Looking for Love Read online

  Chapter Two

  The Album lay on Ella’s lap. Carol held one of Pauline’s passport photos and a printed-out black and white photo of Roan from his Facebook profile in each hand while she sat at Ella’s feet. Pauline sat on her left and Andrea on her right.

  She bit her lip, closed her eyes, and sighed. I really want to help my friends. Long to heal people’s lives. But what if I mess up? The mixture of excitement and fear kept her frozen for a moment. I’m relying on something as fickle and make-believe as magic. How crazy it that?

  “Well, here they are. How do you put them in?” Carol handed her the photos.

  Here goes. There’s no going back. I’m doing this. She nodded as a way to set her determination in stone.

  “I don’t know how this works.” She took Pauline’s photo. “I’ll put Pauline on the left side and Roan on the right.”

  She placed Pauline’s photo on the rectangular frame. It was too small to fit into the little yellowed photo corners. “Maybe I should use prestick.”

  “Just try. Place them on. See what it does.” Pauline rested her head on her shoulder.

  She tried to imagine what her friend must be feeling. Petrified? Curious? Excited?

  Holding Pauline’s photo in place with finger and thumb from her left hand, she placed Roan’s pic with her right hand on the opposite frame.

  The whole couch shook. Andrea’s eyes rounded and the others watched on, their faces frozen. Tingles ran up and down her arms. The pages moulded to her hands, the photos sucked on by some force, magnetic or gravitational or something from another realm. A low hum emanated from the book as the shaking stopped and then bubbles of rainbow light, like the effect of sunlight passing through several layers of stained glass, surrounded the tome.

  Instinct urged Ella to remove her hands from the book as if burnt, but she kept them there. A strong sense of peace and joy came into her, and she had a feeling it was purely enchantment, coming from an external source, not from within. She hadn’t felt so happy and complete for a long time, like she suddenly believed in happily-ever-afters and dreams come true.

  “And?” Carol nodded. “Open the rest.”

  “When I can get my hands off? I don’t want to rip the pages.”

  “What do you mean?” Andrea stood up. “This is creepy.” She stood back as if to give herself a wide berth from the supernatural powers.

  “Wait, it’s easing.” The hum silenced and the pull on her hands disappeared. The light diffused, leaving a soft glow. She lifted her hands. “Here goes.”

  She could sense everyone hold their breath, even Andrea on the other end of the room.

  The pages fanned out as if the magic wanted her to see—lightweight and fluffy like choux pastry. She turned the page. Photos of Pauline and Roan filled the space. Well, the first couple of pages. Then blank. Nothing more.

  “Oh, well, I knew it.” Pauline stood up and waved her hands at The Album. “It’s obvious we wouldn’t have lasted long.”

  Her lips quivered and tears sprang to her eyes. Carol stood up and engulfed her in a clinging hug. Soon, Andrea and Ella surrounded the sobbing woman, Andrea stroking her hair and Ella holding onto her hand, wishing to clobber Roan and comfort Pauline at the same time.

  “It’s just so real to me,” she eventually said once the sobs had simmered down to hiccups that wracked her body. “Breaking up with him without knowing whether it would work or not, I’d kind of hoped it would wake him up to the fact how serious I am about us.”

  “So now it’s real to you?” Ella asked. “That he’s not the right one?”

  Pauline came out of the group hug and looked at her friends after blowing her nose into a tissue. “Do you know what the worst of it is?”

  Ella shook her head.

  “I feel like such an idiot.” Her mouth wobbled and she blinked rapidly.

  “You’re not an idiot. How do you know what the future’s going to hold? Seems The Album knows.”

  “But I should have seen the signs. They were all there, but somehow, the sex blinded me. It was good.” She covered her cheeks with her palms as if to hide a blush.

  Andrea giggled.

  “Really good.”

  “Doesn’t mean you won’t find another man…” Ella said. There existed, of course, one perfect individual out there for everyone. Finding him or her was the hard part. “You just have to find him.”

  Pauline shrugged. “Don’t know if it will ever be that good,” she mumbled into her tissue.

  “Hey, sex isn’t everything,” Carol said.

  Everyone turned to her.

  “What? It’s important, yeah, but many couples can survive without decent sex.” She shrugged.

  “What would I know?” Ella said with a tinge of resentment. “Not like I’ve really…” She clamped her mouth shut. She’d never been comfortable with sharing those details with her girly friends. Sure, she’d had physical interludes with guys, but nothing mind-blowing at all. She glanced down at The Album abandoned on the couch. The light had dimmed and Pauline’s photo had fallen onto the floor.

  “Anyone else want a go?” She picked up the book. “Anyone have a guy you’ve been secretly wanting for years?”

  “Well, there’s this guy at work.” Carol went to her handbag and fumbled for something inside.

  “Enough for now,” Andrea commanded. “I don’t know if I can handle that heebie-jeebies stuff again. That album gives me the creeps.”

  Ella laughed. “It was kind of Harry Potter-ish. Fun, though. I’m keen to try it again.”

  “You and Ross?” Pauline gave a loud, falsely cheerful suggestion, possibly trying to forget about her pain and think of someone else.

  Ella held up her hand and groaned. “No way. I. Do. Not. Want. To. Even. Think. About. That.”

  “Aw, come on.” Andrea came up to her. “I’m keen to see this one. You guys have been friends for years. He’s probably in love with you but he’s too much of a geek to realise it.”

  Ella held onto The Album firmly as if Andrea could have the power to place hers and Ross’s photos in. “Even if our relationship did work out, I’d always be wondering if I could have found the man for me—the one who makes my toes curl and my tummy spin. You see, a marriage may work because our friendship is solid, but it would probably be torture. For both of us. So the pictures may not give the full story. They could show a bunch of kids and graduations and new houses and cars, but they don’t really show what’s inside the person. Bother, I never thought of that.”

  “But the relationship lasting is proof,” Carol said. “People nowadays don’t hang on unless they really want to.”

  “That’s a very close-minded view.” Ella hated it when she was so opinionated but she couldn’t help it. When she believed something, she had to voice it. “Some couples hang on for the kids or for financial reasons.”

  If only her parents had done that very thing. Instead, they’d given up on each other forever.

  “So scrap The Album.” Carol’s blazing eyes showed her strong feelings about the topic.

  “No. I want to investigate it more. Think this thing has the potential to change lives. Pauline, what do you think? Was it worth it? I know it’s made you sad seeing the outcome and I’m sorry. But do you think in the end, it’s good you saw the truth?”

  Pauline nodded from her seat on the couch. “Yes. As much as it hurts, I’m really glad I know now. I’d hate to have wasted another breath or tear on the jerk.”

  “To Girl Power!” Andrea lifted up a glass of wine from the bar. “Famous Four rock. We’re going to use this album for good.”

  “Hear, hear,” Ella said. “I’m going to take it to work tomorrow. More wine, everyone? Shall I open up a bag of pretzels?”

  The serious gathering dispersed as her friends rummaged for a snack or went to the bathroom or switched on the TV to find out what was on. Ella kept on thinking of taking it to work the next day and couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling. No, maybe the business
idea was better. Cloak The Album in some anonymity. If she took it around for everyone to see, it may get stolen. The word would spread that she owned a magical antique. If she set up a business, she could interview clients, ask them questions, get photos from them, and pretend to be professional. Hey, why not be the counsellor-type person she’d always wanted to be? Then she could put their photos in the book when they weren’t with her and give them her results. That way, no one would know about The Album except for her, her friends, and of course, Ross, when he asked.

  “I’ve decided,” she started once her friends were back in the room and lifted up her wine glass as if to make a toast. “Here’s to Exact Match, our new business.”

  Glasses clinked and the girls cheered and talked loudly to try to be heard above one another.