Read Online Her Last Love Affair: The Final Journey by Clara James - Free Book Online

her, as she gradually tried to lift her head off the
pillow.
    “I had to come and see you,” she sighed, as if it were
obvious. “The stupid nurses wouldn’t let me in your room, but Reece saved the
day. He’s very charming, you know, he can get just about anyone to do anything
when he gives them that cute, dimpled smile of his.”
    “You’ve met him?” Allie responded, a rhetorical question
that simply suggested she was pleased that the two had finally come face to
face.
    “He’s a nice guy,” Ros nodded. “I can see why you love him.”
    Wrenching her head over her shoulder, Allie examined the
chair that had become ‘his’, but found it empty. “Where did he go?” she
wondered, her face slowly returning to her friend.
    “He wanted a cup of coffee that didn’t taste like mud,” she
reported. “His words not mine. He was worried about leaving you, but I told him
I’d stay right here in case you woke up.”
    With a bashful smile, Allie settled her head back on the
pillow. “I don’t deserve you two,” she commented, mostly to remind herself of
the fact.
    Rosalind dismissed the sentiment with a scoff and a wave of
her hand. She then quickly changed the subject, firing questions about Reece.
She wanted all the juicy details, even going as far as to ask, “What’s he like
in bed?”
    “Ros,” Allie blurted, as if scandalized by the line of
inquiry.
    “You’re right,” she responded casually, before deliberately
misinterpreting the reason for Allie’s outrage. “Of course he’s good.”
    The pair giggled like teenagers, Rosalind trying to wheedle
as much information as she could about her best friend’s love life, while Allie
maintained her good-natured defensiveness over the topic. The truth, of course,
is that this wasn’t new conversational territory. Many times Allie would listen
to Rosalind’s latest conquest – and her friend was never shy in sharing every
single detail. Sometimes, Allie had listened with only passing interest, while
on other occasions, when she’d been feeling a little lonely and depressed about
the choices she’d made, she would sit rapt by the tales of lustful abandon.
    However, it was very different having the tables turned on
her. If she were completely honest with herself, she knew that she would have
been quite happy to talk about any of her other sexual escapades over the
previous months. Reece was different, though. To be more precise, the time she
spent with Reece was different. She didn’t like to use the word sacred, because
that seemed silly. But she did feel very protective of it. Sharing aspects of
it with someone else seemed wrong.
    Eventually, Rosalind picked up on the hints and dropped the
topic, but that left a rather gaping and substantially awkward void that needed
to be filled. The elephant in the room could only be ignored for so long.
“Reece told me about your prognosis,” she murmured quietly, the atmosphere
instantly shifting from jovial to maudlin. “It’s not fucking fair,” she added,
her eyes drifting hopelessly to the ceiling.
    “Did he tell you about the treatment I’ve been offered,
though?” Allie asked, for once being the one to point out the silver lining.
    “Yeah,” she whispered, a few tears settling in her lower
lids. “It’s still shitty,” she grumbled, shaking her head. “It’s still not fair
and it’s still...” her rant lost steam, and she leaned forlornly back in the
chair. “I know this whole time you’ve been so calm,” she sighed.
    Allie gave an unladylike snort of derision. “I have not been
calm,” she stated. “There were times when I was very, very far from anything
resembling calm.” As she dripped some humor back into the room, she grinned.
“But you can only be angry for so long, before you just have to accept the
things that have come your way.”
    “So you’re going go for it, then?” Ros replied, managing a
weak chuckle in response. “The surgery?” she added.
    “I think so,”