um, not long.’ She quickly pressed ‘start’ again.
    ‘You’re only allowed on for twenty-five minutes at peak times,’ the blonde said haughtily.
    Nic looked down from her gradient-fifteen vantage point. ‘We’ll be on for even longer if you keep interrupting us. If you don’t mind, my friend and I were having a private conversation.’
    Skinny Blonde’s eyes narrowed. ‘If you don’t get off I’ll tell the manager.’
    ‘Do that and I’ll key that nice little Mini of yours,’ Nic said pleasantly. ‘Apartment 42B, isn’t it?’
    Lizzy watched the girl stomp off. Being friends with Nic was like riding a thrilling and occasionally terrifying rollercoaster ride. Lizzy had once watched Nic take off her own lace-up brogue and throw it across a pub at a man who’d pushed Poppet out of the way at the bar. Nic’s parents had split up when she was eleven and she had been sent to a counsellor by her mum, who was worried about the effect the divorce was having on her daughter. Once there, Nic had proceeded to run intellectual rings around the woman and had told her what she actually thought was that her dad was a lazy slob and that they were better off without him. Nic saw the world in black and white: people were either twats or they weren’t. Cross her at your peril, but if you were her friend she was generous to a fault and had your back for life.
    Money drama over, they got back to the matter in hand. ‘So do you think I should go for a drink with him then?’ Lizzy asked.
    ‘With Foxface? Course you should.’ Nic turned up the speed on her treadmill.
    ‘Remember the penis thread!’ she yelled as she started to sprint.

Chapter 12
    Two nights later Lizzy found herself on her way to meet
Foxy698
. Toby – that was his real name – had chosen the venue, which turned out to be a