"What About The Pumas ?"

"You look tired Deb. Why don't you join us for the weekend on our camping trip ? The forecast is for it to be a scorcher and it could give you a good break and a breath of fresh air. Better than moping about at home catching up on the week's laundry ?" They were winding down in the office on Friday afternoon. "I'm not much of an outdoors girl Caz, you know that. Give me a four star hotel or at the very least a nice log cabin" Debbi replied. "It'll only be three nights. We've got a spare tent. And if you're ever going to go camping, this weekend would be the time to do it with temperatures set to rise above 30."

"What about the pumas ?" Debbi asked. "The what ?" answered Carol, not sure she had heard correctly. "The pumas" Debbi clarified. "All those reports in the press about mystery big cats roaming loose in the woods ? They reckon they got loose from some illegal private collection and are breeding." Carol was surprised at her friend's credulity. "That's an old wives tale Deb. Nobody's ever got a clear photo. It's like the Loch Ness monster !" "And I suppose you're going to try and tell me that doesn't exist either ?" Debbi retorted. "Well it doesn't" laughed Carol, surprised at her normally sensible business partner's suddenly revealed Achilles' heel.

Carol continued to use her powers of persuasion and Debbi began to see the advantages of a weekend break, especially with the weather forecast and being the sun lover that she was. "We're leaving in a couple of hours" Carol announced after Debbi had finally agreed. "But I need to pack" Debbi objected. "That won't take a second" Carol insisted. "We travel light. Just pack a change of knickers and maybe a bikini. I know you won't bother with a bra !" "What about evening wear ?" said Debbi. Carol laughed. "What ? Sitting around the camp fire ? We're not going into any town, the whole point is to get away from civilisation for a couple of days."

"OK" Debbi agreed. "Anyway, who's 'we' ? Just you and Derek ?" "No, Charlie's coming too with her boyfriend Max" Carol confirmed. Debbi giggled. "Boyfriend ! He's older than me and not that far off your age." Ordinarily Carol would have grasped the opportunity to voice her complaints about Max to Debbi and indulge in a nice prolonged bitching session but that did not suit her purposes for this project. "Oh, he's not so bad" she contented herself with saying.