Looking for Love (25 page)

***

Ella didn’t think she’d be so excited to
pack up her boxes, but every item placed inside the cardboard
monstrosities reminded her of how much closer she came to being
near her dad again. They’d had a whale of a time—swum in the pool,
gone to the beach, watched movies and so many different ones:
crime, thrillers, even romance much to her dad’s disgust—and cooked
all sorts of things. Her dad was astounded at her ability to come
up with such a variety of dishes from scratch and how she used
fresh herbs and exotic spices. Pauline had been the one to show her
those things.

She’d even told him all
about
The
Album
and
voiced all her concerns about it. He hadn’t given her any advice.
Her estimation of him had notched up like two-hundred percent
because she was so used to her friends telling her what to do.
Yeah, sure, she went for them for advice, but sometimes, she felt
like just having a simple sounding-board, nothing else. And Dad was
good at that. How come she’d shied away from him for so
long?

Plus, it had been fun learning
about all his experiences the past few years. He
was an art historian
and had had great fun discovering a whole series of paintings in
the Durban area that belonged to some famous French painter. He’d
also shared his adventures in helping out at a snake park in town
years ago.

The ornaments were in three
boxes. Why she had so many, she didn’t know, but she couldn’t get
rid of them as most of them were gifts from relatives or
friends
and
held sentimental value. She worked on the picture frames next. Just
as she stood on the ladder to take down a puzzle of Banff National
Park in Canada that she’d framed several years back, the doorbell
rang.

Sunday. Goodness, she’d forgotten she had
an appointment with a client.

She re-hung the picture on its two hooks,
scrambled down the ladder, and ran to her mirror in her guest
bathroom to straighten up her hair and check she didn’t have dust
bunnies nesting in it. Besides wearing her house clothes, she
looked passable. Really, how unprofessional of her to forget. She
should have closed up the business weeks ago when she’d first
decided to leave town but her clients kept on coming and she hated
turning genuine seekers away.

Sucking in a
breath, she opened up the door and smiled. “Hi.”

A middle-aged lady stood before her,
uncannily similar to her mother but with curlier hair and a thinner
mouth.

“
Hi, Mrs
. Lemmer. Please come in.” She loved
how names always came back to her without a problem. A good thing
seeing she hadn’t prepared at all for the appointment. “Just excuse
the mess. I’m in the process of moving. You know what it’s
like—boxes and tape and things lying everywhere. Come through to my
office. At least there, it’s neat and orderly.”

The woman
nodded and Ella felt her reserve and some anxiety bounce off of
her. Some customers felt uneasy about contacting a matching service
and she was bound to be one of them.

Ella opened her office and
switched on the light because the overcast day made even the
conservatory appear dull and lifeless.
The Album
was thankfully stashed away in a
drawer and not out in the open. She’d spent several hours on it
last night. Finding her place behind the desk, she moved some other
clients’ files out the way and gave Mrs. Lemmer her full attention.
“Let me know a little about yourself. Maybe tell me what kind of
partner you’re looking for.”

“
I’m married still.”

Ella blinked.
Okay, now what? How would she push the woman away without sounding
rude? No, she had certain rules and two-timing was a definite
no-no.

“
Wait.”
The woman’s eyes came alive. “To a
ghost.”

Ella looked
down at her desk and tried not to giggle. Did she just hear
things?

“
I talk to my husband’s spirit every day but he’s been nagging
me to find someone. Says it’s time for him to rest and I must find
love. I very reluctantly came here because I didn’t want to listen
to him.”

“
So, you’re not technically married? You’re a
widow.”

“
I’m a widow in the worldly sense
but I certainly don’t feel like it. He hasn’t left my side since he
passed away three years ago. At the moment, I feel like I’m going
through a divorce because he wants to end it. But I know he’s
suffering and needs to finally lay to rest. I have to let
go.”

The woman didn’t cry but Ella
could sense the heaviness upon her
.

Ella had never believed in
spirits and ghosts. With the advent of
The Album
, she wasn’t so sure any more about
strange happenings on the planet. If the woman believed such a
thing, who was she to dispute it? She could only help her find love
or some means to get over her late husband.

“
My family thinks I’m still
grieving him because I talk to him so much. They’re troubled about
me. I also want to move on for their sakes but it’s hard. I hope
you can help me. I read the article about you in the
Credence
magazine. I’m a
difficult case.” She smiled for the first time since she’d entered
Ella’s home. “But I’m hoping you can crack me. Is there any hope of
me finding someone to love after losing the love of my
life?”

Ella longed to come round and give the
woman a good squeeze but she had the feeling her reserve would make
it awkward. Instead, she nodded, her eyes tearing a little although
her client’s eyes remained dry. “I can almost assure you a hundred
percent I can find someone just right for you.”

Mrs. Lemmer
let out a breath and dropped her hunched shoulders. “Phew.”

She actually
looked quite attractive now that she’d relaxed significantly.

The next fifteen to twenty
minutes, Mrs. Lemmer
, or Sarah as Ella discovered, filled out all the forms and
gave her photo in. Ella said she’d probably contact her in a couple
of days. This case called for urgent work. She just couldn’t leave
the poor troubled woman single any longer.

Yet, at the back of her
mind
, she
wondered if the lady was ready for a relationship yet. Sounded like
she hadn’t dealt with the bulk of her grief fully. Sarah losing the
love of her life got her thinking of her parents. For so many
years, she’d blamed them both for messing up her life. She’d blamed
her mom for fighting with Dad and her dad for giving up and
leaving. Hearing the truth from her dad had made her realise that
maybe, it had been beyond their control completely. They couldn’t
have made it work, no matter how hard they’d tried. She considered
Frank, her client completing the course she’d assigned him to. Had
it changed him? Was there any hope for the man? If her parents
couldn’t make it work, what if he couldn’t make any relationship
work? She really wanted it to come right. She hated that helpless
feeling, yet she had to admit—maybe sometimes, being single was way
better and safer for some people.

Was she one of those? Should she
forget her dream to find this perfect man because really, he wasn’t
out there
? Or
he certainly hid himself too well. Yeah, sure, there was probably a
match for her somewhere, but she wearied searching and hankering
for him. She wanted to forget about love for a while, forget about
Ross, too, and all the confusion caused by him. Forget about Dirk
and break it off with him totally and enjoy her new adventure of
starting up in Durban, a city full of life and new experiences and
culture.

She picked up the phone to
call
Frank.

“
I need a current photo of
you
, please,”
she asked him after he’d given her an update on the successful
passing of his course. “I want to study the new you to see what
woman is suitable for you. I also would like you to email me the
report from your exams at the course. Actually, emailing the photo
is fine. You don’t have to come in.”

“
Sure thing.”

He sounded
upbeat
, as
though impending disaster didn’t loom for him and her business. She
tried to ignore the anxiety clenching her stomach. What if she
couldn’t find a match for him ever? What if she’d sent him on that
course all for nothing? Would he spread bad word about her? Would
she lose hope in
The Album
? In the power of love?

She ended the call and set to
checking her emails. One came through from him almost straight
away. Sheesh, this guy was keen. Biting her lip, she printed the
photo out and placed it in
The Album
. Finding one of her female clients on file, she
put it in the slot, waiting for the usual display of power to pass.
Nothing, no photos of togetherness. After three more tries, she
wanted to scream and send
The Album
catapulting across the room. Then she looked at
Sarah Lemmer’s photo.

No way. She shouldn’t even go that route.
Frank was at least five years her junior and really, the woman had
been through enough.

Mind you, hadn’t he had his fair dose of
difficulty? He’d done the course and according to the report,
really excelled. It couldn’t have been easy for someone like him.
When he’d first come into her office, she’d been put off by his
arrogance and impatience. Surely, he couldn’t be pretending to be a
changed man?

Taking Sarah’s photo, she pressed it into
the space and closed her eyes, not really expecting anything.
Surely, they couldn’t be right.

After the vibration had ceased
for some time and she’d remained tight-lidded for several anxious
moments, she squeezed open her eyes and let go
of the pages. She turned. There
were pictures of them, not hugging, not kissing, nothing romantic,
but the pictures went on and on for pages. And then she saw a
wedding ceremony with adult kids around Sarah and Frank next to
her, the man looking so different. His face held softness,
maturity, a certain thoughtfulness she’d never seen in him. She
carried on turning the pages. All she could interpret was pure
success. A lifetime of adventures, of doing things together. She
slammed the book closed and shook her head. Opening it again like
it was a dirty cloth and not a sacred magic book, she paged through
once more.

Who would have
thought?

Should she
find someone else for Sarah? She hadn’t tried her out with anyone
yet.

No,
Frank needed Sarah. Sure, Sarah may
have success with someone else, but Frank needed her. Not for her
business, not for her reputation. What did it matter? She intended
to stop the business when she moved to Durban. No, this was for
him. This would make Frank the person he was meant to be. Sarah
would help him be that person.

B
ut she had to see something. She chose
another female client and tried her with Frank. It worked. Oh, so
Frank wasn’t such a monster, after all. He’d reformed. She tried
several more and came up with three successful scenarios. Yet, she
couldn’t shake away her initial image of Frank and Sarah together.
The way she changed his face, his whole demeanour. She couldn’t for
the life of her remember anything about the photos. Why not? She’d
only viewed them minutes ago. Uncanny how she couldn’t remember
anything when her clients came in. All she could tell them was that
the coupling would be a success. Did
The Album
wipe out the memories of what she saw?
That meant she could use one of her friends in the
pages.

But what if it
didn’t have the power to wipe out the memories of her friend’s
lives because they were strongly connected to her thoughts and
emotions?

She wasn’t
willing to take the risk but the magic impressed her even more—it
was a good thing that she couldn’t see into other peoples’ futures.
Safe and better that way.

Her hands
shook as an idea came to her. Why not try Ross’s photo with one of
her clients?

What prompted that thought? Why not Dirk?
Why Ross? Yet, she couldn’t see into his future. No, that would be
dangerous. But she didn’t intend to see him ever again.

Her hands shaking with the rush
of anticipation, she sat down by her computer and went onto Ross’s
Facebook to find a photo of him. When last did she take a photo of
the man?
While she browsed through his profile, her heart squeezed
painfully. How could she say goodbye to him forever? The man had
burrowed into her heart and would forever remain there. It reminded
her of saying goodbye to her dad when he’d left and how their
relationship had fizzled out over the years.

Surely, the distance would be a
good thing for Ross and her.
It would end the friendship slowly and gently. She
had to do it no matter how much it hurt. Just like Mom and Dad,
Ross and she would never work. One of those sad facts of life you
couldn’t do anything about.

Once she
’d printed out a picture of Ross, she
slotted him into
The Album
. Then she found one of her clients and put her picture in.
This time, she turned the pages frantically, desperate to know how
it would work out. No success. The relief was uncomfortably
strong.

But Ross was
so nice. Wouldn’t he be good for any girl? Okay, he’d had lots of
bad relationships in the past, but really, why? He was the kindest
man she’d ever known. Sexy, strong, dependable. Deep thinker, very
perceptive. He knew as soon as even something small bothered her.
Wouldn’t he be a sensitive lover to another woman?