Happy Endings at Mermaids Point by Sarah Bennett

Author:Sarah Bennett [Bennett, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books

11

Aurora hunted through the kitchen cupboards as she waited for the kettle to boil. Hiding behind a box of normal teabags, she found a smaller box of chamomile ones and a quick scan of another cupboard produced a bottle of squeezy honey. Her practice had gone well, but she didn’t want to take any chances. With a bit of effort, she managed to turn an armchair around so it was facing out the window and curled up in it with a blanket over her knees and the cup of soothing tea in one hand. In her other she held her phone. She’d been putting it off, but she needed to check her social media and gauge the lie of the land.

Before she did that, she scrolled through the photos she’d taken earlier on the beach. She sent Nick the one he’d asked for with a message saying she was looking forward to seeing him later, and chose another one of him laughing while Gabriel licked his chin and set it as her phone background. There was another one of her and Nick pulling silly faces that she thought would be fun for her Instagram, and she opened the app. She posted them together with a few scenic shots of the beautiful landscape around the Point. She contemplated what text to add before deciding that whatever she said, someone would find a way to twist her words. So instead she settled for adding a load of generic feelgood hashtags about relaxing and recharging, getting back to nature, taking time out, love and friendship.

Within seconds of posting, the replies started. At first there were lots of positive responses, hearts, ‘love this’, ‘you are so beautiful’, ‘who’s the lucky guy?’ She hearted a few, recognising the account names as long-time fans of hers. They were swiftly followed by the endless bots urging her to share her posts on some random account or another. She ignored those. Someone on the PR team would go through and delete and block them on her behalf. It was a thankless task, like playing that whack-a-mole game, because as many as they squashed, another one popped right back up. Aurora didn’t understand the point of them, but she was sure there had to be one because why else would people go to the trouble of setting up these fake accounts? And then the trolls arrived. ‘Such a fake’. ‘Who cares?’, ‘whore’, ‘talentless’. With a sigh, Aurora closed the app and tossed her phone aside. What was she doing? Why was she serving up even more of her life for people to dissect? A sick feeling grew in her middle. Her walk on the beach this morning with Nick and the dog had been so special and now she’d tainted it forever. She reached for her phone, intending to delete her post, when it started ringing.

‘Hello, pet!’ Dennis boomed over the speakerphone. ‘I just saw your Insta post and wanted to say how great it looks. Exactly the sort of thing you need to be sharing.

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