Lydia still mourned the end with Theo occasionally, because nobody could love that deeply and let it go without being affected. But maybe it was okay to love someone with your whole heart and move on to another stage in your life, go in different directions. It didn’t mean to say you never should have been with that person in the first place, and being with Theo for so many years was something Lydia would never forget.
Now, in the garden of their new home together in Bath, Jonathan knelt down beside her and kissed her cheek as she pushed the last bulb deep into the soil and covered it up. Then he filled the watering can for her, using the outside tap. ‘I’ll take a shower and then how about we go into the city for dinner?’
‘Sounds good to me.’
‘Did you dance this morning?’ He loosened his tie after his day at the office. He was back to being an architect, as planned, but went off skiing at least twice a year. At New Year’s Lydia had gone with him to Switzerland, skiing for the agreed one day, after which she’d found a dance studio to go to, a spa to relax in and hours on end to read books while her fiancé was skiing to get his full dose of adrenaline rush.
Jonathan disappeared inside and Lydia was tempted to follow and watch that broad chest when he took off his shirt, feel the smoothness of his skin and hold him against her. They were still in that phase of new coupledom, everything was moving fast because they were so right together, and it was every bit as exciting as she knew it should be.
Lydia smiled as she went inside to fill a glass of water from the tap, and she wondered, as she dropped in two ice cubes from the freezer, whether they’d be talking about starting a family soon. Jonathan had been dropping all kinds of hints, perhaps to test the water, she didn’t know, but she was enjoying every minute.
The suntrap of the courtyard had made her sweat and she was thirsty as anything. She downed most of the glass until she spotted an envelope addressed to her on top of the table. Jonathan must’ve picked it up from the mat when he got home. She didn’t recognise the handwriting, so when she’d put down her glass she prised open one end and pulled out what looked like a clipping from a Suffolk newspaper. Attached was a short note and already she’d seen the signature: it was from Anita. She read the note which said she hoped Lydia was well, that Theo still had a way to go but was better than they could possibly have imagined. She went on to say that he had moved out of home and was living independently and Lydia felt a huge wave of relief wash over her. Theo would’ve hated being dependent on anyone for too long, least of all his mum.
Anita signed off saying to keep in touch but already Lydia knew it was unlikely. Since she’d ended things with Theo there’d been minimal contact with anyone in his family apart from a Christmas card from Anita last year and another from Grace. Lydia hadn’t realised how difficult it would be to say goodbye to Theo and his family who had been a part of her life for so long, and despite their differences, she’d even grown to admire Anita for her strength and tenacity throughout their ordeal.
On the newspaper article was one of those small post-it markers, a neon-pink slip of paper poking out, and when Lydia’s eyes fell on the page she felt a huge smile spread across her face because there, staring back at her, was Theo. Dressed in a rugby shirt and shorts with mud all over his legs, he wasn’t back to playing the game but during his recovery he’d chosen to train a kids’ rugby team in the village he now resided, and it was for a group of kids who had been through their own difficult journeys. Some had fought cancer, others had been in accidents not too dissimilar to his. The businessman she once remembered had given way to this man who understood a completely different aspect of life, one on a deeply personal level, and it warmed her to think of the way he had changed and grown when life threw a cruel curve ball at him.
There was a paragraph about halfway through the article giving an overview of what had happened to Theo and his progress since, telling readers he was slowly regaining his fitness and apart from some interruptions in his memory, a mild loss of hearing and ongoing therapy, he was living a relatively normal life. But it was the last paragraph of the article that particularly caught her eye and told her that this was what they called closure, the ending neither of them had anticipated but a good one nonetheless. Theo was engaged to a local girl, Rebecca, and they were to be married at the church in the village this August.
Lydia felt goose pimples cover her body and a tear of happiness briefly try to sneak out. Theo had changed, but his determination to succeed was still there. He’d overcome an almost impossible situation and given it his all to come out the other side, and she felt proud to have shared part of his life with him.
Smiling now, she folded down the paper and put it, along with the envelope and the letter from Anita, into the recycling bin beneath the sink. It was all part of her history now.
Theo had her past.
And Jonathan had her future.
THE END
