Page 37 of Let Me Love You (Excess All Areas 5)

“Are you and Asher okay? I know last weekend you were…nervous.”

“We’re fine. It’s just been a lot. I feel like the processor in my brain is at max capacity.”

Her mum clucked softly. “I can imagine. Focus on the future. You’ll have a happy home. And children. And a good husband. You’ll both be consultants until then.”

Chaya didn’t correct her mother. She had no intention of giving up work when they had children, but she’d save that battle for another day. “Yeah, it’s just. Mum…can I tell you something? Without you judging me?”

“Of course, sweetheart.”

“Ben and I…we…we’re not going to see each other as friends anymore. And it really hurts.”

Her mother’s sigh was hard to read. “Oh, Chaya. This is why you need to focus on the future. I’m sure it hurts, right now. Ben has been a very big part of your past. It’s bound to hurt, for a moment. But you’ll have Asher for the rest of your life. And you’ll never need to hide any part of who you are, forever. Trust me, this is the easier path in the long-term.” Certainly from the wedding onward.

Which reminded her. No one from the band, or Nan, had replied to their invitations, and she had a feeling she knew why. They were waiting to see what Ben decided. And given where they were at, she had a feeling he would say no.

A part of her was disappointed. He’d been with her through some of the most important moments in her life. But could she marry another man with his eyes on her?

“I have to go, Mum. I just arrived where I’m going so I’ll speak to you later.”

As she pulled up onto Ben’s street, the band that had been around her chest for the last few weeks squeezed even tighter. It was partnered with a sense of foreboding as grey and gloomy as the Manchester sky.

A storm was coming, which felt like humungous foreshadowing.

Ben’s house felt like her home.

Her parents’ house didn’t feel that way.

Her apartment, though nicely decorated, didn’t feel like home.

Asher's apartment only ever felt like a place to stay.

But Ben’s house had felt like home from the moment she’d helped him pick it.

They’d walked through the door after viewing twenty other run-down fixer-uppers. Each one had been worse than the previous. But it was the only way to get on the property ladder as Manchester became gentrified.

She climbed out of the car, locked it, because…Manchester. And looked up at the windows Ben had gotten replaced one summer. The cement pointing on the front that they’d attempted together, with Chaya doing everything she could reach while standing on the ground, Ben had done everything higher on a ladder.

“Something wrong?” Ben said, coming to stand alongside her to look up at the brickwork.

Chaya sighed. “No. Was just thinking about the day we came and saw this house for the first time.”

“It was snowing.”

“Yeah. One of those rare days in Manchester when everything comes to a standstill.”

“Do you remember there was that bus stuck under the bridge near the old Blockbuster?”

“I’d forgotten about that. And all those kids were throwing snowballs at it on their way home from school.”

They both smiled, but then she sighed.

“Are you feeling okay, after your accident?”

“Yeah. Had a mild headache and felt a bit sore this morning. Asher said I should go after the guy, say he stopped too hard, but he didn’t. It was all me. I was tired and distracted and late.”

“Hopefully Asher came and looked after you, yeah?” Worry for her etched his face.

“Not exactly. But he did send an Uber so I didn’t have to drive again.”

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