Chapter 29

 

Most mornings Christian could normally be found in the hotel gym, a fact that Mel had always known, but up until now had never investigated.  She wasn’t really the fittest person she knew and so had never wanted the embarrassment of her true love seeing her huffing and puffing on a running machine.

 

However desperate times called for desperate measures and so she found herself sitting on a bike machine, towel draped over her shoulder, sweating for England.

 

So far there was no sign of him, and all she had managed to do was give herself extremely tired legs, they felt so heavy that she knew if she carried on much longer she wouldn’t be able to stand up. 

 

Deciding to shift herself over to the weights she climbed off the bike, squirting some water into her mouth as she did so.

 

She caught a reflection of herself in the mirrored metal of the weight machine and almost did a double take, she was beginning to look rather rough.  Her carefully planned outfit of this morning wasn’t looking half so good now, crumpled up tight to her body in sticky sweat patches.  Running her hand down her ponytail she tried to tidy the strands that had escaped the band and were now falling over her hot sweaty face.  Taking off her zip up top, she wrapped it round her tracksuit bottoms, revealing her tight sports top and cooling off her bare stomach.

 

“Looking good,” a deep voice whispered in her ear.

 

She jumped out of her skin, her nerves so on edge that she didn’t dare to turn round. 

 

It was him – he had come in while she wasn’t looking and he was standing right behind her.  How could she turn round and face him after last night, after what they had done.

 

Taking a large breath of air she slowly turned round.

 

“You OK, Mel, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Mark commented, smiling at her.

 

She smiled weakly back at him before turning back towards the weight machine.  OK, now her head was just playing tricks on her, making her think that people were Christian, she needed to calm down.

 

“You alright mate?” another voice echoed around the near empty gym.

 

Shit! This time it really was him, OK, she had to compose herself.

 

Completely ignoring him, she crouched down over the machine, pretending to be so engrossed in selecting her weights that she didn’t realise someone was coming towards her.

 

It came as a shock when the trainers that stopped next to hers were pink, surely they didn’t belong to Christian – did they.

 

She looked up.

 

It was her, the bitch who had ruined her life, and here was the opportunity to get even.

 

Forcing her mouth into a smile Mel beamed up at her archrival.

 

“Ella, fab trainers.”

 

The girl glowered at her before moving onto the weight machine next to Mel’s.

 

At that point Mel was almost ready to give up, speaking to the girl was making her skin crawl, it wasn’t like she really wanted to talk to her, she’d much rather just ignore her completely but if Plan B was to work then she had to make more effort.

 

“I was trying to find a pair of trainers just like that,” Mel continued, “pink, but a slightly lighter pink than that.”

 

Ella grunted in response and started to pump on her weights, Mel noticed how her arms flexed into perfect little feminine muscles, was there anything about this woman that wasn’t bloody perfect.

 

“I looked everywhere, and then ended up finding some on the internet,” she kept her voice light and friendly, smiling at the blonde girl sitting next to her and trying to keep some eye contact, “where did you get yours from?”

 

“Somewhere that you couldn’t afford to go,” Ella snorted back, in the longest sentence that she had addressed to Mel since she’d been there.

 

Mel felt some anger begin to rise up in her, how dare this little bitch talk to her like that.  The only reason she had money was because she was using Christian, she’d be nothing without him.  Fighting off the urge to slap her hard across the face Mel laughed off her last comment and continued.

 

“You are probably right, I couldn’t really afford to shop where you do.  Where do you get your clothes you always look amazing?”

 

Ella completely ignored the question, pulling the weights faster and faster, her face creased in concentration.

 

“I was reading in a fashion magazine the other day that Victoria Beckham goes to Bond Street at least three times every week to stock up on her essential wardrobe items …”

 

Ella was still showing no interest in the conversation, yet still Mel continued talking happily to her, obviously knowing Mark for this amount of time had its huge benefits.

 

“.. and then she always accessorises so well don’t you think?  I mean I saw a picture of her at a premier the other day and she was wearing the cutest little hat I have ever seen, I mean on anyone else it would have looked daft but on her…”

 

Ella suddenly stood up with a burst of energy and turned towards Mel.

 

“Please shut up,” she spat, her normally pretty face twisted into an ugly shape.

 

Mel stopped and stared at her, mouth wide open.

 

“Pardon?” she stammered.

 

“I don’t know what you think you are playing at”

 

“Don’t know what you mean?” Mel replied.

 

“Don’t play the innocent with me you little slapper,” she said hissed back.

 

“I’m only trying to be friendly with you, get to know you a bit better.” Mel replied, trying to think up a good defence.

 

“Well don’t bother, I know exactly what you were up to last night,”

 

“Last night?” Mel began to blush, she never had been very good at lying.

 

“Last night, when you were all over my boyfriend,”

 

Mel opened and shut her mouth quickly before managing to utter out, “I wasn’t.”

 

“You were, you were all over him.”

 

Little tears began to form in Mel’s eyes and she shut her eyes for a moment to blink them back before replying, “I swear I wasn’t.”

 

“It doesn’t matter anyway, he’d never be interested in a little cow like you.”

 

Mel gulped hard, knowing that the words Ella spoke were all lies, she wanted nothing more than to yell to the whole gym that Christian belonged to her and that they had slept together last night, but she knew if she did that she would never get him.  So swallowing her pride she let his girlfriend lay into her, shouting out more hurtful words as she got angrier and angrier.

 

“I’m sorry if I was, I didn’t mean to, I didn’t realise I was doing it,” Mel insisted, desperately trying to clamber back into Ella’s good books.

 

“You knew exactly what you were doing, and you insulted me enough to do it right in front of my face, did you think I wouldn’t notice?”

 

“I swear I didn’t do anything, I just want us to be friends.”

 

“Melissa, we are never going to be friends,” Ella said sternly, “and from now on I am watching your every move.”

 

She picked up her towel and stormed out of the gym.

 

Mel sat down at the machine, lost in thoughts. 

 

OK, she had now completely messed up Plan B too.  Why had she been stupid enough to think that befriending Ella would be so easy?

 

“Was a stupid plan anyway,” Mel muttered under her breath, beginning to realise that even if she had become Ella’s friend it would have taken her ages to get around to stealing Chris from under her nose.  She’d just have to think of a better plan, she’d have to sit down and think very very carefully before she made her next move, in fact she’d have to …

 

Oh!

 

Another pair of shoes were standing next to hers – and this time they definitely belonged to a male.

 

“Chris!” she whispered quietly as she looked up and saw him standing above her.

 

“OK?” he asked her.

 

She nodded, unsure of what to say. 

 

This was awkward.

 

“What were you talking to Ella about?” he suddenly spoke.

 

“Not a lot, why?”

 

“Just that you two were standing here for ages talking and I was just wondering why you were suddenly so pally with each other.”

 

Mel shrugged her shoulders.

 

“Mel!” his voice was full of urgency; “you didn’t tell her about last night did you?”

 

“Maybe,” Mel retorted.

 

“Don’t play games with me, did you tell her or not?”

 

Mel looked up at his face and saw that it was full of worry.

 

“No I didn’t tell her.”

 

“Thank god,” he replied, sighing in relief and taking a swig of drink from his water bottle.

 

“You really ashamed about what we did?” Mel asked.

 

“I shouldn’t have done it.” He admitted.

 

“So I was some horrible dirty mistake.”

 

“No darling and none of this is your fault,” he said, placing a reassuring hand on her arm, “it was all my fault, I think I’d had too much to drink.”

 

“OK, so I was a drunken mistake?”

 

“Mel, you weren’t a mistake, it was a mistake, there’s a difference.”

 

Mel pulled a face at him, he was talking no sense and everything he said seemed to just be making her feel worse.

 

“I’m sorry,” she said to him.

 

“Don’t be daft,” Chris said softly, “we’re still friends aren’t we?”

 

“Yeah,” Mel replied, happy that at least they still had something they could build on.

 

Giving her a smile he pulled her into a tight hug.

 

“Thanks for being so understanding.”

 

She lay her head on his chest, imagining for just a second that he really did belong to her.

 

“You’re still coming to Butlins aren’t you?” He asked as he pulled away.

 

“Of course,” she replied, “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”