How to Catch Butterflies Read online

  How to Catch Butterflies

  Samantha Fontien

  To my husband, my best friend the love of my life; Mr. F, Thank you for believing in me and giving me the courage and time to chase my dream. I would still live in a cardboard box in a rainy city with you.

  Love you Always & Forever

  To my Babies: I hope you are as proud of me as I am of you both. Love you so much, my

  Darlings.

  To MY GIRLS, my inspiration, my soul mates in female form. Thanks for believing in me.

  Love you all so much Beverley Hollowed, Mrs. G, My Sorrella & Tanya Ross (Buddy of buddies). What would I do without you? You are all my partners in crime, and you know

  what I’m talking about.

  To my amazing Beta Readers Jade Zivanovic, Kristy Louise, Sally Ramsdale and Wendy Neuman Wilkin thank you for reading my book. I couldn’t have had a better team to work with: A huge thank you from the bottom of my heart

  Thanks to all the members of various clubs who helped me with info etc. along the way: The Writers Club, Club 50k & Indie Gals Connection, The Amigo’s. All you guys rock.

  Thank you, Shelly Pratt for my ‘Love at first sight’ cover-design. You are truly awesome in every way, and to Jade Zivanovic for your help with editing and formatting and general advice, you girl are awesome sauce and then some. Same to you as well Bev.

  I would also like to thank Author P J Belden and Titan InKorp for all their support.

  Samantha Xx

  P.S. I did it Daddy. Love you. Xx

  Chapters Playlist...

  1. Dreams & Gypsy– Fleetwood Mac

  2. Goodbye Heartbreak – Lighthouse family & Shout – Tears for fears

  3. Never tear us apart – Inxs

  4. Alive and Kicking – Simple Minds , & Mad world & Pale shelter – Tears for Fears

  5. Landslide & ‘The Chain’– Fleetwood Mac

  6. Get down tonight - KC and the sunshine Band & Let’s get it on & Sexual Healing-- Marvin Gaye

  7. My Hero – Foo Fighters & Hero - Nickleback

  8. Brothers in Arms, – Dire straits & I’ll be there for you – Bon Jovi

  9. Wish you were here & Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd all of album for Dark Side

  10. Cloudbusting & Running up that hill – Kate Bush. Macklemoore & Ryan Lewis – Thrift shop.

  11. Umbrella – Rihanna & Sowing the seeds of love – Tears for Fears

  12. Swords of a thousand men - Tempole Tudor & Coming around again – Simon Webb

  13. Time to say goodbye – Kathryn Jenkins & Amoureus – Kiki Dee

  14. Every breath you take – Police & Run for your life. - 6 Day Riot

  15. Personal Jesus – Depeche Mode

  16. Everything counts – Depeche Mode studio & live versions

  17. You can go your own way – Fleetwood Mac & How do you like me now? – The Heavey

  18. Words – The Christians & Wonderful Life - Black

  19. Sex on fire – Kings of Leon

  20. I drove all night – Cindi lauper & All of my heart - ABC

  21. The bitterest pill (I ever had to swallow) - The Jam

  22. Locked out of heaven – Bruno Mars & Anything can Happen - Elie Goulding & Everything must change – Paul Young

  23. You do something to me – Paul Weller & Comfortably numb – Pink Floyd

  24. Wicked Game – Chris Isaac’s & Come back and stay – Paul Young

  25. Weather with you – Crowded house

  26. Right here right now – Fat Boy Slim & You got the love – The Source

  27. Enjoy the silence – Depeche Mode

  28. I see you baby – Fatboy Slim remix

  29. That’s entertainment & Beat surrender – The Jam

  30. Insomnia – Faithless,& Room in your heart – Living in a box & Broken Wings – Mr. Mister

  31. Come away with me – Norah Jones

  32. Someone saved my life tonight - Elton John

  Chapter 1

  ‘Dreams…’

  It all happened so quickly. . . .

  As the blood slowly dripped into her mouth she crawled, reaching for the phone, thankful it wasn’t too out of her reach. She could hear him upstairs in their bedroom, ranting and smashing as he went from room to room. He was like a tornado on its destructive path which was their flat.

  She shook her head slightly, trying to focus her swollen eyes and pressed the redial button. Thank God she had been speaking to Lucy earlier that evening.

  Please Pick up.... Please pick up....Please pick up Rebecca willed....Quick... as the noise came closer, getting louder and nearer.

  “Lucy help me please,” She cried out, and then suddenly the call broke off into screams.

  The line went dead....

  * * *

  Rebecca had been with David for several years; she had only just turned seventeen when they started dating. She was a typical teenager besotted with him. And I suppose he was with her, in the beginning.

  She thought he was good-looking and had what she thought at the time a great body. David did karate so he was physically fit. She was quiet infatuated with him—as a seventeen-year-old would be with her first serious boyfriend. He knew he had a catch the very night they met. It was at one of the nightclubs in the local area. He was on a night out with the boys. Both he and his friend had made a play for her that night. The loser would back off: Both lads vying for the gorgeous Rebecca’s attention.

  When the slow songs started to play, Rebecca found herself in almost a human tug-of-war between the two young men. Each held one of her hands; Rebecca dropped one set of hands. She had made her choice as she was lead to the dance floor by David. She had dropped his friend’s hand. David was the victor, he had won.

  That night when he walked her home they found out they had lots in common. They had actually gone to secondary schools right next door to each other, him in the Boys and her in the Convent Girls School. She even at one point had her form-room in the Boy’s section of the building. The schools had adjoined buildings on shared property. On his last year of school he was even in the form-room above hers. Rebecca was a huge believer in fate. And because of this, she was convinced they were destined to be together forever; how naive she was.

  They did have fun at first, in those early years. There was passion, well, what one would expect from a teenage couple, both with very little or no experience. She had been a virgin when they met. He had told her he had only slept with six and that was including her. God only knew what his number was now? Hers was still only the one: him.

  She had known things had run their course with her and David. She knew that after the first four years. God, they had so many ups and downs over the years: far too many. She had grown within this relationship of seven and a half years. Playing house and ALL the responsibilities that went with it. David didn’t. No: David did his own thing, which was always about him. She thought they had all the time in the world.

  They had even gotten engaged; it was nothing major; it wasn’t as if they had set a date or anything. It was more of a promise. David had probably only asked to keep her sweet. If she wore his ring it would keep her loyal, focused and his. He knew she would never stray, especially with his ring on her finger. Maybe that’s why he wanted to live together; she was very settled. He could go out as often as he liked, with his boys. She would wait eagerly for him at home; he was the only one out of his friends that could say ‘her in doors’. His friends would often call round; they were all always made welcome at any time, night or day.

  “Dave mate, you’re a lucky fucker. Not only is she gorgeous and the figure of a pin-up girl, boy can she can cook.”

  How they envied him and he knew it. She had made it a love
ly home for them. She was proud of what they had achieved.

  Their house was a typical terrace, which had been converted into two flats; it had two bedrooms, one of which he used as his gym. She had given the front ‘curb appeal’, with the two potted planters, and a neatly trimmed road facing evergreen hedges. She even paid for a gardener to do it, so that it was done properly. They shared a communal hall with people upstairs. Their flat was housed on the ground and first-floor levels.

  Their entrance door was on the ground level, which led into a small hallway leading you directly to the medium-sized period-featured sitting room. She had her couch positioned in the bay window. It had a beautiful old-period fireplace which didn’t work, but she didn’t care as it looked lovely. She had asked the Landlord if they could paint when they first moved in. He said that he didn’t care as long as he didn’t have to buy the paint and do it, and to include no gaudy colors.

  After that it had taken her nearly a month to have the whole place done exactly how she wanted. Only three months earlier the landlord had said he wanted to sell. He would give them first refusal and at a good price. She had been saving ever since for the deposit.

  She had only recently done the floorboards; they were stripped and varnished over one weekend. Nothing would have been done if it had been left to David. The lads had been a real godsend. They were brilliant; they helped out with the majority of the work that was done to the property.

  She loved her kitchen: ‘a kitchen was the heart of a home’ she would say. She even painted the kitchen cupboards in a natural cream gloss; it had totally brightened the room. When they had first moved in, it had been an old yellow aged pine which was so dated. Rebecca’s spare time was lovingly spent painting and doing up the place.

  It had paid off. It looked really fabulous, she was very proud of it and its contents. She would rush home from work preparing meals, tidying, just generally playing house. And she had her small garden, which was mainly paved except for a small area of grass. It had branches from the neighbor’s ash trees, which hung over the fence into theirs. Rebecca would hang bird feed on those so she could watch the birds feed from the kitchen window as she washed up. It wasn’t much but it was home and she made it a lovely one.

  Yes maybe they should have ended it many times; there were certainly a sufficient amount of countless opportunities. They had actually finished a few times over the past seven years for a week or so. Or a month tops. This was due to his cheating in some form or another. But stupidly Rebecca always took him back.

  You would have thought that his constant cheating would have been enough to finish it once and for all, but alas no. I suppose if she had to be honest with herself she was frightened. She was frightened of the big bad world that was out there. ‘Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t’ she thought. Especially when she looked at who their friends were, his friends.

  Not one of hers. She had let hers go over the years. Even Lucy, out of all her friends..... It was Lucy, who she missed the most. David knew the friendship, the bond they shared. If Lucy had been around, he would have lost his control on her, as she would never have stood to see the way he treated Rebecca. She would never have held her tongue and watched quietly. That’s why she had to go.

  Lucy and Rebecca had met on their first day of secondary school. Together they were double the trouble. Both were each gorgeous looking girls. They were like sisters, a team; they were a force to be reckoned with.

  Each turned heads as individuals, but together they’d stop men dead in their tracks. David was more than threatened with their friendship; he would nag at her, breaking her down with cutting comments about anything he could, from going out to what she was wearing, to Lucy being a bad influence. It got to the point that it was easier to let Lucy go. When she had found Lucy six months earlier working for one of her clients she knew she had to reconnect with her, for Rebecca that too seemed like fate.

  David was now twenty six; she thought he would have grown up over the years. But no, David was still the same nineteen year old lad she had met many years ago. To be quite honest he completely mystified her.

  Rebecca and David were like chalk and cheese. He had no drive for anything whatsoever except for his beloved Karate. She now thought of him as a boy in long trousers. He behaved like an adolescent boy most of the time. He would sulk, or walk out, not letting her know where he was going, or what time he would be back if he did come back.

  Rebecca remembered her promotion and the conversation that came with it. That was only two months earlier with one of her two bosses. She said to Rebecca now she was the Manager of the recruitment agency. She would see that things would change between her and David. That had actually shocked Rebecca, and from her mentor of all people.

  At that time.... She truly believed she loved David with all her heart and the idea of them not being THEM horrified her. “Why would it split us? He would be proud that I’m Branch Manager.” She had laughed it off at the time; she really did truly mean it.

  Her boss explained that she had gone through exactly the same in her own life and recognized the signs. She said Rebecca had drive. David....he was a nice guy but !... she said....but !...They were too different and would find that they actually had nothing in common at all. Both she and David we’re travelling different paths. She said “that was fine! IF...if that was the direction she was travelling ...But it wasn’t.

  “You Rebecca are going places girl, you’re hungry, I know.... I see it!.... look how far you’ve come: You’re Our Top Consultant, and you’ve changed the core business, you made a one man section turn into the main business and turn it into something amazing and highly profitable in a market we didn’t think or know was there... I’m proud of you. You’ve achieved so much”.

  Rebecca soaked it up, she adored her boss. To hear those words coming from her Mentor was as fantastic as the promotion and huge salary that went with it. She was right: Rebecca was hungry and she was at the top of her game at work.

  She was Head-Hunted daily by clients and other Agencies. She trained all the staff that came into the agency: she taught them what she knew; exactly the way her mentor had shown her years before. There was even talk of her getting a Directorship.

  Rebecca’s career was perfect, she managed that like a well-oiled machine, she worked damn hard and it was paying off. Shame she couldn’t get her personal life in some shape or order i.e. David.

  She worked hard at everything she did, it was the only way she knew.... it was how she was reared. When she asked any of her staff to do something they themselves would have seen her doing it the day before. She led by example that was her motto, she was very well respected and liked by her staff and the company Directors; she had made them a lot of money over the years.

  She had secured some ‘Big Hitter’ clients that the company had spent years trying to break into. It was Rebecca’s down to earth, honest style that had done it. She never messed her clients around like other agencies who would throw enough mud at the wall hoping it would stick. She hated that all too common approach, her competitors had within the industry.

  She worked damn hard to prove that she was different to them, from those competitors. Although she had targets of how many applicants must go to each vacancy/position she would only send two of the best and believe me she had the best.

  All her applicants were interviewed by either her or her team. The trick was to chat away to them, relaxing them, enough to be comfortable to show their real personality and not the interview persona they were giving.