Highland Heart - an uplifting chick lit book (SAMPLE ONLY)

A not very supportive girlfriend

When that happened Dexter was, to quote, "beyond stoked".

"So... this weekend?" His enthusiasm quotient ratcheted back down and she tensed. Once upon a time, she'd attributed Dexter's almost permanent keen tone to his American upbringing. Now, she wondered if it was unique to him, or something ingrained in marketing managers. They needed to show a strong belief in the product they were put on earth to promote. Still, no mistaking that change in tone, which signalled...

"I know we were supposed to meet up this weekend, but I gotta work. Make a start on what we will promote and where. South Korea is a whole different ballgame. We gotta think much smarter than we did for the UK launch, and if I don't get going on it, some dude in the LA office will wing his or her way in there with beyond awesome plans that will blow Caitlin—"

Enough already, to borrow American phraseology.

"You're cancelling." Someone had to be direct in this relationship.

"No! I'd love for us to meet in London, but it would need to be for one night only. And I'd have to catch a later flight than I planned, and to get away super early on the—"

"It's fine, Dexter. Let's cancel." No one could accuse Katya Bukowski of not being able to take the hint. A weekend where she spent several uncomfortable hours on an overcrowded coach to get to London from Great Yarmouth, and then another few grabbed hours with a man too distracted to pay her attention? No. Thank. You. And, I did not sign up for this.

Long-distance love. Gaby's grandmother, a woman people ought to elect as the leader of the UK and the US so overqualified was she, had lots of homilies about relationships. If she contradicted herself with them, she didn't care. So, if the wise old bird said, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder," one time, she had no problem uttering the words, "Out of sight, out of mind," another day.

Dexter was based in Scotland, Katya in Norfolk. For the first few heady months of their relationship, Katya couldn't believe her luck. Years of disastrous dating and now this guy she clicked with straight away. They did crazy stuff. He got the train to Newcastle, as did she, giving them three hours together. Then, she paid well over the odds for a last-minute flight to Glasgow from Stansted, and they spent two days tucked up in a hotel room, totting up a bill that continued over seven pages. If specified, it might have outlined weird things done with Mars bars.

Ahem.

Another time, he met her in Exeter when Caitlin's private helicopter dropped him off at an airfield. There, they decided that qualification for the Mile High Club included doing it in a hangar while pilots and small aircraft came and went, awkwardness, giggles and the world's most intense orgasm (Katya's) turning it into one of those stories destined to achieve urban myth status, talked of enviously by others for years to come.

Heady days? And now already bygone days?

"Babe, I'm sorry," he said now. The flip side of overuse of hyperbole was never knowing the truth of sincerity. She weighed up every word. 'Babe' wasn't her nom de plume of choice, but the 'I'm sorry' had substance and gravitas. Still, did a girl ever find it flattering when her still‑recent beau decided his work was more interesting than her?

They ended the phone conversations with those kissing sounds. M-wah, m-wah, as the mouth widened and moved to goldfish open and closure. Katya hovered above herself and shook her head. Really, Katya? Her forehead and nose wrinkled, and the dreaded list materialised in front of her.

Katya loved pros and cons. As the oldest of four girls, organisation—her sisters would call it bossiness—came naturally. Or perhaps the pros and cons thing was thanks to an e-book she'd written for a life coach once upon a time.