--------------------------
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“Is it time for the toast?” Guy asks, coming over to join us with some fresh drinks from the bar.
David and I look at each other, and we both nod.
So right there, in the middle of the Slug and Lettuce, we, the Three Amigos - and one very beautiful Amigoette- all raise our glasses and toast my forthcoming trip to Slovakia.
“Thanks,” I say to David afterwards, “This means a lot to me, you coming over like this. …It means a lot, okay?”
“No problem,” he says, patting me on the back.
“So, how are you doing? I can’t believe I’ve spent the whole evening talking about me. How’s things going in Germany? How are things going on the Fraulein front?”
“Not good. German girls are all too serious. No sense of humour. I’d give anything to meet a nice, decent, honest, attractive, funny, single English girl. Not that I’m picky or anything…do you know any?” he asks, jokingly.
I smile to myself.
“Funnily enough,….” I reply, pulling out my mobile and finding the number for my dear friend Gail…
“Hello?” she says, picking up quite quickly.
“Where are you?” I ask.
“In Leicester Square with Luke and Paul…”
“Great,” I reply. “Listen, I’m in Soho, and I’m with someone who wants very much to meet you…”
Which is how, thirty minutes later David met Gail and Gail met David, and once again, the magic of a Friday night in London was able to so unexpectedly change the course of two people’s lives, thus proving that above all there is always hope, and that if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be…
Sometimes, all we have to do, is to give love a chance…
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--------------------------
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And that is why, one week later, I am sitting now in Café Roland looking at my watch, waiting for Part Three of ‘The Plan’ to start.
It’s 7.28 pm. Only two minutes to go.
…One minute…
I watch as the second hand slowly ticks away, each second that passes bringing me closer to the moment of truth.
And now…it’s seven thirty. This is the moment that I have been waiting for…
I look up at the door, and then beyond to the steps leading up to the square above.
It’s time…
My heart sinks. No one is there. No one is coming...
I look back at my watch again, then search the walls for a clock to check if my watch is perhaps fast.
I find one. It’s seven thirty five.
Then seven forty.
My heart is sinking, deeper and deeper and deeper. My plan has failed…
I pull out my copy of the letter that I wrote to her, and start reading it once again. What did I do wrong? What words did I miss out? Should I have written more…? Did I miss out those magic words?
.
“Dear Slávka,” it starts,…
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“I was wrong. Please forgive me.
.
There are no excuses for what I did, but there are reasons. Please understand that I only did what I did because I was so upset. My heart was broken. When I found out ...what I thought you had done...I was devastated. I was confused. I thought I had lost you. I was very, very lost. A friend offered me a shoulder to cry on, and I took it. Please try to understand the circumstances around what I did. And please believe how sorry I am for what happened.
.
I love you more than any person in the world. You are everything to me.
.
You were right. There can be no relationship without trust. Because of what happened to us, I knew that I had to change, so I tracked down my mother and found her. We are now friends. My life, it seems, has always been a lie. I found out that it was not my mother who committed adultery, but that it was my father. I have learnt that the truth is never what it seems, and that although it is not a golden rule, perhaps it is women who can be trusted more than we can trust our fellow men.
.
I have also learnt that although men find it difficult to forgive, women have a greater capacity for loving and forgiveness than men ever do.
.
So I am asking you now to forgive me, and to give us a second chance.
.
Please.
.
I know that you once trusted me with your life and your future, and that you gave up a very good job so that you could be with me. To prove to you that I am willing to trust you with my life and my future, I want you to know that if you want me to, I will give up my job in London and I am willing to come and find a flat in Bardejov, or Bratislava, or wherever you want to be, so that we can have another chance to be together. You once gave it all up for me, and in return, I am now willing to give it all up for you.
.
I know that in reading this you might feel a little scared that I am actually here now in Slovakia, and perhaps you may feel under a little pressure, but I want you to know that you should not worry. There is no pressure.
.
That is why I left you the note and did not try to talk to you. But it was important to me that I gave you this letter in person, to apologise to you personally, and to let you know that if you were to find it in yourself to forgive me, that I would never let you down again.
.
That being said, I want you to be free to decide for yourself. That’s why I will be flying back to London in three days time. Between now and then I promise that I shall not come to visit you or make any attempt to contact you again.
.
I love you Slávka. More than anything else in the world I want to hold you in my arms again, and for us to be together.
.
If you do not feel the same, on Saturday I will fly back from Poprad and I shall never contact you again.
.
But if you want to give us another chance, or if you would like to talk to me again, then at 7.30 pm on Friday night I will be sitting downstairs in the restaurant called “Café Roland” in the centre of the town square.
.
I hope that you will decide that love is a rare thing, and that we deserve a second chance,…but this time on your terms.
.
If not, then I will never forget you and never stop being grateful to you for the change that you have brought about in my life. For through you, I have found the ability to trust again, and you have taught me how to love, without reservation.
.
I love you.
.
Your Andrew.
.
P.S. I know it’s only a book, but please read the last chapter of ‘Marrying Slovakia’
Can our story have a happy ending too?”
.
As I finish reading the last words of the letter, I feel a draught of warm fresh air upon my face, and looking up, I see that the door to the restaurant has opened.
.
A young woman is walking towards me.
.
She is smiling.
.
.
.
.
.
The End
.
.
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A Personal Note from the Author
"Hi,
Thanks for reading this novel. I am really flattered that you chose one of my books to read, from all of the millions of books on Amazon. I hope you enjoyed it. I would love to hear from you if you did! You can contact me on [email protected] .
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Ian C.P. Irvine is fast becoming one of the UK's leading independent authors, with over 1,850,000 books downloaded. For a full list and to download all of his FREE EBOOKS, now available for a limited time, visit www.free-ebook.co.uk CLICK HERE. Download them all now! And read them soon.
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Please look out for others books by IAN C.P.IRVINE on Amazon:-
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Say You're Sorry
Sometimes, an apology is all it takes to save your life, no matter who you are!
'SAY YOU'RE SORRY!'
A gripping page-turning crime thriller which will make you think twice about how you treat strangers or ever use the internet or your mobile phone again!
When Scottish crime lord Tommy ‘McNunn’ commits the perfect murder, killing a corrupt policeman and framing his death on a rival, DCI Campbell McKenzie knows there is little he can do to stop a gang war and prevent McNunn taking over the whole of Scotland.
However, when Tommy McNunn accidentally drives into an old age pensioner, destroys the man’s car and refuses to apologise, his ambitions are soon to be thwarted. In a modern day retelling of the biblical story ‘David Versus Goliath’, the meek topple the mighty, brains conquer brawn and good overcomes bad. DCI McKenzie versus his arch rival, Tommy McNunn. Who will win? In another classic IAN CP IRVINE thriller, just when you think you know the truth, your world is turned upside down. Hold on tight, cancel the rest of your day and take a deep, deep breathe. You'll need it.
The Assassin’s Gift
If there's one thriller you must read this year, this is it! A gripping, page turning thriller from an author everyone is falling in love with!
The Assassin's Gift is a tense, eye-opening thriller that will sweep you up and whisk you away on a breathtaking journey of adventure and discovery before dropping you exhausted on the shores of Loch Ness, incredulous, smiling, and begging for more!
Salvador is the top assassin in the world: an invisible killer, feared, respected, in demand, and hunted by every crime agency on the planet.
For Salvador, killing is an art-form and a way of life, until during an accidental meeting with a mysterious monk on the banks of Loch Ness in Scotland, Salvador is given a rare, unwanted gift: the ability to heal people.
Cursed and burdened with a 'gift' he cannot give back, Salvador must evaluate his life afresh, being able to kill with one hand, and cure with the other. Denying his Gift, he takes on his toughest assignments yet: to achieve the impossible by killing a top Scottish crime lord, Tommy McNunn, whilst locked up - and protected - inside Scotland's impenetrable and most secure prison, nestled amidst the Scottish Highlands. And then to kill DCI Campbell McKenzie, the man responsible for McNunn's imprisonment.
Now also hunted by Russia's top agent who is ordered to kill Salvador at all costs, Salvador discovers that everything in life happens for a reason, and that life and death are two sides of the same coin. A coin which he now owns.
But who is Salvador? What is the secret that protects his life? Why has he been given The Gift? And 'how' does he manage to pull off the crime of the century?
If you're looking for a new author to fall in love with and the Thriller of the Year!, look no further. Treat yourself to The Assassin's Gift. Download and read it NOW!
The Assassin's Gift is a fully independent novel, but may be read in a series following 'Say You're Sorry' and ' I Spy, I Saw Her Die'.
I Spy, I Saw Her Die
In a race against time, it's Ray Luck against the world!
When Ray Luck - a top cyber security expert - accidentally stumbles upon a devastating secret while surfing the web, he knows immediately he is in way above his head and soon he is being hunted by both Mossad and the British Security Services.
Alone, desperate, with only three days to live, Ray is a man with not one, but several missions: to save the life of his girlfriend who has been kidnapped by the security services; to prevent a terrorist cyber attack destroying London; to save the Middle East peace process; and to bring one of the most powerful men in the world to justice for the savage killing of an apparently innocent woman, a murder certain powerful people in the British Government are determined to cover up at all costs.
Only Ray can stop them all.
But as the clock starts to tick, he discovers that nothing is as it seems. Who is the real enemy? And who can he trust? Unless he finds out soon, will Ray’s luck finally run out?
Find out for yourself!
Written by a cyber security expert, this thriller will make you think twice about our modern world and using the internet. By the time you've finished the book, whenever you next watch television, you'll wonder just who is watching you! It's called 'tele-vision'. Now you'll understand why!
Murder, mystery, cyber crime, espionage, conspiracy, a terrorist plot, romance, page-turning, nail-biting adventure... this book has got it all.
Be one of the first to read it!
Haunted From Within
For some, death is not the end. Thanks to modern medicine, they are given a second chance. A second chance to live, and another chance to kill.
A fast paced contemporary medical thriller, based upon a true medical mystery that scientists and doctors do not yet understand.
Readers should be warned that the novel contains strong language and scenes of sex and violence.
The Story:
When Peter Nicolson, a reporter with the Edinburgh Evening News, is almost killed by a gang leader out to make his mark, the only way to save his life is through a double kidney transplant. One of the first people in the world to be treated with the new genetic wonder drug 'SP-X4', Peter makes a remarkable recovery. Yet as he recovers, his personality begins to change, and he discovers that he can see visions of unsolved killings committed by a murderer that no one has ever caught. Peter sets out to solve the murders, to track down the killer, and find out the truth behind the visions that he sees.
As time progresses, and as Peter uncovers a trail of death that stretches across the United Kingdom and Europe, the makers of 'SP-X4' watch his actions from afar, anxious that he will uncover the incredible truth behind their new drug treatment, and conspiring to make sure he does not succeed in revealing it to the world.
'Haunted From Within' is also the story of seven separate lives: readers will follow each character as the plot develops and their lives intersect, culminating in a surprise ending that few will predict.
Please beware: this book is based on fact: a medical phenomena tha
t few understand and most are unaware of. At first, it may seem hard to believe. This is after all, just a story, a fast-paced thriller written to entertain you . . . but it will leave you wondering and talking about the definition of 'life' itself. Enjoy!
Haunted From Without
The Sequel to Haunted From Within
Following the international success of Haunted From Within, Haunted From Without is the latest thought-provoking medical thriller from Ian C.P. Irvine.
Based upon a real life mystery, Haunted From Without will make you question the meaning of life itself. It will shock you, scare you and have you turning the pages until late into the night.
Haunted From Without is a unique combination of medical thriller, conspiracy thriller, mystery, detective fiction and ghost story.
With several stories that twist and turn together, culminating in an ending you will not predict, Haunted From Without will keep you riveted to your Kindle for hour after hour.
The Sleeping Truth : A Romantic Thriller (Omnibus Edition containing both Book One and Book Two) Page 45