Romance: One Fine Holiday Read online

  Oh, who cares?!

  I will be with Clarke.

  He is the man that has made me feel more special than anyone has ever made me feel. I feel wonderful when I am around Clarke.

  In a huff of adrenalin, I arrive at the locals bar.

  “Where is Clarke today?” I ask the bartender with a puffed voice.

  “He’s not here today. He must be busy.”

  “Do you know where he lives?”

  “Up on the hill,” the bartender points east.

  “On that hill? But that’s where the mansion is?”

  “Yes. That’s right. He owns mansion.”

  “Really? He owns the mansion? Are you sure he doesn’t just live there?”

  “Nope. He owns it alright.”

  Cheeky.

  Clarke told me that he knew the owners of the large property that we snuck onto last night. He didn’t tell me that he owns it.

  I race up the hill and instead of jumping through the fence, I run up the large and wide driveway. The entrance to the place is huge. It is a very regal island mansion - standing strong in the tropical air.

  Racing with joy up the steps to the large door, I knock on it loudly.

  “May I help you?” an older lady answers the door.

  “Hi, I’m Ella. Is Clarke here?” I ask.

  “I’m sorry, dear,” the older lady says to me, “But he has left for a while.”

  “Left?”

  “Yes dear.”

  “Where has he gone?”

  “Back to America.”

  “America? What does he do there?”

  “He is the CEO of a wealthy family business,” she says, “But that is all I know.”

  Wow.

  Clarke is not the island man that I thought he was. He told me he was here to escape the city. He said that the island is what is important.

  He lied to me.

  “So he’s not here?” I ask again in hope.

  “No dear,” the lady shakes her head.

  “Oh,” I feel dejected.

  I had my chance and I let it slip past. I turn to walk back down the driveway, my head slumping in disappointment.

  But as I walk down the steps, the lady calls out to me,

  “Wait.”

  I turn and walk back up to her, “Yes?”

  “Are you Ella?”

  “Yes…” I response surprised.

  “He left this for you,” she hands me a single red rose.

  “A rose?”

  “Yes. He said that if you come here, I am to hand you this rose.”

  Wow.

  My heart skips a beat.

  He remembered.

  “When was he coming back?”

  “Not for a long time, dear. I’m just the maid here but he said that he won’t be back for a while.”

  I provide the lady a smile, then leave the mansion with a rose in my hand.

  Chapter 14

  I cry into the arms of Mel once I arrive back at the resort. Kate asks about the rose but I avoid all questions. I am much too embarrassed.

  The walk back to the resort provided time to think about what just happened.

  How could I have been so foolish?

  Clarke would have a rose ready for every girl that comes to the door. The maid knew my name because I introduced myself. I bet that she has done that a thousand times before.

  He was only after a holiday fling. He never wanted me to stay here. He only wanted a bit of flesh to entertain him while he was on holidays.

  He was no island local.

  He is the richest man on the island and he treated this place like his holiday home. He knew all along that he was going back but he never mentioned it to me.

  How foolish of me to believe that he would fall for a girl like me.

  How foolish of me to believe that my life could be that fantastic.

  I was drawn in by the dream of a perfect man but I knew deep down that this could never be a reality.

  I knew that.

  It was foolish of me to believe any different.

  Eventually, I tell the girls what happened and they are there for me with hugs and support. They reassure me but quickly the day disappears and it is time to end this beautiful holiday.

  I do my best to pull myself together because I don’t want to end our holiday with tears in my eyes. I told myself that I was not going to fall for a man at the start of this holiday and I am not going to let the lies ruin my memories of an amazing time with my two best friends.

  It has been a magical holiday with the girls, and if anything, it has shown me that the city really is my home.

  I am quiet on the plane back into America, looking longingly out the window.

  I was never going to be good enough for a man like Clarke. He is rich, handsome, witty and charming. A man like that is well out of my league.

  I knew that from the start.

  But for a few foolish days, I believed that I was good enough for someone like him. I felt special. He was certainly the most beautiful man I have ever met.

  But he was a liar.

  He lied to me about being an island local and he lied to me when we jumped the fence.

  “Are you doing ok?” Kate asks me.

  “I’m fine. Why?” I try to hide the pain for the sake of the holiday.

  Kate smiles.

  She knows the truth.

  She can see straight through my lies.

  But she can also tell that I don’t want to talk about it.

  “Here,” Mel leans across, “Let’s go through the pictures.”

  Mel pulls out her camera, loads it up, and begins to flick through the photos from our holidays.

  The photos are amazing.

  Set against a backdrop of tropical sunshine, the three of us are laughing, smiling and playing in all the photos.

  Those are the parts of this holiday I want to remember.

  I want to remember us sitting by the pool, relaxing at the day spa and drinking wonderful cocktails.

  Despite the fact that we have not seen each other for a number of years, the whole holiday felt like a continuation of the last time we met.

  These are truly great friends and they are friends that I will have my whole life.

  I love these women.

  No matter what happens in life, I know that I can rely on their love and support when I need it. When I needed it on the island, they were there for me. I hope they feel the same about me. I hope they know that whenever they need help, they can rely on me.

  I want to remember this holiday for them.

  But sadly, my mind keeps coming back to Clarke.

  I can’t stop thinking about his amazing eyes, his charm, and his deep voice. For a short period of time, I felt like the most beautiful woman in the world.

  When he looked at me, I felt like I was the only person that mattered.

  But now I know that it was all part of his game.

  I bet that he has pulled that move a hundred times before. He must have known that my heart would melt at that first sunrise.

  I shouldn’t have fallen for him but he was too perfect to resist.

  I knew from the start that he was going to break my heart but still I fell for his body.

  Some say it is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all – but I say it is better to hold that love, then to have loved and lost.

  Unfortunately for me, I was just a play toy to Clarke.

  If he had been upfront about his motives from the start then I would have still probably slept with him, and it would have been left at that.

  But that wasn’t enough for him.

  He had to draw me all the way in, and then cut my heart loose.

  Bastard.

  Chapter 15

  Three months later

  I am back at work doing everything that I dread. I was flung straight back into my workload the second I walked through the door. And then I had to do fourteen hour days on the C.J Rowan case to catch up
on everything that I had missed.

  But it feels comfortable.

  The city is my security blanket.

  It is my way to disappear. I can hide under the hard work and endless commutes. I can hide under the overload of information, and I can hide in constant noise.

  It is only when I arrive home late at night do I realize I have nothing.

  Work is all I have.

  It fills the space in my head that would otherwise be occupied by thoughts about how lonely I am, but I work so hard that I don’t have much time to think about those feelings.

  My nightly ritual is one of arriving home very late, going to the fridge and microwaving a frozen dinner, only eating half of it because I don’t want to get fat, throwing it in the bin, and then going back to the fridge for ice-cream twenty minutes later because I am still hungry.

  I wake up early to go and exercise and then travel back to the office to slave away for another long day.

  This is my life.

  It is enough for me.

  It is what I’m destined to do.

  The moments I spent with Clarke dominated my thoughts for weeks and I still think about him a lot. Before I fall to sleep alone in my bed at night, he is the last thing I think about.

  I was lucky to spend time with him.

  Girls like me don’t usually get to spend a moment with a man like him.

  I was lucky.

  His chiseled body is etched into my dreams and the thought of his touch sends shivers through me.

  And looking back, I felt like we had more than a holiday fling.

  When our eyes connected, I could feel the chemistry between us. It was more than attraction, it was a connection. I have never felt something like that before and I am not sure I ever will again.

  Sigh…

  “Ella, have you got the files on C.J Rowan that I requested?” Thomas, my boss, demands at my office door.

  “Yes sir,” I mumble and hand him the stack of paper files.

  I am still working on the files for C.J Rowan and this time I have been asked to help work on his contract to purchase another island resort.

  It seems ridiculous that someone could own an island.

  And this is the third island that he is about to buy. His third!

  How ridiculous.

  What a waste of money.

  I hope when I am old, I don’t waste my money on trying to buy the world. I hope I still have the heart to donate to those in need.

  Despite working on the C.J Rowan files for over a year, today is our first meeting with him. He owns oil-wells, shopping malls, islands and a hotel chain.

  He seems to buy everything he can afford.

  People like C.J Rowan are what is wrong with this world. They seem to want to consume everything that they can get their hands on. They seem to have no taste and feeling for others.

  C.J Rowan is a very private man. He seems to disappear for months at a time and when a client is not contactable, it is very hard to progress anything they want.

  There is no information about him on the internet and there are no photographs of him that I can see. That is very unusual for a man so rich.

  “Now, he doesn’t have a wife or a girlfriend, so if you can… you know,” my boss Thomas states to me before we arrive in the large boardroom.

  “No. I don’t know. What do you want?”

  I do know what he wants.

  But I don’t like it.

  “Look, all I’m saying is - be nice to this man. By all reports, he is a very lonely man. I’ve heard that he has never even had a long-term girlfriend.”

  “He is rich enough to buy a girlfriend.”

  “Possibly. Just be nice… and maybe a little flirtatious.”

  Showing my dissatisfaction at the sexist comment, I shake my head. Even in this day and age, women still have to be flirtatious in the office to get ahead.

  It is moments like this that I long for the simplicity of island life with Clarke. There would be no office stress out there. Life would be so much simpler.

  I stroll into the boardroom and sit at the end of the long table, flicking through my notes, nervous about the first meeting with our biggest client.

  There is a hush of noise as C.J Rowan walks up the hallway escorted by a senior partner of the firm.

  I see his silhouette through the glass door – C.J Rowan looks tall, confident and strong.

  The door to the boardroom opens, and the wealthy C.J Rowan walks in…

  Chapter 16

  My heart skips a beat.

  My mouth drops open.

  Standing at the entrance to the room is Clarke.

  My Clarke.

  My island Clarke.

  The man that seduced me with the simplicity of his lifestyle.

  But he barely looks recognizable.

  He stands at the entrance to the room with a perfectly fitted European suit, he is well-shaven and he smells like rich cologne. It is clear that this is a man who has a lot of money.

  His eyes glance around the room until they land on mine.

  Clarke’s mouth drops wide open.

  His eyes are so deep and wonderful. I can see everything that I saw on the island.

  Time seems to stop while we stare at each other.

  “Do you know each other?” my boss interrupts our moment.

  “Um… maybe. Maybe we’ve met once,” Clarke looks away.

  Bastard.

  He used to hold my heart and now he is not even willing to admit it.

  Bastard.

  My emotions change from shock to anger. How could he not admit to knowing me?

  We were intimate with each other. We shared something special together.

  The rage builds up inside me.

  Soon, I can’t contain it. Every piece of my body is filling with rage.

  He lied to me.

  He used me.

  And now he won’t even admit to knowing me.

  “Excuse me,” I mumble to my workmates and exit the boardroom quickly.

  I can feel all the eyes focused on me as I exit the room. It is very unlike me to be caught up in emotion at work and my colleagues are suitably shocked.

  I throw my file onto my desk and storm outside the building into the sunshine.

  Arrggghhhh!!!

  I want to scream from the rooftops. I want to yell and shout. I want to punch something.

  But I hide the anger under a blanket of deep breaths and walk around the quiet courtyard of the office building, before sitting on a bench in the shade of a large tree.

  Soon, the anger starts to ease and I can feel it turn into sadness.

  I can feel the sadness starting to build and I feel like bursting out in tears at the betrayal. I feel shattered.

  My head is resting on my hands when I feel a presence next to me.

  “Hi.”

  I recognize the voice without looking up from my hands.

  It is the deep voice that I have come to dream about.

  That deep, sexy, relaxed island voice.

  “I didn’t expect to see you here. I didn’t know that you worked here.”

  That’s it?

  That’s your apology?

  I don’t reply to his attempts at conversation.

  “I guess seeing me dressed in a suit must be a bit of a shock,” he comments.

  “A bit of a shock? That is an understatement. I have been handling your files for the past year. I have been reviewing all the details of your new business deals. I know how much money you have. And then you had the guts to tell me that you’re an island man.”

  “I never said that.”

  “You never said that? You certainly implied it. You certainly gave me that impression. But you’re not an island man. You’re just another big city bastard.”

  “I am island man. That island has my heart.”

  “And probably a whole lot of your money too. Do you own that island?”

  “I do,” he nods.

  I shake my he
ad, “Why lie to me?”

  He pauses and looks back to the building where I have spent many long hours,

  “Because everyone loves me for my money. On the island… on the island I can be just me. I don’t have to pretend that I am someone else. People see past the money when I meet them on the island. It feels nice to be liked for the person I am and not the amount of money that I have.”

  I look at him for any hint of a lie.

  But I cannot find one.

  “Then why come back here to the city if you love the island so much?”

  “Because this is what I’m supposed to do. I’m supposed to run a ruthless business and buy as much as I can.”

  “And who told you that?”

  “My mother and father. This was their business. They worked so hard to build this empire from nothing – I can’t just let that disappear. I have a family legacy to uphold.”

  “Why don’t they run the business then?”

  “They passed away and I was an only child. My father always told me that he wanted this business to continue to grow, so that is what I’ve focused my life on. I want to do his memory proud. But… but the island is where I feel at home. I travel there to escape all this. If I could, I would spend all my time there.”

  “And seduce random girls,” I state with bitterness.

  “I don’t seduce random girls,” he retorts.

  “Don’t expect me to believe that I was the only one.”

  He shrugs his shoulders, “Believe what you will. But you were the only one I have ever been with on that island.”

  His voice is laced with honesty and I want to believe him but I’m not sure that I should.

  “I talked to all my staff on the island about you,” he smiles, “They all knew who you were. I fell for you. And it was nice to fall for someone who didn’t know that I had money. Here, money blinds everything. Every girl I meet already knows about my money and they are seduced by the thought of it. But I don’t want that sort of girl. I want someone who will happily spend days drifting away on the island with me. I was shattered when you rejected my offer.”

  Clarke looks to the ground, dejected.

  “But the pace of my life here is good,” he continues, “It keeps me distracted. If I stay on the island too long, the loneliness kicks in. I want someone special to spend my life with.”