All You Need Is Love

Gabrielle loved it here; she'd grown up in this house and knew every nook and cranny of it. Being here brought back so many memories, memories of her mother but not always happy ones. Watching her mother so sick and helpless, trying to make her mother laugh when she was in obvious pain, then her dying and her father and Gabby coming to terms with it, those were the sad memories and sometimes, just sometimes they outweighed the happy times.

She quickly fed the two dogs that were jumping around her feet then left the cottage to drive to the hotel. It was Sunday morning and usually she didn't work on a Sunday but for some reason she just didn't want to be at the house alone and she had some paperwork to finish. At least at the hotel there would be company; she could find someone to talk to that would take her mind from Tre.

After Tre had left on the Friday she'd tried to get hold of Mike but he and Brittney had mysteriously disappeared. They must have been packing their stuff at the same time as Tre and then when she went up to their room they'd gone. At the moment she had knocked on the door they must have been checking out and then they had got into another taxi and drove off before she'd even got back downstairs.

There was nothing she could do now. She couldn't contact Tre at all. She was going to get his phone number from Mike just so that she could call up and see how Frankito was and also to see how he was too and now it was eating away at her because she couldn't contact him.

When she got into the office at the back of the reception area there was a carrier bag on her desk. There was a yellow post-it label stuck to the bag with Beth's writing on it.

It said Gabs. These were left in Tre's room on Friday evening. I thought you'd better take care of them, I didn't want them getting into the wrong hands. They'll be on eBay before you know it! B x

Gabrielle opened the bag and pulled out a hoody. It was the hoody that Tre had worn at the beach that day. She took it out and smiled to herself remembering him wearing it when they had the stone skimming competition. She automatically put it to her nose and caught the mixture of new washing and 'masculine' smells combined.

How was he and how was his son? She was desperate to know but there was now no way of finding out. She put her hand into the front double pocket of the hoody and her hand touched something hard. She brought the object out and it was the heart shaped stone that he had found on the beach and suddenly her heart missed a beat all of a sudden. She checked the bag and there caught up in the corner was an eyeliner pencil; it was well used and quite blunt. She ran her finger over the blackness on the end and remembered his bright blue eyes with the smudging around them but the last vision of those eyes were the sadness held within them and she didn't like that memory at all.

She put the items back into the bag and opened her desk drawer and there looking up at her was Tre on the cover of the magazine that she had bought the other day. She had brought it into work pass on to Paul but then decided against it. She decided to keep him in her drawer instead where she could open it and see his face peering up at her and she could look at those hands whenever she wanted.

She slammed the drawer shut cursing her own stupidity. What was she playing at? I'll probably never see him again and anyway may be it was best that they hadn't spent the night together after all. What would have happened? He'd have gone off to finish his tour and that would have been it anyway. His mission would have been accomplished. She remembered the words of Mike's about Tre having to focus on a woman everywhere he went and Beth telling her he was a womaniser. God she was foolish thinking that there could have been something in it.

Beth popped her head round the door then. "Oh you are here, I didn't see you coming in are you OK?" she asked.

"I'm great," said Gabrielle deciding to put the experience behind her and forget this Tre Cool. She had to move on, she'd come this far and she wasn't going to let some drummer guy hold her back.

"Jeremy is here," said Beth almost wincing and not sure about Gabrielle's response. Jeremy was a good guy, an old guy that was a kind of friend of Gabrielle's father's years ago. He was rich and had been her rival when buying this place. He had been desperate to get his hands on it.

Gabrielle rolled her eyes. "What does he want?" she said. This she could do without.

"To see you of course," said Beth, winking and going back out to the reception area.

Gabrielle once again smoothed her skirt and went to the reception desk where Jeremy was waiting. He was way too overweight and had a constantly flushed face. He was a heart attack waiting to happen.

"Gabby," said Jeremy holding out his pudgy hand and taking hers "Looking good, looking goo,." he said taking her in with his leery eyes. She put up with him, he wasn't all that bad really she knew his type and knew also that he loved his wife and wouldn't try anything with anybody. It was just his way.

"Thanks Jeremy, how's Maria?" she said. She couldn't help but like this guy, he was a family man deep down.

"Maria's good and we have a new grandchild on the way. Anyway I'm here for a round of golf and thought I'd pop in for a coffee. I was surprised to find out that you were working on a Sunday," he said.

"I don't generally come in but I have some paperwork to catch up on," said Gabby.

"So... have you changed your mind?" asked Jeremy, raising his eyebrows.

"No, the answer is still a huge no Jeremy. Please don't ask again," she said then smiled at the cheek of him.

"A man has to try," said Jeremy. He loved Gabrielle she would make a good catch for someone. She often looked lonely and he'd always wondered why, someone like her shouldn't be alone.

"If I ever sell up, and when I do, you'll get the first refusal," said Gabrielle, laughing at him.

"I'd better," said Jeremy "You know how I wanted this place back then but you've worked wonders on it, it's more beautiful than I could have made it," he said looking around him. "Anyway how's your old Dad doing? I saw him quite recently with Lorna. How great that they've managed to keep in touch all these years, geeze it must be about 35 years ago," he said reminiscing and putting his finger up to his chin in thought.

"Lorna? You know Lorna? How?" said Gabriele suddenly intrigued that he knew her father's new girlfriend.

"From years back Gabby; your mother and father knew her well. She suddenly went to live in France, I can't remember when. I didn't realise that they still kept in contact," he said.

"No actually, neither did I," said Gabby "I hadn't seen or heard anything about her before until recently."

"Oh... maybe I'm mistaken but she sure looked like the Lorna that we all grew up with," he said gathering up his golf bag "It was the hair that did it, the red hair."

"Anyway you have a good round Jeremy," said Gabrielle.

"Thanks, and see you soon," he said and wandered off trying to work out what he had said that had left Gabrielle with such a puzzled look on her face.

Monday...

Gabrielle glanced at her watch, 4pm she read. It had been quiet for a Monday she thought but she was pleased with herself, as she had finally caught up with most of her paperwork over the past couple of days. She yawned and stretched her arms up above her head. She opened the draw to get out a calculator and there he was again, just to remind her, Tre on the front of the magazine. She cursed herself. She was definitely going to give this magazine to Paul. She took it out of the drawer and placed it on her desk as a reminder to leave a message for Paul to help himself to it. She then got on with finishing off her figure work but couldn't concentrate as her eyes kept on getting drawn to his face, his hands...

"Gabby?" said Beth putting her head round the door.

"Hmmmm?" said Gabby tapping some numbers into the calculator but not looking up.

"I think you need to go up to room 511, a doctor was called there a short while ago. There may be something wrong with one of the guests," she said, "do you think you'd better check it out?" she looked anxious, flustered slightly.

"Why wasn't I informed earlier?" said Gabby slightly annoyed. She quickly grabbed her jacket from the back of the chair.

"I didn't know that a doctor had been called otherwise you'd have been the first to know," said Beth watching her friend go off to the elevator. She watched Gabrielle hastily press the button and she looked up to see the floor numbers change.

Gabrielle knocked on the door of room 511. She hated times like this when guests took ill; she felt it was such a huge responsibility on her part. It didn't happen very often but it did put her slightly on edge when it did. She shuddered then wondering how it would be if someone died in her hotel.

There was no reply so she knocked again. What was going on? I thought the doctor was here? She thought fumbling around for her key card that was hanging on a chain from her skirt. She inserted the card. The lock clicked and the green light indicated that the door could now be opened.

She entered the room to find the curtains closed. There were many candles twinkling and lit around the place and as her eyes adjusted she saw him. Tre. He was dressed in a white doctors coat with a stethoscope hanging around his neck. His blue eyes twinkled in the candlelight, his eyebrows jiggling slightly as he watched the reaction on her face. He was just standing there with his wonderful smile, looking at her.