3 BOOK BUNDLE "Her Last Love Affair", "Her Last Love Affair: Breathing Without You" AND "Her Last Love Affair: The Final Journey" (25 page)

“Let them,” he replied dismissively. “Let everything in the
universe try to tear us apart,” he added, gripping her hand a little more
tightly. “It won’t succeed.”

“You sound very sure,” she noted with a hint of amusement.

Reece’s face turned deadly serious before he opened his
mouth again to say, “I have to be, because I can’t lose you.”

Best Friends

A
llie wasn’t aware of falling asleep again, but
she must have done, because her eyes were suddenly met with bright light once
more. This time, it wasn’t the hideous artificial light above her hospital bed
though, now it was bright sunlight streaming through the window on the left
hand side of the room. She was lying on her side, directly facing that window
and she realized that it was that warmth on her closed eyelids that had woken
her.

Unwillingly dragged into consciousness, she grumbled
nonsensically, when she learned that her previous spell of cognizance hadn’t
been a dream. No, she was indeed, back in one of those ghastly gowns. Pulling
the scratchy bed sheet up to her chin, she slowly forced her eyes open.

She was met by the sympathetic smile of Rosalind. “Hi
there,” she nodded, tossing the magazine she’d been reading to the floor and
shuffling forward in her seat. She flicked her blonde hair off each shoulder,
before resting her forearms on her thighs. “How are you feeling?” she asked,
immediately shaking her head. “That’s a stupid question,” she chided herself.
“But you know what I mean.”

“Ros,” Allie mumbled, smiling at the very welcome sight of
her best friend. “What are you doing here?” she asked, ignoring the question
that had been asked of her, as she gradually tried to lift her head off the
pillow.

“I had to come and see you,” she sighed, as if it were
obvious. “The stupid nurses wouldn’t let me in your room, but Reece saved the
day. He’s very charming, you know, he can get just about anyone to do anything
when he gives them that cute, dimpled smile of his.”

“You’ve met him?” Allie responded, a rhetorical question
that simply suggested she was pleased that the two had finally come face to
face.

“He’s a nice guy,” Ros nodded. “I can see why you love him.”

Wrenching her head over her shoulder, Allie examined the
chair that had become ‘his’, but found it empty. “Where did he go?” she
wondered, her face slowly returning to her friend.

“He wanted a cup of coffee that didn’t taste like mud,” she
reported. “His words not mine. He was worried about leaving you, but I told him
I’d stay right here in case you woke up.”

With a bashful smile, Allie settled her head back on the
pillow. “I don’t deserve you two,” she commented, mostly to remind herself of
the fact.

Rosalind dismissed the sentiment with a scoff and a wave of
her hand. She then quickly changed the subject, firing questions about Reece.
She wanted all the juicy details, even going as far as to ask, “What’s he like
in bed?”

“Ros,” Allie blurted, as if scandalized by the line of
inquiry.

“You’re right,” she responded casually, before deliberately
misinterpreting the reason for Allie’s outrage. “Of course he’s good.”

The pair giggled like teenagers, Rosalind trying to wheedle
as much information as she could about her best friend’s love life, while Allie
maintained her good-natured defensiveness over the topic. The truth, of course,
is that this wasn’t new conversational territory. Many times Allie would listen
to Rosalind’s latest conquest – and her friend was never shy in sharing every
single detail. Sometimes, Allie had listened with only passing interest, while
on other occasions, when she’d been feeling a little lonely and depressed about
the choices she’d made, she would sit rapt by the tales of lustful abandon.

However, it was very different having the tables turned on
her. If she were completely honest with herself, she knew that she would have been
quite happy to talk about any of her other sexual escapades over the previous
months. Reece was different, though. To be more precise, the time she spent
with Reece was different. She didn’t like to use the word sacred, because that
seemed silly. But she did feel very protective of it. Sharing aspects of it
with someone else seemed wrong.

Eventually, Rosalind picked up on the hints and dropped the
topic, but that left a rather gaping and substantially awkward void that needed
to be filled. The elephant in the room could only be ignored for so long.
“Reece told me about your prognosis,” she murmured quietly, the atmosphere
instantly shifting from jovial to maudlin. “It’s not fucking fair,” she added,
her eyes drifting hopelessly to the ceiling.

“Did he tell you about the treatment I’ve been offered,
though?” Allie asked, for once being the one to point out the silver lining.

“Yeah,” she whispered, a few tears settling in her lower
lids. “It’s still shitty,” she grumbled, shaking her head. “It’s still not fair
and it’s still...” her rant lost steam, and she leaned forlornly back in the
chair. “I know this whole time you’ve been so calm,” she sighed.

Allie gave an unladylike snort of derision. “I have not been
calm,” she stated. “There were times when I was very, very far from anything
resembling calm.” As she dripped some humor back into the room, she grinned.
“But you can only be angry for so long, before you just have to accept the
things that have come your way.”

“So you’re going go for it, then?” Ros replied, managing a
weak chuckle in response. “The surgery?” she added.

“I think so,” she tried to nod, with her head tucked snugly
against the pillow. “It’s my only option now, and I’ve decided I don’t want to
give up without a fight.”

“What made you change your mind?”

Allie held her tongue thoughtfully between her teeth, while
she considered the question. “I don’t know,” she eventually sighed. “I guess
there’s just more at stake now.”

The women’s focus was disturbed by the creak of door hinges
and the soft squeak of tennis shoes on a highly polished floor. Pulling her
face over her shoulder, Allie found Reece with a white Starbucks takeout cup in
his left hand. He held a thick newspaper beneath his arm and in his free hand,
he held something that looked very much like a glazed doughnut.

“That better be for me,” Allie warned him, arching her
eyebrow.

Reece’s eyes shifted warily from left to right, before he
glanced dramatically over his shoulder. Outside the open doorway was a
corridor, but it was completely empty. Lifting the hand that held his coffee,
he awkwardly extended his finger and placed it to his lips. Then, with a laugh,
he kicked the door closed before walking up to the bed. “You know, I will be in
so much trouble if they find out I’m feeding you crap like this,” he said, only
half joking.

“I’ll say I forced you,” she promised, pushing her palms
onto the mattress. “Just tell them I threatened you,” she added, easing herself
into an upright position.

Rosalind instantly got to her feet, gripping the pillow
Allie had been laying on and setting it up against the beds metal frame. She
then held it still, until Allie had settled her upper back on it. “I think
they’d have a hard time believing that,” she mumbled, chiming in with her view
of the master plan.

“I don’t know,” Reece sighed, leaning over the bed, as he
released his arm’s grip on the paper. It fell onto the mattress, before he
lowered himself into the chair and sliding his hot coffee cup onto the table on
his left.

Allie temporarily distracted from doughnuts, gazed down at
the half-folded newspaper draped over her legs. It was the Chronicle, but she
could only see the logo and the headline, ‘Renowned Philanthropist Arrested for
Fraud’. Beneath those words, in much smaller print was the byline: ‘Allie McLaren
and Grant Cahill

“I thought you said you hadn’t been working,” Reece said,
smiling as he noticed the concentration on Allie’s face.

“I haven’t,” she replied. “I...This was something I was
looking into weeks ago.”

“Hmm,” Reece nodded, his hands gripping the napkin wrapped
doughnut and breaking it in two. “Well, that guy called,” he explained,
separating the two halves. “I accidentally took your phone instead of mine
and-”

“What did you tell him?” Allie blurted, interrupting.

Offering her the slightly bigger piece of doughnut, he
smiled. “I just said you weren’t well. He didn’t ask for specifics, so there
didn’t seem to be any need to say more.”

Silently, Allie’s fingers accepted the sticky, tasty object
and immediately brought it to her mouth. She allowed it to linger just long
enough to inhale its wonderfully sweet smell. She sighed contentedly, before
opening her mouth and nibbling a tiny piece. She closed her eyes as she savored
it. She couldn’t remember the last time she ate, and she certainly couldn’t
remember the last time food had tasted as good. She groaned happily, taking
another small bite. There was a drive to stuff it all in as quickly as
possible, but she wanted to make it last, so forced herself to linger over
every morsel.

“I feel like I should leave you two alone,” Reece muttered
shuffling uncomfortably in his seat, while he licked his stinky finger and
thumb.

Rosalind laughed heartily, glad to see that Allie was
enjoying her breakfast, even though it wasn’t the healthiest thing she could
put in her mouth.

“Anyway,” Reece continued. “Your pal Grant called and when I
told him you were ill, he asked me to pick up the paper for you. He also said
to say, he’s sorry. Umm,” he paused, he eyes closing in concentration, as she
tried to recall the exact word of the conversation. “He said he was upset, but
didn’t mean what he’d said and hopes that this,” as he stressed the word
‘this’, Reece tapped the paper with his index finger, “will make up for it.”

Allie stopped eating, as Reece spoke. She was unable to full
enjoy her veritable feast and focus on what he was saying. She glanced at the
paper again when he’d finished.

“So, umm,” Reece mumbled, taking a large bite of his own
piece of doughnut. “Are things cool between you two now, or do you need me
to...” he hesitated, shielding his mouth with his hand as he chewed. “I was
going to say beat him up, but let’s be honest, that’s not really my style,” he
chuckled. “Do you need me to talk to him or anything, though?” he offered,
before putting another large piece of doughnut into his mouth.

“No,” Allie quickly said, shaking her head. “It was my fault
as much as it was his and...” she added, sighing. “He didn’t need to share this
with me.” Quietly, she continued to savor her breakfast, while reaching for the
paper with the other hand. She read it through carefully, recognizing passages
of it as her own writing from the version of the story she’d wanted to publish
weeks previously. However, there was a lot added. And she was pleased to note
how good Grant was. His writing was much more mature than she’d anticipated,
and he’d managed to merge his own style well with hers. In short, in her
opinion, the story was good and it was worthy of the front page.

“Not quite how you would have written it?” Ros asked,
teasing her with a gentle nudge of her elbow.

“Actually,” Allie replied, as she reached the final word of
the article and released her grip on the paper. “It’s pretty much exactly as
I’d have written it.”

“I thought you said this Grant was just an office junior,
did lots of running and research?”

“Yeah,” Allie nodded. “But he’s capable of much more.”

“Well, he learned from the best,” Reece suggested, lifting
his coffee cup in a quasi-toast.

Allie smiled at him, but shook her head dismissively. “I
don’t think I can take credit,” she mumbled. “I didn’t realize he had it in
him. I just thought he was a kid with big dreams, but not much in the way of
talent. I was wrong about him. Really wrong, and I owe him an apology.”

“He didn’t seem angry with you,” Reece assured her. “He was
more worried that you wouldn’t forgive him for whatever was said.”

“Still,” Allie said defiantly. “I need to talk to him. I’ve
got to thank him for this,” she added nudging the corner of the paper on her
lap. “Hmm,” she humorlessly chuckled. “This could be the last story ever
published with my name.”

“Hey,” Ros blurted. “Don’t say shit like that.”

Reece didn’t join his own voice to the protest, but Allie
could see in his eyes that he was very uncomfortable with the statement.

“We all know it’s true though, don’t we?” Allie countered.
“I’m not saying that I’m giving up, I’m just looking at things realistically.”

This time, both Reece and Rosalind remind silent. Allie’s
best friend simply shaking her head, while she chewed anxiously on her bottom
lip. Her boyfriend, meanwhile, drank his coffee in silence. The atmosphere
between the threesome was becoming oppressive and all seemed grateful for the
reprieve that came with the creak of the door.

As the doctor entered, he smiled at Allie and nodded to her
visitors. Rosalind looked concerned that he might demand she leave, but he
didn’t seem bothered by the slight bending of the rules. Allie however quickly
wiped the back of her hand over her both, eliminating any traces of sugar that
still lingered on her lips.

“Good morning,” he said, as he approached the end of the bed
and placed both hands on the thick metal rail. “I know it’s only been a couple
of hours since we talked, but I was wondering if you’d reached a decision?”

Allie glanced at Reece on her right and then Rosalind on her
left. He smiled encouragingly, while Ros simply waited hopefully for her
friend’s reply. “Yes,” Allie said. “The answer is yes, I want to try whatever
we can.”

The doctor gave a stilted smile, clearly pleased that she’d
made that choice, but still unwilling to raise her hopes too high over the
outcome. “That’s good,” he nodded. “We just need to talk about a few things,
get you to sign some papers and then we can set about booking the surgery.”

Rosalind slowly got to her feet. “Maybe I should give you
some privacy for this,” she suggested, her legs already moving swiftly and
quietly to the door. “I’ll umm, just be...” she added, her hand waving
nondescriptly at the door. “Do you want anything?” she asked.