Chapter 24
Milly took a deep breath and carried the empty cups into the café. Theo looked up as she entered but didn’t speak.
‘Tom’s gone,’ she said, walking around the counter and loading them into the small dishwasher.
‘What did he want? As if I couldn’t guess.’
She gave a small smile thinking that Theo was teasing, but his expression was grim with no hint of amusement. ‘He wanted me back.’
‘And what did you say?’
‘I said no thanks. I wasn’t interested.’
He checked the temperature on the oven and turned to her. ‘Why?’
She thought she could detect a hint of hope in his voice, and it lifted her spirits. ‘I told him I didn’t love him anymore and if we were honest, we hadn’t been in love for a while. We’d just been existing together.’
Finally Theo stopped fiddling with things and turned around.
Her heart leapt into her throat, and she was about to say all the words that had been locked in her heart for the last week or so.
Giddy excitement built in her body, squeezing her muscles, and she opened her mouth, wondering what his reaction would be and if he’d wrap her in his strong arms and kiss her as passionately as he had before.
She took a deep breath, trying to settle, when his next sentence stopped her.
‘That might have been a mistake,’ he said coldly.
Goose bumps flew over Milly’s skin as if someone had thrown ice-cold water all over her and she shivered despite the heat of the day and the warmth from the oven. ‘Wh-what?’
‘Maybe you should think about getting back with him. He’s come all this way. He clearly loves you.’ He began cleaning the counter, polishing the glass of the pastry case, the plates almost empty from the morning rush.
‘No, he doesn’t, and even if he does it doesn’t matter.
I don’t love him.’ She had to disabuse him of this notion immediately.
Tom might have come all this way, but he did so for his own purposes, not really for her.
‘He doesn’t want me, Theo, not really. His new love has dumped him, and her husband – because by the way, she was married – is threatening to punch him in the face.
He just wants the security of what we had.
He doesn’t really want or love me. And I don’t love him. ’
‘You did once.’
‘I thought I did, but even then, any feelings I had for him are gone now.’ She threw her hands in the air. ‘Not since I met you.’
Theo was stunned into silence. The hardness that had warped his handsome features softened, but then he dropped his gaze, studying the floor. ‘Perhaps he’s realised how lucky he was. Maybe you should think about giving him another chance.’
His words ripped her heart apart. ‘Why are you saying this? Is this all because of Nikoletta and her stupid comments? They don’t mean anything, Theo.
’ Frustration mounted that this tiny, silly thing was causing so much of a problem and her gestures became wilder.
‘No one really cares about that. They’ll come for the food and only the food.
No one’s going to trek to a café at the end of the canal just to see two people who work there flirting.
I don’t know why this is such a big deal to you. ’
‘Because my café is all I have. I will not let it, or me, become a laughingstock again.’
Again? What did he mean again?
‘Food is my passion,’ he continued. ‘This café is my passion, my dream. It’s been hard won. I won’t let it be minimised and made fun of.’
‘Theo—’ she said softly, her heart breaking.
The customers who had been quietly eating and drinking inside, suddenly scuttled past them, actually ducking as they moved in front of the counter. Theo and Milly watched them go. Humiliation inched up her spine, and she could see Theo’s cheeks turning pink.
‘You came here to make the café successful,’ Theo said, his tone devoid of any, and all, emotion. ‘You’ve done that. Maybe you should think about going home. Tom clearly loves you or he wouldn’t have come all this way and he’s better for you than I am. Better for you than this place. Maybe …’
‘Maybe what?’ She’d forced the words up through her tight throat.
‘Maybe you should go home. Your sabbatical must be ending soon anyway. You’ve done a great job here but—’ He turned and began cleaning the counter.
She wanted to rip the cloth from his hands but couldn’t move. Her body was stuck, trapped in this horrible moment that she wished would end but simultaneously not. Not like this. It had to end differently, happily.
‘Your work here’s done now. You can go home if you want.’
‘If I want? Or is it what you want?’ Inside, she begged him not to answer. Hearing the words out loud would destroy her. Shatter her already damaged heart into a million tiny pieces.
He didn’t speak.
‘So what were we? Just a holiday romance? A summer fling?’
A beeping drew Theo’s attention to the oven and a new batch of pastries he’d cooked. Milly thought about not moving, letting them burn, but as he grabbed a cloth to fetch them, heading in her direction, her instinct was to run. She shuffled out of the way, her stomach swirling with sickness.
He paused, one hand on the oven door, speaking over his shoulder in her direction. ‘I’m sorry, Milly.’
She couldn’t bear to hear any more and ran from the café, grabbing her bag as she flew out onto the cobbles, into the sunshine.
She didn’t stop running until she reached the end of the street.
She was vaguely aware of customers from the cafés that lined the way watching her, clearly wondering who this crazy woman was and what had happened.
When the road opened onto a large square, she slowed.
Her heart hammered in her chest, sweat prickled her brow and tears ran down her face.
‘Excuse me,’ someone said, and she expected them to ask for directions, but instead, with a forehead frowning in concern, the lady said, ‘Are you okay?’
‘I—’ She pulled in a breath, but no words would come. She wasn’t okay. She wasn’t okay at all. In answer, all she could do was give a thumbs up and walk away, calling back, ‘I’m fine. Thanks though.’
Her heart had been broken, punched and battered by Theo’s words.
It was worse than anything she’d ever experienced with Tom.
Finding him and Claire had been humiliating but this was …
this was definitely heartbreak. She didn’t want to believe their romance had been nothing more than a fling.
Something to fill the time. The emotion had been too deep, their connection too strong. So why was he pushing her away?
Whatever the reason, he wasn’t going to change his mind, that much was clear, and she wasn’t going to beg.
She made her way to the canal house in a daze, keeping her head down so no one else asked her if she was all right.
She thought about calling Ada but didn’t want to interrupt her and she couldn’t speak without crying.
The rickety, charming canal house smelled of cinnamon where Theo had been practising the latte recipe.
She trudged up the stairs, past his bedroom, seeing the bed they’d lain in together, wrapped in each other’s arms and surrounded by peace.
She’d known he was right for her – the only man who was right for her – and now he’d rejected her, telling her she should go home.
She still couldn’t quite believe it and fell to the floor, her knees buckling as great sobs rocked her body.
After what felt like hours, with her throat sore, her face aching from the number of times she’d wiped her cheeks, she stood and finished climbing the stairs to her room.
Like a robot she began to pack her things.
She folded each item, careful to make it all fit.
She took her handbag, preparing it for the flight home, adding her passport and tucking in her stupid notebook.
Pausing, she sat on the edge of her bed and flicked through it.
She’d learned so much, but the hygge lifestyle wasn’t going to help her now, not when her heart was shattered into a million pieces.
How was she to find any contentment in this horrible situation that hurt her more than anything she’d ever experienced before?
Even the accident hadn’t compared to this.
No. There was nothing positive to be gained from this experience.
She felt like she was a bird that had been free and was being forced back into a cage.
She knew she shouldn’t think of her old life like that, but right now, booking a flight back to England after everything she’d experienced that summer was like taking a giant step backwards and the worst thing was, she didn’t have any choice.