We can find out if there was ever anything real between us. We can find out if we had any friendship at all, or if we only stuck together out of habit – a bad habit that we might have to give up. Whatever we find out, things can’t go back to how they were before, can’t return to ‘normal’. Everything’s changed. We’ve changed.
‘So, do you want to meet them?’ I ask.
‘I’d love to.’
‘Come on then. It’s their dinnertime soon. Bartleby and Loki eat loads, but Captain Picard’s a bit funny about eating. Mark Twain’s my favourite, but don’t tell Greg that, he’s always going on about me loving them all the same or some such hippy nonsense.’
We have to find a new normal. That won’t be so bad. Not as long as we’ve got chocolate.
The Chocolate Run, v. & n. Colloq. v. 1. The act of going out to purchase chocolate. v. 2. Moving with quick steps on alternate feet while in possession of chocolate. n. 3. The life of a person who thinks in chocolate and spends her life avoiding intimacy. n. 4. The emotional gauntlet we all go through at some point in our lives, eased by the consumption of chocolate.
Table of Contents
About the Author
Also by Dorothy Koomson
The Chocolate Run
Copyright
Dedication
big kisses to:
‘there’s only one thing better than illicit sex – illicit chocolate’
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
‘hmmm, a man or chocolate – put it this way, you’ll never be sat around waiting for a bar of chocolate to ring you’
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
‘when you buy chocolate you’re buying yourself a new best friend’
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
‘ask yourself this: would you be the person you are today without chocolate?’
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
‘there’s nothing more satisfying than opening a box of chocolatesknowing no one has been there before’
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
‘true strength is being able to eat a bar of chocolate without feeling guilty’
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
‘love? it’s only chocolate without the calories’
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
‘i’d try therapy if chocolate wasn’t quicker and sweeter’
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
‘what’s all the fuss about chocolate? give me a packet of crisps any day’
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Epilogue
The Chocolate Run Page 37