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Chapter Two
    She’d known Melissa since her schooldays: blonde, blue-eyed, bubbly and very, very selfish.
    Melissa was the centre of the universe in her own eyes. Or, as Denise cruelly called her, the Queen of the Me, Me, Me Planet. She was an only child, spoilt by doting parents. Melissa swanned through life taking adoration as her due.
    In Sophie, she had the perfect handmaiden. It had been so from that first moment in the playground when Melissa had decided that she preferredSophie’s little black-velvet bow to the red ribbon that held her own golden pony-tail.
    Sophie had handed over the bow without a peep. She was spellbound by Melissa’s baby-blue eyes. Eyes that had the most perfect long black lashes. The invitation to join Melissa’s gang filled her with joy. The entire class longed to be a member of Melissa’s gang. Only the chosen few were given the honour. And the honour was withdrawn regularly, depending on Melissa’s mood and whim. Sophie would often find herself on the outside of the golden circle until Melissa had need of her services again.
    This was the pattern of their friendship, through childhood, through their teens and while Melissa studied to become a beauty consultant and Sophie was a student nurse. Weekscould go by and Sophie wouldn’t hear a peep from Melissa. Then some crisis would occur. Melissa would arrive at Sophie and Denise’s flat in search of tender loving care and sympathy. She would sob over her latest heartbreak and declare ‘All Men Are Bastards.’
    Tony Jenkins was the most recent addition to the All Men Are Bastard’s list. He and Melissa had been about to take Spain by storm. Sadly, Melissa had discovered him in a steamy clinch with a work-mate at a friend’s engagement party. It seemed they were having a rip-roaring affair. Before she left the party, she had thrown red wine over her rival’s brand-new white Versace halter-neck. It had been a very gratifying moment she told Sophie. Then she burst into tears.
    â€˜I really loved him.’ Melissa wept. ‘I just don’t understand what he sees inher, Sophie. She’s an awful airhead and she’s got a flabby bum! When I think of all the times I did work on her hairy lip. I should have let the needle slip and scarred the sly cow for life.’
    Sophie made a mental note
never
to let Melissa do work on her. Not that Melissa ever did beauty treatments for her now that she was qualified. It had been a different kettle of fish when she’d been training and needed guinea-pigs. Sophie had been manicured, pedicured and French polished. She had been tweezed and waxed within an inch of her life.
That
had been painful! Sophie had never waxed her legs again after what she had gone through with Melissa. The pain when Melissa had pulled off the strips had brought tears to her eyes.
    â€˜Sissy,’ Melissa had jeered. Sophie had been raging. Her friend was soungrateful. She took so much for granted. But mad as she was with Melissa, she was madder at herself for being such a doormat. Would she never learn?
    When Melissa had asked her to let her practise waxing again before her finals, Sophie had told her to get lost. It was one of the few times she didn’t give in to her friend’s pleadings. There had been a frosty silence for weeks. Then Melissa had found out that the hairdresser she thought she had fallen in love with was gay. That had been a mega trauma. There had been weeks of sobbing on Sophie’s shoulder about her heart being truly broken.
    â€˜I’ll never fall in love again,’ Melissa had stated dramatically. Then she had met Tony Jenkins and fallen hook, line and sinker. She’d even sunk to a new low in their friendship. She’d ditchedSophie to go on holidays with her new boyfriend. Denise had been hopping mad when she heard the news. ‘Don’t you dare
ever
speak to that bitch again. If I get my hands on her I’ll murder