Having your CAKE

The time had come for a new start. Giving up wine during the week had been hard, but she’d done it. Giving up the cakes had been harder, but she’d done it. Just. Taking out the gym membership had been the hardest of all. And that was when it had all begun to unravel…

It was supposed to have been a step forward, but the second Becky entered the changing rooms of the Venus and Adonis Gym and Health Club, she felt as if she had stepped back in time.

‘Becky French! Is that you?’ squealed Janice Parker.

‘We haven’t seen you since school!’ shrieked Susan Gregg.

Alice Trent smiled slyly. ‘You haven’t changed a bit.’

And suddenly Becky felt unbearably self-conscious. The way she’d felt 20 years before as plain Becky French, the 12-year-old girl who never had the ‘right’ clothes or made the ‘right’ friends.

‘Hello,’ said Becky weakly. ‘You haven’t changed either.’

Which wasn’t quite true. Janice, Susan and Alice, looking toned and trim and sleek, were even more attractive.

By the time Becky nervously emerged from the changing rooms, the three women, dressed in skin-tight, exotically coloured leotards, were already furiously bending, twisting and stretching in front of a floor-to-ceiling mirror.

She saw them take in her own baggy T-shirt and jogging bottoms.

‘So,’ said Janice, pushing her arms up behind her back and bending down so low her nose was practically brushing the carpet, ‘how have you been keeping? Married?’

‘No,’ said Becky, desperately wishing there was someone else nearby she could talk to.

‘Boyfriend?’ Susan enquired, alarmingly lifting one leg up to an unbelievably high bar.

‘Not at the moment.’

‘So no children yet then?’ asked Alice. Becky shook her head. ‘Wise. Pregnancy does terrible things to your figure.’ And Alice put her hands on her hips to emphasise what pregnancy hadn’t done to hers. ‘Funny,’ she continued, ‘I always thought you’d end up with, what was his name? Billy Wells. He was your boyfriend in school, wasn’t he?’ And the three women exchanged knowing glances.

Becky’s cheeks flared red. Billy Wells had been her boyfriend, and they all knew it. Billy Wells had been nerdy before