Epilogue
Ten Minutes Earlier
Lucy was woken from a fitful sleep in the spare room to noises from the cafe below.
She quietly made her way downstairs, hoping it was Tony she could hear.
She was right. There in the cafe, she found him with their divorce papers strewn across the counter.
Tony was working his way through each one, scribbling his signature at each little blue tab.
He must have heard her approach because he turned to look at her as she stood in the doorway.
‘I’m sorry I wasn’t enough,’ he bit out through his tears as he signed his name on the final page.
‘Tony, I told you. This wasn’t your fault. We’ve grown apart.’ She’d meant the words to be comforting, but as soon as she’d said them, she knew they’d missed their mark.
‘You didn’t want to go for, It’s not you, it’s me?’
Lucy refused to be drawn into another argument. Not when he was already clearly distraught. But her silence seemed to cause him further anguish.
With a look that would haunt Lucy, he strode with conviction to the door, unlocking it and flinging it open before she could process what he was doing.
When the door clattered shut, she took a couple of seconds to breathe deeply before following him.
But all she found was a deserted street, shadowed in the darkness of midnight.
Instead of heading back into the cafe, her steps took her down to the beach.
In the darkness of the deserted street, Lucy tried to process what had happened.
She’d never seen Tony like he had been just now.
But he’d been behaving oddly for weeks. When she moved back in, to help him as he’d asked, his lies about the cafe not doing well had quickly come to light.
If anything, the cafe was doing brilliantly.
Tony’s collaboration with The Book Nook had been beneficial for both shops.
The summer months had been strong and when Lucy had looked over the books, it was immediately clear he’d misled her.
Earlier that evening, she’d confronted him about it.
He didn’t even apologise - apparently missing her, excused his lies.
Lucy had fled the cafe, seeking solace in the pub that had been her sanctuary for the last few months.
But when she’d stumbled through those doors, she’d been mortified at interrupting Holly and Seb.
As soon as she’d come to her senses, she’d gone straight back to the cafe.
That had been a mistake.
Tony had thought she’d changed her mind. He had thought she still wanted to continue their conversation - to try and make things work. The conversation played back in her mind as she made her way to the beach.
‘Lucy–’
‘Don’t Tony. I told you I was done talking for tonight.’
‘I know, but then you came back…’
The confusion in his eyes was a stab to her heart.
‘I came back because the person I needed was busy.’ The words left her lips before she thought about what that would sound like to him.
‘And I’m not that person anymore.’
It was a statement, rather than a question.
‘Please, Tony can we not do this. Not tonight.’
Tony nodded, before turning to clean down the coffee machine. Lucy relaxed a little. But a muffled sob caught her attention. When she looked closely she realised he was hunched over the machine, sobbing.
Tentatively, she moved towards him. ‘Tony?’ she said as she gently touched his back. He stilled under her touch. Then turned and pulled her into a hug. At first, she stiffened, but the muscle memory kicked in and she relaxed in his embrace.
‘It’s really over isn’t it?’ he managed to say once he’d got a hold on his emotions.
‘I’m so sorry, Tony.’
She arrived at the beach, not recalling the journey as she’d been reliving the painful conversation.
Other than her short time in Bristol, she’d lived in the Bay all her life, but she realised she’d never been down to the beach in the dead of night.
There was something comforting about the darkness and the sound of the water as it splayed ominously onto the rocks that towered around her.
She needed all the comfort she could get right now.
Lucy had never seen Tony look so hurt. But for all the pain she felt deep in her soul at being the cause of his distress, a tiny part of her breathed a little easier with the spark of belief she was on the cusp of a new chapter in her life.