The Desperate Bride’s Diet Club by Alison Sherlock Page A

girly talk, which was usually initiated by Wendy.
    ‘Chocolate’s my downfall,’ said Wendy.
    Violet thought that all food was her downfall.
    ‘You’ll never lose any weight eating between meals,’ said Julie. ‘Do you know how many calories there are in a Mars bar?’
    Violet didn’t even know the meaning of between meals.
    But, as usual, she kept quiet. It was interestingto hear slim people talk about their struggle with weight.
    ‘I’m gonna go low-carb,’ said Wendy. ‘You know, like the Atkins diet.’
    ‘You’ll die of clogged arteries,’ snapped Julie. ‘All that butter and red meat. Your heart will go into cardiac arrest.’
    ‘No, there’s a new diet out,’ said Wendy, grabbing a magazine from her handbag and flicking through the pages. ‘It’s like the Atkins diet butwithout all the fat.’
    ‘But what does that leave?’ said Julie, rolling her eyes. ‘Are you just gonna eat meat all day?’
    ‘I think they let you have a lettuce now.’
    ‘Very nutritious,’ said Julie. ‘Gimme that magazine.’
    Wendy reluctantly handed it over.
    Julie was silent for a minute before tutting. ‘Look at that,’ she said, holding the magazine aloft so she could point at the opposite page. ‘Samanthafrom that new pop group says she eats normally. But do you know what she does? Sprinkles charcoal over every meal.’
    ‘Charcoal?’ Violet couldn’t stop herself from stammering out loud.
    Julie nodded. ‘The same stuff that we put in our fireplaces, this girl is adding to her food. It absorbs all the bad fats in the body, apparently.’ She threw the magazine back across to Wendy. ‘These girls are bonkers.’

    Wendy stared at the photo of the charcoal-eating singer. ‘But doesn’t she look great?’
    ‘Who looks great?’ said Mark, coming to stand between Violet and Wendy.
    ‘Samantha from Popstars,’ said Wendy, holding up the photo for him.
    ‘Bit skinny,’ he said, making a face. ‘I prefer women to have a few curves rather than look like they can’t even cast a shadow.’
    ‘She eats charcoal,’ said Julie to Mark.‘To make herself thin.’
    ‘Thought she looked like a bunny boiler.’ He peered closer at the photo. ‘Plus she’s the colour of a lobster. I rest my case.’
    And off he strode.
    ‘Did you see that girl he met in reception last week?’ hissed Wendy to the girls. ‘Think he took her to lunch. Really tall.’
    ‘So? He’s got to be over six feet,’ replied Julie.
    ‘Yeah but she was gorgeous. Tall but curvy. Ireckon she was a model.’
    ‘Humph,’ said Julie, rolling her eyes. ‘I bet she didn’t eat anything at lunch though.’
    ‘What happened to the last girlfriend?’
    Julie gave a snort of laughter. ‘Tossed out like the rest of them. He doesn’t keep them hanging around for long.’
    ‘They’re always beautiful though,’ said Wendy with a sigh.
    Violet picked up the hotline as it began to ring once more, gratefulnot to hear any more about Mark’s love life. Or about Mark in general. Something about him made the hairs on the back of her neck rise. Whenever he looked at her, she could swear he knew what she was thinking. The fact was that he had seen her at her absolute worst and it still mortified her.
    Later on, she mulled over Wendy’s thoughts about dieting. Perhaps she should go low-carb too. Peopleon the internet were reporting huge weight losses really quickly. And that’s what she needed. A quick fix to get rid of all the flab.
    The thought of a life without potatoes, bread, rice and cereal was a bit daunting, but the promise of losing a stone in two weeks was just too much to resist. She needed a big start to her weight-loss campaign. And this was going to work, wasn’t it?
    She printedout a menu for the week. All you could eat was meat, fish, eggs and non-fat dairy stuff, which sounded great. Plain bacon in the morning would be weird without buttered bread, but she normally skipped breakfast anyway.
    By lunchtime Violet was ravenous.