It's Love or Something

By Julie Evans-Brown

Sarah Greenwood thought she had a happy marriage, until the day she found out her husband Will had been cheating on her with the young Irish dancer he met on a golfing weekend in Dublin. Her world fell apart, spiralling into drink and depression until a chance meeting in her hospital bed led her to three years of Love and Happiness. Love she never thought she would find again after her marriage ended. But Nick Armstrong was the man of her dreams, a self made man, who loved Sarah more than life itself. They had a relationship Sarah only described to her friends as ‘perfect in every way’

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9781304465696

Book preview

It's Love or Something

Chapter 1

I just have way too much time on my hands, Sarah grumbled as she buckled her seat belt. It’s ok having money in the bank but my life gets so boring and I end up taking flights  places, when everyone knows I hate to fly, but I need to be going somewhere or doing something with my time  she said. I really need to be thinking about doing stuff; I can’t just take holidays for the rest of my life can I?  

Oh I dunno said Lexy looking at her friend, you’re lucky, I would give anything to be able to have even half of your lifestyle, then noticing her friends frown she continued, well I know you have been through it and all that but I hate having to get up at 7am for work every day, it’s so, boring doing nine to five every day, and the boss, well you know that can be tricky sometimes.

Yes well if you had kept your knickers on in the first place you wouldn’t feel awkward around him would you? scolded Sarah.

Excuse me Madam is this yours asked the air stewardess, picking up Sarah’s handbag from the floor of the cabin, is it alright if I store it in the overhead locker? Just, until we get airborne?

Sarah nodded, yes that’s fine, sorry I should have thought. She was, used to flying first class or at least Business Class these days and handbags always had plenty of space under the seat in front, and so come to that did her legs which were longer than the average females anyway and she was already getting more and more nervous by the minute. She strained her neck to look up front,

Just cattle class all the way to the Algarve, these small planes are just so cramped it’s a good job we don’t suffer from claustrophobia or this would be hell. With that she dug deep into the pocket of the seat in front of her and pulled out the safety brochure. As someone who hated to fly, and with a vengeance, Sarah always read the safety instructions in full, even the small print, just in case there was to be any reason at all for her to need to know even the slightest detail. She had flown, since the age of nineteen and during the first few years she didn’t have a problem, in fact, as she often told herself, and anyone who wanted to listen, she really had no idea when her fear of flying had begun, it just sort of appeared during one flight when she had started panicking for no apparent reason, her palms became sweaty and her pulse raced. Sarah's nerves had got increasingly worse each time she had taken that particular form of transport ever since the mid-eighties.  Lexy said nothing, she just smiled at her friends insistence of them both knowing what to do in the event of a problem occurring. She too pulled out the brochure and laying it across her knee, she nodded at Sarah reassuringly, then winked and smiled at the gentleman sat in the window seat beside her.

The plane started to pull back and the cabin crew began waving their arms, showing where the escape routes were, asking all passengers to take a look around for the nearest available exit and Sarah obliged, glancing around and taking note that just two rows behind her was the middle section emergency exit. She always booked an aisle seat and refused point blank to sit anywhere else on board in case she needed to get out fast, once causing a scene on a Ryan Air flight when she was one of the last people to board and the stewardess had asked her to take a seat in between two middle aged rather large ladies.

No way she said this plane is not going anywhere until I am sat in an aisle seat and I would really like to sit beside my husband if at all possible, with her hands on her hips and contorting her face at the stewardess, she threw back her long hair and sighed, standing her ground. Her husband of fifteen years had gone on ahead of her and sat down a little too comfortably between a; party of teenage girls who were obviously a little worse for wear after probably spending their airport time in the bar before boarding and thoroughly enjoying the attention he was giving them.

There was quite a scene but eventually after playing musical chairs for a few minutes, Sarah sat down in an aisle seat just a few rows away from her husband after a very disgruntled man in shorts and flip flops had agreed to move telling her he just wanted to get back to Manchester, 'some time that evening'.

The aeroplane from Manchester to Faro began to taxi down the runway and Sarah gripped tightly onto the hand of her friend, almost breaking her thumb as it took off and started to climb. "shit, shit, shit, oh shit, shit, shit, Oh bollocks, she whispered between gritted teeth, keeping her eyes tightly shut until the plane was up and leveling out a few minutes later. Her breathing became less erratic then, eventually getting back to normal. She took out a baby wipe from the pocket of her jeans and wiped her sweaty palms, leaning her head back

I hate taking off, I bloody hate it she whispered to her friend,

No really came the sarcastic reply, you really need to see someone about that you know said Lexy, are you ok now could you please let go of my hand? Now then do you fancy Vodka and some Pringles when the trolley comes round?

Sarah settled down to read the latest edition of OK Magazine which she had picked up in WH Smith at the airport, and her friend spent most of the first hour of the flight chatting to the gentleman by the window, who turned out to be called George, aged 70 he was recently widowed and going to Alvor on the Algarve to visit his son who had a Golfing business there. George told Lexy all about his wife Elizabeth who had lost her battle with cancer a few months prior to his trip and this was the first time he had gone anywhere alone in over forty five years. She felt sorry for him, she looked across intently as he talked, he had what her mother would describe as a well weathered face but was not unattractive for an oldie she thought to herself, quite a handsome chap in fact and she smiled at him. George had a tear in his eye as he talked about the lady he had loved more than anything and it was blatantly obvious that he missed his wife enormously. She noted that he still wore his wedding ring, which was a little tarnished from the many years, and showed a few dents here and there.

We had them engraved he explained when he noticed that she was paying the third finger of his left hand some attention. He slowly removed the ring, which was a struggle for him, it looked like it hadn’t been taken off very often over the past five decades and left a sore looking red hollow in his finger where it had been as he passed it to her pointing out the wording engraved on the inside. Lexy put on her glasses which she kept on a chain around her neck for ease of access and looked at the inner circle of the gold ring. Today, tomorrow, and always it read, and she had to remove her glasses and take a tissue to her eyes.

I’m so sorry she uttered softly to George, that’s beautiful, she must have been a special lady, he smiled and nodded

Yes she was, very special indeed and she raised a great son while I was in the military and then went off to work, he didn’t turn out a bad lad.

The remainder of the flight passed by with conversation, a little turbulence and a few trips to the bathroom for Sarah after a drinking more than a few vodka’s, George joined them both with a drink and holding a brandy and coke in his right hand they raised their glasses in unison ‘to Elizabeth’

I always panic when my case is one of the last Sarah grumbled, asking Lexy what the problem could be. Lexy shook her head raising her arms

God knows she answered almost choking on the sweet she had in her mouth. She was sitting on her luggage and making her way through a packet of Starburst, shoving the wrappers into her pocket as she ate, choosing a different colour each time she dipped her hand into the bright yellow bag. George who had walked down to the baggage claim area with them had retrieved his luggage, said his goodbyes and thanked them for making his flight an enjoyable one before making his way through customs where there would be a ride waiting to take him to his sons villa in Alvor. He confessed that he wasn’t looking forward to the lengthy onward journey.

Is this one yours? Oh no, never mind said Lexy answering herself, just another pink case, ahh hold on I think I see yours now, nope not yours wrong again, Jesus where is it Sarah, they probably offloaded it thinking you looked like a terrorist or something, I told you not to wear that black cardi she laughed.

Yes they would do that, of course they would and then let me fly tutted Sarah, because they do things like that all the time, she shook her head whilst trying to contain a smile.

Eventually there was just Lexy, Sarah and two young men standing at the carousel watching and hoping that their suitcases would come through the black flaps at the rear of the belt where burly ground staff threw each piece of luggage onto the conveyor as if it were an old carpet being thrown away. They watched as an old battered blue case and a pushchair went around and around.

Do they just put these on for fun, just to piss us off snarled Sarah, I hate this, I am going to have to go shopping and that’s the one thing I did not want to do on this holiday, I just wanted to chill out and totally relax. She stamped her right foot and folder her arms I don’t get any of this shit when I travel first class. 

Here it is, here it is, keep your G-string on. squealed Lexy, whooping loudly.

Ok Sarah frowned settle down and stop doing that ridiculous dance those guys over there are   laughing at you.

Ahhh this looks like it could be what they're waiting for, these golf clubs coming round now, that’s good, she smiled across at the young men waiting patiently by the carousel. 'No dancing around like idiots from them' she thought, 'they are probably sensible golf type people, why oh why did I choose to bring Lexy on this relaxing holiday', and then as she began to lift off her suitcase from the belt she felt a tug and sighed with relief as she realised, this was exactly why she brought her, as Lexy lifted off Sarah’s humongous sized suitcase in one fowl swoop.

Sarah was the more thoughtful of the two women, sensible and much more cautious than her friend. She spoke with a Cheshire accent, which she obtained with the help of the private tutor her father paid for when she was just a child. It helped her to shake off the true Mancunian twang she had since learning to talk and string her words together at the tender age of two.  Lexy on the other hand was a lot more chilled out, it was obvious as soon as she opened her mouth that she was born and bred in nowhere other than Manchester, the city she loved, despite her mother's attempts at correcting her abbreviations and slang phrases on a thousand occasions. She was completely zany, always game for a laugh, and with a passion for vodka, she would drink her way though many a crazy night and was able to drink most of the men she met under the table of many of the bars and clubs around the city center, that being the ones she didn’t take back to her apartment for a quick game of hide the sausage, before asking them to leave so she could 'sleep it off'.  Lexy was the shorter of the two friends, with shoulder length blond hair, huge blue eyes and a dimple in the centre of her chin. When she smiled her face would light up the room, she just oozed fun and warmth and was loyal to all her friends, keeping lifelong secrets and would be there as soon as she could, should one of them ring her for help, which is what made her a damn good friend Sarah often reminded herself with a smile.

Alexis or 'Lexy' Turnbull to all who knew her, had worked at the same firm of Solicitors for nine years, doing the general administration amongst other things, never really having much of an interest in going any further up the ladder and becoming a solicitor herself, although she had the brains, she just didn’t want to use them in such a way. She had gotten into an affair in her early days of working there with her married boss, which lasted three years until his wife found out. Lexy managed to hang on to her job and her boss kept his wife although it was touch and go for a while. But she just took it all in her stride and held her head up high carrying on with what she was paid to do. Her job paid well too, it paid for her rent and put petrol into the small Toyota Yaris she called Betsy, she was settled and quite happy there. Holidays like this one though were mostly out of her budget, she had found herself in debt several years ago due to overspending on her credit cards and was dutifully paying them off each month, not taking help from anyone, although Sarah had offered to help her on more than one occasion she had always refused telling her I got into this mess, I want to get myself out of it, but thank you.

Naylor, Naylor and Clarke was the firm of solicitors where Lexy worked, she knew what she was doing, ran the office pretty much and kept the team of legal brains in order. She made them tea at nine am when they arrived for work, arranged the meeting room for briefs at ten am and supplied bourbons and coffee, with fresh orange juice as an alternative. She would bring sandwiches back at lunchtime, and there were cakes at three pm for those who weren’t in court. She would pick up dry cleaning and arrange for their cars to be cleaned and valeted whenever they asked. The legal guys loved her personality, her pert breasts, short skirts and her crazy little ways whilst the female solicitors admired and respected her for being able to juggle what she did so smoothly and without complaint.

She made appointments, welcomed clients, passing tissues for the more tearful ones who wanted to divorce their unfaithful spouses. She offered words of comfort whilst they reapplied their makeup, before meeting their solicitor and going through the whys and wherefores.

Lexy; gave her own form of counselling to the families and friends who arrived to listen to will readings, often leaving with money they had never expected or fighting it out with other family members who had received more than they had. It always amused her when obvious gold diggers came in expecting to hear they had received the entire estate, only to find out that their late partner had left everything to the local RSPCA or some Save the Donkey fund or other. But on the other hand Lexy was always happy when long lost family members came in not expecting anything only to walk out with a cheque for thousands of pounds, or more.

Lexy was in fact indispensable, which is why Mister Naylor senior had kept her on after their indiscretions of several years ago. They had remained friends throughout the trauma of his wife finding out when his life involved sleeping in hotels and making many begging phone calls to the woman he had cheated on but did not want to lose. Lexy was there for him, no longer as a lover but as a friend and even held his hand and mopped his brow when the wife he gained back became pregnant two years later, much to his shock and disbelief after always being adamant he never wanted any offspring. In fact Lexy had become Aaron Naylor's personal assistant and general wonder woman, after seeing everything she had to offer, he was able to turn to her for advice and conversation when there were arguments at home and he was receiving the silent treatment, he turned to Lexy for just about everything. She bought his wife’s birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, anniversary flowers and card, making sure her boss always signed the card of course. Then when baby Jake was born, she had taken Aarons credit card and on his instruction, gone out and bought the crib, the pushchair, the car seat and a dozen or so little blue outfits all for the premature baby, in just the right designs, stopping in mother care to pick up a cute little bunny and a pair of sleep-suits from herself. In fact, she and Regina Naylor had an agreement to be nice to each other and they had found that through it all, they had become quite friendly, much to each, others bemusement when they realised over coffee one lunchtime that they had so much in common, and understanding that Lexy was no longer a threat to her marriage by the time coffee breaks were acceptable again, Regina had done the adult thing, deciding to get along with her other halves ex-mistress for the sake of the company by keeping herself busy looking after Jake who was a real handful and took up most of her time.

As Sarah and Lexy passed through customs, they spotted George getting into a sports car at the front of the building, driven by a thirty something year old woman wearing the biggest sunglasses they had ever seen.

Good God, check her out said Lexy, bet her tan looks a bugger wearing those things, Jacky Onassis eat your heart out  Sarah laughed and tugged the embarrassingly shocking pink giant amongst suitcases behind her. It had cost her an extra eighty five pounds at the airport back in Manchester with all the extra weight, but Sarah never travelled light. She liked choice, even if it meant not wearing over half the clothes she took with her on all those holidays, very often bringing back more than she had taken and complaining when it cost her even more at the holiday airports when returning to fly back to Manchester.

They hailed a taxi and jumped into the rear seat leaving the driver to fit their luggage into the boot. Lexy’s bag was not the problem, she always travelled with the minimum of fuss but her friend’s case took some maneuvering and lots of huffing and puffing was heard before the driver slammed the lid and sat back into the driver's seat. He turned around to ask where they would like to go.

Hotel Rafael in Albufeira please Sir Sarah instructed and they sat back to enjoy the thirty minute journey to their destination.

The holiday was a last minute booking for Sarah, she was usually so well prepared and booked her trips at least a month in advance, but after sitting with her friends two nights beforehand, discussing everything but the kitchen sink over a few bottles of Rioja and a variety of Tesco crisps and Pringles, she had decided she needed to take another break, get some sun on her face and just relax. Although she didn’t really have much to do these days anyway and was still in the decision making phase of her wealth, but she had grown tired of the Manchester rain lately and that was that. Picking up her laptop she asked who wants to come? before clicking on IceLolly.com; to see what was available, she had never got out of the habit of using cheaper holiday websites even though her bank balance suggested she could afford other much more expensive breaks in the sun.

There were cries of, if only I didn’t have the kids and he would go mad, before Lexy pulled her mobile phone from her handbag, winked at the ladies and hit speed dial two on the key pad which instantly connected her to Aaron Naylor. Within minutes she was dancing around and grinning from ear to ear as her boss had reluctantly given her two weeks paid holiday leave, that was on top of the three weeks she had already taken whilst decorating her small apartment and the odd day here and there for girlie shopping or visiting her mother, who was always going to be speed dial number one on her phone since having no family of her own and no serious enough man presently in her life.  Sarah booked two weeks in Albuferia, Portugal for two, each with their own room with a balcony and a sea view. The cheaper alternatives were soon cast aside after speaking with the enthusiastic young travel agent who was able to book something much more suitable to Sarah's needs which included a five star hotel with a pool bar and close to one of the many beautiful beaches on The Algarve.

As Lexy chatted on about everything and nothing much during the thirty minute journey, Sarah closed her eyes behind her new Prada sunglasses and nodded her head in agreement every now and again so that Lexy wouldn’t be offended, although nothing much had offended Lexy for most of her adult life, breezing through it without much of a care in the world making friends with everyone and anyone along the way. Sarah was quiet though, thinking back, the last few years had been difficult for her, but she was lucky that she had her wonderful family and friends and extremely fortunate that she had been left a small fortune by her partner although they had only been together for just a few short years when he died. Thoughts came rushing back as Sarah laid her head back on the comfortable seat in the back of the taxi. She had met Nick after her divorce from Will, who she had been married to for just over sixteen years when some short skirted nymphomaniac with big breasts had thrown herself at him on a stag weekend in Dublin in May 2000. It transpired that they had several subsequent rendezvous, her visiting Manchester, and he making up some cock and bull story about Golfing weekends away with the guys, until eventually the twenty four year old became pregnant and test results proved that it was in fact Will’s baby several months later.

Sarah started divorce proceedings immediately, even though Will begged and pleaded with her to give him a second chance. But the trust had gone, she was hurt and bewildered, she thought they had a good strong marriage and partnership, since they met when she was nineteen and he was twenty one, they had fallen madly in love after their first meeting on New-Year’s Eve  and were married within eight months in the August of nineteen eighty five, having four children together quite quickly, three sons and a daughter who they had both longed for and adored after the boys came along.

The divorce had been hard to bear for Sarah and she had eventually suffered a mental breakdown, keeping herself going only by drinking copious amounts of red wine every night with toast

Reviews for It's Love or Something

[Cindy Mahoney · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The writing is horrific all over the place,no timeline and no dialogue. Ridiculous!