“Okay, so I’ll start with an easy one. Never have I ever been arrested.”
June looked around the table; no one had taken a drink except a woman dressed as a Playboy Bunny.
“Faye, what did you do?” Gayle said, shocked.
“Speeding,” Faye said with a shrug, and everyone laughed.
“My turn,” Becky said. “Never have I ever joined the Mile-High Club.”
There was more laughter as several women took swigs. June wasn’t sure what the Mile-High Club was, but she doubted she was a member.
“Never have I ever cheated on my partner,” Lara Croft said, and there were “ooohs” as a surprising number took guilty sips.
“Never have I ever visited Dubai,” someone else said, and lots of the woman took drinks. June clenched her hands in her lap to stop them from trembling.
“Never have I ever streaked,” Wonder Woman said, to much laughter.
“Never have I ever been camping.”
June stared at her full glass, willing them all to hurry up and finish.
“Never have I ever been fired from a job.”
“Never have I ever had sex in a public place.”
“Never have I ever been bungee jumping.”
June closed her eyes, her heart pounding. When would this torture end?
“Never have I ever stayed up dancing until six a.m.”
“Never have I ever been pole dancing.”
“Never have I ever had sex.”
“June?”
It took a moment for June to realize that everyone had gone quiet, and when she opened her eyes, they were all staring at her. She sank back in her chair.
“Are you okay, hon?” Gayle said, and June nodded mutely.
“You understand the rules of the game, don’t you?” Tara said. “Because as a joke someone just said, ‘Never have I ever had sex,’ and you didn’t take a drink.”
The tie round June’s neck felt tight, and she tried to loosen it.
“You’re meant to drink when you’ve done something,” Tara continued. “Unless you’re actually still a virgin?”
One woman laughed at this but everyone else was silent, looking at June with a mixture of sympathy and horror.
“I... I need the toilet.” June stood up too quickly and felt a wave of dizziness. She tried to grab hold of the back of her chair but knocked it over, and it clattered to the floor as June turned and ran toward the door.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
June burst into the toilet and slammed the cubicle door shut behind her. Her breath was coming out in short, ragged bursts and she felt like she was being strangled. She yanked off her tie and tried to loosen her shirt’s top button, but her hands were shaking too much and her elbows kept knocking on the walls as she wrestled with the collar. Just as she thought she was going to collapse, the button popped off and June’s shirt burst open. She immediately felt the pressure on her throat reduce and she sank down onto the toilet seat and put her head between her knees.
Slowly, June’s breathing returned to normal, but with it came the crushing humiliation. How could she have done so little with her life? She’d never streaked or bungee jumped, never been clubbing or danced all night with friends. She’d never been to Dubai because she’d never left England. And she’d never even kissed a man, let alone had sex.
Instead, June realized with a shiver, her life’s achievements couldbe summed up in one sad sentence: she’d worked at a library and her mum had died. That was the sum total of her twenty-eight years, the miserable epitaph that would be written on her gravestone.
