Chapter 66
66
‘I think it’s over.’
Those were the first words Daisy said to Bex when she walked into the apartment several hours later. Theo had already gone and had taken Johnny with him, leaving her alone with her thoughts, which were, quite frankly, a mess.
For a while, she had considered going down to Ezra’s just so that she could cuddle Bruno and feel a little less alone, but using a man who had already said he was attracted to you for their dog wasn’t exactly the right thing to do, and she knew that. And so she sat there, alone, in silence until Bex returned.
‘What do you mean, it’s over?’ Bex said, dropping to her knees beside her. Daisy hadn’t even thought about what time of day it was, or that Bex had probably come home during her lunch break to check on her.
‘Me and Theo, I think we’re over.’
‘Don’t be silly. You can’t be.’
‘I think we are.’
Bex tilted her head to the side as she looked up at Daisy. It was like she didn’t believe anything she was saying. ‘But he proposed. He proposed four days ago, Daisy.’
‘I know. And I wish to God he hadn’t. I wish we could go back to the way things were before.’ At some point during the morning, Daisy knew she had cried, but she wasn’t sure when or how long the tears had lasted. Now, though, her throat felt red raw. As if it was all she had done.
‘Well, what happened?’ Bex asked, not wanting to accept ‘it’s over’ as an answer.
‘What didn’t happen? My mum thinks it’s a terrible idea. His family despise me. We have vastly different financial situations. He thinks a small wedding is sixty people, and we don’t even know if we want the same things in life, like children. That’s a big deal. And then you need to add to that the fact he doesn’t even trust me.’
This was the one that stung the most. This was the thing she couldn’t get her head around. Though Bex merely shook her head.
‘That’s not true. He does. Theo trusts you implicitly.’
‘You didn’t hear what he said.’
‘Well… in his defence, you did come into my flat saying that you’d spent the morning having fun downstairs with my hot neighbour.’
‘That was not how I worded it,’ Daisy said indignantly.
‘It was pretty close.’
Daisy pouted. ‘Fine, but did you take that to mean I’d cheated on Theo?’
‘No, of course I didn’t,’ Bex said, shaking her head. ‘But I knew where you were. I hadn’t spent the morning looking for you. Look, can I be honest with you?’
With a shake of her head, Daisy drew a deep breath in. Honesty came without question in their friendship, so the fact that Bex had to clarify it didn’t make her feel good.
‘Of course you can,’ Daisy said.
‘I think you’re putting too much pressure on the idea of getting married. You said you want to go back to how things were, so why don’t you do that? Forget about the engagement. Just go back to how things were before.’
‘But we can’t, can we? It’s not possible. The truth is out there now. There’s no real future for us. Not with the way our families feel.’
‘Your families don’t matter in this. That’s the whole point of getting married, isn’t it? That you get to choose the family you want to spend your life with, rather than having to survive the one you were born into?’
At this, Daisy let out a sad chuckle. She’d said something remarkably similar to Theo the night he proposed, and it had felt so true at the time.
‘Maybe, but it doesn’t change how I don’t know what I want in terms of children while he’s dead-set. It doesn’t feel right stringing him along if I might decide I never want them. Looking at it objectively, I can see why our parents don’t think it’s going to work.’
‘Why are you looking at it objectively?’ Bex asked. ‘This is love. It’s the least objective thing there is out there. Please don’t do this to yourself. I meant what I said last night. If I had found my Theo, I would have settled down years ago.’
‘Maybe,’ Daisy said. She couldn’t even look her friend in the eye any more. ‘Or maybe you’re just wise enough to see that it’s nothing more than an illusion. And we had a good run. That’s for sure. But I think it’s better this way. It’s better now, before we’re any more committed. This way, he’s got time to find someone who can give him what he really wants in life.’