Page 60 of The One That Got Away

We found an empty seated area towards the back of the yacht and looked out at the views of the coastline.

‘Beautiful, isn’t it?’ Stella said.

‘Yeah. And this yacht really is something else. I thought we’d be travelling on a little tourist boat.’

‘Me too! When we boarded I had to try and stop my jaw from trailing on the floor and act like I hung out on super yachts all the time.’

‘You mean you don’t?’ The corner of my mouth twitched.

‘Surprisingly not!’ she laughed. ‘I should’ve remembered that The Love Hotel always pulls out all the stops.’

‘Definitely.’

‘Listen, Max, I just want to say a couple of things. Firstly, thanks for telling me the truth about what happened. I know it can’t have been easy for you to talk about everything you went through. I appreciate it.’

‘Thanks. That means a lot.’

‘And I hope you don’t mind me asking and if it’s too difficult to talk about, you don’t have to, I just wondered…’

‘Go on. Ask me anything.’

‘What happened to your mum?’

I sucked in a breath. Damn. She was right. It was difficult. I didn’t like talking about it, but I didn’t want to hide anything from Stella any more.

‘For her whole life, Mum always thought she was invincible. She ate whatever she wanted, even if that meant having fry-ups and cream cakes, every day. And she smoked. A lot. Then there was the drinking. Like Dad, she drank more than she should.’

At that point, my mind drifted to my dad. I wondered if he was still alive. I’d cut all contact from him years ago. For all I knew, he was drunk in a ditch somewhere. I shouldn’t care after what he put me through, but a tiny part of me still did.

‘I’m sorry.’ Stella touched my hand. ‘It’s okay if you want to stop.’

‘I’m okay.’ I took a sip of water. ‘Hearing that Mum had high blood pressure and cholesterol shouldn’t have been a surprise and even when she got diabetes she didn’t take it seriously. She still kept eating and drinking the same shit. It was only when the doctor said she was morbidly obese and was at risk of a heart attack that she finally took action.’

‘Shit. What did she do?’

‘She started to eat better and got interested in organic food. She even became obsessed with checking the ingredients in all the products she used. That’s what led her to try making her own natural soaps and stuff using olive oil. She wasn’t working so had loads of time on her hands. That’s how her Olibella products were created.’

‘But didn’t her lifestyle changes help?’

‘She tried but by the time she tried to reverse the damage, it was too late. In the end, she died of a heart attack.’

‘Oh, Max.’ Stella shuffled up closer and rubbed my back. ‘I’m so, so sorry.’

‘Yeah.’ I swallowed the lump in my throat. ‘Thanks. I’m happy I was able to carry on with her products so at least that’s her legacy.’

‘I think it’s great that you were able to do that. I’d love to try some of your products. You’ll have to send me a link of where to buy them.’

‘You don’t need tobuythem,’ I smiled. ‘I’ll give you some!’

‘Oh, no, that wouldn’t be fair. They cost money to make, so I wouldn’t expect them for free.’

My chest inflated. Most people were happy to take freebies and didn’t give a shit about the costs, but not Stella. She’d always been a good person.

‘Consider it a gift. For putting up with me.’

‘Well, in that case, you better send a whole truckload of products!’ she laughed and my chest swelled even more. I was glad we’d lightened the mood. Shit was getting way too heavy.

‘Deal.’ I looked into her eyes. God, she had beautiful eyes. And a beautiful mouth. A mouth I wanted to kiss right now. To thank her for being so kind, understanding and thoughtful. Stella was fucking amazing.

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