He spun away and walked to his desk and sat down, everything inside him in turmoil as he replayed in his head what he had just seen.
Best forgotten, he told himself fiercely.
She’d made her choice and he would never beg for anyone.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Erin pulled back from Colin, shocked at how easily she had blurted everything out to him.
She’d been hurrying out of the offices with her few possessions in a carrier bag and there he was, coming in as she was going out, and the second he had seen her white face he had pulled her to one side and asked her if she was okay.
And the floodgates had opened. A few concerned words from a guy she barely knew and she had burst into tears.
‘This isn’t me,’ she sniffed, rummaging in her bag for the packet of tissues she always kept there. ‘I don’t blab and I don’t… I don’t blub either. And I really,reallydon’t share the sort of stuff I’ve just shared with you. I… Please, you must promise me that you won’t say a word.’
‘Of course I won’t. You forget I’m a lawyer. Lawyers are very good at keeping their own counsel. I kind of knew something was up between the two of you,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Not sure how but it was a feeling I got when I glanced over at one point at that party at his house and saw the body language between you. Erin, want to go somewhere and talk?’
‘I… No… I should go back home. I need some time on my own.’
‘Sure?’
‘You’re very kind, Colin.’ She struggled with a smile and he laughed ruefully.
‘I’m not convinced that that’s such a great thing to be. What do they say about nice guys finishing last?’
‘There’s everything right with being a nice guy. You’re just the sort of man I should be looking for.’ Erin was oddly comfortable saying that.
‘But sometimes life doesn’t work out that way.’
‘No.’
‘Will you do me the enormous favour of keeping in touch?’
‘Of course I will. I’ve made loads of good friends here and as soon as I’ve got my act together, I’ll be in touch with all of them.’ She sighed. ‘In the meanwhile, I shall take a little time out of London.’
‘Erin…this probably won’t do you much good but…he’s a guy who breaks hearts.’
‘I know. Don’t worry. This heart will mend.’
But would it? And if it ever did, how long would it take?
She was mentally and physically exhausted by the end of the evening. It had been a long day. Life had changed irrevocably in a matter of hours and even though she’d thought she’d braced herself for it, even though she’d spent those last few days on that yachtknowingthat she would be handing in her resignation as soon as they returned to London, shestillfound that she was unprepared for the enormity of the decision.
Should she have accepted Raffaele’s offer? Would another month or so made such a difference? Would her heart have hurt any the less?
He had offered her riches beyond her wildest dreams. A promotion that would have taken her physically out of his orbit, so that she wouldn’t have had to see him on a day-to-day basis. She could have carried on there once theirsituationhad come to an end, continued with a high-flying career that would have sorted all her financial problems and given her the sort of job satisfaction she could never have found anywhere else.
Had she beenstupidnot to have bitten his hand off for that job promotion?
But no.
A clean break was what was necessary. Anything else would have been the equivalent of the alcoholic thinking that just one drink a day would be okay.
The shock to her system would fade but if she’d chosen to stay, bumping into him now and again…seeing some woman click-clack her way up to his office in passing… Well, she would have lived in a state of semi-permanent misery.
A little break would do her good and when she returned to London, it would be time to start hunting down another job and getting back to the dating scene!
It sounded good, she tried to tell herself. She couldn’t wait.
It was after ten in the evening, when being alone with her thoughts was driving her crazy, that she phoned her parents.
