[18+] Sophia has to ignore her steamy chemistry with British popstar Teddy Stone in order to get revenge on him for upsetting her best friend.
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Pop sensation Teddy St...
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Later that week, I caught a train out of town. As usual, Teddy had offered to send a car, but it was a quiet time of day and I wanted to make a stop en route to the airport.
"A tour of Europe. How wonderful." Mum dished a large slice of lasagne onto my plate before passing it across to me.
She seemed to think I didn't eat well enough when not being fed by her. I missed her home-cooked food, though, so the bigger portion earned no complaints from me.
"Is that the only reason you're here, then?" Faye asked, cocking an eyebrow at me. "So you don't have to buy your own lunch at Heathrow?"
"Faye," Steve, my stepdad, muttered under his breath.
"Actually, Gatwick's flights were cheaper, but you can't put a price on family time." I shot her a faux smile.
I chose not to mention that I wasn't the one paying for the flights. Faye would have something to say about that, too.
My parents had split up years ago, but they both still spoke of their time together with genuine fondness. During my mum's year-long conservation project in Costa Rica, she'd met my dad. He had a permanent role at a wildlife refuge on the Caribbean coast, and their shared work evolved into a romance. When I came along unexpectedly, Dad didn't hesitate to return to the UK and join my mum in her Scottish hometown.
Although they gave it a shot for a few years, their initial spark eventually wore off. Nothing hostile came from the separation, and I spent a lot of my childhood living in both of their houses. Then Mum had met Steve, and together they'd moved to the South of England. To avoid disrupting my education by switching schools, I'd stayed in Scotland with Dad. I still saw Mum regularly as I grew up, but she was also building a new family. The older I got, the more I felt like the odd one out in her house. And the older Faye got, the more she reminded me of it.
"Are you travelling around Europe alone, then?" Mum said, her brow wrinkling.
"Becca and Gabby can't get the time off work."
Telling her that I was going with a guy would cause misplaced excitement, and I certainly didn't want to name-drop Teddy Stone. Even if Faye didn't paint me as a liar, the number of follow-up questions would risk making me late for the flight.
"And how is Rebecca? I've not seen her in such a long time—"
"Mum, we've not seen Sophia in such a long time. Never mind Becca."
Again, Mum ignored Faye's attempts to provoke me and listened with interest as I brought her up to date on Becca's job and voluntary work with Mind.
"And Gabriella? Is she still with that girl?"
"She's still with Charlotte, yes. They're very happy. Coming up to a year together now."
"Huh," Faye said, moving her lasagne around on her plate without eating it. "I thought this relationship was just a phase she was going through and she'd be back to sleeping with half the South East by now."
