Carole Matthews > Quotes

“We all assume that we have our tomorrows to look forward to, but we never truly know what’s waiting just around the corner.”
― Carole Matthews, The Chocolate Lovers' Diet

“You shouldn't marry someone you thought you could live with, you should marry someone you thought you couldn't live without.”
― Carole Matthews, For Better, for Worse

“It said if you were nervous about committing yourself to marriage and it was because you doubted yourself and whether you would make a good partner, then that was only natural and you should go ahead. It also said that if you doubted that the other person was right for you, then you should stop it.”
― Carole Matthews, For Better, for Worse

“One day you’ll wake up and you’ll realise that you’re OK again.”
― Carole Matthews, Paper Hearts & Summer Kisses

“I realize that I am powerless to resist him. There's nothing I can do; this man has a GPS navigation system that takes him straight to the center of my heart.”
― Carole Matthews, The Chocolate Lovers' Club

“Loving someone doesn’t mean that you only care for them when you feel like it. It means that you forgive them when they mess up.”
― Carole Matthews, The Chocolate Lovers' Diet

“I think we did love each other. In our own way. But we simply didn't love each other enough.”
― Carole Matthews, The Cake Shop in the Garden

“Life is too short to spend your time pining for someone who isn't here.”
― Carole Matthews, It's Now or Never

“There are times when chocolate really is the answer to all of your prayers.”
― Carole Matthews, The Chocolate Lovers' Club

“Men don’t usually leave cosy relationships unless they’ve found someone who wears ridiculously short skirts and stockings.”
― Carole Matthews, With or Without You

“Sometimes people grow up together and sometimes they grow apart. You just have to try to make the best of it.”
― Carole Matthews, Paper Hearts & Summer Kisses

“He pulled her to the bed, undoing his trousers and hitching up her skirt as he did. Dragging down the top of her dress, he feasted on her breasts again, entering her with her thousand-pound dress tangled all round her waist. He thrust into her frantically and she came fast and furiously. They lay together breathing heavily and then she felt him harden again. Peeling her dress from her, he then lifted her from the bed, bending her over the chair by the dressing table. He came into her from behind, rutting like a dog, where she could see herself in the mirror, legs trembling, her breasts squeezed tight in his hands, being fucked by this handsome stranger. Lifting her again, he sat her on the dressing table, pressing her thighs around him as he pushed into her. She laid back, grasping at the table, scattering her jewelry to the floor, knocking over the table lamps, and came again.
"Better now?" he said, with a smile.
"Yes," she breathed. "Yes."
He took her hand and led her to the bed. "Want to open that champagne?"
"No." She curled up on the bed, This was what she'd wanted. Anonymous fucking with no chitchat, no foreplay, no commitment. It would be better now if he just left. "I'm tired." The truth was, she was exhausted. Physically and emotionally spent.
He lay down beside her, still stroking her butt. "You're one hell of a sexy woman," he said.”
― Carole Matthews, The Chocolate Lovers' Club

“But you look happier than you have in ages, so who am I to criticise? You go for it, girl.”
― Carole Matthews, The Chocolate Lovers' Wedding

“It’ll be fine. It will all be fine. And I wonder if I say it often enough, whether it will be.”
― Carole Matthews, The Only Way Is Up

“Sometimes I’ve been known to overshare and that gets you nowhere.”
― Carole Matthews, The Chocolate Lovers' Christmas

“I hope he loves you as I should have.”
― Carole Matthews

“I bury myself in the comfort offered by my bar of white vanilla and olive oil chocolate, enjoying every luxurious morsel. This isn't strictly pure chocolate as it's made with cocoa butter rather than cocoa solids (these things matter to the aficionado) but it's so great that Clive is allowed to keep it in his repertoire. It's like a grown-up version of a Milky Bar---but I'd never dare say that within earshot of Clive. I let its velvety texture melt slowly on my tongue and let out a long, steady exhalation of breath. Joy is returning to my life.”
― Carole Matthews, The Chocolate Lovers' Club

“yellow fingers because he smoked a lot. And he danced”
― Carole Matthews, Calling Mrs Christmas

“There’s already someone that I love very much. I just never knew quite how much until it was too late.”
― Carole Matthews, The Chocolate Lovers' Wedding

“He was a married man - it was too cruel, too calculating, too bloody unfair of him to pursue her in cold blood.”
― Carole Matthews, Let's Meet on Platform 8 / A Whiff of Scandal

“I stare at the woman in question and wonder what happened to the concept of sisterhood. If women stopped doing this kind of thing to other women, there would be a lot less pain in this world. Men, I'll admit, are probably a lost cause, but we could stop cheating on other women with their husbands, boyfriends, fiancés. Jo props herself up on her elbows and gives me a defiant look which, frankly, I'd like to wipe off her face---preferably with a cricket bat. "Who'd have thought that I'd be seeing so much of you," I say. "And so soon."
Marcus's breakfast dish looks rather rattled.
"I can explain," Marcus says as he tries to dismount from the table with some dignity. Difficult to pull off.
"I'm all ears."
"This was the last time," he says earnestly. There are raspberries crushed on his knees. "The last time ever. I was having one last fling before settling down. As soon as you moved in, I was going to be completely and utterly faithful."
Jo doesn't look as if she knows about this particular part of the arrangement and she glares darkly at my fiancé. Perhaps she'll be sneaking into his flat and filling his clothes and his shoes with leftovers and leaving stinking prawns in his soft furnishings. Because, for sure, I won't be troubling myself to do it again.
"You called to tell me you love me while she was here?"
Jo clearly doesn't know about that bit either. Marcus chews his lip.
I stare at Marcus as if I'm seeing him for the first time. He looks ridiculous---yogurt on his knob, smears of berry juice all over his chest and legs, breakfast cereal in his hair. I burst out laughing. Marcus laughs too---nervously.
"Oh, Marcus," I say, clutching at my sides. "I can't believe you've done this again." I double over and belly laugh right the way up from my boots.
"I love you," he says bleakly, and then he continues to laugh along with me, although it sounds forced.
When I finally wrest control of my voice once more, I say softly, "I'm not laughing with you, Marcus. I'm laughing at you."
Slipping my engagement ring from my finger, I put it delicately into the bowl of yogurt that's lying by Jo's feet. Then, picking it up, I tip the bowl upside down on Marcus's head. Yogurt drips slowly down his face. He licks it from his lips. Perhaps he can get Jo to do it for him when I'm gone. "This really is the very last time you do this to me, Marcus.”
― Carole Matthews, The Chocolate Lovers' Club

“We hate our friends' kids. You get completely stressed when Kyle and Lara bring their boys to our home and they put their chocolaty fingerprints over everything and nearly burst your eardrums with their incessant noise. You have to take a handful of Nurofen the minute they've gone.”
― Carole Matthews, The Chocolate Lovers' Club

“And that's when the doorbell rings. Marcus freezes. As do I. "That must be your friend," I somehow manage to say, even though my throat is trying to close.
Marcus is clearly torn between remaining immobile and opening the door. The bell rings again.
"Want me to get it?"
"No," he says. "No."
I stand, not knowing what to do while he slowly springs open the door. Not surprisingly, Marcus's old schoolfriend is a petite and extraordinarily pretty brunette. She steps into the apartment and kisses Marcus full on the lips. "Hello, darling," she says.
Marcus recoils slightly and casts a worried glance in my direction which his friend follows.
"Hi," I say, extending my hand as I try to force my face into a smile. She takes it. Her hand is cool and delicate, as slender as the rest of her. "I'm Lucy," I continue brightly. "Marcus's girlfriend."
Now it's her turn to recoil.
"This is my friend, Joanne," Marcus says tightly.
I look at my lover. "An old schoolfriend. That's what you said, isn't it?" I turn back to Joanne. "Which school did you go to with Marcus? Primary? Grammar? Or maybe it was the harsh school of life?"
His old schoolfriend looks at him blankly. "I don't know quite what's going on here, Marcus," she says. "But I don't think that I want to be a part of it." She turns away from him, spinning on her heel toward the door.
"Jo," Marcus pleads as he catches her sleeve. "Don't go."
And I think that's my cue to leave. "Oh, Marcus," I say sadly. "Do you have so little respect for me?"
"I can explain," he says, and I notice that he's still looking at Jo rather than at me.
"You're welcome to stay and listen to it," I say to Jo. "I'll be the one to leave." Marcus does nothing to stop me, so I hitch up my gym bag once more and move toward the door. "It's been nice meeting you," I say to Marcus's new love. "You'll enjoy your dinner. It smells wonderful. It even covers the smell of a rat. The chocolates are great, by the way. I hope you both choke on them.”
― Carole Matthews, The Chocolate Lovers' Club

“Come out and say goodbye like an adult.'
'I don't feel like an adult. I was going to be brave and sophisticated and light-hearted but I can't.'
'I love you.”
― Carole Matthews, Let's Meet on Platform 8 / A Whiff of Scandal

“I debate adding kisses, but don’t. They might be misconstrued as something more than being friendly.”
― Carole Matthews, Paper Hearts & Summer Kisses

“How do you talk to a married man who has just declared undying friendship for you?”
― Carole Matthews, Let's Meet on Platform 8 / A Whiff of Scandal

“Some days the universe simply conspires against you.”
― Carole Matthews, The Chocolate Lovers' Club

“Men and women can't be just friends. Two minutes ago we were talking just like friends and the next minute I'd stepped over the boundary and we were discussing things that friends shouldn't. It's only another small step for mankind for us to be doing things that friends shouldn't either. And by tomorrow I'll have forgotten what I said and we'll be back to boss and secretary again. Yet you'll think of it every time you see my desk piled high with paperwork.
That's the difference between men and women.”
― Carole Matthews, Let's Meet on Platform 8 / A Whiff of Scandal

“However, the truth of the matter is that just because you love someone it doesn’t mean that they’re right for you.”
― Carole Matthews, The Chocolate Lovers' Wedding

“I never go out with married men! It's an unwritten policy of mine. I'm a very principled woman.”
― Carole Matthews, Let's Meet on Platform 8 / A Whiff of Scandal