Wishful Thinking by Lynette Sofras Read Free Book Online

she forgot to breathe. Christian Goodchild! No wonder that name had sounded familiar. She suddenly felt utterly stupid and naïve. What must he have thought of her? Why hadn’t he said anything to her? And how could she have thought for a moment that such a man might be interested in her?
     
    She cast her mind back to their evening in the snow and remembered the young carol singers with the rather cheeky little boy. Sing with us, mister - even they had probably recognised who he was. And she’d spent the night at his parents’ hotel not knowing. She must have provided them all with a good deal of amusement. How they must have laughed at her ignorance. Not one of them had bothered to enlighten her. And she had thought…she had hoped… Foolish, silly woman! How could she?
     
    When she came back to the present, the opening credits for the film Ben and Katya had been waiting for were filling the screen.
     
    “I think I’ll just go upstairs and start putting our things together, Ben. We ought to set off home after lunch as I don’t much feel like driving in the dark.”
     
    Ben nodded, eyes glued to the screen, but Katya rose and followed her upstairs.
     
    “I’ll show you my photo, if you like,” she offered.
     
    Jess gave her a faint smile. “That’s alright, Katya. I don’t need to see it now.”
     
    “Did you really meet him? Honestly and truthfully?”
     
    “I’m not sure, Katya. Maybe it was just somebody like him,” Jess replied feeling too deflated to enter into further conversation on the subject. She began to collect up Ben’s toys and put them into a bag.
     
    A few minutes later Katya reappeared clutching a photo, an 8 x 10 glossy with a facsimile signature sprawled across it. It was Chris, or rather Christian Goodchild, as he signed himself and he smiled up at Jess with those same beautiful eyes which had penetrated her soul, albeit fleetingly, a few nights previously.
     
    She allowed herself to gaze at the face for a moment – not longer, as that wasn’t necessary. She’d thought about little else since the morning of Christmas Eve and it was well and truly imprinted on her memory. Now, she thought, came the harder task of erasing it.
     
    “And this…Amber person – are they, you know, together?”
     
    Katya shrugged and tossed her thick brown curls. “On and off, though more off than on these days, more’s the pity.”
     
    Jess gave her a quizzical look. She didn’t want to be indebted to Katya, having harboured such ungenerous thoughts about her, but she seemed to be a font of knowledge on the subject and the temptation was overpowering. “Oh? And why is that, do you think?”
     
    “Well they have a history, you know,” Katya said, sounding far older than her twelve years. “They were a big item a few years ago but something went wrong. The fans were devastated when they separated, of course. But after the band split, she went off with Adam.”
     
    “Adam?”
     
    “Adam Ainsworth – from Wishful – the lead guitarist – you know. He’s gorgeous. ”
     
    Jess repeated the name of the band to herself. Yes it did sound vaguely familiar to her, but there were so many of these bands nowadays – many of them one hit wonders. She certainly could not recall any of their music.
     
    “You seem to know a lot about them, Katya,” Jess said politely. It didn’t seem so many years ago that she could speak of her idols in that knowledgeable way – as if they were all her intimate friends.
     
    “Durr! It’s my job to know about them or I wouldn’t be able to write my blog.”
     
    Jess stared at her, blinking hard. “You write a blog on a group that’s no longer together?”
     
    “Well the band split but it re-formed again with some of the original members. Now there’s talk of a reunion with Christian and Amber and that’s mega news. Do you want to come and see my blog? If you follow it, you can get my newsletter sent to you.”
     
    Jess could think of no