Cecelia Ahern - P.S. I Love You

“Yes he was,” Barbara smiled encouragingly. “He was a lovely man,” she said, reaching out to Holly's hand on the counter.

Melissa stared at the two of them, not knowing what was going on. Barbara's heart went out to the lady across the counter, she was so young and it must be so hard for her right now. But Barbara was delighted to be the bearer of good news. “Melissa, can you get Holly some tissues, please, while I explain to her exactly why her husband was here?” She beamed across the counter at Holly.

She let go of Holly's hand to tap away at the computer and Melissa returned with a box of tissues. “OK, Holly,” she said softly. “Gerry has arranged a holiday for you and a Sharon McCarthy and a Denise Hennessey to go to Lanzarote for one week, arriving on the twenty-eighth of July to return home on the third of August.”

Holly's hands flew to her face in shock and tears poured from her eyes.

“He was adamant that he find the perfect place for you,” Barbara continued, delighted at her new role. She felt like one of those female television hosts who spring surprises on their guests.

“That's the place you're going to,” she said, tapping the crumpled page in front of her. “You'll have a fab time, believe me, my friend was there two years ago like I said already, and she just loved it. There are loads of restaurants and bars around and . . .” She trailed off, realizing Holly probably didn't give a damn about whether she had a good time or not.

“When did he come in?” Holly asked, still in shock.

Barbara, glad to help in her new role, happily tapped away on the computer. “The booking was made on the twenty-eighth of November.”

“November?” Holly gasped. “He shouldn't even have been out of bed then! Was he on his own?”

“Yes, but there was a taxi waiting outside for him the whole time.”

“What time of day was this?” Holly asked quickly.

“I'm sorry but I really can't remember. It was quite a long time ago–”

“Yes, of course, I'm sorry,” Holly interrupted.

Barbara completely understood. If that was her husband, well, if she ever met someone worth becoming her husband, she would also want to know every single detail. Barbara told her as much as she could remember until Holly could think of no more questions to ask.

“Oh, thank you, Barbara, thank you so much.” Holly reached over the counter and gave her a big hug.

“No problem at all.” She hugged her back, feeling satisfied with her good deed of the day.

“Come back and let us know how you get on,” she smiled. “Here's your details.” She handed her a thick envelope and watched her walk out of the room. She sighed, thinking the crappy job might not be so crappy after all.

“What on earth was that all about?” Melissa was dying to find out. Barbara began to explain the story.

“OK, girls, I'm taking my break now. Barbara, no smoking in the staff room.” Their boss closed and locked his door and then turned around to face them. “Christ Almighty, what are you two crying about now?”

Twenty-four

HOLLY EVENTUALLY ARRIVED AT HER house and waved to Sharon and Denise, who were sitting on her garden wall bathing in the sun. They jumped up as soon as they saw her and rushed over to greet her.

“God, you both got here quick,” she said, trying to inject energy into her voice. She felt completely and utterly drained, and she really wasn't in the mood to have to explain everything to the girls right now. But she would have to.

“Sharon left work as soon as you called and she collected me from town,” Denise explained, studying Holly's face and trying to assess how bad the situation was.

“Oh, you didn't have to do that,” Holly said lifelessly as she put the key in the door.

“Hey, have you been working in your garden?” Sharon asked, looking around and trying to lighten the atmosphere.

“No, my neighbor's been doing it, I think.” Holly pulled the key from the door and searched through the bunch for the correct one.

“You think?” Denise tried to keep the conversation going while Holly battled with yet another key in the lock.

“Well, it's either my neighbor or a little leprechaun lives down the end of my garden,” she snapped, getting frustrated with the keys. Denise and Sharon looked at each other and tried to figure out what to do. They motioned to each other to stay quiet, as Holly was obviously stressed and finding it difficult to remember which key went in the door.

“Oh, fuck it!” Holly yelled and threw her keys on the ground. Denise jumped back, just managing to keep the heavy bunch from slamming into her ankles.

Sharon picked them up. “Hey, hun, don't worry about it,” she said lightheartedly. “This happens to me all the time, I swear the bloody things jump around on the key ring deliberately just to piss us off.”

Holly smiled wearily, thankful that somebody else could take control for a while. Sharon slowly worked her way through the keys, talking calmly to her in a singsong voice as though speaking to a child. The door finally opened and Holly rushed in to turn the alarm off. Thankfully she remembered the number, the year Gerry and she had met, and the year they got married.

“OK, why don't you two make yourselves comfortable in the living room and I'll follow you in a minute.” Sharon and Denise did as they were told while Holly headed into the toilet to splash cold water on her face. She needed to snap out of this daze, take control of her body and be as excited about this holiday as Gerry had intended. When she felt a little more alive she joined the girls in the living room.

She pulled the footrest over to the couch and sat opposite the girls.

“OK, I'm not going to drag this one out. I opened the envelope for July today and this is what it said.” She rooted in her bag for the small card that had been attached to the brochure and handed it to the girls. It read:

Have a good Holly day!

PS, I love you . . .

“Is that it?” Denise wrinkled up her nose, unimpressed. Sharon nudged her in the ribs. “Ow!”

“Well, Holly, I think it's a lovely note,” Sharon lied. “It's so thoughtful and it's . . . a lovely play on words.”

Holly had to giggle. She knew Sharon was lying because she always flared her nostrils when she wasn't telling the truth. “No, you fool!” she said, hitting Sharon over the head with a cushion.

Sharon began to laugh. “Oh good, because I was beginning to worry there for a second.”

“Sharon, you are always so supportive you make me sick sometimes!” Holly exclaimed. “Now this is what else was inside.” She handed them the crumpled page that was torn from the brochure.

She watched with amusement as the girls tried to figure out Gerry's writing and Denise finally held her hand up to her mouth. “Oh my God!” she gasped, sitting forward on her seat.

“What what what?” Sharon demanded and leaned forward with excitement. “Did Gerry buy you a holiday?”

“No.” Holly shook her head seriously.

“Oh.” Sharon and Denise both sat back in their seats with disappointment.

She allowed an uncomfortable silence to gather between them before she spoke again.

“Girls,” she said with a smile beginning to spread across her face, “he bought us a holiday!”

The girls opened a bottle of wine.

“Oh, this is incredible,” Denise said after the news had sunk in. “Gerry's such a sweetie.”

Holly nodded, feeling proud of her husband, who had once again managed to surprise them all.

“So you went down to this Barbara person?” Sharon asked.

“Yes, and she was the sweetest girl,” Holly smiled. “She sat with me for ages, telling me about the conversation they had that day.”