‘Don’t, please don’t,’ I said as I ran after the couple. ‘It’s not him, I just know it.’

*

As we rose above the clouds, I sat back in my seat and thought back over the last months. So much had happened. My shop gone, my house sold, my future still uncertain, and now I was on my way to meet a mystery man on the shores of Lake Como. Would it be a surprise? Or a disappointment? I needed to mentally prepare myself for whatever the outcome. I knew now that it wasn’t Michael, so I could strike him off the list. He was on some other plane heading to a different location. I’d been so convinced it would be him, especially so when I saw him at the airport, but I was glad that it wasn’t. A life with him would have been fraught with uncertainty and I would always have had to dance to his tune. That was how it was with Michael. He was a restless soul, always moving on. I wanted someone I could trust, someone who really wanted to be with me. Marcia had said Sam had called. I hadn’t seen him for thirty years, but we had made that pact about getting together if we were still both single when we were fifty. Had he remembered? It would be so like him to make a grand romantic gesture and choose such a poetic location. I took a few deep breaths and asked myself how I would feel if it was him who had somehow managed to organise such a trip. Disappointed, that’s how I’d feel. It would be an awful anti-climax. He wasn’t someone who featured in my life any more and I couldn’t imagine him ever doing so. Maybe one day I’d agree to meet up, grab a quick coffee for old times’ sake but nothing more.

Or would it be Jon? Who knew what really went on in his head? All I knew was that he was full of surprises. Although there was a physical attraction, I wanted more than to be charmed and enjoy good sex. Four days away with him could be fun but, if I listened to my heart, I hoped it wouldn’t be him either. If it was, we could have that holiday he’d talked about, enjoy being in Italy as companions, but I couldn’t really imagine a future with a man who I didn’t feel I could ever completely trust.