Skinny Dipping by Alicia M Kaye Page B

should I pretend to run into him? I haven’t seen him since we broke up – which was to be honest only a few days ago.”
    Carol took the swimsuit from Sophie. “Go on; you don’t want to look like a stalker, though.”
    “If I run into him, I won’t have to call him. I can just talk to him. See what happens, if he misses me.” If he wants me back. That would mean no more Friday nights alone.
    Derek spoke to the assistant and Sophie froze on the spot, wondering her next move. “It’s the Chanel counter,” Sophie said. A hand came to her chest, a smile to her lips. Holy hell. She loved Chanel. Her favourite. This was good news. The best news she’d heard all week. Chanel was the first perfume Derek ever gave her
    “He looks good.” He was cute with his taut jaw line, perfect nose and enquiring eyes. Derek paid for the perfume and slipped the package in his suit pocket. Sophie hovered by the makeup counter, picking up a lip gloss, gazing at him. Should she just let him give her the Chanel, pretend she didn’t know he wanted to get back together. Or, face the music, see him. The sooner she got back together with him, the better, she supposed.
    “Go on, speak to him,” Carol urged.
    She brushed down her skirt, and lifted her head high. “Wish me luck.”
    A broad smile spread across his face, the one where his lips twitched and moved into a perfect smile. She swallowed lowering her lashes, not wanting to get lost looking into his handsome face, how she loved his coal eyes. Her chest tightened, constricted and she felt like she couldn’t breathe. She lifted her lashes, took a step forward.
    “Derek,” she said, giving him a slight wave.
    He looked up, his eyes growing wide like a deer caught in the headlights when he saw her. He froze. “What are you doing here?” he said.
    “Just shopping.”
    “Since when aren’t you working on the weekend?”
    She frowned. “I don’t work all the time.”
    He laughed bitterly. “Yeah, you only work when I want to see you; typical.”
    She swallowed. “Did you get my emails?”
    “Maybe,” he said. A woman waltzed up next to him.
    Sophie froze, her eyes narrowed at the girl.
    “Hello,” the blonde said, beautiful, tall and she stood comfortably next to Derek. Sophie had never seen this girl in her life. Racking her brain – no, she wasn’t one of their mutual friends. Who was she?
    Her gaze darted between Derek and the blonde. “Hello,” Sophie said, unable to think of anything witty or clever to say. Surely, this wasn’t his new girlfriend? Already? Had he been seeing someone on the side? Or was this simply a female friend?
    “I’m Georgina. Nice to meet you.” She smiled down at Sophie from atop of her incredibly long legs. No wonder Derek liked her, she probably had wonderful, glorious thighs. Sophie didn’t have amazing thighs but she was definitely trying.
    Sophie felt her breath quicken, a hand flying to her face. How was she going to remember a name like Georgina? But how could she forget it? She could be Derek’s new woman, and what if she was? Sophie could already hear herself cursing the name Georgina, and could feel herself screaming the name countless times in her sleep.
    “Um..., hi, I’m Sophie,” she said tearing her gaze away from the girl’s beautiful face, her clear skin, her green eyes.
    “Georgina.” The name rhymed with arena, ballerina. Carol was the ballerina, so if she used an image of a ballerina, she’d surely get confused. The girl wasn’t particularly memorable, other than of course, her awe-striking beauty. Hyena. Yes. What a great rhyming word, perfect with a disgusting, dirty, house-wrecking name like Georgina. Narrowing her eyes at her, Sophie couldn’t even match the word ‘hyena’ to any aspect of her physical appearance. Pity. Semolina. The image of the girl’s face mashed into a bowl filled with thick semolina was almost enough to make her smile. Almost.
    “Well. It was very nice to see you,” Sophie