A Year of Chasing Love Read online

  ‘So, a couple of trips and a written report back to Rachel. By when?’

  ‘Rachel has asked for it by the end of November as her paper has to be submitted before Christmas, but I’ll need to give her progress reports along the way. And anyway, I’m due back at Edwards & Co on the first of December – if I have any clients left, that is. Miles Morrison is somewhat of a loose cannon.’

  ‘Miles might be a misogynistic worm, Liv, but I’m sure he’ll cope,’ said Hollie, mildly.

  ‘So you’ll have plenty of time to come to Italy with me, then!’ added Matteo.

  ‘Well, it’s not definite yet, but there could be other trips.’

  ‘Like where?’

  ‘There’s a Danish Professor of Law in Copenhagen that Rachel has scored an interview with. Apparently, he’s really difficult to pin down but she’s managed to finally get an appointment. She might want to go herself, though. Understandably. But that’s not until the end of October. And the last trip will be to Paris.’

  Olivia had mumbled the last sentence, her throat constricting as she prayed that her friends would not pick up on the significance of the final destination on her itinerary. She had no chance, though, and prepared herself for the renewed onslaught of pain.

  ‘Ooh, “The City of Lerve”? Hey, isn’t that where you and Nathan honeymooned?’

  Matteo caught the scorching glance Hollie sent in his direction and slapped his hand over his mouth in contrition for inadvertently straying into delicate territory.

  ‘Oops, sorry, Liv.’

  ‘Are you sure about going there?’ asked Hollie gently.

  ‘We are getting divorced, Hol. In fact, the proceedings might even be finalised by then.’

  Matteo, clearly keen to make amends for his faux pas, switched back to his previous topic.

  ‘You know, a round-the-world trip is definitely not complete without a stop-off in Italy: the land of sunshine, good food, celebrated wines, and handsome men with oodles of charisma, a stylish sense of fashion and a devout addiction to their skin-care regime.’

  ‘Oh, God, Liv, you have no idea how jealous I am!’ announced Hollie, leaning back against the sofa and folding her arms across her chest. ‘I absolutely insist on regular updates via email, Facebook and Twitter. You’ve got to set up an Instagram account as well. But, if it’s going to be a truly global jaunt, you’ll need a stop-off in Asia. Just to complete the set, as it were.’

  ‘Why don’t you drop in on my mate Connor in Hong Kong?’ suggested Matteo, referring to his banker friend who had joined them on the stag weekend in Vegas and had ended up getting his nose pierced, much to his wife’s horror.

  ‘No! No! I’ve got it!’ cried Hollie, scooting forward again to re-enter the conversation. ‘My brother starts his new job at the Pan Pacific in Singapore on the first of May. You can visit him, save on accommodation costs, and Elliot can show you around. I’m sure he’d love to see a friendly face on those days when he’s not ordering his staff around the kitchen like a demented Sergeant Major. Mmm, I’m not sure what the divorce rate is like in Singapore, though.’

  ‘Hollie, I don’t think …’

  ‘Look, it’s perfect. If you fly over there straight after Hawaii, it’ll be mid-July and he’ll be grateful for a visit from his fabulous sister’s best friend. You two always did get on.’

  ‘Yes, we do, but …’

  ‘You know it’s a great idea, and you’ve got the cash. When was the last time you took a holiday, anyway?’

  Finally, Hollie noticed Matteo flicking her the daggers.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Singapore is where Nathan is based now,’ he said through gritted teeth.

  ‘Ah … yes … sorry, I forgot. Have you two spoken since he got there?’

  ‘No, not spoken exactly, but I’ve had a couple of emails: one with the address of his company’s flat and the other to confirm his agreement of the valuation on our apartment. All very polite and business-like. No animosity here!’

  Olivia had tried to keep her reply to Hollie’s question light and upbeat, but the truth was that she was desperate to hear Nathan’s voice, to ask him a kaleidoscope of questions that she had added to every day since the divorce petition had been thrust into her hands until she would need a whole day to listen to the answers. Despite the fact that they’d spent very little quality time together in the months leading up to that dreadful day, she had still felt his presence next to her every minute and every hour of each day, and he was in her thoughts constantly, even now. No, more so now, and whilst she wasn’t going to admit it to Hollie and Matteo, she missed him tremendously.

  ‘Singapore is a huge city. You don’t even have to tell him you’re going, if you don’t want to. It’s not like you’ll bump into each other,’ urged Hollie, still pursuing her mission to include an Asian stop on her worldwide expedition chasing down love.

  ‘Maybe …’

  ‘And haven’t you always wanted to travel to South East Asia? I have. I love all that feng shui stuff, the oriental cuisine, the shopping! And you can send me your bulletins from there, too. You know, being serious for a moment, I’m actually quite excited about this project.’ Hollie drained the last of her cocktail and narrowed her dark emerald eyes. ‘Promise me you’ll do this, Liv? Promise you’ll send me your “lessons in love”? My future romantic endeavours depend on you. No, all of our romantic endeavours – Matteo’s, Rachel’s, Elliot’s, that estate agent guy over there’s!’

  Hollie pointed to where a George Clooney look-alike was slumped on a bar stool, desperately in need of a shave and a good night’s sleep, not the double whisky he’d just ordered.

  ‘Look, you’re always complaining about the five hundred divorces you’ve racked up. This is your chance to redress the balance, to concentrate on the positive elements of the institution of marriage. Am I right, Matt?’

  ‘Despite my view that Hollie’s idea is ludicrous, I propose you take the path of least resistance and humour her, Liv. And you never know, it could be just the exercise in positivity you need to get your life back on track.’

  ‘Okay, okay.’ Olivia laughed, shaking her head at the hopeful expectation in their eyes, like a pair of puppies keen to earn their daily treats. ‘Thank you both for your invaluable advice. I’ll think about it.’

  ‘What, the trip to Singapore or the “lessons in love”?’

  ‘Both!’

  In fact, she’d already drafted the first lesson.

  Olivia Hamilton’s Lessons in Love: No 1. “Never start an argument you have no chance of winning!”

  Chapter 5

  Olivia glanced out of the window of the Boeing 737, listening to the low drone of the aircraft’s engine as they cruised their way towards the southern Mediterranean Sea. As she loosened her seatbelt and settled back into her seat, she realised that it was the first flight she had boarded since her honeymoon in Paris seven years earlier, and the only time she had ever travelled abroad alone.

  She experienced a sharp stab of regret when she thought of the surprise trip Nathan had booked for their first wedding anniversary. However, she had been cocooned in a complicated contested hearing in the High Court and unable to extricate herself from its claws in time to catch the train, and their long weekend in Bruges had been cancelled. Nevertheless, it hadn’t prevented him from continuing to schedule time away in the UK – a spa break in the Cotswolds, a jaunt up to Edinburgh, afternoon tea at The Ritz – none of which had actually gone ahead.

  And yet still Nathan had continued in his battle to tempt her to spend time with him. Tickets to the theatre, to the cinema, to listen to Hollie play her clarinet in a concert for ‘Help the Heroes’ in the Royal Albert Hall – which she had never forgiven herself for missing even though Hollie had – and those VIP Ed Sheeran tickets. In the end, Nathan had resorted to inviting Matteo and Hollie along in the hope that Olivia wouldn’t feel able to let their friends down as well as him. Sadly, he’d been proved wrong. Even Hollie, who was regularly �
��on duty’ for police station callouts, managed to make it in time to take up her seat at Les Misérables!

  Then she cringed, and the needle-sharp incisors of guilt skewered her chest when she remembered the expression of hurt on Nathan’s face as he watched her sprint towards him as the Venice-Simplon Orient Express’s last Pullman carriage disappeared from the end of the beautifully restored station platform. The trip had been arranged at the beginning of December as part of his fortieth birthday celebrations; it was one of the items that featured high on his bucket list and they’d missed it and it was her fault. Looking back, she should have realised that that was the final candle of hope to be extinguished on the cake of their marriage.

  She thanked the smiling air steward for her milky coffee, and continued with her internal monologue of self-reproach, aware that she was prodding a fresh bruise, but she couldn’t help herself. She had been a dreadful spouse – not only that, but a neglectful partner and friend to Nathan. What surprised her was that he had tried for so long. How had it ended like this when their relationship, and their marriage, had started out so well? She had to concede Rachel was right when she’d thought they would be one of the lucky ones whose marriage endured. They were ideally suited. She had adored Nathan, still did. He had been her soulmate, and, in the years they had spent together before their careers had intervened, they’d been happy.

  Nathan worked hard. He travelled extensively for his job as in-house counsel for a large pharmaceuticals company, yet he always found space in his busy schedule for her. ‘A golden couple’, her father had called them on their wedding day. They may have been well-paid, able to live in an apartment overlooking the river and take exotic holidays, but they hadn’t been rich in that priceless commodity that everyone wished they had more of – time. Nathan’s recent posting to Singapore was the ultimate recognition of his career success: promotion to General Counsel for the whole company. By rights, he should be enjoying his moment in the limelight with his wife by his side, but he’d had the misfortune to choose a partner who couldn’t even spare the time to celebrate his achievement.

  No wonder he had taken such a drastic step.

  And would it have been easier to accept the ending of their marriage if there had been someone else? Someone delighted to share in his success, someone who would holler his accolades from the rooftops with pride in her voice and devotion in her heart? Or maybe he had found someone and was just too considerate to tell her. Ironically, she had spent more time thinking about Nathan, what he was doing, what he was thinking, where he was at any given moment, and who with, since receiving the divorce petition than she had in the month leading up to that fateful moment.

  A wave of anguish and desolation engulfed her body as she realised that she had inadvertently stumbled upon the second item for Hollie’s list before even setting foot on Maltese soil.

  Olivia Hamilton’s Lessons in Love: No 2. “To stay together, you have to be together.”

  However, dwelling for too long on the reasons for her break-up with Nathan threatened to stretch the guy ropes that were holding her emotions in check to breaking point and she had no wish to succumb to a torrent of tears in the public arena of the inside of an aircraft with rows of bored passengers watching on. So she resolved, for the time being at least, to push her heartache into the deep, dark crevices of her mind and instead to savour her first aerial glimpse of the island of Malta, the great outdoor museum of the Mediterranean.

  It wasn’t long before they had landed at Luqa airport, and as soon as the ‘Fasten Seatbelt’ sign was switched off, she slung her holdall over her shoulder and joined the scrum in the aisle of pasty-faced holidaymakers, all eager to escape from their three-hour confinement, taste their first blast of warm sunshine and indulge in a few glasses of the local red wine.

  It was the last week of February so thankfully there had been very few squabbling children on board the early morning flight from Gatwick. However, many of the travellers exhibited exuberant spirits for the start of their annual break from the minutiae of normal life or a visit to much-loved family. Couples held hands in the queue at Passport Control, overjoyed at being able to spend time together away from their day-to-day struggles and Olivia found herself adding a third discovery to the email she intended to send to Hollie.

  Olivia Hamilton’s Lessons in Love: No 3. “Time away from the usual routine is essential to reconnect and replenish togetherness.”

  As she held her passport open at the photograph page in front of the handsome immigration officer, a shard of pain sliced across her right temple. She put it down to the early morning start, mingled with the effects of her persistent battle with insomnia, which meant she was granted only snatches of respite from the contemplation of the ruins of her marriage. The last thing she wanted to do was socialise with a Maltese stranger sent to collect her from Arrivals. If it had been up to her, she would have preferred to grab a taxi to Valletta, check in to her hotel overlooking the harbour, dump her bag in her room and then plunge straight into the hotel’s huge infinity pool.

  She loved Rachel, but she couldn’t stem the feelings of regret that she had succumbed so easily to her persuasion to get involved in her project. And yet she knew her friend hadn’t done it for selfish reasons but so that she wouldn’t have time to wallow in self-pity over her lost relationship or worry about what Miles was doing to her clients’ files. She hadn’t told Rachel, but Henry had already blasted her for calling Katrina, and he had extracted a begrudging promise from her not to contact the office unless the matter was of the utmost urgency. He had then used the rest of the telephone call to regale her with a long and detailed itinerary of his world cruise’s ports of call – one of which just happened to be the ancient city of Valletta – and he’d insisted she report back with a list of the best fish restaurants and ‘must-see’ attractions that he could share with Jean.

  How on earth had she ended up wearing three badges? Which was she? Research assistant, love guru, or tour guide? And a trip every two months was too much – Valletta, Honolulu, Singapore, Copenhagen, Paris – especially as she also had a home to sell and a whole life to dismantle and store in her parents’ garage in Yorkshire.

  But it was the trip to Paris at the end of November that concerned Olivia the most because in a cruel twist of fate, it was around that time their decree nisi would be pronounced. Would she hear about the formal dissolution of her marriage when she was visiting the same city she had honeymooned in?

  However, there was one thing she was certain of – despite the heartache she was going through now, she didn’t want to live the rest of her life alone. The night before, she had woken up in a cold sweat when a dream had conjured up an image of her as a lonely old spinster in a care home with no family to visit her. In fact, as she’d had more time than usual to think about her future, she came to realise that a life without children in it was unthinkable.

  Had Nathan been right when he had asked his solicitor to put those allegations in the divorce petition?

  The realisation that he was rushed at her and almost knocked her backwards. Perhaps these bulletins she had been tasked with sending home to Hollie and Matteo would not only benefit her close friends but would serve to teach her some valuable lessons in love as well.

  With that decision made, she grabbed her suitcase from the carousel and made her way into the arrivals hall to be met by a barrage of uniformed, tanned holiday reps and locals meeting their families. She spotted a card scrawled with “Ms O. Hamilton” and she surprised herself when, despite her emotional turmoil, an involuntary gasp of delight escaped her lips as she met the eyes of the Adonis holding it between his olive-skinned fingers.

  Was this her taxi driver? Or perhaps it was Nikolai Garzia, Rachel’s contact in Malta? She chastised herself for sending up a prayer for the latter.

  ‘Olivia Hamilton?’

  To Olivia’s uninitiated ears, the way the man wrapped his voice around the syllables of her name sounded like he was rehearsing
an Italian aria. His dark brown eyes crinkled at the corners, and the tang of his cologne injected a shock to her pulse. Despite the ambient warmth, he wore buttock-enhancing black jeans and a pink and white linen shirt, fastened at the cuffs with golden links depicting the Maltese cross. His boldly drawn eyebrows were raised in question behind his long mahogany fringe, enhancing his matinee idol looks as he swept the hair from his face over his forehead. Ignoring the pounding across her brow, when he held out his palm to introduce himself, Olivia delved deep to replicate his welcoming smile.

  ‘Yes, that’s me.’

  ‘Hello, Olivia, welcome to Malta. I’m Nikolai Garzia, but my friends call me Niko and I hope you will, too.’

  ‘Hi, Niko, it’s good to meet you,’ said Olivia, relishing the pleasurable tingle of electricity that shot out from her fingertips as she shook his hand.

  ‘Likewise, Olivia.’

  Niko smiled straight into her eyes before grabbing the bag from her shoulder and tucking her arm through his to guide her out into the Maltese sunshine. The heat hit her like a blast from her hairdryer, the welcome warmth caressing her skin and seeping down into her stiffened bones. She scrabbled around in her handbag for her sunglasses whilst Niko directed their route to the car park.

  ‘Rachel has briefed me on your requirements.’

  Niko’s thick, Mediterranean accent made it sound as though her requirements were not even remotely connected to the academic and she was grateful she had managed to obscure her eyes behind dark lenses. The guy possessed a smile that would be more at home in an American toothpaste commercial, and the air of a young, hip Spanish teacher – one all the teenage schoolgirls swooned over and the boys grabbed to coach the football team.

  ‘Our time together is limited, so we must get straight down to business. I will deliver you to your hotel in Valletta, allow you to freshen up, and then return to collect you at 7 p.m. to take you to meet my family.’

  Olivia smirked at the way his arrangements sounded as a waft of fresh lemony green fern scent met her nostrils, causing a surprise curl of attraction to invade her abdomen. Good grief, Olivia, get a grip – this is not a date!