High Heels and Pink Glitter (18+) COMPLETE, FREE TO READ CHICK LIT

True Love: It Doesn't Last Forever

You know the old joke about herpes, right? What's the difference between true love and herpes? Herpes is forever.

Here was the irony. Mark gave Kelly herpes, but he didn't have it himself. Unwilling to commit beyond the occasional booty call, he'd still managed to give her something of himself that she would always have.

Six months into their... their on and off booty calls, he arrived one evening at her flat. Still at the stage where she thought something more meaningful might develop, Kelly had been delighted to see him. Even though she would have appreciated more notice – time to beautify a little, light scented candle and all the other guff she thought went along with gentlemen callers.

Mark was in an amorous mood. He smiled sweetly and opened his arms as soon as she let him in. It was always nice to feel wanted and cherished. Kelly clung on, longer than she sensed he was comfortable with.

For all his faults, Mark ticked many boxes when it came to sex. It was the one area where he wasn't in the least bit selfish. Ladies first, he would whisper in her ear as he slid his way down her body, dropping little butterfly kisses down her torso as he went. He wasn't open about anything else, but he asked her what pleased her and then only when he knew and had tried it out, did he tell her what he liked.

It was what kept her coming back for more. Surely, a man who did this must...

He had stayed that night, a rare occasion. The morning after that amorous evening, she found him in the bathroom peering at his reflection in the mirror. "Ah, shite."

"What is it?"

He turned to face her "Sodding cold sore."

His fore finger rested on the left-hand corner of the mouth where a sore had developed. Crusty and yellow, it was off-putting.

She grimaced

"Do they hurt?" Kelly wondered if cold sores were as painful as their name. Perhaps he might like to recuperate in her flat for a few days. She imagined cosy snuggling up on the sofa watching box sets and eating cheese on toast. At the end of it he was bound to say...

Kelly's imagination could not stretch that far. Even then, she knew she was kidding herself.

He shook his head. "Nah, only when you're eating or drinking."

A week later, she felt ill herself. She awoke one morning, drenched in sweat, her sheets and duvet a tangled mess at the bottom of the bed. Dragging herself to the bathroom, her mirror presented an alarming sight. Her face was flushed scarlet; her eyes were bloodshot and she felt unsteady on her feet.

Sitting down to pee, the release of urine stung like mad.

The day was a write-off, but as a freelancer Kelly couldn't afford the luxury of sick leave. She stumbled into the nearby chemist the next day. Dressed in her scruffiest tracksuit, wearing no makeup and not having applied her usual fake tan for a few days, she was unrecognisable. Donna the assistant didn't know who she was at first.

The pharmacist, a young Asian chap who told her to call him Amir, ushered her into the private room the pharmacy had set aside for such discussions and listened carefully to her symptoms.

"I don't think you have cystitis," he said.

Tired, sweaty and desperate to go home armed with a medical solution that would stop her feeling like shite, Kelly tried to straighten up.

"I've no' got cystitis?"

Then, to her extreme embarrassment, he asked her about her last sexual encounter. What had she and her partner done? What had happened the next day?

She didn't know what he was getting at, but she told him about Mark's cold sore anyway and he nodded, his head moving up and down slowly.

"You can get herpes from a cold sore, I'm afraid. I'm not a doctor, but I think you should go to the Sandyford Clinic and get it checked out for sure."

He named Glasgow's sexually transmitted diseases clinic, well known and anonymous. There, you could drop in. There, they promised to be non-judgmental.

"At my age!" The words burst out.

The pharmacist took her hand. "If your immune system has taken a battering, then you're a bit more vulnerable to these things. Herpes is really, really common."

It was sweet of him to say so, but Kelly noticed the wedding band. She suspected that Mr Pharmacist had married the first woman his parents shoved in front of him, and he'd been a virgin at the time. He probably despised the likes of her, demonstrating typical western decadence and what happened when immoral behaviour was allowed to run riot.

She stood up, the effort causing her heart to thump uncomfortably fast and her head to spin.

"Are you okay? Can I get you a taxi?" Amir sounded alarmed.

"No, no, a bit of fresh air will do me good."

He shouted after her instructions for what she should do to bring her temperature down, but she was in such a hurry to leave she didn't take in any of it in.

Back at her flat, after a torturous 10-minute walk that had exhausted her and soaked the tracksuit she was wearing with sweat, she made herself drink two pints of water before collapsing back into bed.

Three days later – having visited the Sandyford Clinic and been prescribed acyclovir to deal with it – she phoned Mark. The kindly nurse at the clinic told her it was possible she'd got herpes from oral sex, but her partner might have had herpes anyway and it was best to check.

"Mark."

"Oh hiya, how are you? Are you wanting a bit of..."

The lilt to his voice told her he was up for it. Kelly couldn't think of anything she would like less.

"No! Do you have herpes?"

When you weren't in a proper relationship with someone it was best not to waste time.

"What? What are you talking about? I don't have herpes. I'm clean as a whistle."

Unable to ask him anything else, she hung up, the first time she'd ever done so.

He arrived at her flat two nights later.

"You alright, Kelly?" Stood in her kitchen, he had – as always – opened her fridge unasked and helped himself to a beer.

"What were you going on about the other day?"

Since her diagnosis, Kelly had investigated herpes It was possible for people to get it from oral sex. It was possible for people to have one attack of herpes and for it never to come back. If it did come back and you used condoms while the attack was taking place, you could have sex. As she and Mark used condoms all the time anyway – again, this incredibly selfish man weirdly never made a fuss about condoms – she wasn't going to give him herpes.

Why tell him?

And if she gave him herpes.... Well. Kelly left that to her subconscious to figure out. It was busy dealing with a whole lot of other issues. Why not add another one to the mix?