Every month I put a FREE short story on here. Here’s the story for June, 2025.
A Fantasy Fling
Kelly couldn’t believe her eyes. She stared at her phone. There it was, right in front of her. If she hadn’t seen it for herself she wouldn’t have believed it. How could she? She was supposed to be Kelly’s best friend but there Ellie was, on social media, posing with her ‘new boyfriend’. The problem was that Ellie’s ‘new boyfriend’ was Kelly’s old one!
Her heart crunched. How could he? They’d split up, yes, but not so long ago that the memories didn’t linger. Her heart still bore the bruises.
She huffed and turned her phone off. She put it in her pocket. She couldn’t bear to look at it any longer. Her eyes stung at the thought of their betrayal. Finding out on social media along with everyone else on the planet didn’t help either. Why hadn’t Ellie told her? That was the very least she should have done. Kelly’s heart hardened. She wouldn’t expect Mark to ‘fess up. That would be too much but she’d never forgive Ellie. How long it had been going on? Was Mark seeing Ellie behind her back before they split up? Was that why he was always working late? Come to think of it Ellie had suddenly started working late too. How many of their friend knew about it? Was she the last one to find out? Questions zinged through her mind like heat-seeking missiles.
Anger burned inside her. Without thinking what she was doing she pulled out her phone and posted, ‘Met a great guy today. This may be ‘the one’. Watch this space.’ There, she thought as she pressed ‘post’. That’ll show ’em. Mark Danvers eat your heart out. I’m so over you, she added in her mind.
Later that evening she saw she had a private message from Ellie. She hesitated before opening it. She knew she was being childish. As friends they’d always vowed they’d never let a man get between them. Had Ellie forgotten that?
She opened the message. ‘Hi, Kelly,’ she read. ‘I hope you didn’t mind me posting about me and Mark. I know you finished with him ages ago. He’s really quite sweet.’
Quite sweet! A lying twisting work obsessed toe-rag you mean, she thought. A heavy stone of sadness rolled in her stomach. She remembered the last time she’d seen Mark. It was at his boss Vince’s garden party. They’d gone over to his huge mansion in the upmarket part of town. Kelly recalled how she’d been looking forward to it. Mark had cancelled a couple of dates before the party, due to having to work late he’d said, but he’d promised to make it up to her that weekend. All afternoon during the party he kept disappearing with his phone. Then there was the call he didn’t answer.
‘It’s work,’ he said, pressing the ignore button. ‘They’ll call back or leave a message.’
Still, Kelly noticed how distracted he was after the call. She’d watched him circulating and doing what he called ‘networking’.
‘It’s important to speak to the right people,’ he said. Kelly obviously wasn’t ‘the right people’ or he wouldn’t have left her one her own so much. Then he said he was going with Vince’s partner, Tina, tall, blonde, legs up to her armpits, to pick up some more champagne. ‘You’ll be okay on your own won’t you?’ he said, grabbing his coat.
All the same if I’m not Kelly thought as she watched him dash out of the gate.
Being left on her own and feeling abandoned she tried to make conversation with the other women at the party. They were all ‘company wives’ and she found she had nothing in common with them. Most were content to let their men folk swan around doing whatever they pleased as long as they earned a good salary. She consoled herself refilling her glass with what was left of the host’s best champagne while wondering how far Mark and Tina had to go for more supplies. They’d been gone ages.
The more she drank, the more she convinced herself that there was something going on between Mark and Tina. Rumour had it that she was a bit of a man-eater who went through men quicker than a frog goes through flies. If this was what Mark aspired to it wasn’t what she had in mind. She wanted a boy friend who’d cherish and adore her, not one who spent all his time chasing other opportunities. It was obvious that where he worked the occasional dalliance was acceptable as long as production didn’t suffer. Well, it wasn’t acceptable to her. That’s what had led to the row.
‘You’ll have to choose between me and your work,’ she told him. ‘I’m fed up playing second-fiddle to a bunch of robots’
‘I’m sorry, Kelly,’ he said. ‘It’s how I make my living. It’s important to me.’
‘And I’m not?’ She’d never forget the look on his face when he shrugged and walked away. Her heart still squeezed at the memory.
So, what should she do about Ellie? Play it cool? Pretend she didn’t mind when her heart was ready to burst. She pressed reply and typed in, ‘I’ve moved on. Not surprised to see he has too. Hope you’ll both be very happy.’
There! That wasn’t so bad was it? She could do this. Then she posted on the site, ‘Getting ready for the big night out. Wicked red or passionate purple?’ She added a picture of her two sexiest outfits. She knew Ellie and Mark would recognise them as the ones she saved for special occasions.
The next morning she was surprised to see several comments on her post. While her friends’ interest would normally be a good thing this time she was dismayed to read, ‘Who is he?’ ‘Where have you been hiding him?’ and ‘When are we going to meet him?’ alongside the ‘Have a fab time,’ and ‘So jealous!’ the last comment read, ‘We need pictures.’
Pictures? Why not, Kelly thought. There must be loads of good looking men on the internet. She’d download one and let Mark see how easily he’d been replaced.
Over the next week every time Ellie posted something about her and Mark, her and Mark on a riverboat cruise, her and Mark at the coast enjoying ice-cream, her and Mark outside a pub with ‘the gang’ having a drink, Kelly posted something about herself and her fantasy lover. In her posts he had all the attributes Mark lacked. He was bright, funny, intelligent, caring, punctual (Mark was always late for their dates) and they were having a great time. She even posted pictures where the people were too distant to make them out, the photo was blurred or she was by herself dressed to the nines ready to party. She printed out the photo she’d downloaded, put it in a frame by her bed and posted a picture of that. She was feeling quite pleased with herself until the girls’ night out at the end of the month.
All the gang were there, Ellie, Lyn, Chrissie, Jackie and Meg. It wasn’t so bad telling them about Greg, the name she’d picked for her new man, but the constant ‘when are we going to meet him?’ and ‘where are you hiding him?’ got a bit awkward.
‘He’s away on a course,’ she said when they pressed her. ‘He rings me every night. Can’t get enough of me he says,’ Then she tried to change the subject. ‘How are you and Mark getting on?’ she asked Ellie. ‘Any sign of wedding bells yet?’ Her heart squeezed at the idea as she said it but she gritted her teeth and took a gulp of wine to hide her desolation.
‘You must be joking,’ Ellie said. ‘All he talks about is you. How much he misses you and how he made the biggest mistake of his life letting you go. All that stuff on social media about us having a great time was to make you jealous. It was his way of trying to get you back.’ She gazed at Kelly. ‘I’m sorry, hun. I shouldn’t have let him use me like that. I felt sorry for him. Now you’ve found someone new and he needs to learn to move on, just like you have.’
‘You mean all that stuff about your passionate romance was made up?’ Chrissie asked wide eyed. ‘It was all fiction?’
Ellie nodded.
‘Just goes to show,’ Lyn said. ‘It’s right what Abraham Lincoln said, ‘You shouldn’t believe everything you read on the internet.’’
‘Abraham Lincoln said that?’
‘Yes, I read it online.’ Lyn chuckled.
Kelly’s heart flipped. She gulped. Perhaps it was time she told Ellie the truth too, that the fantasy lover was just that – a fantasy and she was trying to make Mark jealous. She was about to confess all when her phone bleeped. She glanced down. A friend request with a message. She opened it and gasped as she read, ‘Hi, I’m Dan. I believe I’m your new boyfriend. Want to meet up for a drink?’
She glanced at the profile photo. Sure enough it was the Adonis she’d downloaded from the internet. Her heart pounded. What on earth was she going to do now?
If you enjoyed this story there are plenty more in my Short Story Collections here.
