Carla covered her knees with her robe and ate another croissant, breathing in the serenity of the apartment and gathering some strength for her journey home, and for seeing Tom again.
She’d left her phone charging in the living room overnight and it took her a while for her to realize it was ringing. The noise echoed around the voluminous space. Carla placed the breakfast tray to one side and got off the bed, hurrying into the other room to answer the call.
Things seemed to fall into slow motion as she saw Aaron reaching for her phone. Carla rushed forward, holding out a hand to stop him, but her fingers swept helplessly through thin air.
She could only watch as he pressed her phone to his ear and said, “Hello, Aaron Frame speaking.”
Carla’s eyes widened with fear, and she hoped and prayed that her ex-husband hadn’t just picked up a call from her fiancé.
Aaron listened, pulled a face, shrugged and lowered the phone. “Not sure who that was,” he said. “They hung up.”
Carla grabbed the phone from him and frantically examined her call list. Her entire body stiffened when she saw Tom’s name. “You should have let me get that,” she said with a deep groan. “Tom and I haven’t spoken since I told him I was pregnant. I’ve been waiting for him to get in touch.”
“Sorry. I go on autopilot when I hear a phone ringing.”
Carla sank down onto the sofa and grabbed a cushion for comfort. She combed her fingers through her hair, her mind racing.
“Is there anything I can do?” Aaron asked.
“Maybe disappear for a while.”
“Fair enough.” He wandered back into the bedroom and closed the door behind him.
Carla nibbled her thumbnail as she called her fiancé back.
“I see you’re with your ex-husband,” Tom said coldly when he picked up. “Where are you now? Still in Amsterdam? Or is it Portugal, or perhaps Spain?”
“Ah, um, Paris,” she murmured. To her, it made perfect sense how she’d come to be here, the various paths she’d taken. To Tom, it must come as a surprise, and an unnatural one at that. She heard him take a sharp breath.
“Care to explain what’s going on, Carla?”
She dug her fingers into the cushion. “It’s not how it might seem...”
“Really?” He barked a laugh. “I don’t think you’re looking at things from my perspective. I encouraged you to take a break in Spain and didn’t say anything when you moved on to Portugal or Amsterdam without telling me first. Now I find out you’re in Paris with your ex-husband. Isn’t that where you went on honeymoon together?”
Carla swallowed away a lump in her throat. “Yes.”
The silence that followed was packed full of disbelief.
“I’ve been stuck in the back of beyond, viewing paper recycling factories with strangers and watching the machines rumbling,” Tom said. “I couldn’t take in a word anyone said to me because all I could think of was you and our baby.”
“I’ve been thinking about that, too,” Carla jumped in. “But it’s been days since we last spoke and you told me you’ve never wanted children... You made us sound like a mistake.”
“I’ve never seen kids as being part of my life, and the news came out of the blue. To be honest, I was stunned, shocked. Then images began to emerge in my head, and I started to picture us pushing a stroller together, and building sandcastles on the beach, and eating fries from the paper in a bus shelter in the rain. They’re all the things I loved doing as a child with my parents and I wanted to tell you all this, without being hampered by time zones and schedules and problematic phone lines.”
“And your ex-girlfriend?” Carla couldn’t help adding.
“Well, yes. I didn’t want Sara around when we spoke. I can’t understand why you’re with Aaron after everything you told me about your relationship. Why Paris?”
Everything he said was true. She hadn’t been very complimentary about her ex-husband and had blamed him for many things. Carla hugged the cushion with her free hand, picking at a stray thread as she tried to think of what to tell Tom. “You know how I went to see the fortune teller? Well, Myrtle told me someone was waiting for me overseas, a man I’d met two decades ago, and I’ve been trying to find him...”
“Is that why you met Adam? And now Aaron? You’ve been catching up with your exes?” Tom’s voice sounded strangled.
Carla screwed her eyes shut. “Yes, though it sounds more deceitful than it actually is. A relationship curse does exist in my family, and I’ve seen actual proof.”
Tom fell quiet for a long time. “Are you kidding me?” he said eventually.
“No. I think I believe in it.” Carla’s cheeks turned red. “This hasn’t been a romantic trip, even if it sounds that way.”
Tom’s breathing was hoarse and he took a long time to reply to her. “Despite everything, I want to believe you...”
“I still want us to get married,” Carla said, afraid what his response might be. She gripped the cushion even tighter.
Tom swallowed and cleared his throat. “I think I still want that, too,” he said quietly.
The words lay delicately between them, as if they might break if either of them said anything else.
“I’m going to fly home in a few days. What about you?” Tom asked.
“I’m ready to come home now.”
“Okay. Well, let’s talk properly when I get back, so we can try to sort everything out. But, Carla...” he added.
The firmness of his voice caused her to gulp. “Yes?”
“We need to look forward and focus,” Tom said. “Nothing else can go wrong or come between us. I don’t think we can survive any more drama or issues before we get married. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” she said, and meant it.
