Charlotte wanted to follow her dreams, but would she ever meet someone to share them with?
Sue McVerry
I just need to buy some of those really thick walking socks, and I must stock up on plasters. We don’t want to get blisters. And I’ve managed to get enough anti-malaria tablets for us both. I can’t believe it’s only a month away. It feels like we’ve been planning it for ages, doesn’t it?’
Charlotte suddenly realised that Adrian had hardly said a word all evening. He’d barely touched his favourite pizza either. They had arranged to have dinner at Luigi’s to finalise arrangements for their forthcoming trekking holiday to visit the wild mountain gorillas in Rwanda.
Charlotte was beside herself with excitement. As a little girl, she had been entranced by a film called Gorillas in the Mist. She had promised herself that one day she would see them for real, not in a zoo, but in their true habitat.
‘Are you OK?’ she asked, thinking perhaps he was getting one of his migraines. But it was worse than that.
‘I’m sorry, Charlotte, I can’t come with you. I know how much it means to you, but the truth is I’m scared. I’ve never been to Africa, and I don’t think I’m cut out for gorilla trekking. There might be all sorts of wild animals in those mountains. The guidebook even mentions buffalo. That’s before we come face to face with gorillas! And there are all the vaccinations... Anything could happen. It just isn’t my idea of a holiday. I really am sorry.’
And that, it appeared, was the end of the matter. He wouldn’t listen to her reassurances that they would be quite safe. The gorillas were used to small groups of human visitors.
When they said goodbye at the end of the evening, it was obvious to them both that it was also the end of their relationship.
Mulling over this turn of events as she strolled home, Charlotte thought it had probably been on the cards for a while. It seemed that they were not such a good match after all.
She had met Adrian online, when her friends persuaded her to sign up to a dating website.
‘It’s really clever,’ said Francesca. ‘They use algorithms to pair you up with like-minded people. By the time you meet, you already know you have lots in common.’
Charlotte thought this all sounded a bit too mathematical. Surely taking time to discover what you had in common was actually part of the fun? But she agreed to give it a go.
She made it clear on her pr
