I had my hand on the wedding file when I spotted the one next to it. The one labelled ‘The Cinderella Project’.

Well, of course I opened it. Wouldn’t you?

Now meeting with wedding planner off. Celebration off. Dinner at Ritz most definitely off. As for wedding… Off, off, off.

Time to Tweet the good news.

Thanks for concern, tweeps. Fairy tale fractured-kissed prince, got frog. HEA cancelled. End of story.

#Cinderella

LucyB, [+] Wed 1 Dec 16:41

The phone belted out the ghastly ringtone again just as she clicked ‘send’ and made her jump nearly out of her skin. It was a sharp reminder of the need to keep her head down and she switched it to silent, unable to cut herself off entirely.

There had to be someone she could ring. Someone she could trust. But not from here.

This was no haven.

She had to move before someone spotted her, but first she had to do something to change her appearance.

She’d felt so utterly Christmassy when she’d set off in her bright red coat that morning. Utterly full of the joys of a season that had never before felt so exciting, so full of promise.

Now she felt as conspicuous as Santa in a snowdrift.

She would have liked to abandon it. Abandon everything. Strip off, change back into who she was. Her real self, not this manufactured ‘princess’.

Easier said than done.

This morning she’d had everything a woman could possibly want. This afternoon she had nothing in the world except what she stood up in and it was going to be freezing tonight.

But she could manage without the coat for now and, easing it off in the cramped space, she folded it inside out so that only the black lining showed. Better, although she could have done with a hat to cover her head.