Free Tell Him About It by Holly Kinsella Page A

opposite her. She smiled and almost laughed as she pictured the look on Adam’s face in the bar earlier, when he had turned with his eyes lit up on seeing her in the dress. Rosie might have called Adam ruggedly handsome, but Sara was attracted to his good nature and his sense of humour, which shone in his boyish/roguish expression. As Sara lay in bed, half reading a novel, she also listened to various songs on her iPad (by Elton John, Michael Bublé and – of course – Billy Joel among others). Maybe the wine fuelled her imagination, but it seemed that all the love songs made sense and resonated, as if composed for her and how she was feeling. She had seldom, if ever, thought of Simon like she thought of Adam when listening to certain lines from her favourite songs. Something sang in her heart. But maybe it was just all down to the wine, she mused.
    Behind her hotel room door Adam raised his hand, to knock. Will she let me in? His heart was galloping, like a wagon train of horses out of control. I can’t stop thinking about her. And it’s not just the wine.
    Yet Adam paused, and lowered his hand, reining in his heart. Life doesn’t play itself out like a love song. If it had been any other woman he would have knocked on her door.
    Don’t hurt her.
     

 
    13.
     
    Grey clouds smudged the sky. Rain slapped upon the window in the morning and woke Sara up before her alarm. An annoying draught also whistled through a thin gap between the pane and frame. The birdsong from yesterday had disappeared too.
    Sara reached over to the bedside table and checked her phone for any messages from Simon, but it only flashed with a number of emails from work. Although Simon had not made the greatest of efforts to get in touch since being in New York Sara still felt guilty in having ignored him over the past day or so. She also felt guilty in relation to the thoughts and feelings she’d experienced for Adam. Although a few boyfriends had cheated on her over the years, Sara had never been unfaithful. In some ways yesterday felt like a dream. Let it remain a dream, a fancy, Sara told herself.
    When she met Adam downstairs at breakfast she reverted to a more formal stance towards him. She wasn’t rude or cold, but Sara did act in a far more pronounced business-like manner – similar to when they had first met. She talked about the weather and the forthcoming signings and events. Any other conversation seemed stilted. Sara was also conscious of mentioning, on more than one occasion (during breakfast and their train journey to Manchester) that she had a boyfriend. Adam duly took the hint and, although he still tried to crack the odd joke and have Sara open up to him, he too, for her sake, behaved like an author should with his publicist. He took consolation from the fact that at least he hadn’t succumbed to temptation and knocked on her hotel door the night before.
    Life plays itself out through sad songs.
    For the most part during the train journey they both sat in silence and worked. Adam finally finished his book proposal and emailed it off to his agent. To ease the tension and protracted silences Adam also pretended to be asleep on the train. It was while he pretended to do so that Sara locked herself in the toilet and cried, for reasons that she couldn’t quite understand. The heart has its own reasons.
    *
    The signing at the bookshop in Manchester was not quite a complete wash-out, but they only sold around a quarter of the books that they had sold in Birmingham. The events manager at the shop and Sara made certain excuses – blaming the rain or that people had started to go away for their summer holidays – but Adam had taken part in enough events to know that not everything works and he was neither angry nor upset. He filled up some of the time by speaking to a few creative writing students from the nearby university, who had come to meet him. As well as providing some advice and encouragement Adam also kindly bought the