A Whirlwind Engagement

'Seriously, Bella, you're not sickening for something, are you?'

Only with love, thought Bella drearily.

'I'm just tired,' she said. 'I need a holiday, but I can't afford to go anywhere. My last credit card bill was so enormous I thought I was going to pass out when I opened it. I wish someone would offer me a free week in the Seychelles,' she sighed.

The thought of a week with nothing to do but he on a tropical beach was incredibly inviting. No diving, no sailing, just lying there with your eyes closed…yes, she could handle that!

'It would be nice, wouldn't it?' said Kate. 'It's all right for Josh and Aisling!'

'When are they off?' Phoebe asked, getting up to freshen their glasses.

'Soon, I think.'

'I haven't seen them since your dinner. How is Josh?'

Bella's throat tightened at the mere sound of his name. 'I don't know,' she said as casually as she could. 'I haven't seen him either.'

Phoebe frowned. 'I hope nothing's wrong. It doesn't sound like Josh to drop out of sight like that. Hasn't he been in touch at all?'

'He rang and left a message thanking me for the dinner,' Bella admitted, 'but it wasn't the kind of message that needed a reply, so I didn't.'

'But Bella, he'd expect you to call him back anyway, wouldn't he?'

She hunched a shoulder, unable to explain how hard she found the idea of talking to Josh now. 'I didn't want to intrude,' she said defensively. 'They probably just want to be alone at the moment.'

'They probably think you're ignoring them,' said Kate, sounding unusually astringent. 'I thought you wanted to make Josh think that you liked Aisling?'

'I do…I just need a little time to get used to the idea of him getting married,' she confessed.

'You've had nearly three weeks, Bella,' said Phoebe gently as she handed her back her glass. 'You're going to have to come to terms with it some time.'

Bella sighed and sipped her drink. 'I know.'

The trouble was that she couldn't imagine having a normal conversation with Josh now when all she could think of to say was I love you, I love you, I love you. She could ring and wish them a good trip, she supposed bleakly. At least it would give them something to talk about.

'I'll call him,' she promised.

To her relief, her friends let the matter drop then. 'I'm not sure we can run to a week in the Seychelles, but what else can we do to cheer you up?' asked Kate. 'It's Friday tomorrow. Why don't you come round and have supper with us? You look as if you could do with a decent meal.'

'I'd like to, but I'm supposed to be going to some party in Battersea,' Bella said without enthusiasm.

By the time she got home from work the next day she felt even less enthusiastic about the prospect. It was a vile November evening, and her umbrella had been useless in the gusty wind. The walk from the tube was enough to leave her wet and bedraggled, and she wasn't sure she could face tarting herself up, going out into the rain again and spending the evening smiling and looking as if she was having fun.

But the alternative was to sit at home missing Josh and trying not to cry.

Maybe a drink would perk her up? Bella made herself a vodka and tonic and slumped on the kitchen sofa, not noticeably perked but appreciating the drink anyway. She was still trying to summon up the energy to have a shower when the doorbell rang.

Drink in hand, she went out to peer through the peephole, and her heart did an alarming somersault when she saw Josh standing on the other side of the door, huddled into his coat, with the collar turned up. His hair was plastered to his head, and the rain was running down his face.

'Josh!' Hastily Bella opened the door and stared at him. 'What are you doing here?'

'I needed to see you.'

Josh hadn't thought about what he was going to say. He had just followed his instinct which was to get to Bella. He couldn't explain on the phone, he had wanted her presence, and he went straight out into the rain. It was only when he got to her doorstep that it had occurred to him that she might not be there.

But there she was, as he had somehow known she would be, looking very Bella in a short skirt and spectacular shoes, the golden hair falling around her face, and a glass in her hand.

'Come in,' she said in concern, stepping back and holding the door wide open. 'You're sodden!'

She helped him peel off his coat and hung it over the back of a chair in the kitchen. 'Sit down,' she said. 'I'll get you a drink. You look like you need it.'

He must look as shell-shocked as he felt, thought Josh as he dropped onto the old kitchen sofa, but he was feeling better already. There was something amazingly comforting about coming into this house, and especially this big, shabby kitchen with its mess and its clutter and its complete absence of steel or granite or anything remotely trendy.

'Here.' Bella put a glass of whisky into his hand and sat cross-legged on the sofa, turning so that she could face him. 'Now, tell me what's happened.'

'Aisling's left me,' said Josh, a little surprised at how easy it was to say.

'Left you?' Bella stared at him blankly. 'What do you mean, left you?'

'She's gone. She doesn't want to marry me any more.'

It was almost a relief to see that the news was as unexpected to Bella as it had been to him. Josh would have felt a fool if he had been the last one to suspect anything, but looking at Bella he could see that she was as stunned as he had been.

'But…but…why?' She stammered. 'She was so excited the other day when we were all here. She couldn't talk about anything but marrying you.'

'She was trying to convince herself that was what she wanted,' he said evenly, 'but it wasn't… She's been in love with someone else all along.'

Bella shook her head trying to take it all in. 'Who is he? Do you know him?'

'His name's Bryn. I haven't had much to do with him but he's a senior executive at C.B.C. Aisling worked there before she joined us, and that's where she met him. She told me this evening that they'd had a passionate affair for nearly a year and that she was mad about him. But he's married, of course, and although he'd talked about leaving his wife, he kept coming up with excuses about how it wasn't the right time, and in the end Aisling decided to call the whole thing off.

'She was desperate to leave C.B.C. so that she wouldn't have to see him every day. I knew her because of previous work we had done for the company, so when I offered her a chance to move, she jumped at it. She told me tonight that it seemed as if it was meant.'

'No wonder she was so keen to come and work for you!' said Bella tartly. 'So all that stuff about wanting a more fulfilling job and working with a smaller organisation was her being just the teensiest bit economical with the truth, was it?'

'Not exactly. She enjoys working with us, but it wasn't quite the complete break she had hoped for,' said Josh. 'You know we're hoping to win this big contract from C.B.C.? If we get it, it'll be largely because of Aisling's contacts, and part of her job now is to deal with this Bryn on a regular basis, which hasn't been easy for her.'

Bella wasn't in the mood to feel sympathetic for Aisling's problems. 'God, Josh, you're starting to sound sorry for her!'

'lama bit,' he said. 'Aisling tried everything she could to put him behind her, but she just couldn't. He's all she wants, and she had to try and cut herself off from that. That takes guts,' he added fairly.

'I might feel a bit more respect for her if she'd done it without using you,' said Bella. The blue eyes were stormy as she put her glass down on the table with a sharp click.

'That makes her sound too cynical.' It was ironic that he should be the one who ended up defending Aisling, Josh thought. 'It wasn't as if she didn't like me. She said she did, she liked me a lot, and she thought she could make a fresh start with me, but when it came down to it, it wasn't the same. She tried to talk herself into wanting to be with me, but it wasn't what she felt for Bryn. That was something much stronger and in the end she couldn't resist it.'

'And did she give you any thought in all of this?'

'I think she tried,' he said. 'She really wanted to make a go of it with me, and for a while it seemed as if it