LIFE just wasn’t fair, Joe decided gloomily. He’d always suspected it, but now he knew for certain. Because if life was fair he wouldn’t be sitting on the 8.35am train just minutes from a crucial job interview, with the most beautiful girl in the world opposite him and a head totally empty of witty chat-up lines. And such an acute case of pins and needles in his left foot that he was completely unable to move.
Perhaps just a little twiddle of the toes? He tried.
“Aaargh,” he croaked, trying to turn the sound into a cough. Oh, this was a disaster! He had to get off this train at the next stop. He was pushed for time, and he couldn’t see stuffy old Mr Pickett of Pickett, Reid and Murphy Ltd taking a sympathetic view of lateness due to pins and needles.
The station was looming now. Once again Joe tried to stand, and once again the movement set off an explosion of unbearable ticklishness in his foot.
“Aaargh,” he groaned again, and The Most Beautiful Girl in the World stared at him, clearly alarmed. In an effort to reassure her of his sanity, Joe flashed a pleasant hey-I’m-just-a-harmless-chapwith-pins-and-needles smile in her direction. Things were bad enough already without being mistaken for a lunatic.
THE train creaked to a halt at Joe’s stop, and a crush of people piled in. One man stabbed Joe’s tingling toes with his umbrella and almost sent him into a frenzy. Making a last bid for freedom, Joe tried to get up, but his foot stubbornly refused to take his weight. Then suddenly Miss World was by his side and a delicious cloud of Chanel No 5 was engulfing him, and she was helping him to his feet.
“Come on, you poor thing,” she said quietly, taking his arm. “Lean on me.”
この記事は YOU South Africa の 19 March 2020 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は YOU South Africa の 19 March 2020 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
HOW TO BE YOUR OWN THERAPIST
With more and more of us struggling with our mental health, here's a common-sense guide to coping with life's ups and downs
SPUD: THE MAGIC CONTINUES
John van de Ruit tells us why he decided to write a sequel - and shares how his first book helped him find enduring love
SEX CONTRACT GONE WRONG
A Cape Town couple have been charged with using a young woman as a sex slave-but some say she lost the job she signed up for and now has a grudge against them
LIAM LAID TO REST
More than a month after One Direction singer LIAM PAYNE (31) tragically fell to his death from a balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, his loved ones finally got to say their goodbyes.
SHILOH HANGS OUT
THE two young women look like any pair of good friends chatting and laughing as they leave their dance class in Los Angeles.
LEO IN LOVE
He's just turned 50 and it seems Leonardo DiCaprio may finally be ready to settle down
PACKING A PUNCH
Irish actor Paul Mescal beefed up for his role in the blockbuster epic Gladiator II - and fans are loving it
I DIDN'T CHOOSE TO BE A LOVE CHILD
As the illegitimate daughter of the king, she fought to be recognised as part of Belgium's royal family, but Princess Delphine says she still feels unwelcome
'I STILL HAVE NIGHTMARES'
A bite from a spitting cobra 13 years ago nearly killed her but Mikayla survived - and she's made peace with her scars
THE CLAWS ARE OUT!
Things have grown frosty between the Beckhams and the Sussexes as Becks comes out in clear support of William
