Cecelia Ahern - How to Fall in Love

‘So what does she get?’

‘Last year it was a grapefruit. The year before that a frog.’

‘Hold on, we’ll get back to the grapefruit. A frog?!’

‘You know, so she could kiss it and get her Prince Charming.’

‘Uck. That’s pathetic.’

‘Are you trying to build my confidence up or destroy me?’

‘Sorry. I’m sure she loved the frog.’

‘She did. We both loved Hulk. Until he escaped out the balcony window.’ Then he smiled as if he’d thought of something funny.

‘What is it?’

‘Nah it’s stupid … personal.’

The secret smile intrigued me; it was a look that revealed a side of him I hadn’t seen before; a softer side, the romantic Adam.

‘Come on, you have to tell me. No secrets, remember?’

‘It’s nothing. No big deal. We had a joke about me getting her a type of flower, that’s all.’

‘What kind of flower?’

‘A water lily. She liked the painting, the Monet one?’ He left it at that.

‘There has to be more to the story than that.’

‘Well, I decided to get her one. I wasn’t allowed to get her flowers for Valentine’s Day, but I thought this one would be an exception. I was in the park, saw them and thought of her. And so I went into the lake to get one.’

‘In your clothes?’

‘Yeah,’ he laughed. ‘It was deeper than I thought. It went up to my waist, but I had to keep going. The park officials practically chased me out.’

‘I don’t think you’re supposed to steal water lilies.’

‘Well, that’s the thing – I didn’t. I made a mistake. I got her the lily pad.’ He started laughing. ‘I was wondering why she thought they were so special.’

I started laughing. ‘You eejit. What kind of person thinks a water lily is a lily pad?’

‘Easy mistake to make, if you ask me. She liked it though. She used it in the apartment. She put a photo of us on it, with candles.’

‘That was sweet.’ I smiled. ‘So you two are romantic then?’

‘If you call it romantic.’ He shrugged it off. ‘We had fun. Have fun,’ he corrected himself.

Oddly, I felt sad. Barry and I had no stories like that. I tried hard to think of one; not that I’d share it, but I wanted it for me, to remind myself of the fun. I couldn’t think of anything. That kind of gesture never occurred to Barry nor had it to me, but I was getting a sense of Adam and Maria’s relationship. It was spontaneous, fun, unique, them.

We got lost along the walkways, me doing my best to point things out, to make Adam feel and see all the life around us. I didn’t know the names of anything and so I’d stop and read the signs, asking Adam to read the Latin names, which made us laugh when he got them horribly wrong.

‘They sound like dinosaurs,’ I said.

‘They sound like diseases,’ he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. ‘Excuse me, Doctor, I have a touch of the prunus avium.’

‘What’s that?’ I asked.

He checked the sign. ‘The cherry tree, apparently. Imagine having a name like that.’

‘Actually, what is your family name?’

His eyes lost a bit of the new regained light and I knew I’d touched a nerve. ‘Basil,’ he said.

‘Ah. Like the chocolate.’ I tried to keep his mood up.

‘And the herb.’

‘Yes, but the chocolate : “With Basil, You Dazzle”,’ I said cheesily, quoting the company motto, which never quite worked if you pronounced it as the Americans did . So the joke motto was With Bayzil, You Dayz-zle . It was a much-loved Irish confectionery brand that had been around almost two hundred years, the very mention of Basil’s instantly bringing smiles to every child and adult in the country. But not to Adam. Seeing the expression on his face, I added, ‘Sorry, you’ve probably been hearing that all of your life.’

‘I have. Which is the way out of here?’ he asked, suddenly fed up with my company.

My phone rang.

‘Amelia,’ I read.

‘Ah yes, the proposal that never happened,’ he said, voice flat. He wandered off to give me privacy.

‘Amelia,’ I responded, my voice full of anticipation. I heard a sob down the phone. ‘Amelia what’s wrong?’

‘You were right,’ she cried.

‘What?! How was I right?’ My voice rang out.

Adam stopped searching for the way out and stared at me. He knew from my face what had happened and I knew exactly what was going through his mind: so much for positive thinking.

I ran all the way down Clontarf’s promenade with the wind slapping my cheeks. I had to concentrate on my footing, darting and leaping and dodging patches of ice as if I were running an obstacle course all the way back to the bookshop. Somewhere behind me, Adam was slowly making his way back with my apartment key in his hand. I tried not to worry about him being by the sea by himself; I had given him strict instructions, rapidly run through the crisis plan one more time, and then started running. I needed to get to my friend.

Amelia was sitting in an armchair in the corner of the bookshop, her eyes red raw. On the other side of the shop a woman dressed in a Dracula outfit with a white face and blood dripping from her mouth was sitting in the story-hour chair and reading to a group of terrified three- to five-year-olds.

‘They walked down the dark stairs into the basement. Flames of fire on the walls lit their way. Then before them, there they were – the coffins,’ she said spookily.

One of the children let out a sob and ran to her mother. The mother gathered her belongings, threw the Dracula woman an angry glare and left the bookshop.

‘Amelia, are you sure that story is appropriate?’

Amelia, who looked too comatose and blurry with tears to see past the end of her nose, seemed confused by the question. ‘Elaine? Yeah, she’s fine, I just hired her. Come on, let’s talk.’

We left the bookshop and went upstairs to the apartment Amelia shared with her mother, Magda.

‘I don’t want my mother to know,’ she said quietly, closing the kitchen door. ‘She was convinced he was going to propose. I don’t know how to tell her.’ She started crying again.

‘What happened?’

‘He said he’s got a job in Berlin and he really wants to move there because it’s a great opportunity for him. He asked me to go with him, but he knows I can’t go. I can’t leave Mum, whatever about getting our own place. I definitely can’t leave the country. What about the shop?’

I didn’t think it was an appropriate time to remind her that the shop had been haemorrhaging money for the past ten years, unable to compete with the big book chains selling coffee, let alone online stores and e-readers. It was all I could do to stop Amelia spitting at people whenever she saw them reading from a tablet. She had done her best, introducing children’s reading hours, author events and evening book clubs, but it was a losing battle. All for the sake of keeping her father’s memory alive. The bookshop had been his pride and joy, not hers. It was him she loved, not the business. I had tried to point this out on various occasions, but Amelia wouldn’t listen.

‘Is moving your mother to Berlin an option?’

Amelia shook her head. ‘Mum hates travelling. You know what she’s like, she won’t leave the country. There’s no way she could live there!’ She looked at me, horrified that I’d even suggested it. I could understand Fred’s frustration. Amelia would never entertain the thought for a second.

‘Come on. It doesn’t mean it’s over. Long-distance relationships work. You did it when he was in Berlin for six months, remember? It was hard, but it’s do-able.’

‘You see, that’s the thing …’ She wiped her eyes. ‘He met someone when he was there. I didn’t tell you at the time, but we worked it out. I believed him when he said that it was over with her, but … Christine, he knows I’d never leave here. He knows that I’d never do that. The restaurant, the champagne, it was all a ridiculous charade to force me to be the one to end the relationship. He knew I’d say no, but at least this way he’s not the bad guy. If he hasn’t got back in touch with her already, he’s planning to, I know he is.’