by Hannah Pearl
‘I was pretty confident, wasn’t I?’ I said, remembering how it had felt to be with him that first time.
‘You were beautiful,’ he said. ‘You still are.’ If he was trying to let me down gently, it was working. My heart still ached for him, but it helped to realise that he was letting me know that it was his hang-ups that had held him back, and not anything that I had done wrong. Maybe this was his true Christmas gift to me.
‘There’s more in there,’ he told me, lifting another small wrapped item from the box. I unwrapped it. ‘Juicy fruit chewing gum. You’d been chewing it before you kissed me. I could taste it on you. I haven’t been able to chew it since without thinking of you.’
There was one more small box, about an inch square. The same size as the box that Ben had pulled out of his pocket yesterday. My pulse began to pick up, but Eli took it from me quickly and held my hand. ‘It’s not an engagement ring,’ he cautioned, but as he traced the line of my cheek with his finger, I could only wonder what it was. Opening the box, he revealed a small silver ring with two interlinked hearts. ‘It’s a promise ring. Well, a question ring first, I guess. Daisy, I do love you. I don’t know if that’s enough. I don’t know how to deal with this fear of losing you, and I can’t promise that I will always be romantic enough for you. But I’d like to try, if you will have me?’
He barely caught me as I launched myself across the bed and flung myself into his arms. I covered his face with kisses as he laughed. ‘So you liked my gift?’
‘It’s the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me,’ I assured him.
He pumped his fist. ‘I knew it, you can be the queen of romance, and if you’ll have me, I can be the king.’
‘I’ll have you,’ I said, and he took a small bunch of crushed mistletoe out from his pocket.
‘I guess I won’t be needing to use this then,’ he said. I took it from him, and standing on my bed, I fixed it to the ceiling above my bed with a drawing pin.
‘Let’s go and celebrate Christmas with everyone upstairs. You can kiss me underneath it tonight.’
* The End *
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Thank You
Dear Reader,
Thank you for joining Daisy on her epic road trip. I hope you enjoyed her adventures to save Ben and that you fell in love with Eli just as she did.
If you have enjoyed reading this story it would mean a lot to me if you had a few minutes to share a review. As a new writer, this is a great way for people to find out about my books.
If you have any thoughts, comments or questions you can contact me via the details at the bottom of my author page.
Hannah x
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About the Author
Hannah Pearl was born in East London. She is married with two children and now lives in Cambridge.
She has previously worked as a Criminology researcher at a university in Leicester, as a Development Worker with various charities and even pulled a few pints in her time.
In 2015 she was struck down by Labrynthitis, which left her feeling dizzy and virtually housebound. She has since been diagnosed with ME. Reading has allowed Hannah to escape from the reality of feeling ill. She read upwards of three hundred books during the first year of her illness. When her burgeoning eReader addiction grew to be too expensive, she decided to have a go at writing. In 2017 she won Simon and Schuster’s Books and the City #heatseeker short story competition, in partnership with Heat magazine, for her short story The Last Good Day.
Follow Hannah:
www.dizzygirlwrites.wordpress.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/HannahPearl_1
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More Ruby Fiction
from Hannah Pearl
Evie’s Little Black Book
Hannah Pearl
Is hunting down every man you’ve kissed the answer to finding Mr Right?
When Evie is invited to the wedding of the guy she’d fancied throughout her teens, it’s the final straw. What’s wrong with her and why can’t she keep a man?
In between consoling herself with ice cream and chocolate, and sobbing her heart out to her cousin Chamaine, Evie has a brainwave – and it all centres around her ‘little black book’ (well, more floral patterned notebook really) – which contains the details of every man she’s ever kissed or dated. Perhaps the cure for her disastrous love life has been nestled within its pages all along …
Does Evie’s little black book really hold the answers, or will learn she learn that exes are exes for a reason?
Purchase from:
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or visit www.rubyfiction.com for more details.
It's My Birthday
Hannah Pearl
Oh boy, another birthday …
Karen could be excused for crying on her birthday, especially as it’s the first one since her husband got on a plane to the States and never came back. Then there’s the fact that her workmates were practically bribed to attend her birthday meal. But when a restaurant double booking leads to her sharing a table with single dad Elliot and his daughter, things start looking up.
As Karen gets to know Elliot she experiences feelings she thought she’d never have again. But is it enough? Or will the thing that destroyed Karen’s previous relationship also ruin things with Elliot?
Read a preview here ...
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Visit www.rubyfiction.com for more details.
Burn
Hannah Pearl
There’s no smoke without fire …
Jess has always held a candle for Dex – so when he comes back into her life after a school reunion, she couldn’t be happier.
But something happened to Dex before he mysteriously left the area all those years before – something that still gives him terrible nightmares and makes him seem cold and distant.
And then there are the rumours – rumours that Jess can’t bring herself to believe. But when the truth finally comes out, can Jess be the one to help Dex fight the demons from his past before they consume him completely?
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Introducing Ruby Fiction
Ruby Fiction is in imprint of Choc Lit Publishing.
We’re an award-winning independent publisher,
creating a delicious selection of fiction.
See our selection here:
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Ruby Fiction brings you stories that inspire emotions.
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Dedication
For my cousins and my children’s cousins. Thank you for all the fun and long may it continue.
Also for my brothers. One day I might even be brave enough to tell them!
Acknowledgement
Choc Lit and Ruby have put together a fabulous combination of lovely staff and a supportive group of authors. It is such a wonderful family to be a part of and I want to thank you all for being there. Thank you especially to the Tasting Panel readers who loved Daisy’s story and recommended it for publication: Dimi E, Cordy S, Gill L, Isobel J, Hannah Mc and Susan D.
Thank you to the Romantic Novelists’ Association. Their New Writers’ Scheme gave me the confidence to keep writing and submitting just when I needed it. This story started out as my NWS submission, and now (many drafts later) it is very exciting to set it free to have its own adventures.
Published 2019 by Ruby Fiction
Penrose House, Crawley Drive, Camberley, Surrey GU15 2AB, UK
www.rubyfiction.com
The right of Hannah Pearl to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying. In the UK such licences are issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Barnards Inn, 86 Fetter Lane, London EC4A 1EN
ePub ISBN: 9781912550258
Preview
It's My Birthday
by Hannah Pearl
CHAPTER ONE
It ended up being the best worst birthday ever. I had no idea of that at the time, of course. Back then Sally, my best friend, had been trying to usher me into the restaurant against my will. She hadn’t had to force me at gunpoint, we lived in Cambridge and the closest I’d ever come to a pistol was the rigged ones that we had fired the week before at the fair on Midsummer Common. I’d pretended that the tin cans were my ex-husband’s head and had blasted them clear off the shelf to win a teddy bear.
Instead, Sally had told me that a group of my colleagues were at the table waiting for me, and that if I smiled and played nice she would treat me to a glass of fizz.
‘Champagne?’ I queried.
‘Prosecco,’ she countered. ‘I’m not making Head of Year bucks like you.’ She was teasing me. Even with my extra responsibilities I was still a main grade teacher, and my not overly generous salary reflected this.
Sally put her arm through mine and began to guide me through the maze of diners to reach our goal. She had reserved a long wooden table and my guests rose to greet me as we grew closer. The mirrors that lined the walls reflected the glow from the antique brass uplighters, and appeared to double the number of balloons and streamers that Sally had liberally scattered around us.
Hugs and kisses were aimed in my direction, and I tried to return them with the affection with which they were given. It must have looked passable, because Sally nodded her approval at me and handed me a glass of Prosecco. My reward for behaving.
I was impressed by the crowd that Sally had managed to put together for me. Harry, a fellow English teacher was there, as were Liz and Priya from the maths department. There were also a handful of science teachers that Sally must have roped in because though I knew them to nod to I wasn’t sure I could match them to their names, even after being introduced again. They were all at least ten years younger than me and a lot more cheerful. I’d have tried to leave, crowds and optimistic young things not being my forte any longer, but I could see from the number of people present that Sally must have gone to a lot of effort to get them all there.
‘To Karen,’ Liz said, raising her own drink to me. I clinked mine against hers and we both sipped. The bubbles fizzed and popped on my tongue, and I tried not to blush as the rest of the group echoed her toast.
I thanked them all for coming to celebrate my birthday, and hid my blushes behind a menu as the waiter walked over to us and congratulated me as well. That was the trouble with having ginger hair and pale skin. My blushes were easy to spot as my skin tended to turn nearly the same shade as my hair. Truthfully, I’d been amazed that so many people had turned up. I’d always prided myself on being very career focused, but as my marriage had imploded it had become clear how little social life I had built for myself inside as well as outside of the school.
My own choices for the night, had I been allowed to make any, would still have involved alcohol and pizza, but these would have been consumed with a side order of TV and loneliness. Instead, Sally had insisted that leaving the house would be good for me. She was rarely wrong, so here I was. Trying to pass for sociable. I had even bought a new dress; it was bottle green, a little more slinky than I was used to but Sally had told me I looked great in it and it was nice to go out feeling pretty for a change. Sally wore a black dress covered in orange and pink flowers and an almost perpetual smile. She had been my closest friend since we met on my first day teaching at the local secondary school a dozen years before.
One of my newer colleagues, a tiny blonde girl in a black skirt who could have easily passed for one of our students, returned from the bar carrying a tray of brightly coloured shot glasses. She giggled as she handed them round, and it took no persuading to make me drink it. When Sally looked hesitantly at her own drink, not surprising given that it was pink and seemed to be glowing, I took it from her and tossed that back too.
‘Glad to see you getting in the spirit,’ she remarked, helping herself to the bowl of olives.
‘I think I’m going to be getting very heavily into the spirits. I hope you had factored carrying me to a taxi later and holding my hair while I throw up into my handbag in your plans for the night.’
Sally pretended that I had been joking, and handed me a small cardboard box to open. Inside was a nest of pink tissue paper. I lifted it out, brushing off the dust that scattered all over my slinky green cocktail dress. Underneath was another, smaller red velvet box. It was maybe an inch square. Last time I’d been given a box this size it had contained a pair of diamond earrings. Dan had given them to me when he returned from a work trip to New York. With hindsight it had probably been an apology for his beginning the affair with Tara who worked in his firm’s American office.
This box, however, was truly given with love, and I pushed away my memories of the last year to try and open it with a grateful heart. Inside was a small silver ring. In the centre was a swallow, delicately etched into the shiny metal. The wings encircled the band, and tiny chips of sapphire formed the eyes.
‘It’s beautiful,’ I gasped, lifting it out and holding it up to see how the stones sparkled in the light.
‘I know you’ve been missing wearing a ring,’ Sally said, gesturing at my bare left hand. There was still an indentation on my finger where my wedding ring had sat for twelve years, until Dan had packed his suitcase for yet another trip to New York and texted from the airport to say that he wouldn’t be coming home.
The waiter returned carrying a plate of pizza in one hand, a huge white dish of steaming pasta in the other.
‘Carbonara?’ he asked, looking from person to person and trying to get their attention. Liz was too busy acting out an impression of our head teacher when she had caught a group of students smoking in the car park after school to notice and Harry had to nudge her to get her to raise her hand.
‘Vegetariana?’ he asked. I raised my own hand, adorned with my new ring, and was given the plate. There was a sprig of basil and a handfu
l of huge black olives scattered over my meal, and despite some nervous discomfort my mouth began to water.
Next to me, Sally sighed. ‘I’m sure yours will come in a minute,’ I told her. ‘But you’re welcome to try a piece of mine if you’re hungry.’
‘I’d quite like a piece of him,’ she whispered.
I looked up in surprise. Sally had been happily married to Trevor all the time I had known her, but then I finally glanced higher than the plates of food to notice our waiter. He had black hair, which slipped over his almond eyes as he leaned across to deliver the garlic bread. There was a light scattering of stubble over his jaw, and he was undeniably gorgeous.
Liz continued to giggle long after he had moved past her with the over-sized and phallic shaped pepper mill. I may have blushed a little myself as he stood next to me, his crotch at my eye level, until I caught a waft of his aftershave, the same aqua scent that Dan had worn, and lost my appetite. I thanked him, and tried to engage Priya in conversation so that no one would notice that I wasn’t eating.
Priya wanted to pick my brains about running some additional revision sessions for her year eleven class. I agreed with her that I had wanted to do the same, but that the head had told us that there was no additional funding or reduction of our already busy timetables to compensate. She was less chatty after that. When Harry worked his way around the table filling glasses with another bottle of wine, I accepted a top up, even though the room was beginning to sway and I knew that I’d feel rough in the morning. I sliced off a mouthful of pizza, thinking that perhaps I ought to try and line my stomach after all. I had managed to finish my first slice, as well as my third glass of wine, when the waiter returned.