Five Go Glamping by Liz Tipping

we’ll get a drink after.’ He didn’t sound as enthusiastic as I thought he should be, seeing as he had just announced he was desperate to spend more time with me.
    ‘Yeah, maybe. I’ll have to see who else is on at the same time. You know what festivals are like.’ I tried to sound as nonchalant as I could.
    ‘There’s only one stage, Fiona. It’s not Glastonbury.’
    ‘Where are we going now anyway?’ I said as I saw we were headed towards the city centre.
    ‘You’ll see!’ he said with that cheeky grin again.
    ‘Are we going to town?’ I said.
    He nodded.
    I was expecting him to pull onto Broad Street and guessed maybe he was taking us for a spontaneous date night and maybe a meal in a restaurant by the canal, but then he pulled into a side road and turned into an underground car park for the swanky Millennium Apartments, the ones with the swimming pool on the roof.
    ‘What are you up to?’ I said.
    When we got out of the car, he led me to the lift and pressed floor number twenty which took us up and opened on an airy lobby. He took a key from his pocket and opened a door to the left.
    ‘Come in,’ he said.
    I was struggling to work out what was going on here and my thoughts were darting all over the place. Had he bought an apartment? Or perhaps he was bringing me here to meet his wife and family who he had been keeping a secret all these years? ‘What is this?’ I said as I stepped into the room. The lights came on automatically which filled the room with a subdued light and illuminated the sleek white interior. A pristine white sofa curled around the living room and there was a gleaming kitchen full of hi-tech appliances. Perhaps it was a serviced apartment and he’d rented it for the night?
    ‘You like it?’ said Connor, with a slightly cocky look in eyes.
    ‘Well, yeah, of course I do, it’s bloody gorgeous. But what are we doing here?’
    ‘It’s ours!’
    ‘Ours?’ I said ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Well, it’s not ours yet, this is the show home, but it could be ours – or at least one just like it. That is, if you like it?’
    ‘You mean, we could buy it? Now?’
    He nodded. ‘Not right now, but I’ve done the sums and I reckon in six months, we’ll have enough to move in.’
    ‘Wow, Connor, I can’t get over it. Something like this could really be ours?’
    I had to admit, when I thought of us moving in together I pictured us in a little terrace or a cottage with a garden, maybe somewhere semi-rural. Still close enough to everything and everybody but with a bit more space to breathe. Having said that, I wasn’t about to say no to a swanky city centre apartment with a swimming pool on the roof. And we could always move somewhere more rural in the future, right? This would certainly be close to work and although a little sterile, all these years of scrimping and saving would be worth it to live here. I was almost certain.
    ‘Come and look at the view,’ he said, gesturing to the balcony.
    I felt a little panicked by the height, it didn’t seem natural to be up so high – but when I stepped outside, the view was breathtaking. I could see almost all of the city centre, where the skyscrapers sparkled like fairy lights.
    ‘And if we are in town where I’ll be working most of the time, then we’ll get to spend more time together. Every night.’
    I wandered into the kitchen and Connor followed me.
    ‘Drink?’ he said.
    I nodded and he opened the biggest fridge I had ever seen and took out a bottle of champagne.
    ‘Where did this come from?’
    ‘I had a word with the estate agent, told her I was thinking of buying several so she agreed to rent it to me for a couple of days. We can stay the night if you like?’
    ‘Oh right,’ I said, ‘you really think we can afford this Connor?’
    ‘If we save,’ he said, ‘Put a little bit more into the savings account than normal, we could be moved in here in six months.’
    ‘Six months?’ I said.
    ‘Yeah,’ he said,