Unsticky by Sarah Manning Read Free Book Online

make her palms itch.
     
    ‘You haven’t listened to a single word I’ve been saying,’ Lily announced querulously, and it was true. Over the ironic strains of Bing Crosby coming from the DJ’s decks, which were perched on orange crates, Grace had only caught every seventh word. Chemical . Square . You . Directional .
     
    ‘What’s directional?’ she asked, trying to sit up and look alert even though the sofa was sagging to the floor and was determined to take her with it. She gathered her hair in a loose ponytail with one hand in the vain hope of a cooling breeze on her neck.
     
    ‘Directions! I was talking about going to Bestival this year,’ Lily said. Her forehead was damp with perspiration, which was a Lily first. Normally she didn’t do anything as uncouth as sweat. ‘But my dad has to give me a car with Sat Nav first. Remember what happened last year.’
     
    Last year they’d ended up in Devon en route to the Isle of Wight. ‘Yeah, Liam called me a stupid bitch because I screwed up the mapreading and we weren’t even going out then. Remind me why I dated him again?’
     
    ‘Because you fell in love with each other,’ Lily explained kindly.
     
    But that wasn’t it. Not even close. Grace had fancied Liam and pestered Lily to set them up because he had dirty-blond hair and a dirty grin to match. (Once she’d got to know Liam, there had been dirty other things - like his standard of personal hygiene.) And he was in a band, which made up for a hell of a lot. Especially when they could curl up on her sofa on rainy afternoons and he’d strum Beatles songs on his guitar while Grace knitted and the rest of the world passed by outside. That had been nice, but it hadn’t been love.
     
    ‘I didn’t love him. I liked him. A lot. Really a lot, for the first two months. Then I didn’t like him quite so much but it wasn’t bad enough for us to split up over it, you know?’ Grace didn’t wait for Lily to agree because when Lily was seeing someone, they usually swore their undying devotion within the first five minutes. ‘Anyway, I don’t believe in love. Never have done. Never will.’
     
    ‘I’ve already told you that you just haven’t met the right guy yet,’ Lily said. ‘And I don’t think it will be awkward tonight if Liam turns up, because I really think he’s been missing you. Well, he seems like he’s been missing you.’
     
    ‘Whatevs. If he does turn up then I need more alcohol than the human body can usually withstand. Hold that thought.’ Grace fished around in her purse and came up with a handful of coins; none of them pounds. ‘That’s all I’ve got,’ she announced sorrowfully, counting them out. ‘Seventy-eight pence. Let’s buy a bottle of wine and put it on my card.’
     
    Technically Grace only had one credit card left out of the eight wedged into her purse that wasn’t maxed out, but amid the scary brown envelopes that she never opened, there’d been a letter from a finance company offering her a shiny new one with only thirty-five per cent APR, whatever the hell that was.
     
    Lily folded her arms and tried to look disapproving. ‘Are you having money problems again?’
     
    ‘When am I not having money problems? It will be OK. No one’s phoning up yet . . .’
     
    ‘And if they do, you just change your phone number. That’s what I’d do if I was you,’ Lily said blithely, as she stood up. ‘I’m going to the bar. I’ll get the drinks.’
     
    ‘No, you always get the drinks,’ Grace said doggedly, because if there was one thing worse than being broke, it was being tight. Anyway, she was used to being broke - the word had long ceased to have any meaning. And spending a tenner on a bottle of bad white wine wasn’t going to make much difference to the ungodly amount of money she owed. ‘Just take my card.’
     
    ‘Gracie, I don’t mind. Honest.’
     
    ‘Lily, I appreciate the offer but take my card or else I’m only going to drink tapwater and