Chapter 43
SARAH
I was so angry with Hal for making me chase him. My leg hasn’t ached for a while, but I really had to push myself to get to him and if I’m honest, when he finally stopped, if I hadn’t needed my crutch to balance, I’d have given him a whack with it.
But now, sitting on the wall, realising that in his ridiculous, self-pitying way he was trying to set me free, my mood has changed.
I’m exasperated, annoyed, but also amused and if I’m honest, a little bit touched.
Because he may not always get it right, but he’s certainly determined to do the right thing by me. And who can ask for anything more.
The people filming seem to lose interest once we’re locked in conversation and I’m glad. Because weird as we must look, this is probably one of the most important conversations I’m ever going to have in my life.
‘What do you think?’ I find myself saying.
I’m half expecting him to evade the question, but his eyes remain locked on mine. ‘I think,’ he says, ‘that if you’re really willing to take this broken man and try to make a life with him, I’d be an idiot to stand in your way.’
‘So you’re saying…’
‘Sarah,’ he says. ‘You’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.’
I open my mouth, but he holds up his hand. There’s more.
‘I think I knew that, even in our teens. I think I knew you were special, that we could be special together. And who knows, if things had gone differently, maybe we’d have been together all this time.’
I nod.
‘But maybe we wouldn’t have,’ he adds. ‘Maybe we’d have grown apart. Maybe back then we weren’t right for each other.’
I’m confused now, but let him go on.
‘Shit, I’m getting in a muddle here,’ he says.
‘No, honestly. Go on.’
‘I’m just saying that I thought I had you all figured out. But when I actually think about it properly, every one of the years between then and now has just been taken up with… Louis logistics.’
I find myself grinning. ‘Louis logistics!’ But he’s right. We haven’t said a proper word to each other for years. Occasionally we’ve spent hours in each other’s company. But Louis has been the thing that’s brought us together. I haven’t thought of Hal beyond that. And I guess he feels the same.
‘Then this trip—’ he says.
I nod.
‘Now you’re all I can think about.’
‘Me too,’ I say.
‘Really?’ He seems genuinely touched. ‘Because I’ll be honest, you could do so much better.’
I laugh. ‘I’ll be the judge of that.’
And we stop talking and look at each other. ‘I’m not sure whether I ever stopped loving you,’ he says.
I nod. I know what he means. The years have fallen away and now we’re just Hal and Sarah, sitting on a wall together.
And finally, he leans towards me hesitantly. I lean right back into him.
As our lips touch, there’s a familiarity to his kiss.
Something long forgotten, something I’d missed without even knowing.
But there’s something new too. There’s a strength behind it, a determination, a surety.
And I know without question that this is the man I’m meant to be with.
The kiss is filled with passion from the past, but a promise too, for a future that is still long and filled with a million possibilities.