Chloe Sims - The Only Way is Up - My Story. Chloe Sims
to the resort before on holiday, so it wasn’t like it was totally unknown, plus I had people looking out for me so it wasn’t as daunting as it might sound. It was certainly a different experience to our last family holiday there. I hadn’t really seen the craziness of it all – the infamous strip of bars, all built on top of each other, some high up and reached by many winding steps, and even more bars built deep underground. There were enough bars and clubs to keep even the most hardcore party people going all night.
I was still only 16, but I’d grown into my looks and was much more confident in myself. I knew I was prettier and I’d started getting more male attention. This probably made the job easier, if I’m honest, but I was really good at it and it paid well, too.
Back then, the cost of living was so cheap out there – I’d never had so much available cash to go out and enjoy myself. The company running the bar crawls treated us well. They gave me a moped and I even had a mobile phone when they were just starting out and hardly anyone else had one. I had money in my pocket, I’d made loads of friends and life was good.
I moved into an apartment, which I shared with twin girls – Suzy and Sarah from Manchester – and two boys, one from Birmingham and the other from Newcastle. It was a bit cramped with all of us there, but, with the work during the daytime and being out all night partying, it didn’t seem important and just seemed to add to the fun.
Suzy and Sarah were great fun – they worked with me selling tickets for the bar crawls. We had loads of laughs, although we did manage to end up in trouble from time to time. On one occasion, Suzy and I had been working together during the day, selling tickets as usual, and had spotted a group of about 20 German tourists. We decided to do whatever we could to sell them tickets because a sale that big would make us a load of commission (we didn’t usually see groups of quite so many lads, so we made it our mission to convince them to buy tickets). Suzy promised them that, as they’d spent so much with us, we’d drop off a crate of wine at their hotel later that afternoon.
Later that day, I said, ‘So, when are we sorting out this wine for the Germans, then?’
Suzy just laughed and said, ‘We’re not.’
‘What? I don’t understand,’ I said.
She replied, ‘I only said that so they’d buy tickets – I didn’t mean it.’
It turned out to be a total lie – she’d never intended to buy it at all. I was so naive I thought she had planned a nice gesture! But her point was that they were tourists who would only be there for a week or so and we’d never see them again. That’s how it was among many of the workers – they would all target the palest of holidaymakers, as this would signify the ones who’d just arrived and were easier to blag!
That same evening, Suzy was off out with her boyfriend, so it was just Sarah and me who went out together. We were outside a bar at the top of the strip when the Germans from earlier that day spotted us and came marching over. Now Suzy and Sarah were identical twins, so clearly they had mistaken one for the other and started having a go at Sarah, who didn’t have a clue what was going on. She had a big German guy in her face, shouting, ‘Where is my wine?’ and she just looked totally confused. I wasn’t having him speaking to Sarah like that when it wasn’t anything to do with her, so I tried to explain that it wasn’t her, it was her twin sister, but he wasn’t listening or thought we were lying.
As he got angrier, he started getting right in her face and was being really aggressive, so I kept shouting that he was wrong and it wasn’t her. Next thing I knew, he turned round and gave me a great big slap round my face! I couldn’t believe it.
Now, in the resort, the rules were strict: workers stuck together and any trouble from tourists was not tolerated, which could end really badly for some poor drunken soul on holiday getting rowdy, not realising that suddenly he had the entire strip’s worth of workers to answer to! Sarah and Suzy were well known in the resort: they’d worked on ticket selling for a while and, well, they were identical twins and both quite loud so not easily missed.
On this particular night, our exchange with the German tourists was spotted by one of the doormen at a nightclub, just across from where we were standing and he quickly came running over. A fight broke out between the doorman and the Germans. More people got involved and then it all spiralled out of control! I knew they were just sticking up for me – which was fair enough, because he had hit a girl – but I didn’t expect it all to kick off like that.
The fight ended up going all the way down the whole of the strip as more and more people got involved. It was a proper street brawl and all because Suzy, who wasn’t even there, and I had managed to start it. What a nightmare!
Later on that year, I went back to England for a two-week holiday to see my family and met up with all my old friends. It was great to catch up with everyone and we went on a night out together to a place called Country Club in Abridge. It was my favourite place to go clubbing and I’d always be up on the stage, dancing the night away. While I was dancing, I spotted a guy at the bar who was really fit – I remember turning to my friend Helen and saying, ‘See that guy over there? He’s gorgeous!’
A bit later, we got chatting and he asked me what I did for a living, and I told him I was a model, even though I wasn’t. Modelling was still what I wanted to do when I’d finished having fun out in Majorca. I asked what he did and he told me he was a footballer. His name was Danny Chapman and he played for Barnet FC. He was 19 and from Bethnal Green in east London. It turned out that he lived near my Nanny Daisy. I really fancied him, so, when he said, ‘Can I have your number?’, I said yes straight away.
He rang me the next day and said he wanted to meet me, and he drove all the way from east London to Collier Row to pick me up. We drove around in his car for a bit and chatted loads. I liked him a lot – he was good-looking and funny, plus I really fancied him.
From then on, we were inseparable and I spent the rest of my holiday with him. During this time, he took me to meet his parents, we slept together and everything was amazing; I was head over heels. I had all these visions of him being a successful footballer and me being a successful model, but I was only home for two weeks and I had to go back to Majorca. I wanted to stay in England but I had my job over there, which I liked and made me good money; I was gutted.
I was totally torn between staying with Danny and going back, but eventually I decided to return to the Balearic Islands. I told him I’d come back for him if he just waited a few months for me and he said he would. As far as I was concerned, this was true love.
When I went back to Majorca, I thought about Danny all the time and I cried over him every night for three months. At the beginning, I would phone him as often as I could and we’d talk for hours. But I loved my job and I had loads of friends, I was having a fantastic time and gradually I settled into my life in Majorca more and more.
Three months on, just before I was due to go home, I met someone else. Lee was 24, so he seemed really mature. He drove a convertible Golf and he was the top ticket seller in the whole resort, a real highflier in the workers’ community! I set my sights on him. I was determined I would make him mine, and I did.
Before I could make a move on Lee, I had to finish with Danny, so I rang him and told him I wasn’t coming home. He was furious.
I remember saying, ‘Danny, I’ve got something to tell you. I’ve changed my mind. I’m not coming back.’
He yelled back, ‘I don’t believe this! I’ve waited three months for you and now you’re not coming. And I’d bought you a really nice present as well.’
It turns out he’d bought me a diamond bracelet that he was going to give me when I got back and he was fuming with me. All that time, he’d been waiting for me and there I was, telling him I wasn’t coming back! He’d told all the players in his football team that he’d bought me this bracelet and I think that’s why he was more pissed off – I’d made him look a fool in front of his mates.
He was shouting at me down the phone and then he yelled, ‘Don’t ever let me see