First Comes Love
First
Comes
Love
Love Connection - I Have Never - A Christmas Date
By Camilla Isley
Box Set Edition
A Second Chance Romance - An Office Romance - A Fake relationship Holiday Romance
Contents
Title Page
Love Connection
Zero
One
Two Weddings
Two
One Choice
Three
Speak Now
Four
Not Holding Peace
Five
Wedding Inquisition
Six
Honeymoon
Seven
Fumé Blanc
Eight
Ashes
Nine
Dinner Talk
Ten
Team Building
Eleven
Hack Me
One Month Later
Twelve
Terminate
Thirteen
Lucky
Fourteen
After You
Fifteen
Our First Date
Six Months Later
Sixteen
Something Special
Seventeen
Floating Memories
Eighteen
Lattes and Rings
Nineteen
A Shared Moment
Twenty
Significant Ex
Twenty-one
Is It Too Late to Say Sorry?
Twenty-two
Doubts
Twenty-three
Save the Date
Twenty-four
September the First
Six Months Later
Twenty-five
Home
Twenty-six
Stupid, Stupid Ruffles
Twenty-seven
Remember That Time?
Twenty-eight
Champagne Tea and Tarot Cards
Twenty-nine
Bridesmaid Wars
Thirty
Cold Feet
Thirty-one
Vows
Thirty-two
At the Altar
Thirty-three
Two Become One
I Have Never
One
Never Make a Scene
Two
Never Get Drunk
Three
Always Move Up the Ladder, Never Down
Four
Never Believe Gossip
Five
Never Make Impulse Decisions
Six
Never Break the Law/Get Arrested
Seven
Always Be Responsible
Eight
Always Dress Properly
Nine
Never Confide in Strangers
Ten
Never Make Exceptions
Eleven
Never Skinny Dip
Twelve
Never Make the First Move
Thirteen
Never Lie
Fourteen
Never Play Games
Fifteen
Never Dwell on the Past
Sixteen
Never Pick a Fight
Seventeen
Never Have I Ever
Eighteen
Never Sleep With Someone On The First Date
Nineteen
Never Stress Eat
Twenty
Never Mix Business and Pleasure
Twenty-one
Never Wash Dirty Laundry in Public
Twenty-two
Don’t Move In Without a Ring
A Christmas Date
One
Christmas Is Coming
Two
Blue Christmas
Three
The Perfect Man for Christmas
Four
Here Comes Santa Claus
Five
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
Six
The Twelve Days of Christmas
Seven
Baby, It’s Cold Outside
Eight
Sleigh Ride
Nine
A Purrfect Christmas
Ten
Bossy Much
Eleven
There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays
Twelve
Better Eat Your Vegetables
Thirteen
Pizza Gate
Fourteen
Frosty the Snowman
Fifteen
The Night Before Christmas
Sixteen
Santa Baby
Seventeen
Rocking Around the Christmas Tree
Eighteen
All I Want For Christmas Is You
Nineteen
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Twenty
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
Twenty-one
Silent Nights
Twenty-two
New Year’s Eve
Note from the Author
Sneak Peek – To the Stars and Back
One
Christian
Two
Christian
Three
Lana
Four
Lana
Also by Camilla Isley
About the Author
Acknowledgments
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright Pink Bloom Press 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this eBook may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express permission in writing of the author.
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Love Connection
A Second Chance Romantic Comedy
First Comes Love
Book 1
by Camilla Isley
Zero
♥♦♥♦♥♦
Saturday, June 10—New York, JFK Airport
“You’ve been staring at those two plane tickets for almost an hour now. My role as bartender compels me to ask: what’s the big dilemma?”
I stare at the guy behind the bar for the first time since I sat on this stool an hour ago. He has a broad smile and a friendly face.
“If you stop pretending to be drying glasses just to peek at my tickets and pour me another drink,” I say, “I’ll tell you.”
“Sambuca, with ice?”
I nod and shift my attention back to my tickets. Maybe if I stare at them hard enough, the letters will magically move and spell out a solution for me. In the background, I can hear ice tinkle as it hits the bottom of a glass, then crack when the bartender pours the Sambuca. These sounds mingle with the general noises of the airport: flight announcements, passengers chatting, and luggage rolling on the floor.
“Here you go.” The bartender sets my drink on the glassy surface of the bar in front of me.
“You added coffee beans,” I observe. “Nice touch.”
“Pleased to please. But isn’t 7 a.m. a little too early for double heavy spirits?”
“I’m on U.K. time, and believe me, I need the double heavy spirits.”
“Which brings us back to the tickets. I’ve earned an explanation.”
I sip my Sambuca and take a closer look at the guy’s face. Young—mid-twenties, I’d say. Short sandy hair, intelligent eyes, and always the big smile. He’s back at his occupation of drying glasses that don’t need drying. Probably one of those people incapable of standing still with nothing to do.
I swirl the ice in my glass. “Is this on the house?”
“On the house, along with the free advice.”
“All right,” I say. “One ticket’s for San Francisco, the other one for Chicago. There’re two weddings today, and I need to choose which one to go to.”
“Two close friends?”
A loud public announcement blasts through the airport’s speaker system, and I wait for it to be over before answering...
One
Two Weddings
♥♥♥
I listen to the public announcement while mulling over how to better explain my dilemma.
“All passengers. Flight AA309, with destination Miami has been canceled due to a fire at Miami International Airport. All subsequent flights with destination Miami MIA will also be canceled today. Please go to your airlines’ help desk to receive more information on how to reach your final destination. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.”
On the screen behind the bartender, a report about the chaos at Miami International Airport is taking over the news. The screen reads that the fire has been contained with no casualties, but the airport will sustain heavy delays throughout the day.
“Looks like they’re having troubles in Miami,” I say, jerking my chin toward the screen.
“Trying to change the subject, are we? You’re not going to make me beg for your story, are you?”
“No, you’re right.”
“So two tickets, two weddings. Are you trying to decide which friend to let down?”
I sigh. “In a way.”
“But do both your friends expect you to show up? I mean, don’t you usually need to RSVP months in advance for this kind of thing?”
“Mmm, this wedding…” I push the Chicago ticket forward. “I’m supposed to be the maid of honor. This wedding…” I slide the San Francisco ticket next to its twin on the countertop. “I’m not invited.”
The bartender snorts. “Seems pretty straightforward to me. Why would you want to bail on a friend to go to a wedding you’re not invited to?”
I look him in the eyes. “To stop it from happening.”
“Woo-oh. And the plot thickens. My morning just got a lot more interesting than I was expecting. Is it about a guy? Is he the one who got away?”
“Yep.” I take another swig of Sambuca; it burns my throat as I swallow. “You don’t make burgers here, by any chance? I’m starving.”
“Burgers at seven in the morning?”
“I told you, I’m on U.K. time. And burgers are my favorite.”
“Sorry, but the kitchen’s closed. I can give you some tortilla chips.” He opens a new bag and pours them into a wooden bowl. “So, what’s his name?”
“Jake.”
“Jake.” The bartender pauses. “The name has appeal.”
“Not just the name.” I sigh.
“You want to tell me what happened?”
“We first dated in high school. After graduation, he wanted to go to Stanford, and I wanted to go to Harvard.”
The bartender whistles. “The war of the Ivy Leagues. What do you guys do?”
“I’m a lawyer. He’s a surgeon.”
“So what happened? You fought over schools, went your separate ways, and drifted apart during college?” he asks, his tone saying, “Same old, same old.”
“No. I went to Stanford instead, to be with him. He assured me we’d go to Harvard for grad school.”
“Oh. I sense that promise didn’t come true. So you stayed together through college as well. And…?”
“Stanford offered him a scholarship for Med School. Everything paid for. No student loans, no living expenses. It was an offer no one could’ve refused.”
“And that’s when you broke up?”
“No, not yet. I hadn’t applied to Stanford Grad School, so for me, it was either lose one year or move to Boston. Harvard was my dream, Stanford his. It wouldn’t have been fair for either of us to have to give up our dream school.”
“So you left?”
“Yeah. We spent the summer in California and I moved to Boston at the beginning of the fall term. We thought three years apart would be manageable. That’s when we found out why everyone says long distance relationships don’t work. School was demanding for both of us and catching a six-hour flight over the weekend became more and more difficult. We settled on leading different lives. We were used to sharing everything. Every day, every moment. Suddenly, we both had this huge chunk of life with different things in it. Things the other couldn’t understand or get excited about. It was hard. We started arguing, and…”
“And?”
“Depends who you ask. If you asked Jake, he’d probably tell you it was a miscommunication issue. He’d say I overreacted to him telling me about a job offer he’d received in San Francisco. If you asked me, I’d give you a slightly different version…”
“Was your career really that important?” the bartender asks.
“It wasn’t that I valued my career over my relationship with Jake. It was the sensation of always coming in second after his career. I’d given up my college dream for him. I’d waited all of graduate school… it was his turn to put me first. To put us first.”
“If he’s still in San Francisco, what’s made you change your mind now about being together?”
“I’m not sure I have changed my mind.”
“So why buy a ticket to San Francisco if you’re not even sure you want to try to work things out with him?”
“It was a rash, stupid decision. When I found out Jake was getting married, I panicked. My first thought was that I couldn’t let him do it.”
“So what’s changed?”
“I cooled off and thought about it.”
“And?”
“And I realized flying to San Francisco and confronting him was crazy. I mean, what are the odds, really, of us getting back together? I live in London, and he lives in San Francisco. I haven’t seen him in forever. I know nothing about his life. We ruined everything once already. How can we possibly make it work this time?”
“And yet here you are, staring at a ticket to San Francisco and contemplating crashing his wedding.”
“I can’t stop asking myself the ‘what if?’ question. I’m tired of living in a world of what ifs.”
“Meaning?”
“I might’ve been a tad unreasonable after our break up,” I admit.
“As in?”
“As in I moved to the other side of the world and ignored all his calls, emails, and messages. I wanted a fresh start, so I cut him out completely.”
The bartender grabs the now-empty wooden bowl and refills it with tortilla chips. “Why?” he asks.
“I was sure he could talk me into moving back to San Francisco if I gave him the chance.”
“And you didn’t want to quit your job for him?”
“I couldn’t. I owed it to myself to make the best choice for my career. But the fact remains that moving to the other side of the world didn’t help much in forgetting him. I’m still in love with him. He’s the only one I ever loved.”
“How long ago was this?”
“Three years.”
“And you haven’t seen him or spoken to him since then?”
“I’m a mess, I know.”
“How did you find out he was getting married?”
“Amelia told me—my best friend, the other one getting married today. Amelia, Jake and I are all from a small town near Chicago. She moved to London after getting her bachelor degree and she lives there with her soon-to-be-husband William. But she wanted to get married at home. Anyway, Amelia and Jake had some guests in common, they told Amelia about Jake’s wedding as they’d already RSVP’d ‘Yes’ to him.”
“Do you know the girl he’s marrying?”
“No.” I shake my head decisively. “I don’t know anything about her, and I’ve forced myself not to search Google for intel.”
“Aren’t you curious?”
“Yes. But I can’t give her a face. I’d never be able to crash her wedding if I did. She has to stay a ghost.”
“When are the weddings?”
“This afternoon.”
“Whoa. What’s so special about June 10 that everyone wants to get married today? And you’re hard-core. Shouldn’t you have tried to talk to the guy a little sooner? Are you literally going to barge into the church and yell ‘STOP!’ in the middle of the ceremony?”
“I’d decided not to go at all.”
“But you brought the ticket all the way from London, just in case.”
“I did. Having the ticket, even if I knew I wasn’t going to use it, made me feel calmer.”
“And now you’ve changed your mind?”
“I don’t know. I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“When does the plane leave?”
“Which one?”
“Tell me both times.”
“San Francisco’s eight thirty. Chicago’s ten forty-five.”
“So you have less than…” He pauses to look at his watch. “Twenty minutes before they start boarding for San Francisco.”
“That’s correct.”
“What’s Amelia’s take on the situation?”
“She got mad at me at first for even thinking about ditching her wedding. But then again, she’s always been a huge fan of Gemma and Jake.”
“Gemma?”
“That’s me. We all grew up on the same street, and we’ve been friends forever. Anyway, she’s marshaled a back-up maid of honor and she told me to follow my heart.”
“And what does your heart say?”
“My heart’s telling me it loves Jake. But this is too big. As you said, I can’t run into the church and beg him to cancel the wedding.”
“What time’s the wedding?”
“Six p.m.”
“What time does your plane land?”
I look at the ticket. “Noon.”
“So you’d have plenty of time to get there before the ceremony starts.”
“Mmm, I’m not so sure. The wedding’s in some fancy winery in Napa.”
“That’s barely an hour’s drive. You’ll still have all the time you need to get there and talk to him before he goes to the altar.”
“But what am I going to say?”
“Say that you love him.”
“And?”
“Nothing else. If he’s in love with you, it’ll be enough.”
“Say he doesn’t laugh in my face and tell me to leave. Say he admits he still loves me. It doesn’t change anything. I’m still in London, and he’s still in San Francisco.”
“You’ll figure something.”
“I’m not so sure.”
“You said it yourself: you don’t want to live in a world of what ifs, right? So it seems pretty obvious you have to try.”
“But I’m so scared.”
“Do you have anything to lose?”
“No, not really.”
“Then why not go?”
“What if he doesn’t love me anymore?”
“Then he doesn’t, and it will suck, but at least you’ll have your answer. But if you don’t go, and you don’t ask, you’ll never know, and you’ll regret it for the rest of your life. If you love him, go.”
My face becomes suddenly hot and an electric prickle spreads from my heart to my fingertips. “Right. What’s the worst that could happen?”
“They could arrest you for crashing a private party. Or the bride could sue you for emotional damages. Or…”
“I’m a lawyer; I can take care of myself in the law department. Are you on my side or what?”
“Of course I am. So, what’s the next step?”
“A car. I’m going to need a car in San Francisco. I need to rent a car.” My pulse is racing. I pick up my phone and tap away frantically. “Uhhuuuhhhu. It’s done. I did it. I’ve booked a car. I’m really doing this. Oh gosh. I’m doing it! Is it too lame if I want to high five you?”
“No, not at all.” He raises his palm. “Shoot away.”
I slam my hand into his. “I have to tell Amelia so she can get her maid-of-honor-plan-B rolling.”
“All passengers. Flight UA 730, with destination San Francisco, is beginning boarding at gate B 25. We’re going to start boarding families with small kids and passengers with special needs. Then, we’re going to board first and business class passengers. And finally, all other passengers…”
“That’s your flight they just announced.”
“It’s my flight. I’m going.” I fumble with my bag and carry-on luggage and almost fall from the stool. “How much do I owe you?”
“It’s on the house.”
“Everything?”
“Yeah. You go tell your man you love him. Go catch your love connection.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much.” I hurry toward the gate.
“Hey,” the bartender calls after me. “Let me know how it goes! I’m on Facebook.”
“What’s your name?” I shout back without stopping.
“I’m Mark Cooper. And you?”
“Gemma Dawson.”
Two
One Choice
♦♦♦
I listen to the public announcement while mulling over how to better explain my dilemma.
“All passengers. Flight AA309, with destination Miami will begin boarding shortly. Please proceed to gate B 36.”
On the screen behind the bartender, a report about a near fire at Miami International Airport is taking over the news.
“Looks like they had a close call in Miami,” I say, jerking my chin toward the screen.
“Trying to change the subject, are we? You’re not going to make me beg for your story, are you?”
“No, you’re right.”
“So two tickets, two weddings. Are you trying to decide which friend to let down?”
I’m about to lunch into my explanation when a female flight attendant with long strawberry hair interrupts me.
“Please don’t talk to me about weddings. Not today.” She plonks herself on the stool next to mine and says, “Mark, can I have a drink? Make it strong, please.”
She’s remarkably beautiful. Tall, with amazing lips and flawless skin. But her blue eyes are filled with so much sadness.
“What’s up with you ladies and drinking so early in the morning?” the bartender asks.
“I don’t give a damn about the time,” the flight attendant says. “I’ve changed so many time zones in the past week, I’m not even sure if it’s day or night for me.”
“Did I miss something?” Mark asks in mock shock. “Is I-can-drink-at-7-a.m.-because-I-have-jet-lag the new black?”
“I just need something to calm my nerves and survive the day,” the flight attendant pleads. “Make it a shot, please. Quick and painless.”
“What happened to you, love?” Mark asks her. “You’ve got a dark aura today.”
They seem to know each other well.
“The whole of Miami Airport almost went into shutdown today. An idiot started a fire, but the firemen caught it before it spread and everything was solved quickly. Otherwise, I would’ve been stuck in that swamp for the entire weekend.”
“Oh, come on, darling. Miami’s hardly a swamp. What’s really up with you?”
“Nothing. Is my drink ready?”
“Give me a sec.” Mark starts fumbling with various bottles and a shaker. Who knew you could put so much work into a shot? “Aren’t you supposed to go home, honey?”
“Too depressing. I might drink myself to death if I go home now. At least here you can keep tabs on me.”
“Will do, but for now… here’s your drink. A pink starburst shot for the nerves.”
I’m kind of jealous. My Sambuca, albeit with coffee beans, looks a little beginner problems-of-the-heart-at-7-a.m.-drinker next to the pink starburst. At least, I’m assuming the flight attendant is going through a heartbreak. Nothing else could drive a seemingly non-AA woman to drinking so early in the morning. I should know.
Anyway, I don’t have much time to admire the pretty pink starburst. As soon as Mark puts the glass on the bar, she grabs it and drains it in a single swig.
“Better?” he asks.
“A little bit.”
The vodka did add some color to her previously ghastly cheeks.
“Is this dark mood about your professor?” Mark prompts.
The word professor has barely left his lips before the flight attendant starts sobbing her heart out. She’s hiccupping one word for every two or three sighs.
“Never… if… mine… engaged all along… wedding… today… she blonde…”
Mark looks at her, eyes wide, mouth slightly open. “You may have to repeat that, sweetheart.”
I should be offended that my own wedding troubles have taken a back seat in the conversation, but this girl seems to be doing a lot worse. Plus, I could use a break from my ticket staring.
“Tissue,” she pleads.
Mark offers her a paper napkin, and she blows her nose loudly. After a few more sobs, she seems calm enough to speak.
“William,” she says, spitting the name in a way that tells me she hates and loves the guy at the same time. “He’s been engaged all this time. Never had the guts to tell me until he was practically at the altar. Too bad men don’t wear engagement rings. We should shackle a band on their fingers—an irremovable one—the moment they propose. At least that way they couldn’t walk the world free to string along perfectly innocent, stupidly over-trusting naïve girls like me.”
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