Since her wedding day that never was, Carla had thrown herself back into her job, as well as interior decorating, to prepare for the baby’s arrival. Aaron had unexpectedly found a two-bedroom apartment in a new development for the over-sixty crowd, with beautiful communal gardens and plenty of space for her gran’s ornaments. It had been love at first sight for Lucinda.
“I know I’m supposed to live here,” she’d said as she’d looked out of the south-facing bay window. A ladybird had scuttled across the sill, and Lucinda, Carla and Aaron had shared a glance, knowing it meant good fortune.
Lucinda suggested that Carla buy her bungalow. “I’ll give you a great deal,” she’d said with a wink. “There’s plenty of room to park a stroller in the hallway, and the baby could have a playroom.”
Her gran had insisted on saying goodbye and thank you to each of the rooms she’d be leaving behind. “There are some lovely memories here, of me and Ted, of Suzette, and you and Jess. It will be nice to keep it in the family.”
Carla was sure she’d love living here, too. “Do you mind if I keep the gold maneki-neko cat for good luck?” she’d asked her gran. “I think the baby will love it.”
“I think your granddad would love that, too. He bought it for me, many moons ago.”
Lucinda settled into her new place well and had already started to bake for the other residents. She and Juan chatted online together most evenings and were going to meet up in Spain soon. Mimi had already put on a one-woman theatre show in the communal sitting area and Evelyn had taken to knitting on a bench in the gardens, gradually opening up to anyone who asked about the sheep sweaters she was making to raise money for Bertrand’s favorite cat charity.
Carla sipped her nonalcoholic cider and looked up at her date again. “So, what’s your favorite color?” she asked him in return.
He thought for a moment. “Probably bright green, as in the grass at Wimbledon or those parrots you sometimes see flying around parks in London. It reminds me of when tiny shoots push through the soil in spring.”
A lovely answer. I really like this man, Carla thought.
“I thought you might choose gray,” she said. “Men seem to like that color.”
“I’m never sure if gray is a color or a neutral,” he mused. “My apartment used to be all gray, which was practical, but dull. I once had this girlfriend—well, fiancée—who used to leave these little things around my place, a pink plastic photo frame or a yellow ceramic vase. They didn’t really match but I liked them. I kind of miss them...”
Carla leaned forward. “You miss her, or the things she left behind?”
“Both.” He let out a sigh. “I really miss them both.”
Carla smiled ruefully to herself. “And I miss leaving them around for you to find.”
She watched as Tom’s eyes lit up.
“You do?” He touched the back of her hand and she felt a zap inside her again. Carla could now distinguish it from the kick of her baby, who seemed to have taken up playing football in her stomach.
After their first baby scan, she and Tom had gone their separate ways for a while. He was busy following up on all the contacts he’d made in America and had received several offers for collaboration on his board games. Unique, innovative and practical were the words used to describe them. His parents stayed in the UK for a few more weeks and were planning to come back soon, so they’d be here when the baby arrived.
Carla had packed up the rest of her belongings and moved into her gran’s bungalow. She printed out the photographs she’d taken during her time in Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, Holland and France and pasted them into the back of her travel journal, alongside any tickets, beer coasters, maps and timetables she’d collected on her journey, until there wasn’t a blank page left.
She, her gran and Jess were going to spend more time on the family tree, to bring it up to date with all their relatives (though they were unsure how they could fit them all on one page).
Jess had continued to work on developing a new angle for Logical Love, offering matches in a more organic way, and the sisters planned to manage the updated business together. Arnie had left Data Daze and was helping them to set up a new system. Carla could sense an obvious attraction between him and her sister that didn’t need her input or percentage statistics. Perhaps Jess might be engaged within the year, after all.
Carla had felt like there was a golf ball lodged in her throat when she’d discovered Tom had renewed his membership at the agency, and she had defiantly updated her own data, too. She ran their match through the system again and it had increased to seventy-two percent, a high score if not the shiny eighty-four percent she thought they’d once had together.
Does everything really have to be perfect? she’d asked herself.
Carla and Tom had met in the interim for a couple more scans. Those times together in a darkened room had been magical as they’d watched the grainy shape of their baby grow, from the size of a pomegranate to a honeydew melon. She’d lain there longing for him to hold her hand again, or to offer to take her for a coffee afterward, but Tom had been friendly and distant, and Carla had accepted she’d hurt him deeply.
One day, after he had continued to occupy all of her thoughts, she’d decided to just phone him and invite him on a date. Because they had to start somewhere. When he’d picked up, she’d skipped the pleasantries. “We should get to know each other again from the beginning, like we’ve only just met.”
“Carla...” he’d protested at first.
“We missed a whole part of our relationship because of Logical Love and we’re having a child together,” she said. “I never even knew what your favorite color or season was. Did you ever know mine?”
“Blue?” he said. “Autumn?”
“No.”
“Pink and summer?”
“See what I mean?”
It had taken him a while to consider her invitation, but he’d eventually said yes.
And now they were sitting here together in a bar, starting right at the beginning again.
Tom bought them another round of drinks. “How is Jess doing?” he asked.
“She’s working on the new arm of the business, but we’re struggling to think of a name. All the ones we’ve thought of sound shady.” Carla laughed. “Flexible Love, Open Love, Adaptable Love, Organic Love...”
“I can see what you mean.” Tom laughed, too.
“For now, we’ve given it the working title of Lucky in Love. I’m not sure it’s quite right.”
“I like it.” Tom nodded, giving the name some more thought. “What about Destination Love?”
Carla rolled it around on her tongue, noting it related to his board game that was hopefully going to be a breakout hit. Destination Next was already in the preproduction stages in America. “I like it,” she said. “I was also thinking of Illogical Love, because that’s what love often is. Sometimes you shouldn’t fit with someone, but you do. There might be barriers and reasons keeping you apart—”
“But you want to break them down,” Tom added, his eyes flitting to hers.
