Page 22 of Summer at the Cornish Garden Café

‘No?’

‘You’re… nice. Unless it’s all a ruse to get the lowdown on me.’ He met her eyes, but she saw that his lips were curving upwards. ‘Please tell me it’s not a ruse, Lena?’

‘I promise you it’s not a ruse.’

‘Thank you. For that and for…’ He held up their hands. ‘For this.’

‘So your ex-girlfriend… Daniella, wasn’t it?’

‘Yes. We broke up. I know everyone said that she dumped me, but I became insufferable after the crash. I was moody, angry and resentful, and I needed somewhere to direct that anger so I pushed her away with it. I couldn’t understand how a beautiful young woman like her would want me. I was physically and mentally scarred, unable to play anymore and therefore unable to keep her in the lifestyle she’d become accustomed to. The wedding she’d always dreamt of wasn’t going to happen and neither was the life she’d envisioned as a footballer’s wife. Not with me, anyway, but as you probably know… she found it with the very player I accused her of flirting with that night. Maybe there was something going on between them prior to that evening but I’ll never know, and I figure it’s not worth stressing about. It makes no difference now. And so I swore never to fall in love again.’

‘Oh Thomas.’ She covered his hand with both of hers and tried to convey that she cared and that she was here for him, that she understood how awful this had been.

‘I have counselling still. And physical therapy is ongoing. I have enough money to live on because of the ridiculously high wages I was paid, and the sponsorship deals I got before it all went wrong. Not enough to throw it away like I used to, but enough to live comfortably on. But I feel like I lost my purpose that night. I have my sister and her family, but I need a reason to get up every day and so I’ve decided to apply to the rescue sanctuary to work with the animals there. I hope they’ll accept my application because I need to do something positive now. It’s been three years of coming to terms with what happened and, in some ways, of feeling sorry for myself, but now it’s time to do something for others.’

‘That’s amazing, Thomas.’ Lena’s vision blurred again, and she swallowed hard. ‘I’m so happy you’ve come to that conclusion.’

‘Me too.’ He frowned then as he looked at her. ‘Lena… thank you. I don’t usually talk about all of this, but I felt I needed to explain to you why I can be so guarded. Your job made me suspicious, but everyone deserves a chance to be trusted and I should know better than to judge someone before I’ve got to know them.’

Lena gazed at the handsome man in front of her and wished with all her heart that she could take away his pain and make him feel like new. But no one got that chance. People could reinvent themselves; they could learn from their experiences, and they could move on, but they would always be the same person deep down. No one got a completely clean slate, but they could find ways to heal and to live a full life. She hoped that Thomas could find that for himself and that he wouldn’t always be so haunted by the crash and the trauma.

‘What about you?’ he asked. ‘Has life been kind to you?’

Lena sighed inwardly. ‘Life is kind, and life is cruel to us all in different ways and at different times I think, Thomas. We all have our burdens to bear.’ She swallowed. Could she tell him? Could she really open up to this man who already had so much on his plate? ‘Do you know what?’

‘What?’

‘I would really love to go for a walk. It’s a lovely day and I’d like to paddle in the sea, eat gluten free donuts and to drink some Cornish cider. How does that sound to you?’

His smile made her heart squeeze. ‘I would love to do that. Now?’

‘Now’s as good a time as any.’

They drank the rest of their lemonade then took the glasses into the café before setting off down to the village. They walked side by side, their hands almost touching and Lena felt the connection to this mysterious man growing like a flower opening to the sun. She’d known the first moment she set eyes on him that they shared something deep and now she knew exactly what it was. They both had scars and his might be more visible right now, but she did understand because trauma was trauma. It might come in different forms, but it always left its mark.

13

THOMAS

Thomas and Lena spent a very pleasant afternoon together. They walked along the coastal path, paddled in the sea then sat on the sand and talked some more. She told him about her life in London as a journalist and about how she’d come to dislike the constant striving for more and more outrageous stories to grab the headlines. Her distaste for it had grown to the point where she was seriously wondering how she could continue to stay in the job. She was taking a sabbatical for the summer to write her novel and hopefully find a way forwards that didn’t involve being a journalist anymore. Thomas respected her for that and hoped she would be successful. He knew how it felt to have to consider reinventing himself and so he understood how hard it would be for Lena too.

She was kind and funny and he liked her. There was nothing pretentious about her and it was refreshing. He’d been surrounded by fake people when he’d been at the pinnacle of his career, and it wasn’t something he’d enjoyed at all. Every time he went out to a club, he’d find himself wondering if the people whoapproached him were genuinely interested in him or in the fame that came with his career.

Sitting on the sand now, he said, ‘Growing up, I was a quiet lad. I didn’t like being the centre of attention. I liked playing football and that was all I wanted to do. When my teachers encouraged me to focus on getting my qualifications, I stubbornly ignored them because I thought I’d always play football. Unfortunately, they were right about having that to fall back on because things did go wrong for me. But it was too late by then to change everything.’

‘I don’t think anyone is sensible as a teenager. Isn’t that normal?’ Lena asked.

She was easy to talk to and he wondered if it was her training or if she was always this way.

‘I guess so. At school though, there were some people who seemed sensible. The ones who studied hard and were very driven to reach their goals.’

‘They had goals but so did you. They were just different goals.’

He nodded. ‘I wish I could have been an all-rounder.’

‘An all-rounder?’

‘You know… the teenagers who are intelligent and sporty.’

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