“So,” they both said at the same time.
“So,” said Holly, a second time. “Where do we start?”
“Did you sleep with him?” Tom came straight to the point.
“No,” she answered honestly.
“Did you want to?” he asked next.
“I don’t know, maybe,” she replied with equal candour.
“I have something to tell you,” he confessed and he told her about Shirley and how the problems he’d been having with his company, had led up to it. Holly already knew Tom had set a private investigator on the track of one of his employees for corruption and that finally he’d been arrested and was now going to be tried in court.
When he had finished, Holly paused as if trying to sort out her thoughts and then said, “Don’t you think this is all a sign?”
Stubbornly Tom said, “No.”
“Tom,” Holly said soothingly, “I don’t think we’re meant to get married.”
“Holly, don’t say that,” Tom was visibly distressed. “I love you,” he finished unnecessarily.
“Sometimes it’s not enough. Would you have had feelings for Shirley, if you loved me one hundred percent? No. Would I have been remotely interested in Dario, if I loved you as I should? I don’t think so.”
“Holly, what are you saying?” Tom was fearful.
“I think we need a break to see how we feel.”
“You want to be with him,” Tom accused.
“No, Tom, that’s not what I’m saying, but we need a few months apart. We shouldn’t have any secrets from each other.”
“So you want to call off the wedding?” Tom asked.
“At the very least postpone it. Wouldn’t you want to be sure?” Holly said.
Tom didn’t trust himself to answer.
“I’m going to move into Lucy’s in the meantime. She needs me anyway.” Standing up, she kissed him gently on the cheek.
“Goodbye, Tom.”
Dario was waiting in the conservatory of his hotel, sipping a cappuccino. He rose to kiss Holly, when she approached, but she waved him away. She sat hands folded in front of her, body language not encouraging.
“Well, at least you are here,” Dario said finally.
“Yes, I’m here, Dario,” she said fatalistically.
“Should I be happy?” he asked.
“I’m not sure,” she said.
“Have you left Tom?”
She looked at his nose, which was still swollen and bandaged, courtesy of the Royal Infirmary and said, “Yes.”
Dario smiled, as much as his broken nose would allow. “Then you think there are possibilities for us.”
“No.”
Dario was taken aback.
“No? But you have left Tom.”
“Yes, because there is no point being with someone who is perhaps not the right person.”
“Tom is not the right person?”
“I don’t know.”
“Am I?”
“I don’t think so. Maybe if we had met under different circumstances, at a different time, but since you came into my life, it has been chaos. I need order, not chaos.”
“We could fix that.”
“I think we missed our time, Dario. Maybe it could have been, but things are too complicated.”
“I like complicated.”
“Well, I don’t. I came to tell you, it’s over, before it begins. I’m sorry.”
“Holly, don’t do this. Give us a chance.”
“Dario, I don’t even know how I feel. I’m going to have a break from men for a while, see how things work out.
He tried repeatedly to convince her, but Holly’s mind was made up. She left soon afterwards, tears swimming in her eyes.
*
Back at Lucy’s, Holly sat at the computer, opened a new Word document and typed One Hundred Paths Through Andalucia, then clicked on the BA website and booked herself a one-way ticket.
Note from the author:
Coming Oct 2012
The Dating Game
Workaholic recruitment consultant Gill McFadden is sick of her friends trying to match-make for her. Up until now her love life has been a disaster and she’s going through a drier spell than the Sahara desert. Seeing an ad on a bus one day, she decides to visit Happy Ever After dating agency. Before long she is experiencing laughs, lust and… could it be love? But like everything in Gill’s life, nothing is straightforward and she ends up wondering exactly who she can trust.
I hope you enjoyed Sign of the Times. Since publication I have been asked for a sequel, which I have now decided to write, just not yet.
You can follow me on Twitter at Susan_Buchanan or visit my Facebook page – www.facebook.com/susan.buchanan.author. I also have a writer’s blog where you can join me in the progress of my next novel, The Dating Game, due for ebook release late 2012. For fellow writers, the blog also contains some writer’s tips. www.susancbuchanan.blogspot.co.uk
Bye for now, Susan
Table of Contents
Holly - SAGITTARIUS
Tom - CAPRICORN
Maggie – AQUARIUS
Jennifer - PISCES
Ben - ARIES
Taurus – OSCAR
Lucy - GEMINI
Carl – CANCER
Maria – LEO
Antonia – VIRGO
Jack - LIBRA
Czeslawa - SCORPIO
Venetian Dreams Launch
Table of Contents
Holly - SAGITTARIUS
Tom - CAPRICORN
Maggie – AQUARIUS
Jennifer - PISCES
Ben - ARIES
Taurus – OSCAR
Lucy - GEMINI
Carl – CANCER
Maria – LEO
Antonia – VIRGO
Jack - LIBRA
Czeslawa - SCORPIO
Venetian Dreams Launch
Sign of the Times Page 39