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CHAPTER ONE

My Secret Bucket List

Swim in the sea, naked

NB: in azure warm seas, not in the North Sea

Sleep out under the stars

Have sex on the beach

NB: the real deal, not the cocktail

Drink an authentic arita

Fall in love in Paris

POLLY READ THE list through for the last ti the carefree joie de vivre fall away and the old, fa back onto her shoulders They were a little heavy, but maybe that was to be expected after three months away

Three months, five wishes And she’d achieved four out of the five, which wasn’t bad going The heaviness lifted for a second as the highlights of the last three ain

What had she been thinking? She ht as well have written the list in a silver pen and decorated it with pink love hearts and butterflies, pinning it on her wall next to a lipstick-kiss-covered poster of a pre-pubescent boy band

Polly pulled the page out of her diary and, without allowing herself a second’s pause to reconsider, tore it into pieces It was ti more appropriate for the new CEO of a company with a multimillion-pound turnover

She chewed on the end of her pen for a moment and then started a new list

My Bucket List

Travel to the Galapagos Islands

See the Northern Lights

Walk the Inca Trail

Write a book

See tigers in the wild

There, two achieved, three to aspire to and all perfectly respectable Not a grain of sand in any place it definitely shouldn’t be