‘Wow,’ I whispered to myself. I could barely stand how beautifully it hugged my curves or how much the colours flattered my skin and hair.

‘Well?’ called an impatient Josh. ‘Have you got something on yet?’

I composed myself and drew back the curtain.

‘This,’ I said, simply.

Josh’s mouth dropped open and he stood in absolute silence taking me in. I smiled at him, then looked at the salesgirl. She nodded, and I think I saw a satisfied smile creep across her face, as though she knew it would be the perfect dress for me.

Finally, Josh spoke. ‘We’ll take it.’

I didn’t even try on the other clothes. There was nothing that could have come close to that dress, so I couldn’t bring myself to do it. It would have been anticlimactic. When a man is speechless at the sight of you – well, let’s just say, that’s the dress.

He even insisted that he buy it as a gift. I argued – wholeheartedly and for a good twenty seconds – until he handed his credit card to the salesgirl over my shoulder and she ran it before I could snatch it back.

We were going to make quite the splash at dinner.

*

We were late, but we had a good reason. We’d spent the rest of the afternoon shagging. Less than fifteen minutes before we were due at dinner, we dragged ourselves out of bed and donned our new outfits. I twisted my bed-hair up into what I hoped was a sexy up-do, but more likely it said, ‘I have been royally had – and many times over.’ I slicked on some lip gloss and we were out the door.

We arrived at the restaurant, a ten-minute walk from our hotel on the outskirts of town, to a series of hellos and what I suspected were knowing looks. Duncan had booked the back room and not only was our little group there, but so was the group from the other boat. Oh joy.

I made a beeline for Hannah, who was crooking her little finger at me. I figured I might as well get it over with. ‘You little minx, you.’ She didn’t wait for a reply. ‘Have you spent the whole day fucking, or what?’

It didn’t matter what I said, my immediate blushing said it all. Still, I tried to appease her obnoxiously voracious appetite for gossip with a weak response of, ‘No, we also went shopping.’ I pointed to my dress as evidence. She rolled her eyes at me and pulled me into a corner.

‘Tell me everything.’

‘No!’ I snatched my hand back. ‘I didn’t ask you to tell me everything each time you stayed out all night.’

She waved away my comment like it was a mosquito. ‘So what? This is different.’

‘How is this different?’

‘Because it’s Josh.’ That made no sense at all.