Page 117 of The Wedding Pact
Leaving the hospital and exiting into the brightness of this winter Saturday, August stretched. It was cold out, but she decided to take a long walk home, and have some time to listen to her thoughts.
She weaved her way back through the tree-lined streets on the outskirts of Bath and then alongside the river, where sunlight glinted off the water as if inspecting it before the temperature dropped to add a smooth layer of ice on top overnight. She walked with no rush, just her thoughts for company.
There was a very real chance she would be moving away from Elizabeth Street soon. What a shame that would be. But what a ride it had been.
While she’d lived there, she’d rebuilt her voice acting career.
While she’d lived there, she’d pushed herself to go on her first big theatre audition.
While she’d lived there, she’d found the part of her that wanted to reach for her goals again.
While she’d lived there, she’d reconnected with a part of her grandmother’s past.
While she’d lived there, she’d made friends that she hoped would give her another chance.
While she’d lived there she’d fallen for a guy she was playing house with, a guy who was kind, who challenged her, who was more adventurous than he gave himself credit for, who wore glasses when he read (ohmygod yum), and who made her heart race every time she came home to him. When he looked at her, she forgot all pretences. When he kissed her she forgot everything.
With every step that took her closer back to Flynn, August pictured the memories and life they’d built together since last summer.
All of this had happened while she lived on Elizabeth Street, but now it could all be taken away, she wasn’t worried. The drive to be the person she wanted to become had always been in her; if she lost the apartment, that wouldn’t change.
When she reached Elizabeth Street and started ascending the hill, her pace quickened. She needed to tell Flynn how she felt, it was time for her truth to him to be set free. What it would mean for the two of them, she didn’t know. Much like a lot of these truth-bombs, she couldn’t predict, or control, or influence, or fake her way through the consequences.
On the way up the hill she savoured every tree, every house, every memory she’d made on this street in her lifetime and the lifetime of memories she’d made living within her home since last summer. She breathed in the cold winter air, smelled the smoke circling overhead from wood burners up and down the road, touched her hand along the railings, imagining, as she always did, all those Austen-like people who had done this two hundred years ago.
August had wanted to live in the house on Elizabeth Street for so long, and even if it all ended tomorrow, it had been a dream come true.
Chapter 88
Flynn
Flynn paced the apartment, waiting for August to arrive home, waiting to tell her what he should have told her months ago.
When she’d sat on his bed that morning, he knew he couldn’t keep doing this dance with her. If he’d learned one thing from going back to Japan it was that now was the time to be brave, to take the adventures.
Who had inspired him to take this whole crazy adventure of a marriage pact in the first place? August.
She was the one who brought the person he wanted to be out of him. And he wanted to be with her.
The door opened and there she was, his flatmate, his faux-wife, his friend. August had flushed cheeks like she’d been walking fast in the cold air, her hair misted into tangles in the breeze. Her bright clothing was like a summer’s day no matter what the weather.
‘I need to tell you something,’ he blurted to her.
‘OK,’ she replied, her soft smile lighting up the apartment as she closed the door.
A thickness settled in the air between them, a thousand unspoken words, a future in other people’s hands, and more than anything in that moment he wanted to stride over to her and kiss her.
But he couldn’t, he didn’t know how she felt, only how he felt, so it was time for him to brave telling her.
‘I’m going to tell you something,’ he started. ‘I want to hear how it went at the hospital, I want to hear everything, but first you need to be the one to listen because no matter what’s about to happen, you need to know something.’
August raised her eyebrows and removed her coat, hanging it without taking her eyes off him.
His fear melted away as he looked at her, because this was August. If it all came crashing down at least she would know somebody loved her.
Flynn took a breath. ‘Because of you I feel alive and ready to see all the things I want to see. I want to take control of my life, and have adventures, and laugh, and love, and bring the woman I love on a sleeper train to Scotland with me.’ He paused, searching her expression. ‘Because of you, I’m happy. And not because you’ve changed me, because you’ve inspired me. And you need to know that you should never change. You’re impulsive and daring and you’re sunshine. I’ll always think that about you, no matter what you say next.’
‘Flynn—’ she started to interrupt, taking a step forwards. He held up his hands. ‘I know you and Abe have got close, and I respect that and I’ll back off and move out or whatever needs to be done, but I can’t keep being your flatmate.’ Flynn started to move towards her, he couldn’t help himself. ‘Even if the neighbours hadn’t caught us out, I don’t think I could have kept pretending to be married to you anymore.’
