Chapter 1
The office staff were pouring their morning coffee and engaging in a little gentle one upmanship.
‘I got a single red rose on my pillow,’ gushed Erin, all golden curls and excitement.
Tall, skinny Bella, smirked dismissively, saying, ‘I got a card and a rose.’
Suzy, topped them, laughing, and rubbing her prominent baby bump, ‘I got two homemade cards, all smudges and kisses and Cliff planted a rose bush for me, called Double delight.’
‘That’s not even red,’ sneered Bella.’
‘No, but it’s my favourite,’ smiled Suzy.
Suzy, thought Chloe, flicking her shiny, black ponytail over her shoulder, never rises to Bella’s barbs. She glanced out of the window at Darling harbour and, oddly, thought of her last boyfriend. She wondered how Martin was doing in Cairns. She remembered his brown wavy hair and laughing blue eyes, wondering who he must be charming these days. She realised, she was missing the laughter. Her face paled; her work mates were all waiting to hear what Lucas had given her for Valentine’s Day. Ignoring them, she led the way back to their work stations, each separated by frosted, glass partitions.
Chloe sat down and Bella stopped beside her.
‘And what did the fancy lawyer give you, Chloe?’ she challenged.
Chloe said firmly, ‘Lucas does not believe in the crass commercialism of Valentine’s Day. To us it is just another day.’
Even, to herself, it sounded pompous.
‘Huh!’ snorted Bella. ‘So he doesn’t even love you enough to do something special. Face it, Chloe, you’re engaged to a tight wad. How pathetic!’
Bella moved away and Chloe hid her scarlet face.
All morning, Bella’s words interrupted her work. She kept thinking of Lucas, who had determinedly chased her, taking her to expensive restaurants and parties. He was ambitious, enjoying having an attractive girl on his arm whilst getting to know important people; furthering his career. It had all seemed very glamorous; within six weeks they were engaged and she had moved into his North Ryde home.
A month later Lucas dismissed his cleaning woman, saying cheerfully,
‘Waste of money, now this is your home.’
It seemed fine, until she realized how much work, a five bed roomed home entailed, and had asked for some help.
‘We have a huge mortgage,’ Lucas had spluttered. ‘We need every penny.’
‘But,’ she had argued, ‘I work full time and contribute too.’
He had quickly hugged her and changed the subject, but the mortgage became the excuse for curtailing any sort of spending. Loving gestures were a rarity. She felt like a servant and was tired of trying to please him.
Mid afternoon, Chloe received a gift box and heads bobbed up over the partitions as she opened it, to reveal a dozen deep, red roses.
‘There,’ Suzy called out. ‘He didn’t forget you after all, Chloe!’
Chloe smiled happily, Lucas had relented. She reached for her mobile phone and messaged him, ‘Thanks so much for the beautiful roses.’ It was half an hour before he messaged tersely, ‘What roses?’ She gasped and searched the box. There was no card.
At the end of the day, Chloe was the last to leave. Lucas had sent her nothing. Nor had he phoned. The box of roses was dumped in the bin. Who sends roses without a card? It isn’t some sort of stupid guessing game, Chloe raged to herself; and it was not ‘just another day,’ Bella was right, he didn’t love her. She would go to visit her parents, at least she knew they loved her. In the lift she took her engagement ring off. Lucas could have it.
As she dashed out of the building, trying to outrun her misery, she bumped straight into a man. She backed away and looked up to apologise. ‘Martin!’ was all she could say. He smiled tentatively.
‘Hi. How are you? I just came to see...’
‘Oh! How are you?’ she interrupted nervously, so unbelievably pleased to see those beautiful blue eyes; that smile.
‘I just got back from Cairns this morning,’ he hurried to explain. ‘The firm has moved me to the Sydney branch. I couldn’t wait to see you.’ He held out his hand, ‘but I expect you have things to do this evening?’
‘No, nothing at all,’ she replied, grasping the hand. ‘Today was going to be just another day, but now, it‘s going to be wonderful!’
He laughed delightedly and hugged her. ‘So what would you like to do first?’ he asked.
‘We need to catch up, and, coffee and cake! I’m starving!’ she said, happily encircled in his arms. He nodded, smiling, and said,
‘By the way, where are my roses?’
She looked astonished; then light dawned. What could she say? She pictured those lovely, expensive flowers in the bin. No way was she going to say that she had dumped them! Perhaps she would tell him one day, but why spoil the moment?
‘What roses?’ she said.
