A Perfect Cornish Escape by Phillipa Ashley Page 0,77

Dirk, but Marc has made me see that there’s love out there for me.’

Judging by the happiness radiating from Amira when she talks about Marc, Amira clearly thinks she might finally have turned a corner … Has she found the best cure for her heartbreak?

‘God, give me strength!’ Tiff said, with a snort of contempt. ‘I can’t take much more. This is even worse than I expected.’

‘You could say that,’ Dirk murmured darkly.

She read on, groaning in derision and muttering. It was typical of Esther’s style, loaded with cheesy clichés, and littered with typos that the sub hadn’t picked up on – which suggested the story had been slotted into the first edition with indecent haste. Tiff might have done a happy dance of glee at the terrible writing and errors, if she hadn’t been annoyed on Dirk’s behalf.

She threw down the tabloid. ‘You do know that Amira might not even have said any of this? It could have been cooked up by her publicist or her words were taken out of context. There’s even a possibility Esther paraphrased them or made them up herself. She’s done it before.’

Dirk sighed. ‘Thanks for trying to soften the blow but we both know she did say this – or something like it.’

‘I’m sorry it’s upset you. It’s a shitty piece of journalism. The Herald is going further downhill.’

‘Is that all you care about? The quality of the prose?’

‘Are you implying I don’t care about the effect on you?’

‘I think you should read to the end,’ he said.

‘I don’t know if I can bear to. It’s such rubbish.’

He folded his arms. ‘Read the rest.’

There was something in his tone, a downbeat edge almost of defeat, that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She picked up the paper again and read the next few paragraphs to herself.

‘Dirk and I went our separate ways and I can accept that but I must admit I was heartbroken when I heard he was seeing someone else in Cornwall.

‘I cried for a whole night, but then I thought: this is the wake-up call I need. I deserved love too. I realised I’d been holding back from opening up to Marc because I was clinging to the past. Finding out my ex had moved on so quickly made my decision and I phoned Marc there and then and poured out my heart. We started dating a week later and I know it sounds like such a cliché, but now we’re blissfully happy.’

Tiff swallowed hard. Oh God, no …

‘Well?’ he asked.

‘I – I am a little lost for words. The woman they mention you’re with—’

‘Who do you think they mean?’ he murmured.

‘I’ve only been here a couple of months. How can they know we’re—’

‘Yes. How? Did you tell Esther we were seeing each other?’ he said ominously.

She gasped. ‘What? No, I bloody didn’t! How could you think that?’

‘I can think anything lately. Anything at all, where the press is concerned.’

‘Well, I didn’t tell her. She could have found out from anyone in Porthmellow with a few calls. I don’t want to be in vile Esther’s tawdry pieces of crap. I’d never reveal anything to her – least of all about someone I cared about.’

‘Cared about?’

Tiff bit back an angry reply. ‘Yes. Cared about.’

He gawped. ‘I thought you only wanted to sleep with me until you got a better offer in London.’

Stinging from his comment, she unleashed both barrels. It was so unjust. She cared about him more than he ever imagined. ‘That is so far beneath you, Dirk. So far below the man I thought I was getting to know.’ She dropped the newspaper on the desk table. ‘If that’s what you really believe then there’s no point in me staying here or seeing you again.’

He shook his head. ‘You know how well we get on. You know how much I liked – like – you but I can’t take that leap of faith. Not after what happened to Amira, not with someone – someone I …’

‘Someone you what?’ Her eyes blazed at him.

Rachel popped her head around the door. ‘Tiff? Dirk? Everything OK?’

‘Yes, thanks, Rachel. Everything’s perfect! I was just going.’

Without a backward glance, Tiff marched onto the quayside and along the harbour, not quite sure where she was going. For the first time since she’d left London, she was on the verge of tears. Dirk was hurt and upset, she knew that – she didn’t blame him – but there was no