Nobody deserved that holiday more than Jerney, yet she was the only one of her friends that wasn't looking forward to it. Unlike Anna, Michelle and Tanya, who were still in uni, she had a demanding job in marketing and already dreaded the flurry of emails that would be waiting for her upon her return.
"I'm still on probation," she protested when her friends told her they were giving her a trip to La Palm for her birthday, "I honestly can't afford to make a bad impression now!"
But her friends had already booked their
flights to Palma and they wouldn't hear of her cancelling.
"You promised to go to the Canaries with us over two years ago," said Tanya.
"And you need the tan," added Michelle.
"And a new man," rhymed Anna.
This was not very tactful of Anna, but it was true. Jerney had been with the same boyfriend for the last three years, but after she graduated, he went on to do a masters, and Anna, Michelle and Tanya soon spotted him kissing another girl on campus. At first, they didn't want to tell Jerney about it. But the next week, he snogged another girl, and another, and the week after that he was on the gossip page of the student paper, so they figured they had to tell their friend before someone else did. Jerney didn't take the news lightly. She stopped going to her climbing club, gave up swimming and gave her snowboard to her house mate when she moved house, because she didn't want to go to the nearby indoor snow centre anymore. She said she didn't have time for these hobbies anymore now that she had a job, but her friends knew it was because she feared running into her ex again.
After they'd dropped off their suitcases at Hotel Sol Elite in Puerto Naos, a picturesque village on the west coast of La Palma, the friends sat down for a cocktail at Café Nao on the boulevard. While Anne, Michelle and Tanya shoved their sunglasses in their hair to have a better look at a particularly handsome surfer at the next table, Jerney took her Blackberry out of her Marc Jakobs tote bag and started to check her email.
"You've got to be kidding," said Tanya, "you're not actually going to work, are you?"
"I'll be much more relaxed if I know nothing urgent has come up," she said. "Besides, it always takes you guys ages to decide what you want to drink, I already know I want a Cosmopolitan. While you choose, I've got plenty of time to..."
"Excuse me," Michelle had turned her back on the arguing girls and started talking to the deeply bronzed Sea God next to them. "Do you know where we can rent surfboards around here?"
"Not that I know off," he said, "but there's got a couple of knackered old boards in the back of my mate's van that you could use."
"Excellent," Michelle said, "we've only just arrived and I think my workaholic friend needs some distraction."
"The back of a van sounds perfect for her," Anna giggled while pointing at Jerney's Blackberry.
Jerney looked up and turned red as if she'd been in the sun for too long without any sun cream, but the surfer laughed – he had a deep, warm voice and his laughter sounded heartily.
"My holiday only took off when my Blackberry ran out of battery and I realized I hadn't packed my charger."
"You're more than welcome to use mine," Jerney offered.
"No thanks," he smiled again. His straight, white teeth made his tan look even darker. "I quite like it this way. I'm Calum, by the way."
That evening, as the cliffs behind Puerto Naos started to glow in the light of the sunset, Calum took the girls to Bar Orinoco, where he was meeting up with a couple of mates. A Peter Andre lookalike called Don had his eye on Anna and very effectively made sure she didn't have the opportunity to talk to anyone else. Harry, who happened to look more like Prince Harry, started chatting to Tanya and Tanya seemed quite happy about that, while Michelle instantly fell for Jose, who actually lived on La Palma and had known Calum and the others for years.
"I guess it would be rude to check my email now," Jerney said to Calum.
Calum laughed and said: "If I'm boring you already, I wouldn't dare to hold you back."
"It's not that," Jerney said, "it's just that, my job, you know..."
"So what makes your job so interesting that you'd rather work than enjoy your holiday?" he asked.
Jerney started talking about her job and the demanding clients she was working for, until she noticed that Calum's nostrils widened as he tried to repress a yawn.
"It's that boring, isn't is," she asked.
"You almost made me wish I'd brought my charger," he joked.
"Enough of this," she said and downed her drink. "Let's dance!"
They danced all night until the bar closed, and agreed to meet at the reception of their hotel again the next morning. That week, Calum taught the girls to surf, took them diving, parapenting, hiking – everything to compete with Jerney's Blackberry. He was so successful, that by the time they were on their plane back to London, Anna, Michelle and Tanya were complaining that Jerney couldn't talk about anything else than... Calum!
"I hope you guys exchanged phone numbers," Michelle said.
"Nope," Jerney answered, "we're trying to keep phones out of this relationship."
"Email addresses?" Anna asked.
"As if we can't check our email on our phones."
"Then what?" asked Tanya.
"He lives in Southbank too," Jerney said, "so we've agreed to go climbing together at
the Arch on Tuesday. Seven thirty after work. Like a proper date."