Love or Money? by Carrie Stone

gesture. He truly was smitten. Oh dear God, how had she ended up in this situation after just ten days?
    Careful not to show her panic, she laughed off his comment.
    “You have all the Dutch courage you need. The job is yours, be positive! As for beers – you know I’m not a beer girl. Stop trying to turn me into an Ozzie.”
    Smiling at her, Aidan shrugged his shoulders in defeat.  
    “ Ok, hon. Speak to you tomorrow. Hope the headache eases up.”
    Waving goodbye, Felicity turned righ t into a narrow side street in the direction of the pharmacy, annoyed at herself.
    Thirty- one years old and unable to give off the correct vibes to attract the type of man she desired. First the whole gut wrenching situation with Dan that she still couldn’t think about without feeling stupid and sick. And now this.
    Knowing Aidan was well out of sight, she cut through a back alley that led north in the direction of her hotel, suddenly remembering the reference to Brisbane. As much as she’ d always discredited anyone who talked of fate and destiny, firmly believing that she created her own reality, she couldn’t ignore the coincidental travel agency and coach that she’d seen. 
    Only that morning, she’d overhead a couple chatting about Brisbane whilst sipping her coffee in the ultra-modern hotel breakfast area, and had been intrigued to hear that it was among the woman’s list of favourite cities. Scouring the internet for highlights, she’d discovered that although it wasn’t coastal, there were certainly enough nearby excursions and attractions to contemplate.  
    There wasn’t much more she could do in Sydney. Waking up to breakfast in the hotel, spending the days shopping or with Aidan and the evenings frequenting restaurants and bars, wasn’t how she’d envisaged spending her sabbatical. After almost giving up on her career and everything she’d worked for to force this break, she needed to make her time count. She needed to find out exactly what she was doing in Australia. And she needed to get away from Aidan. Fast.
    Reaching her hotel, she passed through the cool marble reception and headed to her room, formulating a plan. Closing the door behind her and kicking off her shoes, she sat at the desk area and switched on her laptop. She sighed as her work email account opened itself in the background and the bold Inbox figure of over three hundred unopened messages caught her attention. She had purposely been avoiding contact with Maurice through fear of her attention being sucked back into her work. The overwhelming desire to scan the messages surfaced, as it had every day for the last ten days. She ignored it, quickly closing the page window before she had a chance to succumb.
    As much as she was missing her work and the office, she knew it would defeat everything she’d achieved so far by allowing herself to concentrate on her life in London. Typing into the search engine page, she waited patiently for the results to be displayed, feeling butterflies for the first time in over a week. 
    Scanning the flight results for Brisbane, she found an option leaving the following evening. Ignoring the niggling feeling of guilt for planning to leave so s uddenly without informing Aidan, she entered her credit card details into the webpage. 
    Holding her breath, she watched as a new page loaded confirming her flight booking. It was done. She was leaving Sydney. Walking over to the large wardrobe where her expensive clothes were carefully hung, she began taking things off hangers; her mind was contemplating how she would break the news to Aidan.
     
    “At least give me a chance to explain, darling” Phillip’s voice drooled down the phone. Sylvia huffed in irritation. She had a three o’clock client followed by a photoshoot for a national magazine. She didn’t have time to play Phillip’s games.
    “ Explain what? How you haven’t been in contact for over two weeks? Do you seriously think I give a shit, Phillip?” she