Willow let her hand trail lazily through the cool water, sun patterns dancing across her lightly closed eyelids. The frantic sounds of the late afternoon traffic barely traveled up to the roof deck of Mia’s parent’s modern penthouse apartment, which was located in a particularly swanky area of central Singapore.
The last few weeks had been a total blur and Willow was glad to have some time to do nothing but sleep, eat and lie by the pool. Once the girls had decided to leave Melbourne, there had been no messing around. Within a week they had packed up their house and Ana had handed it over to an agent to rent out. They got tickets, told their respective families and friends, and were on the next jet plane out of there.
Because Mia hadn’t been back to visit her family for many years, her parents invited the three girls to come and stay with them for a few days to break up the trip. They had been in Singapore a week now, and every time the girls brought up the notion of leaving soon, Mia’s parents would say “Just another day or so. We haven’t shown you such and such yet.” Ana and Willow hadn’t put up a fuss. Lying by the pool and drinking cocktails certainly wasn’t a horrible way to spend a bit of time, but Willow was beginning to wonder if they would spend the next year living in the guest wing until they had exhausted every sightseeing opportunity Singapore had to offer.
And then, of course, there was the added difficulty of Dan.
The sound of footsteps padding around the edge of the pool distracted Willow from her thoughts and she opened her eyes to see Ana, a loosely knotted sarong thrown over her bikini. In her hands she held two tall glasses, stuffed full of fresh mint, lime wedges, gin and tonic, beads of perspiration running down their sides.
“It’s cocktail o’clock” said Ana grinning.
Willow paddled her blow up air mattress to the edge of the pool and took a glass, resting it in the built in cup-holder.
“Where’s Mia?” said Ana. “I haven’t seen her all day.”
“Out with Dan.”
“Again?” Ana said. “That’s, what, the seventh date in a week?”
“Eighth,” said Willow. “But who’s counting?”
“I don’t like him,” Ana said. “I get the feeling he’s got a hidden agenda or something, you know what I mean?”
Willow did know.
Dan had turned up – a little too conveniently – at Mia’s parents house the day the girls arrived. Mia had been immediately tongue tied, explaining to the girls later that he was a family friend who had been a year ahead of her at school. She’d always had a crush on him, she told them, but he’d never even known she existed.
Looked like something had changed since those days.
Dan was charming and polite and got along well – too well – with Mia’s parents. He said and did all the right things; wore the right clothes, drank the right whiskey, went to the right clubs, but he was… boring. For some reason though, Mia stubbornly refused to acknowledge that very simple fact, and instead was doing all kinds of crazy things to impress him: wearing dresses, working on her tan and complaining about the humidity making her hair frizzy.
“She’s gone all weird,” Ana said, taking a long sip of her gin and tonic. “Yesterday she asked me which fake tan would be best with her skin tone.”
“What?” exclaimed Willow, horrified.
“Next thing we know she’ll be getting Mani-Pedis in complimentary shades of fuchsia,” Ana continued.
“No way. Mia so isn’t that type of person.” At least, she never used to be, Willow thought.
“I don’t know,” said Ana, “I’ve seen these changes in people before and…” She trailed off suddenly as the door to the roof deck opened.
“Hi,” Mia said. She looked dazzling in a white low cut halter dress, her bobbed hair sitting perfectly. In her left hand she held a beautiful royal blue leather handbag that she definitely didn’t have earlier.
“Is that a new Marc Jacobs?” Ana said, gasping
“Yeah, Dan just bought it for me,” Mia said. “Want to look at it? Although, don’t get chlorine on it. It might damage the leather.”
Mia held it towards Ana, who, instead of taking the bag, grabbed her wrist. She looked down towards Mia’s feet that were daintily clad in a pair of gold sandals.
“I knew it!” she said, pointing accusingly at Mia’s toes. “Mani-Pedi!”
Mia looked embarrassed. “Dan gave me a voucher for a day spa…”
“I wonder what’s next?” Ana said, a tad more nastily than she meant to. “Boob job voucher?”
“Is it so impossible for you to just be happy for me?” Mia snapped. “He’s the first guy who seems to actually give a shit about me and what I want.”
Ana snorted. “He doesn’t care about what you want!” she exclaimed. “He cares about turning you into a trophy girlfriend and keeping your parents happy. Can’t you see that?”
Mia looked as though she’d been slapped, but quickly regained her composure. “I hardly think that you should be the one dolling out relationship advice,” she said cooly. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get ready for dinner. Dan’s picking me up in three hours and taking me to Au Jardin.”
She turned and stalked away from the pool, Marc Jacobs bag clutched tightly in her manicured fist.
***
A few hours later, Ana and Willow had moved to the outside deck that ran around the circumference of the apartment. They weren’t hiding from Mia and her family per se, but they knew no-one ever came out here, preferring to sit inside in the air conditioning. They were onto their fourth gin and tonic each as they formulated an escape plan. They heard the doorbell rang and Mia’s father answered the intercom.
“Dan, come in, come in,” he said. “Mia’s not quite ready yet.”
Minutes later the front door opened. “I wondered if I might have a word with you before we leave for dinner,” they heard Dan say. “In private.”
“Of course,” Mia’s father replied. “Come into my study.”
Ana and Willow looked at each other, horrified. This did not sound good. Ana grabbed Willow’s hand and dragged her around the balcony until they were outside the study, hidden behind the air conditioning unit. They both strained their ears to hear the muffled voices behind the door.
“…makes perfect sense…”
“…a union like this would be best for both companies …”
“… would position us at the top of the market…”
They moved a bit closer, hardly daring to breath.
“…Mia and I should get married as soon as possible.”
They heard Mia’s father laugh in delight. “I can’t think of anything we’d love more than to have you as part of the family,” Mia’s father said. “And it will get rid of all these silly ideas she has of gallivanting around the world with those other girls.”
“I knew there was something suss about him,” Ana hissed.
“Mia can’t marry him!” Willow whispered. “He doesn’t love her.”
They heard the study door open and close, laughter ringing out through the halls as the two men congratulated themselves on a good decision. A few moments later, Mia came downstairs and she and Dan left.
“We have to stop this,” Ana said grimly.
“The restaurant!” Willow exclaimed. “We have to get the the restaurant before he proposes.”
“Wait!” said Ana. “There’s something we need to do first.”
***
The Maitre’D hadn’t let the two girls in the building without a reservation, so they were hidden outside behind a tree, peering in the huge glass windows, searching for their friend.
“There they are.” Ana pointed to a secluded table towards the back.
“What are we going to do?” Willow said. She’d tried Mia’s phone, but it was switched off.
Just at that moment, Dan stood up and walked away from the table. Ana picked up a handful of fallen bark and tossed it at the window next to where Mia sat. Mia looked around startled, wondering what the noise was. Then she caught sight of two people outside, waving their arms like maniacs. She flushed an alarming shade of red, and stood up, quickly walking outside.
“What on earth are you doing?” she said. “Are you trying to humiliate me?”
“No, listen,” Ana said breathlessly. “We overheard Dan telling your Dad that he wanted to marry you because it would make good business sense. And your Dad wants you to accept because he thinks your life is silly and that Dan will talk some sense into you.”
“What?”
“Dan wants to marry you so that his company will do better,” Ana said, slower this time. “He already asked your Dad.”
Mia looked from one girl to the next, confused. “He’s going to propose to me?”
Ana nodded. “But he’s doing it for the wrong reasons.”
“But he wouldn’t ask if he didn’t actually want that” Mia said in a small voice. “People don’t propose unless they really love the person, right?”
“People get married for all kinds of wrong reasons,” Ana said gently. “Besides, would you really be happy with him? You’d have all the fancy handbags and clothes and manicures you could ever want, but is that enough?”
They watched as Mia’s face went through a range of emotions, until she finally dropped her head into her hands. “Oh, I’ve been such an idiot,” she sobbed. “I just wanted someone to love me.”
“Lots of people love you,” Ana said, wrapping her arms around her friend. She and Willow exchanged a glance. Where had that come from? “And we love you more than anyone else.”
“I know,” Mia said, wiping mascara over her face as she dried tears.
“Come on,” said Willow. “Lets get out of here before you change your mind and end up saying yes.”
“Where shall we go?” Mia said. “I don’t really want to go back to my parent’s house.”
“Anywhere we like,” Ana said grinning. “We have a taxi waiting and our luggage in the back.”
***
They tore through the vibrant city, heading towards the airport.
“Stop the car!” Mia suddenly shouted.
“What? Why?”“We just went past a chemist.” Mia said urgently. “We have to stop. I need nail polish remover. I need to get rid of this goddam Mani-Pedi.”
