Cecelia Ahern - How to Fall in Love

As soon as Maria spotted the lily pad in my arms, which wasn’t difficult to see, her face broke into a beam. Relief flooded through me and I was afraid to turn around to see Adam’s reaction in case I alerted Maria to his whereabouts. She clasped her hands to her mouth and started to laugh, trying not to attract too much attention to herself, though I guessed word would be around the office in no time that Maria Harty had received a delivery of a lily pad.

‘Oh my God!’ She wiped her wet eyes. They were tears of joy but also from the sudden memory of a person from another time. She reached out to take the pad. ‘This is probably the oddest delivery you’ve ever made.’ She smiled at me. ‘My goodness, I can’t believe he did this. I thought he’d forgotten. It was a long, long time ago.’ She held the lily pad in her arms. Suddenly embarrassed, she said, ‘I’m sorry, you don’t need people telling you their stories. I’m sure you’ve somewhere else to deliver to. Where do I sign?’

‘Maria, I’m Christine, we spoke on the phone.’

‘Christine …’ Her forehead crinkled then realisation set in. ‘Oh. Christine. Is that your name? You’ve been answering Adam’s phone?’

‘That’s me.’

‘Oh.’ Maria looked me up and down, sized me up in seconds. ‘I didn’t think that you were young. I mean, you sound much older on the phone.’

‘Oh.’ I felt all warm inside, loving the reaction, but knowing I shouldn’t.

There was an awkward silence.

‘He really got this for me?’

‘He sure did. Dived into subzero temperatures. Got soaking wet. Blue lips and all,’ I said, still feeling my head cold building.

Maria shook her head. ‘He’s crazy.’

‘About you.’

‘Is that what he’s telling me? He still loves me?’

I nodded. ‘He really does.’ And for some reason my throat tightened. Unfortunate timing perhaps. I cleared my throat. ‘I thought he should include flowers, but he insisted on those. I don’t know if they mean anything to you.’

Maria looked down to the lily pad and it was only then that she noticed the tiny lips wrapped in red foil. Adam had added them on at the last minute before I entered the building and suddenly everything was making sense to me. I now recognised them as the tiny chocolates that were scattered on the bed in the Gresham Hotel.

‘Oh my,’ Maria whispered, noticing them for the first time. She attempted to pick them up but couldn’t hold the enormous lily pad with one hand.

I took it back from her so she could examine the tiny lips.

‘I can’t believe there were still some left. You know what they are?’

I shook my head.

‘He made them for me the year we first met. Red lips are, well, kind of my trademark.’ She started to open the foil and when she saw chocolate beneath she laughed. ‘They’re real!’

‘Adam knows how to make chocolate?’ I laughed, feeling doubtful. If Maria wanted to believe that then I shouldn’t be placing doubt in her mind, but I couldn’t help but question it.

‘Well, not personally, obviously, but the company.’ She carried on studying them. ‘They were a prototype, they weren’t supposed to ever see the light of day. I thought we’d eaten them all.’

‘The company …’ I said, trying to figure it all out.

‘He designed it for me, then he got the people at Basil’s to make them. He put pralines, hazelnuts and almonds in it because he said I’m nutty.’ She laughed, but her laugh caught in her throat and her eyes filled. ‘Shit, sorry.’ She turned her back to reception and fanned her eyes to make them stop welling.

I was slightly in shock by this time but tried to play it cool. I could have asked Maria about Adam, learned more about him, but for some reason I didn’t want Maria to find out that I didn’t know; my insecurity since seeing her stopping me from doing my job properly.

‘There’s no need to be sorry. It’s not easy remembering the good times. But he did want to remind you.’

She nodded. ‘Tell him I remember.’

‘He’s still there, you know,’ I said earnestly. ‘He’s as funny and spontaneous as you remember. Maybe not exactly like when you first met. Maybe that’s impossible for anybody to be. But he makes me laugh all the time.’

Maria studied me closely. ‘Does he?’

I felt my cheeks get hot. It was the woollen hat, must have been, going from extreme cold to stuffy office building heat and the head cold that I knew I was getting after being in the freezing cold pond. I wasn’t going to take it off though, not with her and her poker-straight hair. Who knew what lurked beneath my hat?

‘You really are looking after him, aren’t you?’

‘Well, yes.’ I couldn’t hold her gaze any more and so handed the lily pad over. ‘I should let you get back to work now.’

‘I hope he knows how lucky he is to have you.’ Maria pushed it a little further.

I couldn’t help my eyes filling a little. ‘I’m only doing my job.’ I flashed her a bright and breezy smile and tried hard for my response not to sound like a cheesy super-hero retort.

‘And what job is that?’

‘A friend,’ I said, taking a few steps away. ‘I’m a friend, that’s all.’

I turned and left then, feeling my face blazing. I was thankful for the icy breeze that hit my cheeks as soon as I stepped outside. I kept walking, feeling Maria’s eyes on me. I was glad to turn the corner as soon as I could, to escape the transparent surfaces and have solid brick between us. I stopped walking immediately and put my back to the wall, my eyes closed as I relived the conversation in a state of panic. What had come over me? Why had I reacted like that? Maria acted as if she knew something about my feelings that I didn’t, she made me feel guilty and pathetic for momentarily feeling something I didn’t feel, that I couldn’t possibly feel. My aim here was to get them together, not to start having feelings for Adam. Impossible. Ridiculous.

‘Hi,’ I heard an excited voice say close to my ear and I jumped, startled.

‘Jesus, Adam.’

‘What’s wrong? Are you crying?’

‘No, I’m not crying,’ I snapped. ‘I think I’m getting a cold.’ I rubbed my eyes.

‘Well, I’m not surprised, swimming in ponds in the middle of the night. So, what did she say?’ He was practically nose to nose with me he was so excited, so eager to hear the words.

‘You saw her reaction.’

‘Yes!’ He fist-pumped the air. ‘It was perfect. Just perfect. And was she crying? She looked like she was crying. You know, Maria never cries, that’s really a big deal. You were talking for ages – what did she say?’ He was hopping around, bouncing on his feet, searching my face for every little sign so he’d know exactly how it went.

I coldly cut out my emotions and told him the story, minus my own internal tormented thoughts. ‘She asked if you were trying to tell her you still loved her. She said someone who jumps into subzero water to get a lily pad must really love someone. And I said that, yes, you did.’

‘But I didn’t do that.’ Adam fixed me with those blue eyes which usually made my heart surge but right then made it ache. ‘You did it for me.’

We held each other’s gaze, then I looked away. ‘That’s not the point. The point is, she gets the point.’ I started moving, I had to, I needed to get away.

‘Christine? Where are you going?’

‘Er … anywhere. I’m cold, I need to keep moving.’

‘Okay, good idea. Did she like the chocolates?’

‘She loved the chocolates, they’re what made her cry. Hey, you made her chocolates ? You’re Adam Basil, as in “With Basil, You Dazzle”?’

He rolled his eyes but was clearly ecstatic about the outcome. ‘What did she say?’