The Couple
Page 27
we / w o u l _ / _ e / a / p e _ _ e _ _ / _ o u p l e
‘D.’
we / w o u l d / _ e / a / p e _ _ e _ _ / _ o u p l e
‘R.’
we / w o u l d / _ e / a / p e r _ e _ _ / _ o u p l e
Ben starts to giggle.
‘C.’
we / w o u l d / _ e / a / p e r _ e c _ / c o u p l e
‘B, F, T,’ Millie states quickly.
we / w o u l d / b e / a / p e r f e c t / c o u p l e
‘Very well played, Belle.’ Ben smiles at her.
They stare across the pond, watching the surface ripple under a soft breeze. She pulls her blanket over her shoulders and scrapes her chair closer to his, wishing it was a chair built for two.
‘So, Millie Jones, can I ask you a question?’ Ben says.
‘What is it, Ben Evans?’ Millie replies.
‘Are we a couple?’ he asks.
‘I think we are,’ Millie says.
‘Yikes,’ Ben whispers. ‘Should we get matching tattoos?’
‘I mean, I have promised my mum we will. But no,’ Millie says.
‘Haircuts?’
‘Definitely not,’ Millie says.
‘OK, don’t say no immediately. What about matching Christmas jumpers? Wait, no, what about one giant Christmas jumper that fits us both?’
‘Well, it’ll certainly help fend off the Are you still in a couple? question.’
‘OK, one last suggestion. Should our couple name be Billie or Men?’ Ben says.
‘We’re breaking up.’
Ben laughs softly, lifting his head up from hers and kissing her on the temple.
Millie tilts her head towards Ben – her boyfriend – and smiles. Then she turns round, leans over to him and presses her lips hard against his, inhaling the scent of eucalyptus that surrounds them.
Acknowledgements
I couldn’t have written The Couple without the wisdom, talent and infinite patience of my editor, Sarah Bauer, who – apart from her questionable taste in confectionery – is always right about everything and is far funnier than me. Thank you, Sarah, and thank you to the rest of the team at Bonnier: Katie Lumsden, Jessica Tackie and Clare Kelly. Clare made Slide happen and, for that, I am forever grateful. Thank you also to my wonderful agent/agony aunt Hayley Steed. Writing this second novel gave me the jitters at times, and Hayley was a voice of calm, reason and reassurance.
To my husband Chris, my family and my friends who read my horrible first draft, sorry for wasting your time and please delete the evidence. Thanks for the kind words of encouragement anyway (even though you had to say that).
I’d also like to thank the entire book community that has welcomed me since I joined it in 2020 with my debut, The Shelf. Thank you to the bloggers who’ve read, reviewed, commented and shared – your enthusiasm gives me the confidence to continue. To the authors who have done the same, thank you for finding the time. As a writer, I know how precious that time is.
Finally, thank you to Arlo. For being such a clever boy at feeding, not toooo bad at sleeping and ten days overdue so I could hand my second draft in on time.*
*OK, only a month late.
About the Author
Helly Acton is a copywriter from London with past lives in the Middle East, Africa and Australia. Born in Zimbabwe, Helly and her family emigrated to the East Sussex coast when she was fifteen years old. Here, she finished school and spent her holidays in Saudi Arabia, where her father was working. She studied Law at King’s College London before following a more creative path into advertising.
In her mid-twenties, Helly escaped the rat race and took a three-month career break to travel in Africa, India and Asia before landing in Australia. What was supposed to last one year ended up lasting six, and after a life-affirming break-up in Sydney, she returned home to find herself the last of her single friends. Helly threw herself into the deep end of online dating in the city and uses this experience as a single woman in her early thirties, torn between settling down and savouring her independence, as a source of inspiration for her stories.
Helly currently lives in Berkshire with her family.
@hellyacton
@hellyactonauthor
@sharingourshelves
#TheCouple2021
Dear reader,
A huge thank you for picking up The Couple, my second novel. Wearing my heart on my sleeve, I’ll confess that my relationship with this novel – like all relationships – has had its ups and downs. Some days, I was head over heels for it. Some days, I wanted to lob my heels at it.
When I wrote The Couple, I was feeling uncomfortably pregnant, there was a global pandemic, and I was abandoning my beloved London to start a strange new life in rural Berkshire, where I’m pretty sure the air is 95% horse poo. But, thanks to the encouragement of my incredibly talented editing team at Bonnier Books, The Couple and I went the distance, I reached The End, and I couldn’t be happier to share Millie and Ben’s story.
What inspired The Couple wasn’t a single moment. It was a series of being single moments.
At thirty, I found myself divorced and wondering what had happened to the Disney-sponsored dreams of my youth? Where were the husband, kids, and castle? I was single, childfree and living alone in a tiny rental. I was watching what I wanted on TV, eating what I wanted to eat, travelling to places I wanted to go . . . and feeling happier than I had done in ages. After years of serial monogamy, I realised I loved single life. For the first time in forever, I felt free and in charge of my own life.
What I wasn’t free from was having to explain my happily single status to the smug couples around me. My singleness was a source of fascination to them. One husband would ask me – every time – if I was ‘getting any’. So, I’d ask him right back. Still, I preferred being probed to being pitied, which is what his wife would do with a gentle tilt of her head.
I wrote The Couple to shut down the single pity party and put relationship attitudes into reverse. I wanted to imagine an alternative world, where we’re taught that being single isn’t something to be embarrassed of, it’s something to embrace. I wanted to create a society that doesn’t constantly question why women are single, it questions why women aren’t single. And I wanted to convince those who doubt it that women don’t need a husband or kids to feel complete – no one does. Most of all, I wanted to show how ridiculous it is to assume that being single makes you ‘abnormal’ and that being in a relationship is the route to all happiness.
Good relationships are wonderful. I’m lucky enough to be in one now. But I’d love to return and tell my twenty-something, single-shaming self to ditch all the duds. And to stop pursuing the couple status at any cost to my personal dreams, freedom and happiness. I hope to persuade people that being single is a pleasure not a plight, that being in a relationship should feel like a choice, not a necessity. And I hope to silence those smug couples everywhere when they ask that dreaded: why are you still single?
Thank you again for choosing The Couple. Every show of support for my writing, whether it’s a pre-order, purchase or simply a like, share or kind comment, means the world to me. It gives me the confidence to think – hell yeah, I can do this! I love telling stories, and I’d love to continue telling stories until my imagination runs dry. Hopefully, that’s never.
If you would like to hear more about The Couple and my other books, you can visit www.bit.ly/HellyActon where you can become part of the Helly Acton Readers’ Club. It only takes a few moments to sign up, and there are no hidden catches or costs.
Bonnier Books UK will keep your data private and confidential, and it will never be passed on to a third party. Nor will we spam you with loads of emails. We’ll just keep in touch now and again with news about my books, and you can unsubscribe any time you want.
If you would like to get involved in a wider conversation about my books, please do review The Couple on Amazon, on GoodReads, on any other e-store, on your own blog and social media accounts, or t
alk about it with friends, family or reading groups! Sharing your thoughts helps other readers, and I always enjoy hearing about what people experience from my writing.
Thank you again for reading The Couple.
All the best,
Helly xxx
Reading Group Questions
1. What differences did you notice about Millie’s society beyond its attitude towards relationships? How does that shift in attitude affect other aspects of life?
2. Why do you think Millie feels such pressure to succeed at work?
3. Families operate very differently in Millie’s world. How does this novel explore family?
4. Who was your favourite character?
5. This novel uses different media to tell its story – text messages, hangman puzzles, work notes. How did this change the reading experience for you?
6. The Couple is a love story, but it’s also very much a book about friendship. How do Millie’s friendships affect her life?
7. How do you think gender and sexuality might be viewed differently in a world not orientated around couples?
8. The ‘couple-shaming’ in this novel is in part a commentary on ‘single-shaming’ in our own society. Can you think of examples from your everyday life where being in a couple was presented as the norm and being single was not? Do you think you’ll change your behaviour at all, after reading this novel?
9. Have you ever felt like you’ve been ‘single-shamed’? How did it make you feel?
10. Were you aware of some of the advantages that couples experience in our world, such as the tax breaks?
11. Several of the milestones we celebrate in our world are based around being in a conventional couple – engagements, weddings, having children, wedding anniversaries, etc. What other milestones could we be celebrating?
12. The Couple references the notion of bringing up children with friends, rather than romantic partners. Is this something society should be more open to? Would you ever consider it?
13. In our society single people are often categorised as ‘married to their work’ or ‘career women’. How does the author explore, and challenge, this idea in the novel?
14. Do you think younger generations are more confidently single? Do they feel as much pressure to be in a relationship as older generations once did at the same age, or are younger generations more ‘pro-single’ than previous ones?
15. What do you think would be different about your life if you lived in Millie’s world? Would you, like her, risk it all for love?
16. If Oxytoxin existed, would you take it?
If you enjoyed The Couple, why not try
Helly Acton’s debut novel, The Shelf?
Everyone in Amy’s life seems to be getting married, having children and settling down (or so Instagram tells her), and she feels like she’s falling behind. So, when her long-term boyfriend surprises her with a dream holiday, she thinks he’s going to finally pop the Big Question. But the dream turns into a nightmare when, instead, she finds herself on the set of a Big Brother-style reality television show, The Shelf.
Along with five other women, Amy is brutally dumped live on TV and must compete in a series of humiliating and obnoxious tasks in the hope of being crowned ‘The Keeper’.
While inside the house, will Amy learn that there are worse things than being ‘left on the shelf’?
First published in the UK in 2021 by Zaffre
This ebook edition published in 2021 by
ZAFFRE
An imprint of Bonnier Books UK
80–81 Wimpole St, London W1G 9RE
Owned by Bonnier Books
Sveavägen 56, Stockholm, Sweden
Copyright © Helly Acton, 2021
Cover design by Jenny Richards
The moral right of Helly Acton to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-83877-387-8
Hardback ISBN: 978–1–83877–384–7
This book was typeset by Palimpsest Book Production Ltd, Falkirk, Stirlingshire
This ebook was created by IDSUK (Data Connection) Ltd
Zaffre is an imprint of Bonnier Books UK
www.bonnierbooks.co.uk