It's Got to Be Perfect: the memoirs of a modern-day matchmaker (35 page)
Read It's Got to Be Perfect: the memoirs of a modern-day matchmaker Online
Authors: Haley Hill
Victoria tapped me on the chin. ‘Close your mouth. You look like a simpleton.’
I closed it, though Victoria’s reciprocal expression implied the simpleton look was still very much present.
‘Come along then. Let’s get going,’ she said, grabbing Mandi’s hand and mine before dragging us out of the bar. ‘Leave your baggage. Mike can deal with it. We’ve got work to do.’
‘Work? Now?’ I asked, contemplating throwing myself to the ground and screaming “terrorist”. All I wanted to do was go home, open a bottle of wine and start planning my future as a universally acclaimed love guru.
Eyes down and striding forwards, she dragged us out through the airport exit and into the biting morning air. Just as she was about to haul us into the path of an oncoming taxi, I stopped and pulled her back.
‘Victoria. What are you doing?’
‘I want to go home. I’m tired.’ Mandi said, looking as though she we about to stamp her feet.
‘Oh stop whining, the both of you,’ she said. ‘I’m a matchmaker now and I have an extremely important match to make. Wait here.’
Victoria took a few steps towards the taxi, which had just pulled up in front of us. Through the people milling around, I could just make out the back of a man’s head in the rear window. Victoria’s ponytail, which had been swaying like a pendulum, suddenly slowed to a stop. Her expression softened and a smile swept across her face as the taxi door swung open.
‘Ellie, come.’ She summoned me as though I were a sheepdog.
I heard a gasp from Mandi. I glanced beside me to see her grinning and clasping her hands together.
When I turned back to the taxi, I drew a sharp breath. The man swung his legs out and then planted his feet on the ground. I recognised his shoes immediately. They were the same pair that had descended the spiral staircase five years ago.
I exhaled a long deep breath. Instantly it felt as though there was stillness all around me. As though the flights had been grounded, the Tannoy unplugged, and even the world itself had stopped spinning. As though all that remained were the steady beat of my heart, and my chest rising and falling with each breath. I took in one more breath then held it there as I watched him climb out of the taxi.
The moment his bright brown eyes met mine, my stomach didn’t flip, my muscles didn’t tense. Instead, as we stared at each other in silence all I felt was the warmth of the sun, soaking into my skin, as though granting each cell a vital component.
When I fell into his arms and felt the softness of his lips against mine, I prayed that I had learnt the hardest lessons already. But as I glanced over his shoulder, up at the sky, towards a cloud where I imagined God, Eros and the angels to be collating the minutes of their meeting, I had an inkling somewhere deep inside that there might be a whole lot more to come.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty Four
Chapter Twenty Five
