So you're wondering how on earth I've ended up in this situation, right? How do a girl and a boy who don't remotely get along end up on a holiday alone together?

They win a prize.

And it's a good prize. An amazing prize, in fact. Ten days in Crete in a luxury suite, with its own private little pool. I mean, you can't really turn that down, right? You'd be a fool.

The problem is that neither the girl nor boy in question  actually entered the competition.

So let's travel back to the day when I, Ruby Rafferty, found myself blinking in confusion at my phone screen, wondering if the email I'd just received was genuine, a silly prank, or just a very good attempt at spam.

"You okay, Ruby?" I looked up to find Stacy - work bestie extraordinaire - watching me, a concerned expression on her pretty face. "You look like you've seen a ghost - a stark bollock naked one at that!" She had never been one to mince her words. Normally, I appreciated her somewhat crude sense of humour, but that day, I was too distracted by the mailbomb in my inbox.

"Apparently, I've just won a holiday to Crete?" I told her faintly, passing the phone over so she could sense-check it for me. "A fancy one, at that!"

I hadn't actually been on a proper vacation in years. I spent most of my annual leave catching up on sleep and binging TV shows. I was an expert in Netflix and Chill - except "chill" wasn't a euphemism in my case. I hadn't "chilled" in a long time. Relationships were terrifying, and even flings were too messy, in my opinion. My actual bestie, Lauren, thought I was missing out, but I liked my life the way it was. Without any man to wreck my head and ruin my zen.

Stacy scanned the contents of the email and nodded. "The email address seems legit, and the competition has been run by a reputable holiday company - it doesn't seem like spam or a joke." She grinned. "I'm so jealous; it looks like an excellent prize!"

I let myself relax a little. Maybe a solo holiday would be good for me . . . I had admittedly been feeling a bit antsy of late, wondering if I needed to rethink the boundaries of the comfort zone I'd created for myself. In fact, was it a holiday for one? Maybe it was for two, and I could convince Lauren to come with me?

"Wait, hold up . . . Who is Lewis Sheridan?" Stacy asked, and my blood froze in my veins.

"H-how do you know that name?" I asked shakily. A wet blanket of dread had already dampened the tiny flame of joy that had so briefly flickered for the shortest of moments. Unease started to creep its way through my brain at the very mention of Lewis.

Stacy tossed my phone back to me, and I nearly dropped it thanks to my shaking hands. "The email is addressed to him too," she explains. "It seems the prize is a couples holiday . . . And you two have won it as a couple." One perfectly groomed eyebrow rose questioningly. "Something you're not telling me, Rafferty?" She teased me.

What the actual fudge?

How could this be happening? I wondered bleakly. I sure as hell hadn't entered this contest . . . And I was fairly certain Lewis bloody Sheridan wouldn't have entered it on our behalf either. The two of us had never got on. In fact, it was a running gag that we should be kept as far apart as possible at any social events we were both obligated to attend. An unofficial restraining order, of sorts.

"I think this really must be a sick prank," I decided eventually. "My friends have been known to have a twisted sense of humour." I quickly pulled up Lauren's number on my phone and hit the call button.

As it turned out, it had started out as a joke. But the competition? That was real. And we had indeed won it.

I was very unhappy. In fact, that is a gross understatement. Initially, I was incandescent with fury.

"Thanks for hearing us out," my former best friend told me three hours later, when we met up in my favourite bar in Glasgow's city centre. Her fiancé Drew sat beside her, holding her hand supportively and looking just as shame-faced as she did. I had mostly calmed down by this point, but they knew they'd have to tread carefully with me.

"I only agreed to meet because you offered to pay for all my pornstar martinis," I countered, lifting my first cocktail of the evening to my lips. "And I can assure you I'll be having as many of these overpriced babies as I can manage. Now, please tell me exactly why you both decided it would be a good idea to enter me and Lewis of all people into a couples holiday contest?"

"We were really drunk," Drew confessed. "Like absolutely steaming."

"Blootered." Lauren nodded in confirmation.

"Moroculous," Drew added, and I had to draw the line there.

"I get it. You were pissed. But why do this? Don't bored, inebriated couples just - I dunno - make a sex tape or something?"

"Wow, you really don't know what it's like to be in a relationship," Lauren laughed and was promptly awarded with my scariest glare.

"Anyway, we checked the tipsy sex tape off our couples' checklist years ago!" Drew was now the deserving recipient of Lauren's eye-daggers while I just cringed. I really didn't need to know that.

"We'd been having a chick-flick marathon, actually," Lauren explained. "It was really cute . . . All those cute tropes, so much happiness and love and silly moments! And between movies, I was scrolling through social media, and I happened to spot the contest."

"The film we had just finished watching was one of those forced proximity ones," Drew recounted, picking up the story where his other half had left off, as they were wont to do. He started to laugh. "It was hilarious! And Lauren said . . ."

"No, you said!" Lauren protested. "It was your idea!"

"Okay . . . I said . . ." Drew elongated the pronoun for added emphasis, making it clear he was falling on his sword to protect Lauren. "'. . . Wouldn't it be funny if someone entered two enemies for a competition like that, and they were forced to co-exist on a holiday together?'"

Oh dear Lord.

"And then we kind of egged each other on a bit and eventually decided it would be hysterical if we filled in both of your details." Lauren put her head in her hands briefly before looking up earnestly into my eyes. "We're so sorry, Rubes. We completely forgot we'd even done this, and obviously would have never expected you to win. I mean . . . What are the chances?"

"You're a pair of idiots." I shook my head, frowning. "You've totally wasted a more deserving couple's chance of winning a nice prize. It's not like Lewis and I can go on this holiday together!"

"Why not?" Lauren asked. 

I rolled my eyes. "Because 1) we're not actually a couple, and 2) we hate each other."

"It's a free holiday, though," Drew shrugged. "You'd be an idiot to not go! Just don't tell anyone you're not really boyfriend and girlfriend, and then spend as little time together as possible!"

"You guys could go instead?" I suggested, increasingly aware that I was clutching at metaphorical straws at this point. Although part of me already resented that idea anyway. I'd had the idea of this amazing holiday dangled in front of me briefly but oh-so-enticingly, and it was now virtually all I could think about. Even though I knew I couldn't really go.

Lauren shook her head vigorously. "The prize isn't transferable. We already checked the small print. Back when we were drunk."

"We wanted to make sure you couldn't back out in the event that you did win," Drew - a lawyer - said, folding his arms across his chest with a self-satisfied nod. "We didn't want a silly plot hole to ruin the story before it had even begun."

These two were insufferable. "There's no way Lewis will agree to this," I argued, sitting back in my chair smugly. I'd presented my final damning argument - surely this would sink the whole case?

"Actually . . . " Drew was smirking now, and I itched with the urge to smack the smile right off his face. "Lewis has already said yes."

"He has?"

"Yep. I believe his exact words were: 'I'd put up with pretty much anything for a free luxury holiday. Even Ruby Rafferty.'"

How very charming of him. Although those words ignited a challenge within me. I couldn't let Lewis of all people be the bigger person here.

"You might as well go for it." Lauren leaned forward eagerly in her chair, clearly sensing the Lewis-shaped weakness in my stubborn armour. "You've been saying you need a holiday for ages. And it's not like you even need to spend that much time with him."

 "But wouldn't it seem weird to the hotel if we kept avoiding each other?" I countered.

"I'm sure lots of couples, even loved up ones, spend time apart on holidays," Lauren shrugged. "Drew spends half his time on the golf course when we go away, and I'd sooner watch paint dry."

"You just need to turn on some fake smiles to fool the public, and I'm sure they'll leave you alone for the rest of the holiday," Drew chimed in persuasively.

And, with that, reluctantly, I let them convince me to go along with this ridiculous charade.

"You never know," Lauren added as we parted ways. "You might find you have more in common with Lewis than you ever expected."

"And it's a fine line between love and hate . . ." Drew's voice trailed off into the distance as I rounded the corner, and I could hear them erupt into tipsy giggles. The bastards.

Yeah, I thought to myself. It was a fine line.

In this case, though, that line was an extremely tall fence constructed with barbed wire.

And I mentally electrified it, just to be completely safe.

Hope you're enjoying the story so far!🩷