Page 98 of The One That Got Away

‘It’s a great shot,’ I agreed. All of them were. In the end, I settled for a photo Stella asked a woman behind us to take. We were smiling as we watched the game and I had my arm wrapped around Stella’s back.

‘Done! Oh, I bumped into Jasmine. She said we both have individual debrief sessions this afternoon. Think she wants to get our feedback on the experience. She said she’ll text us the time and location.’

‘We better finish all our Love Tasks so we don’t get in trouble!’ I laughed.

‘As soon as we’ve eaten we can do our playlists. Then we’ll have the rest of the afternoon to enjoy the beach.’

‘Let’s get stuck in then.’ I opened up the picnic basket.

Stella and I finished all the food, then once we’d sent off our playlists, we laid on the blanket, arms and legs wrapped around each other.

‘This place is so beautiful,’ Stella said into my chest. ‘I don’t want to leave.’

‘Me neither.’ I paused. Maybe now was a good time to bring up the future. Well, the sad fact that we didn’t have one together. ‘So.’ I paused, thinking about how best to phrase it. ‘We should talk about…’

The sound of my mobile ringing made us both jump. I stretched out to where I’d left it after we’d taken our last set of selfies.

‘It’s Jasmine,’ I mouthed as I accepted the call. ‘Hi. Yeah, course. I’m on my way.’ I ended the call. ‘She wants to do my debrief now and yours afterwards.’

‘Okay. What did you want to talk about?’ she frowned. ‘Before Jasmine called there was something you wanted to say.’

‘Oh, er,’ I stuttered. ‘Nothing that can’t wait.’

‘Sure?’

‘Yeah.’

Maybe Jasmine’s interruption wasn’t a bad thing.

Waiting a few more hours to talk wouldn’t make a difference.

Would it?

40

STELLA

I was on my way to the restaurant for my debrief with Jasmine. Max had messaged ten minutes ago to say she’d be ready to meet me in half an hour and he was heading to our villa to shower and start packing.

With the final surprise date that Max had arranged in just a few hours, we wouldn’t have time later so that was a good idea.

Knowing that I also had a lot of packing to do, I decided to get to the restaurant earlier just in case Jasmine was free.

When I arrived, there was no one at the front desk and the restaurant was empty. Laughter sounded from the kitchen, then Jasmine appeared with a massive smile on her face and a chef followed behind her.

Interesting…

I caught them staring into each other’s eyes, still smiling, and wondered if they were together.

The sound of a text notification boomed around the room and their heads snapped to the door where I was standing.

‘Stella!’ Jasmine’s eyes bulged. ‘I wasn’t expecting you until four.’

‘Sorry.’ I backed away. ‘I can come back if you like?’

‘No, no.’ She waved her hand. ‘Let’s get started.’

‘I will see you later?’ the chef said.

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