Giving an exasperated shake, she hurried through to the kitchen and busied herself selecting plates, glassware, cutlery and place mats to set on the table out on her deck, sans candles. Halfway across the kitchen with her hands full, she heard her cell-phone ring. Darn. She’d left it in her bedroom and she had to put everything back on the kitchen counter while she went to answer it.
Please, don’t let it be Mum or one of the aunts. Not tonight. Last night she’d spent ages on the phone, answering endless questions about the drama of the plane landing, and she’d had to explain that yes, Liam Conway was the same man her mother and aunts had seen in the photo in the paper and yes, it was an amazing coincidence that he’d turned out to be her boss. And yes, he was just as nice in real life as he’d appeared to be in the TV interviews.
The phone was on her bedside table.
‘Hello, Alice.’
She could hardly hear Liam’s voice above the buzz and hum of background noise—voices and busy, bustling sounds. She smiled as she pictured him waiting impatiently in the line-up at the crowded Indian takeaway.
‘Hi, Liam; is it going to be a long wait?’
‘Alice, you didn’t get my message to call me?’
She frowned. ‘No.’
‘Shana was supposed to tell you.’
‘I—I—left work a little early.’
She heard his sigh. ‘I’m sorry, Alice, I’m afraid I’ve had to cancel dinner. I’m at the airport now.’
‘The airport?’ Her heart gave an uncomfortable thud. ‘What are you doing there?’
‘Look, I’m terribly sorry, but something’s come up and I have to fly to Sydney.’
‘Tonight?’ It was virtually impossible to keep the disappointment out of her voice.
‘Yes. In fact the plane’s boarding now.’
Whoosh. Alice’s knees buckled. She dropped down onto her bed. This didn’t make sense. What kind of something had 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 going to have to turn this thing off.’
She was clutching the cell-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 OK?’ He sounded concerned.
No, of course she wasn’t okay. She was confused, disappointed, worried. Liam’s evasions scared her. They were so horribly 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 cell-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. OK. 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 went into 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 in love, which was just plain foolish. Thirty-year-old women just didn’t 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 dishcloth to mop it, and felt the threat of tears again. Darn it. She knew that she would mind. She would mind very much if Liam had another girlfriend.
Oh, good grief, she’d be bitterly disappointed. Devastated.
Chapter Seven
‘THEY haven’t changed the date of Valentine’s Day, have they?’
Alice was in the middle of a phone call when she looked up to see Sally, the front-desk receptionist, walking through the doorway bearing a huge bouquet of red roses.
Walking straight to Alice, Sally winked and set the flowers on her desk with a cheeky ta-da! flourish.
Alice’s heart began to knock and she lost the train of her conversation with a hire-car rep in Mount Isa.
Who on earth would be sending her flowers? They had to be from Liam. But would he make such a public gesture at work?
Smiling broadly, Sally tapped her fingernail against the little envelope that was pinned to red satin ribbons.
Alice knew she was blushing as she mouthed ‘thank you’ and she was grateful that her phone call meant that Sally couldn’t hang around while the envelope was opened. But just as the call finished, Shana walked in. Great.
‘Wow!