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‘Dylan mentioned there would be a tropical storm tonight,’ said Millie before throwing caution to the wind. ‘Why don’t we ditch the dessert course and go back to the villa for a nightcap before the rain arrives?’
‘Sounds… Oh, hang on.’ Jake extracted his phone from his pocket. ‘Excuse me, I need to take this.’ He left his seat and strode out through the back door of the restaurant.
Millie finished her cocktail. She had lost count of how many she’d had. She reached down to grab her handbag and, giggling to herself, stumbled to the Ladies’ to splash cold water on her face. She looked at herself in the mirror. Her cheeks were like two ripe tomatoes and her hair was springing out from her head like a clown on speed. She groaned, dragging her fingers through the tresses in a futile attempt to straighten them.
As she peeped out through the back door of the restaurant down the alleyway, another crack of lightning lit the sky. Huge raindrops splashed down onto the tarmac and she expected to see Jake finishing off his conversation, but he was nowhere in sight.
Must be back at the table, she thought.
She decided that it might be a good idea if they stayed for coffee, not only to avoid the deluge, but so she could sober up before they left. When she arrived at the table Jake wasn’t there either. She glanced around the room, but he wasn’t chatting to any of the clientele or the owner. She waited a few more minutes and when he didn’t materialise, she strolled out to the street and scoured the road to the left and the right and then, again, the alleyway.
Nothing.
She stood on the doorstep of the restaurant, watching the storm, a sense of unease mounting. Where was Jake? He couldn’t still be on the phone, nor could he have visited the Gents’ for such a long time. She looked at her watch and saw he had been gone for over twenty minutes.
The fuzziness in her head was starting to clear. She pushed her way back into the restaurant and found the waiter who had taken their order.
‘Erm, have you seen Jake… my date?’
‘No, ma’am. Sorry.’
‘Oh, erm, okay, thanks.’
Millie didn’t know what to do next. She rifled in her bag for her purse and left more than enough dollars to cover the cost of the meal. She fiddled with her empty cocktail glass for ten more minutes, feeling more and more awkward and embarrassed, and then left the restaurant by the back door, stumbling down the alleyway to the front street, but still there was sign of Jake.
She checked her phone. Nothing. Relieved they’d exchanged numbers, she tapped out a text, uncertain whether to be worried or annoyed. Had he had such an abysmal evening with her that he’d done a runner?
Oh, God! Her stomach contracted violently. It was the same scenario as she had endured with Luke at their engagement party. Was it even statistically possible that lightning could strike the same person twice in exactly the same way?
To answer her rhetorical question, the meteorological gods confirmed their answer by sending down a violent crack of light in front of her. Another cacophonous rumble of thunder followed and the fronds of the palm trees lining the road leaned so far over that it looked like a foliage tunnel. Reluctantly she came to the conclusion that there was nothing else she could do except make her way back to the Purple Parrot and ask Lottie to order a taxi to take her home.
Chapter Seventeen
‘Oh, my God, Millie. What’s happened? Where’s Jake? Why do you look like a drowned rat?’ Lottie shot from her position behind the bar and steered Millie into a cane chair in a quiet corner at the back of the restaurant. It was after midnight and the majority of the Purple Parrot’s customers had retired to their villas and apartments to shelter from the storm.
‘Can you call me a taxi, please, Lottie?’ Millie muttered as an onslaught of trembling overtook her. She had opened her heart to being bruised again and just look what had happened. Bruised? Ha! Sliced open with a cleaver. Dating was a fool’s game, and she had no intention of ever, ever securing a rematch! She had never been brilliant at choosing a life companion, but once again it seemed as though she had scraped the bottom of the barrel.
‘Of course I’ll call you a taxi, but I think you need a brandy first.’ Lottie’s pale blue eyes widened with concern, and she was back at Millie’s side with a glass of Andrew’s best Cognac in seconds. ‘Tell me what happened! Why aren’t you with Jake?’
Millie sipped the brandy and felt the warmth trickle down into her chest, calming her raging emotions enough for her to utter, ‘He ditched me.’
‘What do you mean, he ditched you?’
‘After we finished our meal, he left to take a call and… and never came back.’
‘He what?!’
Millie met Lottie’s eyes and the pity she saw there sent tears to her own. But she grabbed on to her emotions – she was determined not to cry until she was alone in her studio where no one could see her. After all, it was only a date with a guy she hardly knew. He was not Luke – the man she had thought she was going to marry! But Lottie didn’t know any of this so she dragged up every ounce of courage she could and forced a smile on her lips.
‘Perhaps his call was an emergency,’ muttered Millie.
‘But he should have told you!’
‘Maybe.’
‘Wait until I…’
Thankfully, Millie didn’t have to hear how Lottie planned to punish Jake for his ungentlemanly behaviour as Clavie had arrived at the door, his eyes searching the room for his client.
