Looking for Love (5 page)

She tried to imagine what her
friend must be feeling.
Petrified? Curious? Excited?

Holding Pauline’s photo in place
with finger and thumb
from her left hand, she placed Roan’s pic with her
right hand on the opposite frame.

The whole couch shook. Andrea’s
eyes
rounded
and the others watched on, their faces frozen. Tingles ran up and
down her arms. The pages moulded to her hands, the photos sucked on
by some force, magnetic or gravitational or something from another
realm. A low hum emanated from the book as the shaking stopped and
then bubbles of rainbow light, like the effect of sunlight passing
through several layers of stained glass, surrounded the
tome.

Instinct urged Ella to
remove her hands
from the book as if burnt, but she kept them there. A strong sense
of peace and joy came into her, and she had a feeling it was purely
enchantment, coming from an external source, not from within. She
hadn’t felt so happy and complete for a long time, like she
suddenly believed in happily-ever-afters and dreams come
true.

“
And?” Carol nodded. “Open the rest.”

“
When I can get my hands
off
? I don’t
want to rip the pages.”

“
What do you mean?” Andrea stood
up. “This is creepy.” She stood back as if to give herself a wide
berth from the supernatural powers.

“
Wait, it’s easing.” The hum
silenced and the pull on her hands disappeared. The light diffused,
leaving a soft glow. She lifted her hands. “Here goes.”

She could
sense everyone hold their breath, even Andrea on the other end of
the room.

The pages
fanned out as if the magic
wanted her to see—lightweight and fluffy like choux pastry. She
turned the page. Photos of Pauline and Roan filled the space. Well,
the first couple of pages. Then blank. Nothing more.

“
Oh
, well, I knew it.” Pauline stood up and
waved her hands at
The Album
. “It’s obvious we wouldn’t have lasted long.”

Her lips quivered and tears
sprang to her eyes. Carol stood up and
engulfed her in a clinging hug. Soon,
Andrea and Ella surrounded the sobbing woman, Andrea stroking her
hair and Ella holding onto her hand, wishing to clobber Roan and
comfort Pauline at the same time.

“
It’s just so real to me,” she
eventually said once the sobs had simmered down to
hiccups that wracked
her body. “Breaking up with him without knowing whether it would
work or not, I’d kind of hoped it would wake him up to the fact how
serious I am about us.”

“
So now it’s real to you?” Ella
asked. “That he’s not the right one
?”

Pauline came
out of the group hug and looked at her friends after blowing her
nose into a tissue. “Do you know what the worst of it is?”

Ella shook her
head.

“
I feel like such an idiot.” Her
mouth wobbled and she blinked rapidly.

“
You’re not an idiot. How do you
know what the future’s going to hold? Seems
The Album
knows.”

“
But I should have seen the
signs. They were all there, but somehow, the sex blinded me. It was
good.” She covered her cheeks with her palms as if to hide a
blush.

Andrea
giggled.

“
Really good.”

“
Doesn’t mean you won’t find
another man…” Ella said. There existed, of course, one perfect
individual out there for everyone. Finding him or her was the hard
part. “You just have to find him.”

Pauline
shrugged. “Don’t know if it will ever be that good,” she mumbled
into her tissue.

“
Hey, sex isn’t everything,” Carol said.

Everyone turned to her.

“
What? It’s important, yeah, but
many couples can survive without decent sex.” She
shrugged.

“
What would I know?” Ella said
with a tinge of resentment. “Not like I’ve really…” She clamped her
mouth shut. She’d never been comfortable with sharing those details
with her girly friends. Sure, she’d had physical interludes with
guys, but nothing mind-blowing at all. She glanced down at
The Album
abandoned on the
couch. The light had dimmed and Pauline’s photo had fallen onto the
floor.

“
Anyone else want a go?” She
picked up the book. “Anyone have a guy you’ve been secretly wanting
for years?”

“
Well, there’s this guy at work.” Carol went to her handbag and
fumbled for something inside.

“
Enough for now,” Andrea
commanded. “I don’t know if I can handle that
heebie-jeebies stuff again. That
album gives me the creeps.”

Ella laughed. “It was kind of Harry
Potter-ish. Fun, though. I’m keen to try it again.”

“
You and Ross?” Pauline gave a loud, falsely cheerful
suggestion, possibly trying to forget about her pain and think of
someone else.

Ella held up
her hand and groaned. “No way. I. Do. Not. Want. To. Even. Think.
About. That.”

“
Aw, come on.” Andrea came up to
her. “I’m keen to see this one. You guys have been friends for
years. He’s probably in love with you but he’s too much of a geek
to realise it.”

Ella held onto
The Album
firmly as if Andrea
could have the power to place hers and Ross’s photos in. “Even if
our relationship did work out, I’d always be wondering if I could
have found the man for me—the one who makes my toes curl and my
tummy spin. You see, a marriage may work because our friendship is
solid, but it would probably be torture. For both of us. So the
pictures may not give the full story. They could show a bunch of
kids and graduations and new houses and cars, but they don’t really
show what’s inside the person. Bother, I never thought of
that.”

“
But the relationship lasting is
proof,” Carol said. “People nowadays don’t hang on unless they
really want to.”

“
That’s a very close-minded view.” Ella hated it when she was
so opinionated but she couldn’t help it. When she believed
something, she had to voice it. “Some couples hang on for the kids
or for financial reasons.”

If only her parents had done
that very thing. Instead
, they’d given up on each other
forever.

“
So scrap
The Album
.” Carol’s blazing eyes showed her
strong feelings about the topic.

“
No. I want to investigate it
more. Think this thing has the potential to change lives. Pauline,
what do you think? Was it worth it? I know it’s made you sad seeing
the outcome and I’m sorry. But do you think in the end, it’s good
you saw the truth?”

Pauline nodded from her seat on the couch.
“Yes. As much as it hurts, I’m really glad I know now. I’d hate to
have wasted another breath or tear on the jerk.”

“
To Girl Power!” Andrea lifted up a glass of wine from the bar.
“Famous Four rock. We’re going to use this album for
good.”

“
Hear, hear,” Ella said. “I’m
going to take it to work tomorrow. More wine, everyone? Shall I
open up a bag of pretzels?”

The serious gathering dispersed
as her friends
rummaged for a snack or went to the bathroom or switched on
the TV to find out what was on. Ella kept on thinking of taking it
to work the next day and couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling. No,
maybe the business idea was better. Cloak
The Album
in some anonymity. If she took it
around for everyone to see, it may get stolen. The word would
spread that she owned a magical antique. If she set up a business,
she could interview clients, ask them questions, get photos from
them, and pretend to be professional. Hey, why not be the
counsellor-type person she’d always wanted to be? Then she could
put their photos in the book when they weren’t with her and give
them her results. That way, no one would know about
The Album
except for her, her
friends, and of course, Ross, when he asked.

“
I’ve decided
,” she started once her friends
were back in the room and lifted up her wine glass as if to make a
toast. “Here’s to
Exact Match
, our new business.”

Glasses
clinked and the girls cheered and talked loudly to try to be heard
above one another.

Ella
stood inside the glass windows of her
conservatory-turned-office. If it weren’t for Carol’s insistence,
she would have set up her home office in the dining room. She hated
using her favourite room that seeped in the light from outside for
business. Not many people in South Africa had a conservatory in
their home. She liked to savour it for her me-time.

Yet, Carol had spoken the
truth.
And
this was more than a business. It was her dream.

Somehow, her great-uncle had known the
dream she’d buried deep inside her for years—to help people find
love. Could her gran have told him? At school, she’d often been
accused of matchmaking her friends, especially the Famous Four, but
most of the matches had gone wrong so she’d stopped her prying in
other people’s lives.

She opened to the front page
of
The
Album
on her
desk and stared at it. When would her first customer arrive? They’d
placed an ad in their local newspaper and also on Facebook and
online groups thanks to Pauline’s design expertise and Andrea’s
emails to the relevant parties.

It had cost a chunk of her savings, but
her friends had promised to pay her back any day now. She’d already
received Carol’s payment into her bank account. Carol, the
ever-perfect finance lady. Ella didn’t know why she always
complained about her job and career—Carol was an expert with
figures.

Oh
, well. The weekend would probably pass
like any other at this rate.

A knock sounded on her front door. Her
heart pounded, her mouth went dry, and her head spun a moment. She
grabbed onto the filing cabinet to steady herself and take a deep
breath.

Within a few
seconds, she’d stepped to the door and opened it. She blinked.

“
Ross. What you doing here
now?”

He frowned. “Well, nice to see you,
too.”

“
It’s…well, I suppose it is a
Saturday.” For a moment, she considered if he should be at work. Of
course, she worked today, but he didn’t know that.

“
Come in.” Should she tell him
about her new business?

“
I saw your advert.” He gunned
her with a curious, questioning—could she say—interrogating
gaze.

“
You did?”

What would he
think? She really wanted his approval on this.

“
What are you up to?”

“
We set up a part-time home business—after hours. To help
people.”

“
Since when are you qualified to match couples?”

His bumpy chin
hardened flat. Why
was he so upset?

Tears pricked her eyes. Somehow,
Ross’s criticism hurt more than she expected.
“I’ve always wanted to…you know
I like to help people find their special someone.”

“
Yes, I know you want your
friends to find the right partners, but really, El, you’re jumping
into things.”

“
No.” She sucked in a breath. “I thought hard about
this.”

“
Long and hard?”

She pasted a cheeky smile on her face to
hide the quivers because of Ross’s doubts. “Hard, not very
long—maybe a few hours.”

How long had it taken since
she
’d read
the letter and signed the back of
The Album
? Less than an hour. Maybe about half an
hour. And the outcome for Pauline had only confirmed it for her and
her friends. When she knew something was right, why wait? That’s
what would happen when
she
met the right guy. She’d always felt she would just know.
All the doubts, confusion, and pain would disappear when she met
her ideal man.

He flopped
down on her couch and sighed. “I don’t know.”

He reached for her hand and
pulled her down next to him. “I don’t want you to burn yourself
out. You work hard all week
, and now every weekend, you’ll be working at
home, too.”

She loved that he cared, but
this meant more to her than he seemed to gauge.
“Only on Saturdays. And maybe
week nights if it starts taking off. My friends are helping me—it’s
a joint business. They’re doing all the admin and promo stuff. I’ll
just work directly with the customers.”

“
Had any customers
yet?”

“
Nope.” She sighed. “Want to be
the first?”

He gasped
. “What?”

“
Just kidding. Want coffee
instead?”

“
Sure, thanks.” He rested his
head back on the soft, upper edge of her couch. “Been a long
week.”

Oh, so that explained
his mood
earlier.
“Work still giving you a hard time?”