The Man I Met on Holiday by Fiona Gibson

Author:Fiona Gibson [Gibson, Fiona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2023-01-09T17:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

JAMES

I wouldn’t say I had a terrible life before I met Lauren. I had Esther, a full-on job that I cared deeply about, and good people to work with. I was content, I suppose. Okay, I’d be at a bit of a loose end on the weekends sometimes when friends were busy and I’d find myself going for a run or a swim just to fill up the time. Or I’d research work stuff or even go into the practice to tackle non-essential jobs while we were closed. It did occur to me that I was in danger of turning into Lonely Cat Man. But what could I do about that? I wasn’t going to try any dating apps. That wasn’t me at all. And I wasn’t expecting to meet someone in the ‘normal’ way because, in the circles I moved in, that just never happened.

So that was that, I supposed. It was just me, an elderly cat named Walter and a daughter I’d see once a week, if I was lucky. And back in July, when I stepped on that plane bound for Corsica, I hadn’t imagined anything changing.

However, my life has changed in ways I’d never imagined. It’s so much fuller now, with weekends spent here at my place, or at Lauren’s, where we hang out together and go for walks and pub lunches. I feel her hand in mine as we follow the path that snakes alongside the river, and we catch up on what we’ve been up to since we last saw each other.

She tells me about the dishes she’s cooked, that her column has been shortlisted for an award, and we celebrate with a wintry picnic of home-made bread, cheese, brownies and mini bottles of champagne. She says she loves hearing about the goings-on at work; about how, while she was busily writing up recipes last night, I was operating on a Labrador to remove a small pebble from its gastrointestinal tract. More thrillingly still, earlier in the day a flustered woman had brought in a tortoise with an injured leg. ‘Her son had trodden on him. He hadn’t seen him on the lawn,’ I explained.

‘Oh no! What can you do?’ she asked.

‘I’m figuring out how to make a splint for him,’ I explained.

She smiled at that. ‘A splint for an injured tortoise. You make it sound as if it’s a slightly challenging DIY job in the home.’ And she kissed me on the lips. ‘How I love you, James.’

‘I love you too,’ I said. And I do love her – very much. I’m in awe of her talent and energy and love of life. She radiates sunshine even on a bitterly cold November day. More and more I treasure the time we spend together because, as the weeks go by, it becomes trickier to see each other.

Admittedly, this is due to me rather than Lauren. Being freelance, she is pretty much in charge of her own life. However, as December arrives – and with no real explanation – Esther seems to want to spend more time at my place.

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