“Have you booked your flight yet?”

“Huh?” Charlotte looked up from her screen, a little dazed. She hadn’t even heard Gabe approach her desk she’d been so involved in her work. Or was that her pain?

For the past week she’d constantly forced herself back to work and to forget about that morning with Andrew. Her mind was stuck in a cycle she couldn’t break from. She’d concentrate on her work, as she was meant to do, then something would spark a side-thought which would bring up an image of Andrew in her mind, and then she would think about falling asleep on his sofa, waking up to him, being a complete bitch and throwing the best thing away that could ever happen to her.

Then her hand would twitch to her phone and she’d find her finger hovering over his number. One little push and she could talk to him, let the smooth whiskey of his voice wash over her and clear all her doubts and recriminations away.

Then she would remember her parents, remember what type of daughter she was and remember the promise she’d made. She could only do that if she wasn’t sidetracked. She’d been away from Melbourne long enough. It was time to go home to concentrate on getting her business up and running, and that would take time, days, weeks, months, years. She’d seen enough businesses disappear into the ether if they weren’t tended by someone dedicated to its upkeep. She’d seen the effects of that personally.

As hard as it was, she’d just have to forget about Andrew.

She’d done whatever she could to keep him at arm’s distance. Assigned one of the marketing specialists to communicate with him, had worded up the receptionist to tell her if he came past so she could hide. Had ignored all of his calls and his emails. She’d felt like dirt for doing that, but a clean break was what was logically needed. It would be better off for him in the long term.

Her heart and her mind were proving harder to bring around. Even after the cushion of time, the pain had not lessened. Her chest was so heavy she couldn’t tell if she was coming down with a cold or if it was the agony of her heart.

“No. I haven’t. I… don’t think I’m going to get there.” She tried to swallow the lump in her throat.

“Charlotte, you need to take some time off,” Gabe said.

“Things are busy around here, Gabe. In case you haven’t noticed!” She heard how snarky she sounded and bit her bottom lip. “I’m sorry, Gabe. That sounded harsh and I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I don’t expect you to work every hour of the day, Charlotte. I don’t employ you to be a slave,” Gabe said gently.

Charlotte nodded. “I know. But you wanted this campaign to be up and running in a short space of time and to do that I have to put in the hours.”

Gabe frowned, “I told you to get KnowFactor to help.”

“I did. They are. The campaign is rolling out on schedule,” Charlotte said.

“I guess when I spoke to Andrew you two seemed to have everything under control,” Gabe said.

“You spoke to Andrew? When?” Charlotte asked.

“The other night. About a week ago when I was in Florida. I rang you actually. It was quite late at night, and he answered your cell.”

Oh no. That night. Charlotte stood up, palms pressed to her desk. “He did?”

“Yes. He asked me why I expected you to work so hard. I guess that’s why I’m here now. To tell you to take a break. You have days’ worth of vacation time owing to you. Probably weeks,” Gabe said.

“What else did he say to you,” Charlotte asked.

Gabe rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s not so much what he said, more what I told him.”

Charlotte leaned over the desk “Gabe, what did you say?”

“He was angry with me for making you work so hard. I told him that you were here to learn about the business so you can start up a company like this back in Australia,” Gabe said.

“Huh.” Charlotte crossed her arms over chest. That meant that Andrew already knew about her going back to Australia. That there would be an expiration date to any relationship there might be between them. Long distance relationships didn’t do well. Then why did he still tell her what he had in the morning knowing she’d eventually leave?

‘What does ‘huh’ mean?”

Charlotte waved her hand. “Nothing. It’s just that…”

‘What, Charlotte?’ Gabe asked.

“Well, you’re a bloke. Right?” Charlotte asked.

“Last time I looked,” Gabe said.

Charlotte nodded, “You love Lisa. Right?”

Gabe looked a bit sheepish, “Well, I…”

Charlotte waved her hand at him again, “Don’t worry about answering that. You’re interested… It’s just that…”

“Yes?”

“Well, Lisa will be returning to Australia,” Charlotte said.

Gabe shrugged, ‘One day, yes.”

“And you don’t see that as a problem?”

“Should I? What’s a few hours flight when you love someone. I’d move mountains to get to Lisa if I had to,” Gabe said.

Charlotte’s mouth worked soundlessly. She had never come across this side of Gabe before. He’d certainly changed. Since coming back from that Florida trip he went on with Lisa. He was more relaxed, well apart from asking her to work towards stupid deadlines that was.

Lisa had changed too. She was much happier than she’d ever been since all that crap had happened to her in Melbourne from that loser, Lachlan she was seeing. She seemed to be floating on air lately. “You really mean that.”

“Yes, I really mean that,” Gabe said.

Just then Lisa breezed in. She beamed a hundred watt smile at Gabe who scooped her in his arms and kissed her. There definitely was a glow about her friend, and love was definitely the prescription.

Charlotte sat back in her chair. She wondered if Gabe and Lisa were going to stop kissing. They certainly were defining the term ‘kissing each other senseless’. The way it looked now, they’d completely forgotten Charlotte was in the room. Charlotte couldn’t help the mental smirk when she realised that if she wasn’t at the Helping Hands Cafe that day, Gabe wouldn’t have come down to give her the Barton file and he would never have met Lisa. In a way, she was the fairy godmother who had brought them together.

She wondered if she might glow like that if it was her in Andrew’s arms and he was kissing her and looking at her just the way Gabe was kissing and looking at Lisa… Arghh. Change the mind subject, Charlotte.

She cleared her throat. Loudly. Lisa jumped back a little, still caught in Gabe’s arm and sent Charlotte a nervous smile when she realised what just she’d been doing in front of her friend. Charlotte barely contained her giggle at her friend’s guilty look.

“Where’s lunch?” Charlotte asked. Lisa had taken it upon herself to come into work with a basket loaded with food for Charlotte to eat. Sometimes her friend was just like her mother.

“Thought we might go out for lunch today. You, me and Gabe,” Lisa said.

Charlotte rubbed her forehead with her fingertips, “I don’t know, Lisa. I have a heap of work to do.”

“Luckily your boss is standing right here and telling you to come out. Call it a Christmas treat,” Gabe said.

Charlotte nibbled her bottom lip. Everyone in the office really didn’t have their minds on their work being so close to the holiday period and she doubted she’d get that much done this afternoon with them anyway. Besides, she could just stay up late and work. At least that way, she wouldn’t just be lying in bed thinking of Andrew and the enormous mistake she’d made.

Lisa took Charlotte’s hand in hers, dragging her toward the elevator. “I’m not giving you the option. Stop moping around and come out. You’ll enjoy it. I promise.”

Charlotte inwardly groaned. It looked like she wasn’t going to get out of this easily. Best just go along with it even thought it was the last thing she felt like doing. Maybe she could forget about Andrew and how crappy a daughter she was. For a couple of hours anyway. “Okay, where are we going?”

They’d reached the pavement outside and Charlotte had no option but to follow where Lisa and Gabe lead her. “Not too far. Just around the corner, actually,” Gabe said.

Charlotte frowned when they stopped at the front of a door she hadn’t noticed before. “I didn’t know this was a café.”

“Not a café exactly. It’s the new Helping Hands Café from Bowery Street. We — Gabe and I — moved it when the last one closed down,” Lisa beamed.

Charlotte hugged her friend, smiling. “That’s fantastic news! I’m so pleased.” She really was. It didn’t seem right to close the other shelter down just so a high-class restaurant could take over.

“We thought we’d ask you here for its Grand Opening,” Gabe said.

Charlotte slid him a narrowed look. “I’m surprised you didn’t ask me to run the campaign.”

Gabe chuckled, “The thought did cross my mind.”

Gabe opened the door and ushered her into the dark interior. “I do need you to tell everyone about it, but next year. I’ve been told on no uncertain terms that I work you too hard. I thought instead I should bring you here for another reason.”

Frowning, Charlotte turned, “What other reason?”

“For Christmas, of course!” Lisa said.

The lighters flickered on and Charlotte’s vision adjusted to the brightness of sparkling tinsel and a hundred pairs of eyes. “Merry Christmas!”

There was a roar as a room full of people cheered and swarmed towards her. Her brain refused to function properly as she was kissed and hugged. Friends old and new. Cousins. Aunts and uncles. It looked like her entire family was here.

“Mum?” Charlotte blinked into her mother’s smiling face as she pushed her way through the crowd. Charlotte clutched her mother’s shoulders and held her at arm’s length, barely believing that her mother was here in the flesh. “Is it really you?”

Alison laughed. “Yes. It’s me, darling. Surprise!”

She pressed Charlotte against her in a warm hug. Charlotte closed her eyes and drank in her mother’s touch, her smell, the softness of her hair, the firm arms that held her, the comfort that she offered. She drank it all in as though she had wandered a desert and was dying of thirst. Tears leaked from lids she clenched shut.

“Okay. Move over. It’s my turn now,” a gruff voice said.

“Dad!” Alison relinquished her daughter into the arms of her husband. She buried her face into her father’s burly shoulder and tucked her arms around his waist. The wool of his prickly jumper itched her face just as it always had. She never understood how he could wear such scratchy jumpers, but it only confirmed to her that her parents, her family — her entire tribe of people were actually here.

After a few moments of soaking up her father’s presence she leaned back and blinked everyone’s faces into focus in confusion. “How… Why?...” She couldn’t seem to get any more words out. This was so totally unexpected. Never in her wildest dreams could she imagine that everyone in her life would be right here, right now. “OK. Who organised this?” She speared her mother a look.

Alison pointed to the corner next to the giant, fresh Christmas tree that was decorated in colourful red, green, silvers and gold tinsel and ornaments. “He did.”

Gabe stood with his arm casually thrown over Lisa’s shoulder. “You did this?” Charlotte asked.

Gabe shook his head, “Don’t look at me. It was all his idea.”

Charlotte followed Gabe’s pointed finger to a figure standing in the corner, away from everyone else.

“Andrew.” His name came out on a breath. Charlotte’s heart stumbled. She drank him in, the first sight of him in over a week, all of her senses attuned to him. He sent her a lopsided smile that sent her heart-rate into overdrive. The crowd parted when he walked towards her. His shoulders shrugged as he slung his hands into his jean’s front pockets when he stopped in front of her. She didn’t think a gesture could be more sexy. Her palms itched to tug him against her but she didn’t know if he’d let her given her treatment of him recently. Especially since he’d done all this for her and all she’d done for him was push him away.

But why had he done all this for her?

“You did this?”

He grimaced. “I hope you don’t mind.”

‘Don’t mind!”

“I knew you missed your family and you weren’t going to get home for Christmas and…”

Her mouth fell open as the reality of the situation dawned on her. “So you flew them all over here?”

His gaze fell to the floor and his shoulders slumped. “It seemed like the only thing to do.”

She could only think about how atrociously she’d treated him and that she wasn’t deserving of any of this. Didn’t deserve that he cared so much that he would go to this amount of trouble. For her. “But why? Why would you care?”

His head flew up and his gaze hit hers with an intensity that rocked her. His eyes were twin pools of torment, dark and deep and bright with something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

“Because you helped me find my sister again. You helped me find me again. I wanted to return the favour. I told you I care for you. This is what people do when they care for someone. I hoped… hoped that this would be okay with you. I just wanted to wish you a Happy Christmas, Charlotte. And to thank you for such a precious gift. You gave that to me when you told me to phone Mandy. That’s all I’d like to say. I hope you enjoy your night.”

He brushed past her, his hands still contained in his pockets, and slipped out the door into the cold outside. Charlotte’s gaze slid wordlessly to her father and then to her mother. “Did you know about this? That Andrew organised this? And no-one told me?”

“He seems like such a nice man. He rang us a few days ago saying he wanted to fly us all over here just for you. Told us you really needed to see us again. That you were having a hard time of it recently and wanted, and I quote ‘to do anything that would make you happy’. Can you imagine that?” Mark said.

Charlotte’s face flushed with heat. It seemed they were now the centre of attention and everyone was listening in. “He’s such a great guy.” A cousin the back of the group said to murmurs of agreement.

“Great guy.”

“So handsome.”

“So romantic.”

Her mother simply raised her brow. “People don’t do this because they just care for someone, Charlotte. This is much more than that and you know it.”

‘But, Mum…” How could he forgive her for treating him like she had? Why would he? Why did he even care so much?

Mum took Dad’s hand in hers and smiled at him before looking back to Charlotte. “He did it because loves you, sweetheart.”

“But… but… what about you?” she blurted.

“I can’t speak for you, but I hardly know the guy,” Mark said.

Alison sent a sideways glance at her husband and tucked a strand of hair behind Charlotte’s ear. “Darling, I want you to be as happy as your father and I have been.”

“But, Mum… you’re struggling financially. You need help. I’m going to help you. Start up a business in Melbourne. Pay your bills. Get you out of debt. Make up for what I did,’ Charlotte said.

“Help us financially?” Alison frowned, sharing a confused look with Mark. “What would you want to do that for? We don’t expect you to do that. Money comes and goes and we’re okay. Anything that’s happened isn’t up to you to make right. We don’t expect you to pay for the business going belly up. I just want you to be as happy as your dad and I have been. Money is nothing. It’s love that counts as a rich life. Love like this only comes around once in a lifetime,” Alison said.

‘Your mother’s right, sweetheart. Our financials are sorting out. We don’t expect or want you to worry about that. We’re just concerned for your happiness. It’s the only thing I want for you,” Mark said.

“But… but I told you the business was going to be all right. I thought it would be!” Charlotte said.

Mark frowned. “It was a solid business plan. I wouldn’t go into anything like that unless I thought it was. I had the accountant look at the plans, had meeting with our financial advisor. They agreed it was a good venture, just like you did.”

“You did all that?” Charlotte asked.

“Of course we did,” Alison said.

“We just didn’t know Barry would do what he did. No-one could have seen that he’d announce bankruptcy. And we’d known him for years!” Mark said.

“We don’t blame you for any of this. In fact it had nothing to do with you,” Alison said.

The reality began to dawn on her. The weight of the world lifted and she felt so light she could fly away. “It didn’t? It didn’t!”

“Of course it didn’t. How could it? You didn’t think it did, did you?” Alison asked.

Charlotte shook her head. She didn’t want her parents to know what she’d felt. She still wanted to help, of course, but knowing the reality changed the perspective.

“Enough about business. We’re here to celebrate. Which is all because of your man, Charlotte. No man does this for a woman unless he’s totally, head over heels in love with her,” Mark said.

“The question is — how do you feel about him?” Alison asked. The room rang with silence.

It was so clear. She was in love with him. She’d just forced it from her mind because it was too much of a temptation even if she entertained the thought of acting on it. She’d had her life planned out. Work to be the daughter her parents deserved. Move back to Australia. Pay off their mortgage. Update the house. Give them the things they had lost because of her. It had never occurred to her that they might not want that for her. They’d never asked her to do what she was doing.

She’d never counted on falling in love because she hadn’t gone looking for it. But it had dropped in her lap in the form of a sexy, handsome, caring, kind, selfless man.

It didn’t mean that she wasn’t going to help them. And it didn’t mean that she couldn’t fall in love.

She could have it all. Andrew was a man that understand all of that.

And he loved her despite her hang-ups.

She looked upwards and sighed a long, deep breath out, and with it the tension that made her body feel like steel, melted away with her expelled breath. She closed her eyes, letting the peace roll through her, before she looked back to her mother. “I love him, Mum.” It was simple. It was the truth.

“Then what are you doing here. Go and get your man.”