Page 16 of The One That Got Away

‘StellaMatthews.’

The phone went silent.

‘Babe,’ he called out to Natalie. ‘I need to take this call upstairs.’

The sound of his footsteps echoed through the phone. I heard a door open then close again.

‘You still there?’

‘Yeah, I’m just… trying to take it all in. They matched you withStella? Shit, man. This isbad.’

‘I know.’

‘Very, very bad. You were not good to her towards the end.’

‘I know. I wasn’t nice to anyone back then.’

‘Yeah. EvenIhated you. But you had your reasons. And eventually, I understood. Maybe Stella will too.’

‘Doubtful. It took me months to win back your friendship. This holiday is only for two weeks. And she won’t even talk to me.’

‘I’m not gonna lie. I wouldn’t blame her. You’ve got your work cut out to bring her round. And I don’t rate your chances…’ Wow. If Mr Optimistic, glass half full didn’t think I had any hope, then it was even worse than I thought. ‘But there’s still a chance. Even if it’s one in a billion, it’s still a chance, so you have to try.’

‘I don’t know, man.’

‘Remember, you promised Betty that you’d see this challenge through ’til the end.’

‘But thisisthe end. There’s nothing I can do if she won’t talk to me.’

‘Try. Until you’ve attempted multiple times and Stella has categorically refused and left the resort, it’s not the end. Find her and try to talk to her. Even if she doesn’t want to date you, you at least owe her an explanation. Give her a better ending than you did before.’

He was right.

And that was all that I could ask for.

One conversation.

My chest tightened. I was dreading it, but it had to be done.

If only I had some body armour.

Something told me I was gonna need it.

7

STELLA

As I sat in an office at the back of the restaurant, anger bubbled in my chest.

I knew from the moment Mum mentioned this hotel that it was a bad idea, but I let her talk me into it. I even started to believe coming here could be a good thing. I’d even called Mum just hours ago to thank her and stupidly hoped that I was about to meet my Mr Right.

How wrong could I be?

Maxwell Moore couldn’t be further away from being my Mr Right if he lived on the moon.

I didn’t know how this happened, but there was no way I was going through with this. I couldn’t. It took me ages to get over him and I had no desire to drag myself back to hell again.

Why was I even waiting for Jasmine? There was nothing to talk about. I was going back to my room to pack. Then first thing in the morning I’d catch a flight to London.

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