Page 54 of Falling for Nicole
We eventually make our way up to the rooms and agree to meet down at the pool in an hour. Other than dinner and spa treatments booked in all day tomorrow, we have nothing planned, and if I weren’t distracted by my heartache, I’d say it’s the perfect way to spend a weekend. As it is, all I really want to do is curl up on my non-existent sofa and eat ice cream while watching soppy films.
“Are you okay?” Liv, Ryan’s youngest sister, asks when she finds me lost in my depressing thoughts in the living area of our suite.
“Yeah. I’m sorry.” I do my best at plastering a genuine smile on my face but her grimace says I do a bad job of it.
“Man trouble?”
“You bet.”
“Ain’t it always? Wanna talk about it?”
I go to say no, but somehow the truth falls from my lips. “The guy I’ve been seeing is cheating on me.”
“Ouch.”
“And it’s Dec—”
“As in, Declan Morrison?” she interrupts.
“The one and only.”
“Does Lilly know?”
“Of course. She’s next in line behind me to rip him a new one, but I didn’t want to ruin Molly’s hen.”
“Shit, you know how to make it complicated, girl.”
“Tell me about it. I never should have gone there in the first place. We’ve hated each other since we were kids.”
“I bet you had fun fucking all that hate out though, right?”
I allow my thoughts to wander back over our time together. Yeah, it was fun. Too much bloody fun, which is why his betrayal is hurting like a mother now.
I don’t get a chance to respond because Karen and Abbi appear, asking if we’re both ready to head down to the pool.
It seems that short conversation about my man issues is only the start, because the second Liv gets me alone, she picks up where we left off.
“So what about you?” I ask, trying to steer the conversation away from Dec because he’s already taken up too much of my headspace. “Anyone special at the moment?”
“Yeah, I guess you could say that.”
“Oh?”
“We’ve been together since our second year at uni, but it’s getting a little too complicated.” I’m more than happy to listen to someone else’s issues for a change, so I raise an eyebrow for her to continue. “He’s got stuff going on with his family and he’s…changed. I’m not sure we want the same things anymore,” she admits. “He’s not happy that I’ve applied for jobs all around the country. He says I love my career more than him, blah blah blah.”
“What is it you do?”
“Journalist.” Well, that explains how she was able to get me to open up without a second thought. “He’s Welsh, and doesn’t want to leave Cardiff, but I love going to new places, meeting new people. I’m more than happy to go where the job takes me. I’ve actually applied for one down here—it would be great to be by the sea for the summer. I could dump him before leaving and find myself a hot little summer romance…” Her thoughts trail off as she loses herself in her imagination. I don’t want to ruin it for her with more details of my disastrous seaside romance, so when Lilly calls over for me to join her in the sauna, I head over.
“Have you heard from him?”
“No.”
“I’m going to ring him later. I need to know what’s going on. Something doesn’t feel right.”
“Oh, don’t start with the freaky twin crap. He cheated and got caught, Lilly. Your weird feeling isn’t going to change that.”
Declan
