Looking for Love (2 page)

“
No romance between us. Ever.”

He
shrugged.

“
It will mess up our friendship. What we have goes deeper than
romance. I don’t want to mess it up.”

He nodded.

“
Ever.”

“
Okay.” He sounded defensive.

“
You promise?”

“
I promise.”

“
Shake on it.” She held out her hand. He took it and shook
formally, his eyes mock serious, seemingly battling to hold back a
laugh.

“
I mean it.”

“
I know. I promise.” He kept on shaking. “Sorry, Ella. You’re
just so cute, the way you say it. But I understand fully. I don’t
know what came over me wanting to kiss you just now. Just an
impulse thing; I wasn’t thinking. We do best as friends. Friends
forever.”

He gave one
last vigorous shake and they went back to watching their movie.

Ella propped
her legs up on his lap and leaned her back against the bumpy sofa
arm. She yawned. Staring at his profile as he focused on the TV,
she smiled. He was such a rock. The best in the world.

“
I can’t believe we’re all
here!”

Ella
Haviland sucked in a breath and took
in the vision of her three mates chilling in her sitting room,
chatting together and enjoying a Friday night of no
responsibilities. How different they all were but they’d remained
bonded by years of friendship—relationships that had passed through
the fires of neglect, jealousy, cattiness and plain old
selfishness. Still, they remained rock solid. Chicky mates. Girly
friends.

“
It feels like old times,”
Pauline said. Her strawberry blonde hair, set in a whimsical, curly
style, brought out her soft, dreamy features that matched the
gentle, creative woman who worked in a craft shop by day and ran a
food blog by night.

“
Remember all those nights
playing
Uno
and
Jenga
, watching videos and pigging out on too much popcorn?”
Carol picked up her wine glass and took a big gulp. Her freckly
nose crinkled in distaste. “The very reason I nearly failed
matric.”

Ella rolled her eyes. Carol had always
been the serious, uptight one, especially since matric. Ella could
tell her to chill again or not live with regrets, but it never
worked.

No. Tonight should be fun. No
bickering
.
Or
living in the past.

She pressed her lips firmly shut
to stop from offering a wise-crack response. She’d set out gallons
of rosé wine, packets of bacon kips, dark and white chocolate—no
ways would milk
chocolate be allowed—and there wasn’t a single man to mess
up their fun.

Plus they were about to have a mystery box
reveal. She couldn’t help grinning at the thought and glanced down
at the parcel by her feet.

“
So, what’s in the box?” Andrea
asked, dipping a corn chip into a cream cheese dip and slotting it
into her mouth painted with perfectly blended lipstick, her
professionally manicured finger nails accentuating her elegant
fingers.

Ella tried to mimic
the actions of
Andrea’s pouty lips and elegant hands when she took a handful of
chips but her instinctive response was to stuff them down in one
go. She’d never be as poised as Andrea, had always been the tomboy
growing up. Only lately had she enjoyed dressing up, but in the
end, comfort came before elegance.

Her friends’
gazes fixed on her as if they
waited expectantly.

Ella grinned.
“It’s a surprise. After supper’s arrived, we’ll open it
together.”

As if on cue,
the doorbell rang.

“
Pizza delivery!”
Andrea screamed as
she ran to the door, her sleek, brown hair bouncing against her
back like in a shampoo commercial. Ella fiddled with her wayward
curls with a sigh. No comparison.

“
Are you paying?” Ella laughed as she joined her over-eager
friend.

“
Nah, I’m checking out who they
sent this time. Last weekend, the cutest guy came…”

Ella grimaced. “You really shouldn’t be so
desperate with a bod like yours. You’re gorgeous.”

She perused her friend’s perfect
figure with curves in just the right proportions,
took in her ivory
skin without any blemishes, and her elegant tailored pants and
figure-hugging blouse complemented with a large, silver rose
pendant.

“
I’m not desperate at all. I’m
just looking. Curious. Research on delivery companies.”

C
ould be for her work as human resources
manager, but Ella seriously doubted it. Andrea had been single for
over six months now. She didn’t do well as a single, but Ella had
the sneaky suspicion she was in no rush to change that status.
Andrea liked to window shop, not buy. Or so her actions of the past
few months had implied. Maybe things had changed.

“
And looking is free.” Aah, she
does prefer window shopping still.

Yip,
looking sure is free.

The pizza delivery guy made up
for the whole
Q&A thing on the way to the door. Cute as a button.
Giving them both a dimpled and roughened grin, he parted with a
huge tip after handing over their treasure. The door closed, and
Andrea and Pauline let out a high-pitched teenage
scream.

“
Hey, you’ll wake up the neighbour’s dog and then we won’t have
silence for the mystery box reveal.” Ella took the pizza boxes to
the mini bar set up against her living room wall and broke the
pieces and stringy cheese apart. Soon, she had several triangles
arraying four plates.

Her friends all tucked in, partaking in
nourishment and great conversation at the same time. Ten years
after high school, the Famous Four, as they called themselves,
still did almost everything together. In the modern global village
that had morphed from a segregated world, amazingly, they all still
lived in the same place—Richards Bay, of all places—a coastal
industrial town along the east coast of South Africa, with very
little to offer except for blistering heat, mosquitoes, and an
uninteresting beach.

Definitely no talent as far as men went;
maybe the very reason they stuck together through it all. And
they’d been through enough already during the last ten years out of
school. Plus she had to admit, two of them had scooted off to UK
and Canada for work stints there which had proved more like ‘dip a
toe in and run away’ rather than permanent moves.

Casual conversation took over guzzling of
copious amounts of cheese followed by gorging of ice-cream with
choc-mint sauce dredged on top.

“
I really should cut out
processed food,” Ella muttered more to herself than anyone else as
she sat back, her bare foot on the box. She could lose a couple of
kilos in order to look like Andrea, her ideal standard to measure
up to. Maybe then, she’d find this elusive ‘dream man’ she’d
conjured up in her head the last decade. He never seemed to
materialize. Mind you, Andrea hadn’t found her one yet, either. So,
perfection didn’t necessarily equate to love.

Everyone looked at her feet.

“
Hey, stop watching my toes. I
haven’t had a pedi in weeks.”

“
Me neither.” Pauline pulled a face. “It’s been a rough
month.”

Ella eyed her friend. What was up with
her? She was the only ‘non-single’ if you could call her that as
she hadn’t really started to officially date the guy yet. Just hung
around his place all the time. But at least, she had someone.
“What’s up?”

She blew a curl away from her
forehead.
“He’s asked to see other people.”

“
But you’re not dating?” Carol asked as she rested her blonde
head against the couch and closed her heavily-painted eyes. She
remained dolled up from work and hadn’t bothered to
change.

Ella admired
her neat suit and short skirt showing off her ample curves. She
sure had attractive friends.

“
Well, we are, actually. It’s
official from a month ago. From when I moved in.”

Silence. Deathly, heart-rending silence
that echoed Ella’s stunned mindset. He wanted to see other people a
month after his latest girlfriend moved in?

Andrea shook
her head. “Ouch.”

The word
came out as a whisper, but it spoke
volumes.

“
Don’t get him wrong. It was my idea to move in. We couldn’t
keep our hands off each other.”

Pauline had
always been the quiet, studious type, slow in going out with guys.
This dude must be super sexy. Only Carol had met him so far. Ella
looked at Carol to gauge her response but she kept her eyes shut
and breathed in slowly. Maybe she knew more about him—whether he
was worth Pauline’s heart being strung on a line, but Ella dare not
ask in front of the woman.

“
I’d put my foot down,” Andrea
said. She had neither a booming nor a harsh voice, but something
about her tone always commanded attention.

Pauline merely stared at her with her
baby-blue eyes emanating her soft innocence.

Andrea sat up straight.
“Look, I know I’ve
broken up with every guy I’ve gone out with, so you may not take me
seriously, but really, are you sure you want to stay with someone
like that? Give him some space, play hard to get or something. How
long have you known him?”

“
A year.”

“
Oh.”

Pauline
laughed. “Hey, I’m not in love or anything. It was purely a sexual
thing—an adventure. Something I’ve always wanted to do but never
had the courage to try. I don’t regret it one bit. I’ll talk to him
later and see what I can arrange.”

She spoke with
certainty, but Ella could see the hurt in her eyes.

She hated it when people ended up with
loser lovers. She’d had her fair share and so had her friends. If
only there could be a perfect world where people knew who to choose
and didn’t have to go through the pain of break-ups and
incompatibilities.

But perfect worlds didn’t
exist
, and it
certainly wasn’t in her power to change anything. She’d tried with
her matchmaking stints years ago—had always dreamed of saving
people the heartache of unsuited loves, but that had fallen flat.
And deep inside, she knew ‘that’ man for her lived somewhere in the
world.

Pauline leaned forward, a smile
plastered on her face.
“Oh, come on, El. We’re so curious. What’s in the
box?”

Her red-haired friend obviously
wished to change the subject. Ella glanced at the parcel and her
heart hammered with a strange excitement.
“I’m not sure what’s inside. That’s
why I called you over. A courier dropped it off yesterday—it’s from
my late great-uncle who died a month ago. I inherited
it.”

Their eyes
went large.

“
Ooh, that sounds so promising,”
Carol
quipped. “Your big ticket out of here.”

Ella shrugged.
“I doubt it.”

She’d never been close to her
great
-uncle
and he hadn’t been particularly rich. The box wouldn’t contain
jewels.

“
At least out of your job.”

“
There’s nothing wrong with my
job except the pay.” She narrowed her eyes at her friends to remind
them she’d had enough of them always trying to find her another
career. The optometrist receptionist’s job was comfortable and she
knew what she was doing there. Why change? She’d get her yearly
increase which would cover living expense rises. At least she had
the security of knowing she’d built up a relationship with her boss
over the years and they had a rapport. She wasn’t about to be
retrenched at a time like this when many people didn’t have
jobs.

“
Heavens, will you end the
suspense?” Andrea said. “I’m about to jump up and tear it open
myself.” Her long fringe flopped over her forehead, hiding her
strong brown eyes.

Ella ground her foot into the cardboard
box peppered with addresses and scratched-out postal stamps and
stickers. It had done the rounds. Probably been to every relative
and ended up with unsuspecting Ella who would lap up any
opportunity to enter fortune. She had to admit, she hadn’t turned
out the most driven of her cousins. Her friends had a point that
she settled for comfortable and probably dead end. Maybe, just
maybe, the contents would give her the courage to…

“
Okay.” She made a flourish with her hands as she took her foot
off the box. “Here goes nothing.”

Grabbing a key, she then sliced the
packaging tape apart so the flaps opened. Everyone came closer and
peered into the box.

Books.

That’s
all?

She’d secretly hoped… Maybe she
did want out. If she had enough, escaping out of
her mundane would be
heavenly. Imagine doing something totally different—having her own
therapy practice or something similar. But she’d need millions to
get a qualification and start up a business…
Stop getting distracted,
Ella.

The box boasted old, dusty,
second-hand books from a geriatric who probably read
Moby Dick
and
The Grapes of
Wrath
over
and over again.