Falling in Love

  Gudrun Frerichs

  Falling in Love

  Sometimes you need the help of friends

  Copyright © 2020 by Gudrun Frerichs

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  Gudrun Frerichs asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  Gudrun Frerichs has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

  First edition

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  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Thank You

  Preview of A Tuscan Affair

  Preview of A Case For Love

  Preview of Daring To Love

  Preview of Tides of Love

  Acknowledgement

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Home at last.

  Anna dropped the backpack and her duty-free shopping to the ground. Massaging her temples, she stretched her back like a cat rising from a lazy afternoon dozing in the sun. Exhausted after forty hours flying, waiting for connecting flights in crowded terminals, and squeezing into cramped airplane seats, her mood was anything but sunny.

  Hopes for a few hours of sleep spread out over two seats went up in smoke when a young man with the distinctive body odor of cigarettes and garlic boarded the plane in Bangkok and sat right next to her. There was no delicate way of putting it. He smelled awful, and after four hours in the sky, she’d run out of menthol tissues to breathe through. Then there was the terrible airline food. It surely was only one element away from being actual plastic and should’ve come with a warning label saying choking hazard. How she kept it down would always remain a mystery.

  Added to all this was the other, tiny, fist-size issue that caused her plenty of discomforts. Women in their second trimester make lousy travelers, especially in the morning, and especially if they can only dream of business class. Instead of fuming, she should have used the flight to find a solution to her problem. But it didn’t happen.

  She was doomed. Doomed. Bye, bye, lovely friends. Bye, bye, promising law career. Bye-bye ever getting rid of her student loan. 1982 had started out with so much promise only to turn into total crap. Angry with herself for being so out of sorts and turning a molehill into a mountain, she wiped away a tear that stole down her face.

  A glass of wine would relax her now. But that was out of the question. She raked her fingers through her hair and tried to remove the tightness in her chest with a couple of deep breaths. Perhaps everything would look brighter under the warm New Zealand sun?

  “Hey, here you are. You wanna grab a coffee? My shout.”

  She veered around. Oh, no, not smelly boy again! Not on an empty stomach and not with a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth.

  “Thanks, but no. I’m in a hurry.” The mere thought of coffee made her gag again. All she wanted was to get home. She missed her friends, their flat, their hugs, everything. It was high time to get out of the airport and into the crisp morning air.

  “Take care.” Anna picked up her backpack and her duty-free and left the arrival hall.

  “Sweet as. You’re not the only girl in town.”

  Relieved and not at all offended, she watched him take off. She wasted no time feeling sorry or guilty. Ten horses couldn’t drag her to a coffee place with or without his company. She moved faster now and walked up to the waiting cabs.

  “Ponsonby, please.”

  The cab driver stored her bags in the trunk while she stretched out on the back seat. Bright morning sunshine filled the cab as it snaked through the city traffic and the 1ZB Radio talkback show played in the background. Hearing the familiar rhythm of the New Zealand accent put a content little smile on her face. So, Robert Muldoon continued to hang around as the Prime Minister, and ABBA was still not together again. It looked like all was well, at least in New Zealand. After four months of traveling throughout Europe, she soaked up the familiar sounds.

  “Is this your first visit to New Zealand?”

  “I’m from Auckland.”

  “So, you’re coming home. You’ve been overseas then?” He glanced at her through the rear-view mirror. “Done your big overseas experience?”

  “Yes.” She closed her eyes and leaned back into the leather seat, hoping that would tell him to concentrate on the traffic instead of her. She wasn’t in the mood to chat with the cab driver. She had to figure out how to tell her friends why everything would change now. Would she even have friends after today? She couldn’t expect them to follow her into crazy land. She pictured Claudia, Christine, and Thea calling it a major blunder. Could it be the end of the friendship they’d had since high school?

  Once the cab came off Ponsonby Road and drove into O’Neill’s Street, they left the morning rush hour traffic behind… and as if touched by a magic wand, time slowed down. The old villas hiding behind tall trees lining the road gave the neighborhood an atmosphere of yesteryear. People had time for chats across the fence instead of rushing past each other as Anna had seen in London, Munich, and Athens.

  After the cab driver dropped her bags on the sidewalk, she hastened up to the house. Home at last. Her hand stopped in mid-air before opening the door. You’ve made your bed, now lie in it. How she hated her mother for citing this stupid saying at every twist and turn. Anna pushed that thought aside. She’d known for a long time she wasn’t lucky enough to have both good parents and wonderful friends.

  Nothing to declare, she’d told the customs officer at the airport. She grinned. She brought something into the country, but it didn’t pose a hazard to New Zealand’s precious biosecurity. Customs didn’t need to know about it. Her parents? She would tell them when the time was right. Her friends however needed to know straight away, because she, Anna King, was about to ruin all the dreams they’d concocted over the years.

  They wouldn’t be the Famous Four conquering the world after University. She could no longer promise to pull her weight for the trips they’d planned. She wouldn’t be able to work next year and put money aside for her share in the purchase of the beach house they’d seen up north. Her shoulders slumped. It’s official; she messed up big time and came adrift like a ship that had come off its anchor during a storm.

  Chapter Two

  Anna stumbled aside as the door was flung open.

  “Anna?” The shock was written all over Christine’s face. She stood in the open doorway, armed with a colorful beach bag, ready to leave. “What…?”

  “Honey, I’m home.” A
nna shrugged and heaved her backpack into the hallway.

  “I can see that. What happened? Shouldn’t you be sunbathing at a beach in Santorini right now?” Not waiting for an answer, Christine pulled Anna into a bear hug. “Did you run out of money? Say something.”

  “Ouch, I can’t breathe.” Anna laughed and lifted her head. She didn’t try to escape Christine’s iron grip. Thank heavens her friend hadn’t changed. Tall and slender like a five-foot-seven-inch beanstalk, with a chest that would never need enhancement surgery, she took control of the situation. As always, and forever, their commander-in-chief. Christine didn’t need a uniform. It would be a mistake to underestimate her, even with her cut-off jeans that enjoyed a second life as skimpy shorts, her platform-sandals and her Snoopy tank top that was half-slipping off her right shoulder. It’s all in the attitude, she always said.

  Christine shook her red mane like a thoroughbred ready for a photoshoot and shouted into the back of the house, “Thea, Claudia, come and look who the cat dragged in.”

  “I don’t believe my eyes.” Thea almost tripped over Anna’s backpack, but Claudia steadied her and pushed Christine aside.

  “Let me look at you.” Claudia held Anna by the shoulders and leaned back to inspect Anna. “Are you okay?” She was already behaving like the charge nurse she would become once her training finished next semester. It surprised Anna that Claudia wasn’t putting a stethoscope to her chest or checking her pulse.

  “Yes, I am.” Anna laughed and shook her head. “I see you’re on the way to the beach…” The rest of the sentence drowned in a mumble as her friends squashed her into a giant group hug.

  “Hold your horses. Ah! Woo-hoo! Hi Girls.” Her eyes moistened, and she blinked against the upwelling tears. She’d missed this show of affection for far too long. At that moment she knew she’d made the right decision by coming home and letting her friends help her with figuring out her next steps.

  “It’s so good to be back home. You have no idea.” She choked. “I missed you so much.” She was no longer alone. With them at her side, she would sort out her mess.

  Thea hooked her arm under Anna’s and pulled her into their living room. “You are so tanned. You look dazzling.”

  “I’m tired, hungry, and grumpy. I had the flight from hell and can’t imagine dazzling comes into it. Last time I dazzled…” Anna stopped. “That’s a story for later.”

  “Why did you come home?” Claudia, her voice clear and firm as always, came straight to the point. “I still don’t understand.”

  “Get off her back, Claudia. Don’t be a jerk. She said she’s hungry and tired. Can’t you see the travel exhausted the little lamb? Let’s sit and have a cup of tea first.” Thea, Camp Mother through and through, the one who always took care of people’s needs, and who believed she could resolve every problem with a bowl of hot homemade chicken soup, rushed into the kitchen and filled the kettle.

  Christine dropped her beach bag. “We were about to leave for the beach. The entire gang is meeting at the Takapuna boat ramp. Surf’s up.”

  Beach? She didn’t have a smidgeon of interest in beach-life and playing happy-chappy surrounded by Tom, Dick, and Harry and the rest of Auckland’s surf-crowd. “You guys go. I’ll unpack, shower, and settle back in.”

  “Fat chance. You have heaps of time for that later. We’ll only stay until midday. We’re coming home before it gets too hot. You are coming.” Christine looked determined, like a fox terrier unwilling to let go of its bone. But today she had to find someone else to boss around. Imagining all the questions of why, when, who, what, made Anna’s head spin. Nope. Not today.

  “I’m not coming. But you guys go. I need time to ‘land’ and put myself together again. I’ll be fine when you come back.”

  Thea put a stop to the argument when she returned from the kitchen, balancing four tea mugs in her hands and a plate of Marmite sandwiches. “First things first. Tea.”

  “You are a mind-reader, darling. Never let me go anywhere without a jar of Marmite again. I missed it so much.” Anna took a slice of Marmite toast and slumped onto the old couch they’d found years ago at an op-shop. Christine flung herself into the old armchair, and Claudia grabbed a dining chair.

  “So, why did you?” Claudia straddled her chair and leaned her arms on its back.

  “Did I what?”

  “Come home early. What happened? Did you run out of money? You wanted to stay till February, and here you are, in December. I don’t understand why you are six weeks early.” Claudia pierced Anna with x-ray eyes.

  “I’m not early. I’m late.” The words left her lips before Anna had time to shove them back inside. That was not the way she had planned her big revelation. Well, better out than in. There would never be a ‘perfect’ time to drop the bombshell. Holding on to her secret for all those weeks had been hard enough.

  Claudia frowned and shook her head. “No, darling, you’re early.”

  “Trust me, darling, I’m late.” Anna’s eyes held Claudia’s, willing her to grasp the subtext. She folded her hands over her tummy and let a soft smile grew in the corners of her lips.

  Thea’s mouth fell open. She stared at Anna. “No!”

  “You’re what?” Christine shot off her chair, making it topple over with a bang.

  “Pardon? You…?” Claudia waved her hand toward her still flat belly.

  “Oh yes! Very much so.” She nodded. “I’m pregnant.”

  What a relief to say it out loud. After weeks of trotting among strangers through Greece it was like lifting the lid off a pressure cooker. She’d only talked to the oracle in Delphi about it and asked for guidance. However, the famous boulder had remained silent. The old girl must have given up after thousands of years of trying to drum wisdom into people too pig-headed to follow her advice.

  “You’re sure?” Christine kept shaking her head and picked up her chair from the ground.

  “One-hundred-fifty percent sure. I even thought I felt the baby kicking, although the doctor said it would not happen for a while.” Her shoulders drooped. “That’s why I cut my trip short. I wanted to be home for Christmas and hoped you guys would help me with sensible advice.”

  “Holy crap.” Christine sat back in her armchair. “I need something stronger than tea.” She rested her head in her hands. “I don’t believe it.”

  “Believe it. Anna wants to become a lawyer, and I’ve never met one with a sense of humor. She wouldn’t come up with a joke like that. Shall I get a can of beer for all of us?” Claudia waited for everyone’s response.

  “Thanks, not for me. I’m fine with my tea,” Anna said.

  Claudia took out three cans of beer and filled a glass with water for her. “Of course, you wouldn’t drink alcohol, sensible and conscientious as you are. That’s why your news is so shocking. It makes no sense.”

  “Trust me, it shocked me too. I still am. When I look at my options for the future, I can get despondent.” Anna bit her bottom lip and glanced over at her friends.

  “Blimey!” Claudia gulped down a big swig and put the can on the table.

  Christine was the first to recover. “I want to know everything. Spill the beans, Anna, where, when, who, how?”

  “You want me to explain how? Chrissie, you disappoint me. I didn’t think I was among virgins.” She chuckled. One had to have a little fun among all this mess. That much she’d learned during her travels. “I thought surfing at the beach was on the program. I can wait till you guys are back.”

  “Hilarious! Talk!” Christine didn’t smile. “Start at the beginning. I’m in no mood for playing silly buggers.”

  “Give me a break. Where to start? I’m tired as hell. I’d prefer you went to the beach as planned. That’ll give me time to shower and have a rest.”

  Christine frowned. This was not going how she wanted. “Okay, but don’t think you can wheedle us into forgetting. You owe us a story.”

  Anna put her hands on Christine’s arm. “That was never my inte
ntion. I came home early because I hoped you guys can help me with this.”

  She watched her friends leave. It was better this way. It gave her time to arrive. She emptied her backpack and sorted the dirty clothes into a basket for the laundry and put the presents she’d brought for everyone on her nightstand.

  In the shower, she used half a bottle of shower gel to scrub the travel grime off her skin until she glowed red like a tomato. With her silver-blond hair dancing in wet curls on her shoulders, she hopped into bed.

  Through the open window, a warm breeze tugged on the white curtains and brought with it the crisp scent of mowed grass from the neighboring property. There was the odd chirping of sparrows and the calming clack-clack, chirp-chirp from a tui nearby.

  Home. The tension left her, and her body went limp.

  She listened inside to get a sense of her unborn child. Her child. A being she could give her unconditional love to. They said at seventeen weeks the baby was the size of a pomegranate. That’s hard to believe. Her body was already shifting and changing to embrace this miracle of nature.

  She closed her eyes and let the breeze take her.

  Chapter Three

  An invisible force pulled Anna away from the sweet child sitting amongst the most beautiful wildflowers she’d ever seen. She wanted to stay. The girl stretched her arms out to her as if to say don’t leave me behind. Not that long ago had she been whole, and her life had been perfect.

  Anna wanted to stay, resist the flow of consciousness that returned her to her waking life, unwavering, and without mercy. Her heart raced and the visions of her slumber evaporated like early morning mist.

  A car boot closed with a loud smack, and a nearby door opened. Slowly the thought fragments that had nipped at her grasp of reality turned into order and awareness. She was at home. Her journey that had started with the Human Rights Conference in Vienna had ended.

  “Anna?” Her bedroom door opened, and Thea poked her blonde head into the room. “Are you awake? We are back.”