Page 48 of Will You Stay Another Day?
‘It’s okay. I realise, now, how much our divorce affected you. And I’m sorry. So sorry. If there’s any way we could have avoided?—’
‘It’s not only that, Dad. Em fell for this guy last year. She got serious. He really let her down.’ Lili shrugged. ‘It’s safer to keep yourself to yourself.’
‘But that’s life, love. You can’t avoid putting your feelings out there.’
‘I have. All these years I’ve not committed to any relationship and life’s been great.’
John looked puzzled. ‘What about Em?’
‘That was a friendship! Please, Dad. I. Am. Straight!’
Now he rolled his eyes. ‘All I’m saying is, more like friendship, that’s what some marriages turn out to be, once the honeymoon period is over. How long did you know Em? Since primary school, since you were five? That’s almost a quarter of a century you were together. You’ve already had one of the longest relationships ever.’
‘But that’s different.’
‘I don’t think so. And yes, you got hurt in the end. Terribly. But if you had your time again, would you still choose to become friends with her?’
‘Of course!’
‘Right, and that’s how I feel about your mum. Despite how things ended, I wouldn’t change a thing. We had lots of good times. I loved her passionately – some people never know what that feels like. And we had you… Think of the many great times you had with Em – the nights out, the nights in, the travel, the laughter. You could have those with a romantic partner. Sure, getting close, it’s a risk. But I reckon people on their deathbed don’t regret the things they did do, they regret the things they didn’t.’
Lili looked at his third finger, where his wedding ring had been.
Was he right?
She didn’t regret one second of her time with Em, even though the loss, this last year, had seared her heart.
John helped himself to another scone. ‘This guy… has he got a name?’
‘Dylan.’
John slathered jam, then cream, onto another scone and bit into it, waiting for Lili to explain. So she told him about the texts mix-up, about their growing friendship, even agreeing to go on the Vegas trip together. Then about bumping into Jags and him revealing Dylan’s brother Harry was dead, not travelling.
‘He’s been lying to me for over a month, ever since we first met on Halloween.’ The tips of her ears turned pink. ‘That may not seem long to really get to like someone, to be so upset when you find out they aren’t who you thought, but…’
‘When you know, you know,’ her dad said. ‘The first time I set eyes on your mother, I knew I was going to do everything I could to be with her. We were in a pub, one of the busiest in Stockport, but when she caught my eye and smiled, it was as if we were the only two in the whole of the world, let alone that room.’
It had felt like that when Dylan came over to the shop to return the sock.
John rubbed his stomach in a satisfied manner. ‘Weird though… if he had some sort of agenda, wouldn’t it have been more clever, to have been honest about Harry? There’d have been more common ground, both of you having lost someone close. Maybe Dylan was having a bad day, and that evening pretending his brother was simply away was his way of dealing with the tragedy.’
‘But I opened up to him! Told him things about Em that I’ve not told anyone else.’
‘But, love, that was your choice. I’m not approving of this Dylan lying to you, but it could have been his coping mechanism.’
Maybe.
‘Does he seem a decent lad?’
‘Yes. But none of that matters. He lied, like the dicko Em dated.’
‘Language!’
They smiled at each other.
‘She went to that houseboat party because the guy was due to be there, and she wanted to show him she was fine, even though he’d been cheating whilst they were together.’
‘Unexpected, horrible things happen, love,’ he said firmly. ‘That young man’s lies didn’t cause her drowning.’
