Page 84 of Hate You to Love You

I nod and follow Elliot and Moira through the sea of people filtering out of rows until we come towards a door leading to the green room. When we’re inside, Claudia is being hurried towards the signing line. Elliot joins her and commends her for what a great job she did. Her eyes land on me and she smiles.

‘Thank you, Carlos,’ she says gently.

‘I just wanted to help any way I could,’ I say.

‘I trust you to do what feels right with the article,’ she adds, smiling. ‘I know you’ll do a wonderful job.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Moira calls from the other end of the room. ‘But we really need to get to the signing line.’

I watch as Claudia disappears out the door and into the crowd. Before he joins her, Elliot spins towards me and his face lights up with a grin, winking at me.

The whole walk back to our hotel, I’m still smiling.

chapter forty

Once my check-in has been completed at Edinburgh International Airport the next day, I grab my carry-on and move towards security. I look up at the departure board and take note of the time. If Elliot doesn’t get here soon, he’ll miss our flight. We’d taken a taxi from the hotel together, but he’d stopped outside the departures terminal to take a call from his boss. And that was more than half an hour ago.

I’m in the middle of the terminal, underneath the large departure sign, when I hear someone calling my name. ‘Carlos!’

Elliot runs frantically towards me, dodging a woman pushing a cart full of luggage and cutting through a group of students who appear to be going on a school trip. He holds out his arm, as if begging me to wait. A smile twitches at my lips. Maybe airport chase scenes did happen after all.

‘Hurry,’ I urge as he stops next to me, catching his breath. ‘We should be at the gate by now.’

He looks at me nervously. Something has shifted.

‘What’s going on?’ I release my grip on my bag and it drops to the floor.

‘I… I’m…’ he stumbles over his words, dropping his head to look away from me as he rubs the back of his neck with one hand. ‘I’m not coming back to Sydney, Carlos.’

My chest tightens. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘The London office were really impressed with the way I conducted the campaign. One of their senior publicists has just retired, and they want me to stay on to cover some of his campaigns.’

It sounds like he’s already made up his mind. My heart skips a beat. Because I should have known something like this would happen again.

‘It’s temporary, Carlos,’ he says when I don’t respond.

‘Congratulations,’ I say softly.

‘I know this sounds like history repeating itself. But it’s all come together in the last few hours. Which is why I’m telling you now.’

I’m expecting to be burning with rage, but instead I feel hollow. I sigh with disappointment, and it’s shaky with a slight echo of sadness. ‘This is what you were always hoping for though, isn’t it? That they’d keep you on. Who’s to say this won’t turn into another year? You were never going to come back to Australia.’

‘I was. I will. But you know what life has been like for me here, with the anxiety impacting my work. This is my chance to prove that I can actually do this.’

The words I desperately want to say catch in my throat, so I spin around and begin walking towards security.

‘Where are you going?’ he asks as he runs after me.

‘Home. I’m going home. You can go live your life, and I’ll go live mine. Just like we’ve been doing.’

‘Carlos—’ Elliot steps forward, pleading with me.

I bite my bottom lip, trying to stop myself from breaking into tears. We’ve been here before. Standing on the edge of saying goodbye for good. What hurts so much is that I really believed things could be different this time. And I should have known. Why didn’t I trust my gut? I let Elliot have a piece of my heart again, and he’s crushed it.

‘Goodbye, Elliot,’ I say, as I turn around and continue walking through the terminal.

‘Wait,’ he cries. ‘I’ll be back in Australia next week to finish out my contract with the Sydney office. This isn’t the end, okay? It’s just temporary.’