How Not to Shop Read Online Free Page A

others, so the party was definitely about to start.
     
'She won't need a staff discount,' Dale from Menswear countered, 'will you my love?' He came and wrapped his arms round Annie's waist. 'She's going to TV, she's going to be rich! We'll be reading about her in heat magazine and buying her books at Christmas, won't we, doll?'
     
Annie felt a lurching, sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. If only they knew how much she was giving up. She felt she was risking everything for just the vaguest chance at small screen glory.
     
To excited whoops, a cork flew from a champagne bottle. Glasses were passed around, filled and clinked together.
     
Annie could see Geoff and the two ladies from Accounts coming in; they'd been in the pub already, waiting for kick-off. Now there was Dinah, Annie's sister, hesitantly entering the room.
     
But still no sign of Ed and her children, or her best friend Connor, or her boss, Helena Montserrat.
     
Dinah, Annie's younger sister – she also had an older one, Nic – was a very important person in her life. She lived close by in north London, with her husband Bryan and daughter Billie. She was a more anxious and less impulsive person than Annie, who kindly did a lot of Annie's worrying for her, but she was a close confidante and supporter in every twist and turn of Annie's life.
     
'Hey you!' Dinah called out and gave a little wave. A much more arty and experimental dresser than her big sis, she was wearing something vibrantly lilac and blue-green from the latest Warehouse collection. Whereas Annie liked labels and long-lasting 'key pieces', Dinah liked cheap, chain store or, even better, second-hand fashion.
     
'Dinah!' Annie said, and wrapped her arms round her sister, 'I'm so glad you could come!'
     
'Wouldn't have missed it for anything,' Dinah assured her. 'Ed and the kids here yet?'
     
'No, but I'm sure they're on their way.'
     
'What about the Mung Bean?' This was their current nickname for Connor, their actor friend. Connor had recently moved to LA, because according to his new US agent he was 'totally hot, right here, right now' and he had to capitalize on it. According to Connor's reports, living in LA had not allowed him to carry on the easygoing, boozy lifestyle he'd enjoyed as an actor in London. No. Living in LA seemed to involve endless meetings, eating only tofu and mung beans and sweating it out with a personal trainer for five hours a day, which was all so vain and ridiculous that Annie and Dinah saw it as their duty to tease him at every possible opportunity. As Connor was in London for four days – for an audition, not just Annie's party – now was their chance.
     
'So is the whole contract thing sorted out then?' Dinah asked her sister in a low voice, but meeting her eyes.
     
'Oh!' Annie exclaimed, not wanting to talk about it here.
     
'The deal?' Dinah pressed: 'did you get what you were looking for?'
     
'Babes, I got enough to keep a squirrel in nuts and that's all I'm saying about it,' came Annie's fierce reply.
     
'Oh no!' Dinah whispered, 'is it bad?'
     
'It's the worst,' Annie whispered back.
     
'What are you going to do?'
     
But it was too late, Annie was being swooped on from all sides. So many people to talk to. Annie felt as if she was being passed from group to group like the parcel at a children's party.
     
She caught sight of Ed and her children in a far corner, talking to Dinah and Paula, but it was a few minutes before she could break away from the group she was with and get over to them.
     
'You all look gorgeous!' she cried. 'You've made such a fantastic effort for me.'
     
Owen, who had adopted the internationally accepted 'smart' outfit of a 12-year-old – ironed shirt, ironed chinos, passably clean Converses – was the first to get a hug. He accepted it without complaint, even though his mum had ruffled the hair he'd carefully smoothed over to one side.
     
Lana was kissed on the cheek, then Annie took a moment to admire her new blue