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

Your Friends Are Your Cheerleaders

Leon and Nell had embarked on a full-on cheer up Kelly campaign.

She hadn't told either of them at first, as differences emotions battled to the forefront of her mind. She was embarrassed, sure. For what felt like the zillionth time, Kelly had allowed hope to surface. This time Kelly, this time...

She was sure she hadn't said it in as many words to either of her best friends, but she thought they had probably guessed she was very keen on Nate. And they both liked him, even if Leon's opinion was only based on a night out where they hadn't spent more than a few hours together.

Nell had been over-the-top excited, planning their engagement and wedding out loud. Kelly had told her to shut up as soon as she embarked on wild flights of fancy involving themed weddings and bespoke invites, but it had been hard to stop herself fast forwarding too.

She would also have to explain the reason for their split. Leon knew about Mark – he didn't know about the life-long legacy he'd left her. Nell didn't know about her relationship with Mark, nor the herpes.

She hadn't told them either because... well, she had cried at lot. Most of the tears, she supposed, were for the loss of what might have become a serious relationship. That fast-forwarding she'd done in her head hadn't just been about a wedding. It had involved little things. Shopping together in the supermarket, arguing over what to watch on the television, negotiating shower order in the mornings... everything your average couple took for granted, but the likes of which Kelly was yet to experience with a man.

Who knew? Maybe as their relationship had developed, she would have discovered that Nate expected her to do all the supermarket shopping. Neither of her brothers-in-law ever did it, believing instead in the shopping fairy who could magically work out what the family needed for a week's worth of breakfasts, lunches and dinner, buy it, put it away and return with beers and wine too. Or he could have been one of those blokes who didn't shower every day, the unwashed smell of him clashing with her once, even twice a day showered body and pristine clothing.

Kelly didn't want to cry in front of Nell and Leon yet again.

Nell caught her out, though. Kelly loved Nell – fiercely and protectively. Sister-less herself, Nell had wanted that kind of relationship with the woman she met all those years ago at Glasgow City Council. As Kelly had always felt "other" than her sisters, the outsider who went to university and then didn't settle down to marriage and kids at a young age, she welcomed the new sister.

Together they bitched and laughed their way through working for a local authority, jumped ship to the private sector and then both took their courage in their hands and became freelancers. Along the way had been the developments in their personal lives and plenty of confidential discussions about those.

As horrified and saddened as she had been by Nell's almost marriage break-up, her reunion with her husband had been challenging too. It was not that she didn't want Nell and Daniel to get back together, but part of her screamed – "Why, why, why is it so easy for you Nell?" That wasn't true either. Nell had suffered when Daniel left and at one point it looked as if he would not come back. Now they were together again, the bond seemed stronger than ever.

After a couple of glasses of wine with Nell one night at her house, Kelly burst into tears.

"Oh Kelly, what's wrong?" Leaping out of her armchair, Nell rushed over crouching beside her and taking Kelly hands in hers.

Kelly allowed the sobbing to subside, and sniffed back snot. Daniel was out, so at least she wouldn't be making a fool of herself in front of him as well.