Love & The Goddess Read Online Free PDF Page B

promise,” I said, smiling at her concern. “Wine?”
    “Would you mind if I had some tea? I know the wine will go straight to my head – how about some of that Lapsang Souchong you always have?”
    “Coming right up.” I headed into the kitchen and put the kettle on to boil.
    Ella followed me. Leaning over the white Formica worktop she reached across to pick up the box of tea, inhaling the scent. “What’s your fascination with this stuff?”
    “It reminds me of childhood. There was a storage shed at the back of our house where I used to go to read. It was filled with my father’s old furniture from his parents’ house,
piled up in a sort of kamikaze mountain. As I climbed to the top, everything would slide and slip threatening to disintegrate beneath me. I could have killed myself.
    But I always felt elated when I finally got to sit up there.” I pulled down the teapot, warming it with water from the boiling kettle. “I used to curl up beside an old tea chest
– it smelled of Lapsang and was full of old books, Greek mythology, anthropology, books on ancient civilizations and fairy tales. Sometimes I’d find tea leaves stuck between the pages.
The scent of Lapsang brings me back to those magical worlds I read about.” I poured Ella her tea.
    “No wonder you’re such a romantic, Kate. When I was a kid I read nothing but the Beano.”
    “My father loved those books. He used to read to us at bedtime. I think he would have liked to be an anthropologist but he was afraid to follow his dream and did law instead.”
    “Following the dream isn’t always easy. Look at me – with this recession, everyone is organizing their own parties and launches.”
    “But you have a great client base built up.”
    “Thank goodness, and as long as they need conferences organized in far-off places with sunshine and beaches, I’m there!”
    We laughed.
    “Here, come and sit down inside – are you shattered?”
    In the living room, Ella eased her shapely legs into the velveteen tub chair as I took the sofa. She tapped manicured nails against her mug as she spoke. “You need a bit of fun in your
life, Kate. Trevor’s crushed your spirit. Why don’t you have a look at one of the Irish dating sites and see what the talent’s like? A lot of people are using them now. You need
to be careful though, you’re in a vulnerable place and men can take advantage, but you need to start getting out again.”
    “God, Ella, aren’t those dating sites just the same as the personal ads in newspapers? I thought only people with no personality used them?”
    Ella grinned at my surprised face. “Not at all. That thing of meeting someone in a pub or a club doesn’t work when you’re over forty. Everyone’s on the internet now. In
fact, I’m thinking of putting up a new profile.”
    “I never knew you did that. You never told me.”
    She smiled mysteriously. “It never arose because you weren’t in the market for a man. Have you got the computer set up?”
    “Yes. It’s in my bedroom.”
    “Ooh, come on then, let’s have a look. Listen, I’ll open that wine while you do a search. We’ll need a glass or two to get us in the mood – go on ahead in and
Google dating sites. I’ll be there in three minutes.” Seeing my worried expression, she continued, “Ah come on, you need a bit of fun in your life. What harm can it do?”
Ella’s advice ran contrary to everything James and my shrink had said, but then Ella never went for safe and sensible if there was a fun alternative. Her enthusiasm reminded me of the good
old days at boarding school when she was always up for a laugh. Seconds after I’d logged onto the site, Ella sashayed in with two glasses of wine. “How are you getting on?”
    “I have to use a username. What’ll I call myself? I mean I’m not really going to use this, but I can’t use my own name.”
    “Use some name you like from the myths you’re always talking about. How about the Goddess of