Second Chances in Tenerife

Ian Wilfred Second Chances in Tenerife Copyright © 2023 by Ian Wilfred This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are used fictitiously and any resemblance to persons living or dead, business establishments, events, locations or areas, is entirely coincidental. No part of this work may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the author, except for brief quotations and segments used for promotion or in reviews. Cover Design: Avalon Graphics Editing: Laura McCallen Proofreading: Maureen Vincent-Northam Formatting: Rebecca Emin All rights reserved. For Ron Acknowledgements There are a few people I'd like to thank for getting Second Chances in Tenerife out into the world. The fabulous Rebecca Emin at Gingersnap Books for organising everything for me and who also produced both kindle and paperback books. Laura McCallen for all the time and effort she spent editing the book, Maureen Vincent-Northam for proofreading, and the very talented Cathy Helms at Avalon Graphics for producing the terrific cover. Finally for my late mum who is always with me in everything I do. CONTENTS Acknowledgements Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 1 March As Jill walked into the airport departures lounge, it hit her: this time she had a one way ticket. She was leaving England for the final time for a new start in Tenerife. After just over four hours on the plane, and then the short taxi ride to her little house, her new life would begin. Actually, perhaps a bit longer than that, she thought, noticing that the departures board said her flight was delayed. This was not what she needed, especially as the lounge was packed and she couldn’t see a seat anywhere. As she glanced around, she was relieved to see that there was one spare seat. Oh, she hoped that the woman sat next to it wouldn’t be too much of a chatterbox. In her head Jill was saying, please don’t talk to me, I just want to be left alone. ‘Hi, excuse me, sorry to disturb you, but is anyone sitting here?’ ‘No, it’s free,’ the woman said, smiling at Jill. Jill smiled back and sat down, turning slightly away from her seat companion and busying herself organising the contents of her bag. This was going to be okay. There was no indication the other woman was planning to initiate a conversation, which was perfect as Jill didn’t know if she was ready to talk to anyone. Making herself comfortable, she readied for the long wait just as an announcement was made to say that the Tenerife flight would be delayed for at least three hours. ‘It looks like I’ll be sat here a while,’ Jill found herself saying aloud, suddenly realising that with so much time to spare she’d need to break her one flight rule: don’t start a conversation with the passenger next to you. Now, she wasn’t completely anti-social, she could cope with a ‘hello’, but that was about it, really, because from her past experiences she knew if someone spoke to her the first thing they would ask is why she was travelling alone and she just didn’t like talking about her life to complete strangers. The woman looked at her, a bit confused, so Jill explained, ‘That’s my flight that they’ve just said is delayed.’ ‘Oh, me too, that’s my flight as well. I’m Karen. I’m off on holiday for a couple of weeks and I’ve never been to Tenerife before. Come to that, I’ve never been on holiday by myself before. I’m really nervous – not about the flight but, well … about not being with anyone. Sorry, that must sound silly to you. Look, I’ll stop talking. I know there’s nothing worse than a stranger starting a conversation when you just want to be left alone.’ Jill found she felt guilty. Was it that obvious that she wanted to be left alone? Looking at Karen she could see the other woman clearly didn’t want to be by herself and Jill found herself wanting to make her feel better, to reassure her that she would have a lovely time. But how could she do it without getting in too deep and potentially having to listen to Karen’s life story? She had enough of her own life to figure out at the moment without hearing about someone else’s… ‘I’m sure you will have a lovely time, Karen. Are you staying somewhere nice? By the way, I’m Jill. I’m by myself as well, and to tell you the truth, I’m really happy about it.’ ‘I only booked this holiday yesterday – it was a spur of the moment thing – and I’m staying at one of those big hotels in Costa Adeje. I just needed to get away from everyone. You see, me and my other half just split up and everyone was feeling sorry for me and I just couldn’t cope with all the questions and sympathy. Being honest, the last thing I need is a holiday in a busy hotel. In fact, I don’t need a holiday at all… What I really need is to sort my life out and get on with things. Too much thinking is not good for me.’ ‘I know what you mean. I’m off to a little house I own in Los Kalanchoe – it’s quiet and very close to the hotels in Adeje just around the coast – and a little like you, I’m escaping lots of friends feeling sorry for me. Nothing to do with a man in