‘So, that’s where you’re going,’ she said, giving me crap. Jealous. I ignored her.

‘It’s just … It feels like I booked this trip ages ago. And, yeah, I was excited at the time, but it’s been months. After a while it stopped feeling real.’ I grinned at her. ‘Until now. I can’t believe I’m really going!’ Then I stopped grinning. ‘I’m not being too obnoxious, am I?’

She smiled. ‘No, I’m happy for you. Really, I am.’ So not jealous, then.

‘I wish you could come.’

‘So do I, but there’s no way I could.’ Cat was a teacher like me, but while I was on holidays, her school year had just started.

‘Probably for the best. It could be a huge disaster of a trip.’ My inner pessimist was back, the lurker.

‘Don’t say that. It won’t be a disaster.’

‘You don’t know that. You just said I have shitty luck. And I do! Every time I travel somewhere, things go wrong. Look at last time in Peru! Plus, I won’t know anyone, and …’

‘Sarah, it’s not every time. I was only teasing. And Peru was ages ago. It’s a little bad luck now and then …’ She trailed off, shrugging. ‘Besides, you used to run tours for weeks at a time – for fifty people! You’re an experienced traveller.’

‘I know, but …’

‘But nothing. Random bad luck aside, you’re you. You know how to make friends with strangers. And you’ve been around.’ I threw her a stern look. ‘You know what I mean. I mean you’ve literally been around. You’ll be fine.’

See? Tough love. Everything she said made sense, but …

‘But what if it’s completely horrible?’ She laughed at me. I probably deserved it. No, I definitely did.

‘It’s not going to be horrible. It’s going to be amazing, and you’ll probably meet some really cool people.’ Then she hit me with the one thing I didn’t want to hear. ‘You know, you might meet someone.’ And then she gave me that look – you know the one.

And in an instant, my sister, my best friend in the entire world, joined the ‘poor Sarah’ pity party.

‘Did you really say that?’ I asked, shooting fiery daggers from my eyes.

‘What?’ She feigned innocence, her eyes widening.

‘You know exactly what!’ I didn’t think it was possible, but her eyes got even bigger. ‘Do you know how many people have said that to me since I booked this bloody trip?’

She shook her head, giant eyes fixed to mine.

‘A bazillion!’ Okay, so sometimes I tend towards the hyperbole. It was probably more like twelve, but in my world, that’s a lot of people.

‘Fine!’ she retaliated. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t realise it was such a sore point.’