In the end, she stopped thinking and wrote the truth.
I’m not good at saying goodbye. Thank you for everything.
She hesitated as a tear fell onto the page and blurred the last two words.
You have my heart. Georgia x
She left quickly before she could change her mind, slipping out the door and pulling her case behind her. The Uber she’d ordered was waiting for her and she got in, not daring to look back as they drove away. Because if she’d seen that Luca had been standing at his bedroom window looking down at her, she knew she would have asked the driver to turn around.
I barely know him. I can’t turn my life upside down for a man. I cannot give up everything I’ve worked so hard for.
But no matter how many times she had these thoughts, they were becoming harder and harder to believe.
30
PRESENT DAY, SIX WEEKS LATER
‘Why won’t you just tell me where we’re going?’ Georgia grumbled, as Sam kept a firm hold on her hand and marched her down the footpath.
‘Because that would ruin the surprise!’ she said, sounding exasperated. ‘Can you just walk without moaning, please?’
Georgia sighed, but kept walking as she’d been instructed. All Sam had told her was that they were going out for a special dinner, which she could only presume had something to do with her maid-of-honour duties. Although she was fairly certain thatshewas supposed to be the one organising pre-wedding get-togethers for the bride, not the other way around.
‘Come on, it’ll be fun,’ Sam said. ‘You’ve been sad ever since you got home from Switzerland.’
Switzerland. The one place she was trying her best to forget, and failing at miserably. She’d hoped that the more days and then weeks that passed, the easier it would be to forget about Luca, but instead, it had become harder. How many times had she taken out her phone, her finger hovering, ready to call him, or opened her laptop and looked at flights that would have her there within hours?
‘Georgia?’ Sam asked, as she stopped walking.
‘Sorry, I know I’ve been a terrible friend since I got home,’ she said. ‘You’re right, this will be fun. A night out is exactly what I need.’
‘We’re here,’ Sam said. ‘And you’re right, this isexactlywhat you need.’
When they walked into the restaurant, she saw that there was a large table set for at least eight people across one wall, but Sam led her straight past that table, nodding to the waiting staff as she directed her to a much smaller table for two.
‘It’s just the two of us?’ Georgia asked, as Sam fussed about and gestured for her to sit. ‘What was the great surprise about this restaurant if it’s just the two of us?’ She looked around. It was a fabulous restaurant, and the food coming from the kitchen smelt incredible, but she wasn’t convinced it was worthy of such a dramatic arrival. Had she been so hard to convince to go out, that Sam had had to pretend it was a special event just so she would say yes?
‘I just need a minute,’ Sam said, but Georgia didn’t miss the deep-pink shade of her cheeks.
‘Are you okay?’ Georgia asked. ‘You look?—’
‘I’m fine, I’ll be back soon.’
‘If you’re going to the ladies’, then I’ll?—’
‘No!’ Sam said, before lowering her voice. ‘I meanno. Please, just sit there and don’t move until I get back, okay? Can you, just this once, do what I ask without questioning me?’
Georgia nodded, taken aback by her friend’s sudden outburst. Sam never spoke to her like that. She noticed Sam had gone in the wrong direction for the ladies’, but not wanting to defy her orders by racing after her and telling her where it was, she stayed seated.
‘May I take your order, ma’am?’
A deep voice laced with an unmistakable French accent filled her ears.
Luca?She turned slowly, telling herself how silly it was to even…Oh my God.
‘Luca!’ she cried, her heart feeling as if it were caught in her throat. ‘What are you doing here?’
She leapt to her feet as he opened his arms, pressing herself against him, her arms wrapped around him, her head to his chest as she listened to the steady beat of his heart. She’d imagined this moment every day, everyhour, since she’d left him, and now he was here, in London, in the very place she thought she’d never see him.
