AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Whoosh. Alice’s knees buckled. She dropped down onto her bed. This didn’t make sense. What kind ofsomethinghad come up?
‘I’m really sorry,’ Liam said again. ‘When this news came through I was totally thrown. I’ve had so much on my mind this afternoon. There was a lot to get organised in a hurry.’
‘What’s happened?’
‘It’s – it’s a family matter,’ Liam told her. ‘An emergency. It’s too complicated to explain now. They’re calling the final passengers for my flight. I’m afraid I have to go.’
She was clutching the phone so tightly it should have snapped in two. How could Liam just take off with so little warning, such scanty information?
‘There’s a chance I might have to stay in Sydney for some time,’ he said. ‘But I’ll call you.’
‘All right.’ Her voice came out squeaky.Some time. How long was that?
‘Are you okay?’ He sounded concerned.
No, of course she wasn’t okay. She was confused, disappointed, worried. Liam’s evasions scared her. They were sohorribly familiar. How many times had Todd rung just like this – at the last minute to make excuses?
What could Liam’s emergency be? A dying parent? A road smash? Why was it complicated? Why couldn’t he tell her? There was so much she didn’t know about this man.
But she couldn’t ask those questions now. ‘Of course I’m fine,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry about – the emergency. I hope everything works out well.’
‘Thanks. I’m going to miss you. Got to go. ‘Bye.’
‘I’ll miss –’ She didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence. Liam had already disconnected.
She dropped the phone onto her bedspread and sat in her darkened bedroom, numb with misery. She felt swamped by an irrational, unprecedented sadness and tears slipped down her cheeks.
Just like that, she’d plummeted from the heights of happiness to the depths of disappointment. She felt awful. Being in love just wasn’t worth it. She’d felt empty and abandoned like this when she first suspected that Todd was cheating on her. How could she have found herself back in this ghastly place so quickly?
For several minutes she gave in to the wash of emotions, wallowing in self-pity. This wasn’t fair. How could Liam be so offhand with her? He wasn’t like Todd, was he? She couldn’t bear it if he was.
But eventually she pressed her knuckles to her streaming eyes and drew a deep breath. Okay. She had to get a grip. After all, she was trying to handle this relationship like a mature adult and it was downright silly to fall in a heap over one broken date.
Liam was dealing with what must be a very serious family emergency and she was crying like a spoilt child who couldn’t go out to play because it was raining.
Using her hands to lever herself up from the mattress, she stood and went through to the bathroom where she washed her face and then she hurried out to the kitchen to make something to eat – a grilled cheese sandwich and coffee.
As she slapped sliced cheese onto bread, she decided that she should be grateful for this timely lesson. After her divorce she’d been determined to join the single-and-loving-it brigade. She’d vowed that she wasn’t going to rely on another person to make her happy or to give meaning to her life.
And what had she done? She’d let a man become the centre of her life again.
She hadn’t learned a thing from her divorce.
Her first waking thoughts were for Liam, and so were far too many of her thoughts during the hours in between. And she drifted to sleep thinking of him.
In other words she’d fallen head over heels, which was just plain foolish. In the twenty-first century, thirty year old women did not fall in love with their bosses and dream of happily ever after. They had flings. That was what she’d had. A fling. Sex, not love.
There’d been lots and lots of fabulous passion but no talk of love, no promises, no talk of the future at all. For all Alice knew, Liam could have a girlfriend in Sydney. And as a contemporary, liberated, New Age woman, she shouldn’t mind.
Ouch.
Hot melted cheese dripped onto her hand and she grabbed for a dish cloth to mop it, and felt the threat of tears again. Darn it. She knew that shewouldmind. She would mind very much if Liam had another girlfriend.
Oh, good grief, she’d be bitterly disappointed. Devastated.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
‘THEY HAVEN’T changed the date of Valentine’s Day, have they?’
