Page 29 of Never Too Late
‘OK. Fair enough. He was never good enough for you.’
‘You never even met him.’
‘I didn’t need to.’
We sat in silence for a moment, both likely remembering how different the girl who’d come back from France was from the one who’d left Heathrow three years earlier.
‘I’m not going back for Tomas. I’m going back for me. I don’t even know where he is now, and I’m not interested. If his mother had anything to do with it, I suspect he’s married to an heiress of another lucrative vineyard. In fact, any heiress would probably have satisfied her.’
‘She sounded a treat.’
‘Oh, she was. Luckily, I ended up with far nicer in-laws.’
‘They’re devastated we’ve divorced.’
‘I know.’
‘They keep asking if we might get back together.’
‘Do they know about Tania?’
‘Oh, yes. They’ve met her.’
‘And?’
‘Don’t ask.’ He put a hand to his head momentarily. ‘Just… don’t ask.’
‘OK, I won’t. Although obviously I’m dying to know.’
‘I’ll tell you when I’ve recovered from the mortification a little more.’
‘Ooh! Sounds like a goody.’
‘I’m sure at some point, I will look back and laugh.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Maybe. In the meantime, no Tomas then.’
‘No Tomas. Just Paris.’
‘What brought all this on? Was it something you’ve been thinking about and you just never told me?’
‘No. Not at all. I was talking to a friend on holiday and he?—’
‘He?’
‘Yes. He. He made me see that it wasn’t just Tomas I’d fallen in love with back then. It was Paris too. Paris hadn’t broken my heart but I’d put it in the same box as those difficult memories and pushed it away.’
‘But?’
‘But, talking about it to Ashok?—’
‘The friend?’
‘The friend,’ I continued, ignoring the hints to elaborate. ‘Talking about it with him made me realise that I’m desperate to see it again. And that I’ll get to share it with Sash is the absolute icing on the cake.’
‘I’ll miss her.’
‘I know. She knows that too.’
‘OK. So, this friend on holiday…’
