Page 10 of Healing Hearts on Thistledown Lane: Part 2
He closed his eyes. Now that the initial shock of the suggestion was fading, he wasn’t entirely surprised. If he was honest, they’d been growing apart for months, ever since leaving London, and he’d had doubts of his own. But it still hurt. ‘I didn’t realise you’d been so unhappy,’ he said quietly.
‘Of course you didn’t,’ she said, suddenly sharp. ‘You’ve barely noticed me at all since the start of the year.’
‘That’s not true,’ he countered, stung. ‘I’ve been working hard, that’s all. It takes a lot of time and effort to run a successful business.’
‘Believe me, I know,’ Naomi snapped. ‘That’s my point, in fact. You don’t have time for a relationship right now. You don’t have time for me.’
Even as she said it, he knew she had a point. He sighed and ran a hand over his eyes. ‘So what happens now?’
Naomi puffed out a breath. ‘Nothing happens. I’ll stay here and we’ll give each other some space.’
Fraser shook his head. He’d seen friends do the same thing when their relationships were faltering. It had rarely resulted in them getting back together. ‘How long do you propose we give it?’
‘Two months,’ she said, with such alacrity that he knew she’d decided on the timeframe in advance. ‘That should give us both time to decide if we want to be together.’
Two months of uncertainty, he thought doubtfully. Two months where neither of them would be able to lick their wounds and heal, or start to move on. And at the end of the two months, one of them might choose to end the relationship for good, leaving the other to relive the pain of the break-up, knowing it was permanent this time. ‘No,’ he said. ‘If this is what you want then we end things here.’
‘That’s your pride talking,’ she replied. ‘When you’ve had time to think about things, you’ll realise that isn’t what you want.’
The trouble was, the more he thought about it, the more he realised it was exactly what he wanted. She was probably right, there was almost certainly some wounded pride colouring his feelings, but there was no use in prolonging the inevitable. ‘You don’t want to live here, and I’m not moving back to London. That seems to be a pretty insurmountable problem.’
‘Which is why I suggested we take a break,’ Naomi said. ‘A few months apart might help us see what’s really important.’
The light dawned on Fraser. She anticipated that he would be unable to live without her and would agree to return to London. If that was the case, she had underestimated how deeply he had reestablished his roots in the city. Things were going well in Edinburgh. If Naomi intended to make him to choose between her and the new life he had begun to build, she was going to be sorely disappointed. And it was better that it happened now than in two months’ time. ‘Neither of us deserves to be kept dangling, Naomi. I’m sorry it’s ended this way but I agree it’s for the best.’
When she spoke, her voice was hard. ‘You’re going to regret this. I’m the best thing that ever happened to you.’
Wincing, Fraser summoned up an image of her face. Her claim wasn’t entirely without merit – there’d been plenty of good times and he was going to miss her. But she could also be demanding and temperamental, meaning he had often found himself treading on eggshells around her, especially in recent months. It was something of a relief to know that he wouldn’t have to deal with her self-absorption and tantrums anymore. ‘Probably,’ he said wearily. ‘Take care of yourself, okay? And don’t worry about the practicalities. We can sort everything out over the next few weeks.’
She didn’t answer; a muted chime told him she had hung up.
Slumping back against the cushions, Fraser dropped his phone to his lap as doubts assailed him. Had he been too hasty? Should he have agreed to a break instead of hitting the self-destruct button? He let out a long slow breath and closed his eyes as he contemplated this sudden hole in his life. From the way Naomi had reacted, he knew one thing: there was no going back.
‘Hello. You don’t remember me, do you?’
The woman smiling at Fraser was faintly familiar, now he came to look at her more closely, but he had no idea why. She was standing a little apart from the small crowd that had assembled near the Mercat Cross on the Royal Mile, and he had the distinct impression she was not used to being forgotten. Perhaps she’d been on the tour before and expected him to remember her, or they might have chatted after a theatre performance years earlier.
He shook his head in polite apology. ‘I’m afraid not,’ he said. ‘Have we met before?’
‘At Hogmanay,’ she said. ‘I’m a friend of Maura’s.’
And then he placed her, in Pete’s kitchen on New Year’s Eve, although her name still evaded him. ‘Of course,’ he said, nodding. ‘It’s good to see you again.’
‘Maura hasn’t stopped raving about how good your tour is so I thought I’d come and see for myself,’ she said.
‘Thank you,’ Fraser said, trying to ignore the small flutter of pleasure at the thought of Maura’s recommendation. He lifted his phone. ‘What name did you book under?’
‘Zoe Pieterson,’ she said.
He scanned the screen until he found her. ‘Got it,’ he said, and checked the box beside her name. ‘Welcome, Zoe. If you’ll just wait here, the tour will get started shortly.’
She stayed close to him for the duration of the tour, listening with rapt attention when he spoke and falling into step as the group cut through the city’s wynds and alleyways. He didn’t mind, exactly – she was on her own, after all, and any friend of Maura’s deserved special treatment – but it did leave him less time to chat with the other attendees. When Maura had come along on one of the tours with her sister, they’d both been unobtrusive, indistinguishable from the paying customers. Zoe was different. If Fraser didn’t know better, he might suspect she was flirting with him.
‘That was great,’ she gushed when the tour was over and the crowd had begun to disperse. ‘Every bit as brilliant as Maura said it would be.’
‘Thanks,’ Fraser said, and nodded to a couple who were shyly smiling goodbye. ‘Glad you enjoyed it.’
‘It’s obvious you’ve been professionally trained,’ Zoe went on. ‘You made everything seem so real.’
