‘How what?’ Wyatt’s shoulders bunched with tension.
‘How did you know each other?’ Titus leant forwards in his chair.
‘Know who?’ Wyatt placed his glass on the table carefully, his palms so clammy he was worried he’d drop it.
‘Edith.’ Titus watched him, his eyes filled with understanding.
‘Oh…’ Wyatt slumped back in his chair. ‘You guessed.’
‘There were some clues. The way you two reacted to seeing each other made me wonder at first if you’d met before. But I thought, hey, they’re two attractive single people, so of course there’s a chance they’d admire each other. However… there was all that tension simmering throughout the whole day…’ Titus grinned.
‘Tension?’ Wyatt sighed.
‘Hell yeah! It was like a pressure cooker whenever you got close to each other, and by the time we were making cocktails… well… I doubt I was the only one who noticed something was up.’
Wyatt hesitated, thinking back over the day and wondering if he had been obvious about the fact that he knew Edith and had some residual feelings for her. Because he did. He’d thought it was all in the past, but spending time with her had confirmed that his feelings were not gone. Edith still had the ability to affect him, and it disturbed him.
He still found her very attractive, but more than that… he still liked her and cared about her. About what she was thinking and feeling and how she was coping with all that life had thrownat her. When there were thousands of miles between them, he could pretend that he didn’t care about her, but when she was right in front of him, it was impossible to deny that Edith was special.
‘We met at university and fell in love. She was everything to me for a long time and then… I had to return to New York, and I couldn’t bear the thought of ruining her life with everything that I have to deal with. It simply wasn’t fair to burden her with it all. I thought about her and I looked for her on social media, scanned her Facebook page for new photos so I could see how she was. I thought I’d be able to see that she was OK, and that she was getting on with her life and that would be enough. But you know what it’s like… You can’t tell how someone is from just a photo, and it just made the longing for her worse so then I tried not to do it. Sometimes I weakened, but mostly I kept busy with work and avoided looking for her. The distance between us meant I could put her out of my mind for hours at a time some days. Sometimes, to relieve the need to see her, I’d write her letters. Letters that I never sent. Stupidly, I thought I could forget her.’
‘And how did it feel seeing her today?’ Titus spoke softly, his gaze scanning Wyatt’s face.
‘Hard and wonderful all at once. I wanted to hug her, kiss her and walk away from her at the same time. And she looked so angry when she saw me, like she hated me, and I couldn’t blame her. I deserve her anger because I didn’t deal with things well when I left. I didn’t show her the love and respect she deserved.’
‘What would you say to her now if you could?’
Wyatt pondered the question. ‘If I was brave enough, I’d thank her for loving me the way she did and apologise for being weak.I’d try to explain what made me leave her, and yet I still don’t know if I could be completely honest about that because it’s all so complicated.’
‘Life is complicated, Wyatt, but it’s also brief. Too brief to let the one person you love walk away. Perhaps this is life giving you a second chance to tell Edith that she’s the one.’
They fell quiet, the hush between them ruffled only by the clinking of glasses as the bartender collected them from tables and the low hum of conversation from other people enjoying a late-night drink.
Wyatt watched the bartender as he moved seamlessly around the room. Memories and regrets swirled above him like flocks of hungry birds. Inside him, Titus’ words stirred a glimmer of hope that he was afraid to acknowledge. What if he reached out to Edith? What if he told her everything? Would it make a difference, and even if it did, how could they possibly go backwards? So much had happened in the meantime, and there was so much they hadn’t shared over the past decade. Pain, grief, and remorse tangled in his chest along with the flicker of hope and the fierce attraction he still felt towards her.
‘I need to think about it,’ he said eventually, and Titus nodded.
‘You do that, buddy. You’ll be spending plenty of time around Edith over the next few months, so you’ll get a better sense of where she’s at too.’
‘I guess I will.’ Wyatt rose from his seat. ‘I’m going to head out and walk some of this off before bed.’
‘Good plan.’ Titus walked out to the reception area with him and then gave him a hug. ‘Sleep well, my friend.’
As Titus walked away, Wyatt whispered, ‘Maybe I’ll write a letter I’ll actually send this time.’
Out on the dark street, the quiet promise of the city enveloped him as he strolled along the pavement, his footsteps echoing the ache in his heart. Nothing was over; that much was clear now. There was anger, resentment and something more that lingered like the heat of a lover’s kiss. Perhaps he could find a way to make Edith believe that he had always cared about her. If not, he could at least be honest with her and hope that would provide some peace for his weary heart.
10
EDITH
Afew days later, Edith was back in Porthpenny. She’d gone for an early morning walk and then took her laptop to The Garden Café to work. It was a beautiful day, and she was feeling good after the weekend, despite having seen Wyatt unexpectedly. The fact it had all happened in London made it feel surreal. Being back in Cornwall, her safe place, meant that Wyatt now seemed far away again, as if it had happened in a dream. She had no idea what his immediate plans were, apart from the fact that he was in the UK for several months and that he would be at the wedding. He would also, she now knew, be involved in some of the build-up to the wedding as Titus’ best man.
She entered the café, looked around, and then selected the table with the green leather sofa. It was early on Monday morning, so the breakfast rush had yet to begin, and she didn’t feel bad for taking the table that would seat more people. It was her favourite spot at the café because it was comfortable and had a great vantage point so she could sit and watch the world go by. On warm days, she liked sitting outside, and after breakfast, she would head out and get some air while she worked.
She left her bags on the sofa, went to the counter and ordered a croissant and a latte from Thora, who worked there part-time.
After returning to the sofa, she got a notepad and pen from her bag, opened her laptop and turned it on. While it warmed up, she gazed at the blank screen and her thoughts drifted back to London. What had Wyatt thought when he’d seen her? There had been something raw and anxious in his expression, as if there were something unresolved inside him. Was he as haunted by their past as she was? Or was she simply wishing he still had feelings for her? Here, in this warm and familiar setting, it was hard to imagine that the past was anything other than past. But in London, when she’d been close to him, she’d felt a flicker of something that suggested there was more between them. But where could it go?
