“Errmm, no...” she hastily replied.
As Ellen served this man his drink they started talking.
“I’m Ryan Mc’Gill” he whispered into her ear, “what’s your name?”
“Oh, er, my name’s Ellen. Ellen Rudford.” She stuttered.
As the conversation picked up a little she asked him what he done for a living.
“Oh, I’m a famous author” he replied with a gigantic smile spread across his face.
“Really?!” she gasped, knowing that he was way out of her league.
“No” he laughed, “I’m a real estate agent.”
“Oh…” she nervously laughed looking very embarrassed.
After an hour or so, Ryan saw the light reflect off something behind Ellen, then he realised what it was.
“That necklace on the shelf… has it got the word ‘Forever’ carved into it?” he said looking straight past her.
“Yeah… I found it the other week after a fight had happened, but no one came to collect it. Is it yours?” She asked with a cheerless tone to her voice.
“Yeah, I was here that night. As soon as the fight broke out I left. I had no idea that this had fallen out of my pocket.” Ryan exclaimed.
“I guess it belongs to your girlfriend then” she said looking down into her glass, but by the time she looked up, he was already gone.
She knew it was too good to be true. Along came eleven o’clock and she gloomily walked home. All she could think about that night was Ryan. She couldn’t understand why he was so interested in her if he had a girlfriend. “Maybe they broke up.” She thought to her self. Who was she trying to kid? She saw the look on his face when he found it. Of course they hadn’t broken up. As the necklace stated, they would be together ‘forever’. So Ellen proceeded to get on with her tedious life but she knew that no matter how much she wished for this guy to come back, he wasn’t coming. Well, that’s what she thought. It was on a Saturday afternoon, whilst she was polishing her dining room table, there was a knock on the door. No one ever knocked on Ellen’s door, not even her own family. As she steadily moved towards the door she wandered who it could be.
“No!” she screamed inside her head.
“No! It can’t be!” but surely enough, it was.
There he was, again. Ryan. Why was he here? She invited him in, made him a cup of tea and told him to make himself comfortable. After a long, awkward silence, Ryan finally plucked up the courage to talk to her.
“I’m sorry” he apologised.
With Ellen looking confused, he repeated himself.
“I’m sorry for just leaving like that. It was very rude of me.”
“Well you found that necklace, you obviously had to go back to your girlfriend and tell her the good news” She said forcing a smile on her face.
“Girlfriend!?” Ryan said with a strained laugh,
“You’ve got it all wrong. She’s not my girlfriend, well not any more. That’s the reason I was in there that night. I’d gone over to see her and she broke up with me. That’s why I had the necklace; she told me that she didn’t want it anymore.”
“Oh.” Ellen whispered quietly,
“I’m ever so sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
“It’s not your fault” Ryan interrupted,
“You didn’t know…”
Feeling just a tad uncomfortable with the atmosphere following the conversation that they had just had Ellen was now determined to make it up to Ryan. Seeing as he wasn’t from Goldwarren she decided to take him into the centre of the village. Even though there wasn’t a lot for them to do in such a small place they still managed to have an enjoyable time. As they walked into a Starbucks Ryan ordered Ellen a Mocha and a Cappuccino for himself. They sat on opposite sides of a table in a quiet corner and just looked at one another.
“You’re the most prettiest being I’ve seen in a long time” he said looking straight into her eyes, and as he grabbed hold of her hands he asked her the question she had been dying to here.
“Would you like to go out sometime?”
Ellen looked over her shoulder for the hidden cameras, just in case she was being set up. Realising that Ryan was being serious she took a deep breath and inhaled the strong smell of coffee beans.
“Yes” she excitedly replied.
“I’d love to”
So that was it. Ellen had finally got a date with a man she had always dreamt about and it was on the following Friday. As the week went by this one day was all that she could think about. Well apart from Ryan obviously. She took a half day on Friday and went shopping for her hot date. Her cousin Gabby, who was the only person in her family that she was remotely close to, went with her. Ellen ran frantically around town trying to find the perfect dress but there wasn’t a shop anywhere that sold what she was looking for. That was until she reached a little store in the corner of town. There it was, on the mannequin in the window. A little black dress. Just the kind she was hoping for and it was reduced from £60 to only £25! She went straight in and bought it.
Ellen and Gabby made their way back to Ellen’s house with an arm full of shopping bags.
“Okay. 7:30” Ellen said out loud hoping she wouldn’t forget.
It was 5 o’clock; she had two and a half hours to get ready. Off she ran to her bedroom, took the dress out of it’s carefully packaged box and held it up against her petite body.
“You’ll look gorgeous” Gabby smiled holding the pair of sexy, red heels that Ellen had wanted so much.
“Oh my goodness” Ellen gasped. “You bought them for me?”
“It’s not everyday someone finds such a good looking guy. You deserve them” she winked as she placed them on the bed.
Before they knew it the time was 7:25.
“He’s going to be here soon!” Ellen screamed just before there was a knock at the door.
“Don’t worry” Gabby reassured her; “I’ll go and get it.”
As Gabby opened the door Ellen heard her say “She’s upstairs, she wont be long.”
She looked in the mirror one last time and smiled at her reflection. Walking down the stairs her long blond hair moved in the slightest bit from the breeze coming from the open door.
“You look absolutely perfect” Ryan beamed as he pecked her satin red lips.
They walked out of the door and Ryan escorted Ellen to his car and Gabby shut the door behind them.
“Where are we going then?” Ellen asked curiously.
“It’s a surprise” Ryan replied with a familiar grin on his face.
Sure enough, it was a huge surprise.
“Amore Ristorante!” Ellen gasped excitedly. You remembered!
“How could I forget anything that you had said to me? Especially your love of Italian food.” Ryan said locking up his car.
“Table for two” Ryan said to the host as they walked through the door.
“Ah yes...” he replied in a strong Italian accent “We have a special table right over here.”
A cream table cloth draped over the mahogany table and there were two lit candles in the centre, surrounded by pink rose petals. Very romantic. As they ate their food they talked about everything that was possible. After desert had been bought out Ryan picked up the conversation a little bit.
“Would you be my girlfriend?” he asked nervously as he pulled out a cubic zirconia ring.
“Of course!” she screamed. But she wasn’t bothered about the beautiful heart-shaped gem; all she cared about was the man sitting opposite her.
As they happily chatted on the journey home, they pulled up outside Ellen’s house.
“All of the lights are off, Gabby must be asleep” she said, checking the time. “I guess I’ll call you in the morning” she said as she went to get out of the car, but Ryan grabbed hold of her hand and kissed her. Getting out of the car smiling, she waved Ryan off and blew him another kiss. She went into the house and found Gabby asleep on the sofa so she put a blanket over her and went to bed.
Ellen awoke at 7:18 the following morning with an enormous grin plastered over her face. There was so much mess in her bedroom. Make up all over the dressing table, clothes all over floor and hairpins digging into her feet as she stood up.
“Time for a clean” she said to herself.
She plugged in her headphones and put in her iPod. Singing along with the music she tidied up everything. Remembering that Gabby was asleep downstairs she put on a dressing gown and make both of them a cup of tea. She walked down the stairs as quietly as she could, but she still managed to wake her up.
“Good night then?” Gabby asked sleepily.
“It was absolutely GREAT!” Ellen replied dancing into the living room. “Want a cuppa?”
“Sure, why not?” Gabby yawned.
“Oh. We’re out of milk.” Ellen said scratching her head. “Aha, can you hear that? That’s the milkman. Right on time.”
As she said that her favourite song came on; Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap. Turning her iPod up to as load as it could she couldn’t even hear herself think. But it didn’t matter, Ellen had never been as happy as this before. So she went out to collect the milk from her doorstep but as she bent down she saw something in the road. She walked over there and picked it up and as she looked she saw the milkman in his milk float.
“The milkman’s waving at me” she thought. So she waved back.
Gabby heard a thud from outside and some people calling for help. She went outside to see what was going on and the first thing she saw was Ellen lying on the floor in a pool of blood and milk. What Ellen didn’t know that the milkman was telling her to move out of the way. A car was coming from the other direction and Ellen didn’t here it and the people in the car didn’t see her. Ellen was finally getting the dream life she had hoped for and then it was all too quickly taken away from her.
