‘You asked what was going to become of us.’ Nick sat up. ‘That implies that you consider us an item.’
‘I meant in connection with work,’ she lied. ‘I thought it would be awkward being stuck in each other’s company, pretending that nothing had happened between us.’
‘Stuck in each other’s company?’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. What I meant was…’ Now he was standing up, which instantly made her feel a lot less assured. ‘Look, this has been brilliant. I never thought…well, my first impressions of you weren’t all that flattering but I’ve enjoyed every minute of being here with you. We had fun, didn’t we?’
Nick couldn’t quite believe his ears. Shouldn’t he be the one giving the Dear John lecture? Shouldn’t he be the one doing the letting down slowly and gently?
Anyway, whoever said that it had to end just yet? Sure, he didn’t want a strings-attached relationship. Never had, probably never would. Which didn’t mean that they couldn’t continue enjoying each other until time did its thing and they both decided to move on.
‘Sure, it’s been fun.’ He hooked his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans and stared at her. That sexy body…that light, infectious laughter…Well, this was her choice and the right one, really. ‘And I’m glad you’re…so calm about this…’
‘What did you expect?’ Rose asked lightly. ‘Tears and histrionics?’
Nick shrugged and began walking back to their rooms. This was most definitely not how he had expected to spend his last night in Borneo. ‘Maybe nothing so extreme,’ he grated as she fell in step with him. ‘You’re not the tears and histrionics kind of girl, are you?’
Certainly not in public and definitely not when she’d made a complete idiot of herself.
‘Not really.’
‘And I’m glad about that.’ He stopped and Rose continued walking for a few steps before turning around to look at him. ‘I wouldn’t want to have hurt you in any way. You know me, Rose.’ He laughed softly although something inside him felt slightly sick. Probably, he figured, because he had had the rug pulled very neatly from under his feet. Well, everyone needed a shake-up now and again and he was no exception. It hurt because the feeling was so damned alien to him. ‘I can’t give promises of commitment and settling down.’
‘And I wouldn’t want them,’ she said quickly. ‘Certainly not from you. We clicked in bed, but there’s so much more to relationships than just clicking in the sack.’
Nick wasn’t sure he much liked that, but he gave her a brief nod, which could have been agreement or simply acknowledgement of what she was trying to say.
‘But, and I never thought that I would say this, I’m grateful to you, and not just because you bailed me out of a financial mess. I’m looking forward to going back to my old job, but you’ve given me the confidence to think about new pastures, not to rely on just doing the same thing day in and day out and thinking that it’s fine because I know the routine.’
‘Glad to be of service,’ Nick told her coolly.
‘Course, I’ll make sure that I have all the written reports ready for you by next Monday.’
‘No need.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I’m no longer convinced that I’ll be siting Borneo for my hotel.’
‘Why not?’ Rose asked, astounded at his U-turn. ‘It’s an amazing island. And you’ve put in so much time in getting to know it.’
‘Yes, it’s an amazing island and if tourism is to kick in, then I would rather not be the one to introduce it. It’s easy for a unique place like this to lose its innocence because of rampant commercialism.’ And besides, he thought angrily, Borneo would forever remind him of her. They had spent some pretty intense days together and she had imprinted too much of it with her stamp. How could he ever walk along this stretch of beach again without thinking about her? And that wouldn’t do. He had let his guard down, allowed her to get under his skin, and let this, he thought, be a lesson to him.
She was delivering some heartfelt speech about tasteful and controlled tourism and the benefits to a local community and he sliced through her ramblings with dismissive ease, pleased to have her reduced to silence.
‘You make some valid points, but my decision is made.’ Churlish would be to make a big deal of the fact that she had, like it or not, ended their relationship. Churlish, in other words, would be to allow his ego to be involved. On the other hand, he could be as relieved as she appeared to be that the whole thing was over and, honestly, he was. Good while it lasted but all good things came to an end and it was best to part company on good terms. The ideal scenario when it came to the opposite sex, if he thought about it.
‘So…’ he injected some warmth into his voice as they began to stroll back to the hotel complex ‘…all packed?’
‘Check.’
‘Including those ridiculous souvenirs you insisted on buying at the market a couple of days ago?’
‘They weren’t ridiculous. You’ll be sorry you didn’t invest in a couple yourself when you get back to England and realise that they would have looked very fetching on your walls.’ She kept her voice as light as she could, but now the bantering that had led her to think of what they had as something special hurt beyond endurance.
‘Name two places where colourful masks would have blended in.’
‘You mean against the stark white walls and expensive abstracts?’
Rose heard herself conducting this perfectly normal conversation from a distance, almost as though she were hovering over herself, watchful and detached.
When they were finally standing outside their rooms, she smiled at him, gratefully, she hoped, and stuck out her hand, which he pointedly ignored.
‘That’s a bit ridiculous,’ he drawled. ‘Yes, we’ve both reached the same conclusion that this was a holiday fling best left on the island, but I think shaking hands is slightly ludicrous.’ He bent and kissed her on the mouth, but this was a fond, farewell kiss, devoid of the urgency and hunger she had become accustomed to, and it hurt like hell.
It did, however, set the tone for the next day, during which they were affable, polite and very, very busy. Flights, work that Nick suddenly remembered needed to be done and books that Rose decided should have been read.
She could already feel the mantle of England settling back over her long before the plane finally touched down at Heathrow.
She had feverishly wondered how they would actually part company when the moment arrived, but in all events it was an anticlimax. Nick spotted someone he knew and, before she could brace herself for the hellishness of the final goodbye, he was kissing her fondly on the cheek and excusing himself. Would she be okay to handle a taxi back herself? Just a couple of things he wanted to talk to Ed Duggins about…take care of yourself…hope the house lives up to expectations…The usual platitudes, but his mind was already somewhere else. He had moved on.
Rose went directly to her house. She had been there almost every day to supervise the work in progress and had left her painter and decorator in charge of replastering and wallpapering over the mess made by the builders.
At any rate, that was exciting. She was delivered to her door in a black cab and, once inside the house, wandered around taking in the changes, and there were a fair few of those. Terry had done an excellent job. Everywhere looked new and smelt new.
And it was all paid for. She told herself that she should be over the moon, but as it turned out the only thing she had to smile about was her phone call to her sister.