The Morning After the Wedding Before. Laura Ziepe

It became so crazy that Charlie suggested Emma start an online blog which she linked to her Instagram page. Before she knew it, she had more and more freebies starting to come her way. She was constantly being sent free make-up, clothes and swimwear. So long as she posted about it, companies wanted her to use their products. Emma became obsessed with social media, gaining more followers and likes. Trips away started to become about taking photos, rather than actually enjoying herself and there had been times when Emma had to remind herself why she was doing it. When she became a bit too obsessed with it, Emma gave herself a few days off. Charlie was always enthusiastic to start with, taking selfies of the two of them and suggesting she posted a bit about their relationship to see if they could get any free weekend trips away. Charlie became a part of her account and her followers were always telling Emma how they were the perfect match. Their first freebie was a trip to Paris and Emma had to pinch herself over how well she was doing.

      ‘Hopefully this is the start of many more,’ Charlie had laughed, clinking champagne classes with her on the Eurostar as Emma filmed it for her latest story.

      Despite what people must have thought when they looked on her Instagram page, Emma didn’t want to appear like she was showing off, but she knew that in order to get the brand deals she had to be able to influence others. People had to want to buy her latest outfit, watch or lipstick she was wearing; it was the way she made her money. So she had to make herself look the best she possibly could. Emma just hoped that people would see past her flawless newsfeed, and understand that beneath it all she was just a normal, ordinary girl. She hated people who thought too highly of themselves, which was why she liked to sometimes post before and after images to show how far she had come. Emma hadn’t always been someone to envy or desire; Emma had once been a size eighteen woman, who was very self-conscious and insecure. Despite now being a trim size eight, Emma certainly didn’t love herself and she was very aware of how superficial and shallow social media could be. It was a fabricated world; Emma knew this. She wasn’t completely ignorant.

      Emma was brought back to the present when Charlie opened the bathroom door with a towel around his waist. Eyeing her up and down, he narrowed his eyes and his lips curved slightly upwards. ‘You look nice. Trying to impress someone?’

      ‘Haha, very funny. You’re the only person I need to impress, and you’ve agreed to marry me,’ Emma replied light-heartedly. ‘When you’re dressed do you mind…’

      ‘Taking a photo of you?’ Charlie interjected abruptly. ‘Of course.’

      ‘Thanks,’ Emma smiled gratefully. She knew how much her photos had begun to annoy him. What he found so interesting at first, he now found tedious and dull. He didn’t mind as much when it was of the two of them; Charlie seemed to love the limelight, especially if he was sent free things. But it was mainly Emma who was earning good money through her lifestyle blogging, not only through the advertising on her website, but she was now signed up to several apps where she advertised the outfits she was wearing. She was doing better than she ever dreamed of and she was getting fed up with reminding Charlie that she wasn’t just taking photos because she enjoyed it. It was all part of her job and one that he had insisted she did when they’d first met. A job that he used to find fascinating.

      Emma stood on the balcony, looking out into the distance of the strip moments later; she knew the lighting was perfect and angled her head in a way she knew would look flattering on camera.

      ‘Done,’ Charlie said dryly, after a couple of clicks.

      ‘Do you mind just doing a few more please?’ Emma asked him politely. He knew as well as she did she usually needed lots of images to pick from. She sometimes took over a hundred, just to get that one special shot. Not that she was expecting him to take that many at that present moment. She knew she had no chance from the way he rolled his eyes.

      He sighed loudly as he took some more. ‘You may have to stop all this once we’re married you know,’ he stated moodily. ‘I’m not certain I can put up with sharing you with the world forever.’

      Emma ignored him and did her best pose.

      Emma felt in good spirits an hour later when they met their friends at the bar in their hotel. She shot Holly a huge smile and hugged her as they met.

      ‘You look lovely. Is Kim too tired?’ she asked, noticing she wasn’t with her.

      Holly nodded. ‘All dressed in her pyjamas and ready for bed. I’m sure it’s just for tonight. By tomorrow she’ll be out and enjoying herself, especially seeing as it’s your hen night,’ Holly said enthusiastically, looking around the bar. ‘Wow, this place looks nice and so do you, Em. I love that dress,’ she complimented her. ‘I still cannot believe how much weight you’ve lost – you look incredible!’

      ‘Thanks,’ Emma replied, feeling a flush of embarrassment yet again. She would never get used to compliments, no matter how hard she tried. ‘I was going to ask if you and Kim wanted to come to look at the flowers with me tomorrow?’

      ‘We’d love to. Just text us the time and place and we’ll be there.’

      ‘I will, and don’t worry, I won’t make it too early seeing as we’re drinking tonight. Speaking of which, shall we get some drinks? There’s more people out tonight for you to meet who weren’t at the pool today.’ Her eyes swivelled to Charlie’s cousin, Frankie, who was walking through a crowd of people staring at her. He shot her a smile, and Emma felt glad he was there as she wanted to talk to him about the car he was arranging for their wedding day. Frankie was so helpful like that; he was continuously offering Emma help to take the pressure off as Charlie hadn’t seemed to do much apart from arranging as much free stuff as possible. Emma was grateful for this, of course; it was fantastic that they were in such a lucky, privileged position to be gifted so many things, but it would have been nice if he was interested in helping organize some other things too. Frankie was always asking if there was anything he could do; Charlie was lucky to have such a thoughtful best man. ‘Hi,’ she mouthed to him, as Charlie slapped him hello on the back.

      ‘Let me get a photo of the bride and groom to be,’ Jason, one of Charlie’s friends, suggested over the music a few seconds later.

      ‘Here, take one on my camera,’ Emma offered, knowing her phone took great images, perfect for Instagram. She could do with updating her stories on Instagram; so many of her followers were keen to see her Vegas trip. They loved the photos she posted of her and Charlie. She was often seeing people write things under her images like #couplegoals. They really did think that she had the most perfect relationship.

      Charlie was more than happy to oblige and he stood next to her, placing his hand protectively on her lower back and gripping her just a little too tightly as they smiled into the lens. ‘That dress is actually a bit low, don’t you think?’ he muttered quietly. ‘You look like you’re flashing to everyone.’

      As usual, Emma pushed the comment aside and focused on the photo they were taking, knowing how happy she and Charlie would look together. Her followers would swoon, believing that Emma was really lucky in love and was about to marry her dream man.

      That was the thing about social media: it was all one big, fat lie.

       Chapter 4

       Holly

      Holly sipped her white wine, passing back Emma her gin and tonic after she’d taken her photo with Charlie.

      ‘Let me introduce you to the people you don’t know,’ Emma said kindly, tapping two women on the shoulder who were standing next to them. ‘This is Jenny and Stephanie who I used to work with.’

      Holly smiled hello at them as Emma pointed at a group of four people by the bar. ‘The one in pink is my cousin, Gill, her husband, Doug, and I think you’ve met my friend Michelle and her boyfriend Peter at my thirtieth birthday drinks, didn’t you? I’m not sure if I told you that my parents won’t be coming?’ she smiled,