Theo - Five
The warm air of Nice wrapped around me as I stepped out of the bar, the hum of the streets filling my ears.
The scent of cigarettes and something rich—garlic, butter, wine—drifted past, mingling with the distant sound of laughter and a motorbike engine revving somewhere down the narrow street.
I barely registered any of it. My mind was stuck, caught like a needle skipping on a record, replaying the last hour, replaying her.
Cecilia Hart.
Of all the places in the world, of all the nights, I had run into her here. Six years apart, and in a random bar in Nice, there she was—just as stunning, just as captivating, and just as much of a whirlwind as she had been at eighteen.
My brother patted me on my back as I reached him and glanced back into the restaurant behind me. “Who was that?” he asked, motioning his head back inside to where undoubtedly Celia still sat looking too goddamn beautiful for her own good.
“Celia. Do you remember her from before?” I asked and the words felt strange in my mouth, as if I was still in a lucid dream and my tongue found speaking foreign and unknown.
Nate’s eyes lit up as recognition sank in.
“I remember you talking about her. Not that any of us ever met her, you wanted to keep her all to yourself,” he grinned teasing me and normally I would say something back, but he was right.
I had wanted to keep her separate from everybody else and seeing her tonight made that feeling come hurtling straight back into my body as fast as a freight train.
I gave Nate a small smile in response and briefly turned my head back around immediately finding her long golden hair in the crowds. I tore my eyes away again and settled them back on my brother.
Nate said something beside me, his voice low and even, but I only half-heard him.
My thoughts had already slipped beyond the present, drawn into the pull of nostalgia, like stepping through a doorway into another time.
The memory wasn’t just a passing thought—it was a vivid, all-consuming wave, wrapping around me until I was no longer in Nice at all.
We’d found a secluded spot, hidden in a break in the dense forest. A sky full of stars so thick it looked like spilled sugar against black velvet.
The air was crisp, carrying the earthy scent of pine and damp grass, the quiet hum of the world settling for the night.
Cecilia lay beside me, the soft glow of her phone screen illuminating her face as she placed it gently on the ground.
The light travelled across her features, mapping out the delicate constellation of freckles on her cheeks and nose, while JP Cooper’s voice crooned from the speaker.
We had been talking about everything and nothing, the way only two people who truly knew each other could.
“I still don’t know how we ended up here,” she murmured, stretching her arms over her head as she gazed up at the stars. “Do you ever think about how many decisions have to go just right for a moment to happen?”
I turned my head, watching her instead of the sky. “Fate, I guess.”
She snorted, a soft laugh that made something in my chest tighten. “You don’t believe in fate.”
“I do when it works in my favour.”
She smiled, rolling onto her side to face me. “And is it?”
Before I could answer, a streak of silver light blazed across the sky, quick and brilliant, gone before I could fully process it. Cecilia gasped, bolting upright. Her eyes were wide with pure joy; her lips parted in amazement. “A shooting star!”
I should have looked back at the sky. I should have made a wish.
But all I could do was watch her, the way the starlight caught in her hair, the way her expression was completely, utterly unguarded.
In that moment, she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, rarer than any falling star, and infinitely more breathtaking.
She turned to me, still glowing with excitement. “What did you wish for?”
I blinked, suddenly realizing I hadn’t even thought about making a wish. I had been too busy looking at her. Too busy feeling something I couldn’t name.
“Another shooting star,” I said smoothly, pushing the words past the tightness in my throat.
She tilted her head, a smile playing at her lips. “Why?”
I smirked, trying to keep it light. “Why not? ”
She rolled her eyes, laughing softly before lying back down, her shoulder brushing mine. We stayed like that, side by side, lost in the stars and the quiet pull of something unnamed.
The memory faded as quickly as it had come, and suddenly, I was back in Nice, standing outside a bar with the smell of smoke in my nose and the rough cobblestones beneath my feet.
“Sorry,” I muttered, shaking my head as I blinked back into focus. “I zoned out.”
Nate huffed a laugh, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “Yeah, I could tell. Where’d you go?”
“Nowhere.”
He gave me a look like he knew I was lying but didn’t press. Instead, he nodded toward the car parked a little down the street. “Come on, we need to get back. Rae wants me to tuck her in.”
The way he said it was final, like there was nothing else in the world that mattered more, and knowing my brother, there wasn’t. He might not have gotten everything right in life, but when it came to his daughter, he never faltered.
“She’s got you completely under her spell,” I mused, following him toward the car.
Nate smirked. “Damn right she does. And I’ll work every day to make sure she knows she comes first.”
I admired that about him. The way he anchored himself with his daughter, how fiercely he loved her. He was the kind of man who did the right thing, even when it was hard. Especially when it was hard.
As he opened the car door, I hesitated, turning back toward the bar one last time. I searched for Cecilia, hoping for just one more glimpse, but she was gone. The moment had passed.
With a sigh, I got in the car and shut the door, my fingers gripping the wheel as the night hummed around us. But even as we pulled away, the past refused to loosen its grip.
I had seen her again. After six years, I had seen her.
And I couldn't shake the feeling that fate had handed me a second chance—or just reminded me of what I had lost.
I methodically drummed my fingers against the steering wheel as I drove the short distance back to the house we had rented for our stay.
It wasn’t the same beautiful house we’d grown up in, unfortunately, that was long sold, but the fond memories of my childhood in France still kept pulling me back here.
Being able to speak French again was something I cherished, along with reuniting with old friends and walking the same streets where I grew up. It was nostalgic and I still at twenty-five would count down the days before I returned home, as England never felt like home to me.
I had been born in England but due to family circumstances moved over here at age two, learning both French and English at the same time.
I moved back to England again at fourteen and had spent so much of my adolescence wanting to be back in another country.
Yes, the beautiful New Forest and beaches along the coast in South England were pretty, but once you’d experienced life in the South of France, Tuscan villages, and the seas of Costa Rica –I knew there was more than just the small rural area I called home.
As I neared the front of the rental property, I pushed my foot onto the brake and rolled the car into the allotted slot, situating the car underneath the lemon tree that still had a few ripe lemons in the last bloom of the year.
I closed the car door with a soft click and heard the soft pattering of Rae’s feet across the doorway entrance before the gravel crunched underneath her gentle footing.
“Daddy! Daddy! You’re home,” my niece squealed with pure excitement as she flung her petite arms up at my brother.
I watched the cute sentiment with a warm heart, smiling as Nate embraced his daughter, picking her up and carrying her in his arms.
“I missed you, Rae Rae,” Nate smiled.
“I missed you more!” she beamed back, leaning towards him to kiss his cheek. “I missed you too Uncle Theo!” she added when she saw me behind her and I instantly beamed at my gorgeous niece.
She turned back to her dad and began to tell him all about her evening and what she’d been up to and I couldn’t help but notice how much she looked like her mother, Milly.
I knew the resemblance was likely killing Nate inside, knowing his daughter was looking more and more like his deceased wife and mother of his child.
I often admired my brother for how much strength he showed, how much he took on when Milly died and how overnight he went from being a father to a mother too.
I remained standing outside, watching as Nate carried Rae inside.
She was nearly half-asleep, curled into his shoulder, her little hand gripping the fabric of his shirt, still desperately trying to tell him about her evening, but her words were becoming murmurings.
He whispered something to her, something soft, before disappearing through the doorway.
I reached into my pocket, fingers brushing against the packet of Camel Blues.
My favourite. I knew I’d quit soon, but not tonight.
Not after seeing Cecilia again, not after watching my brother walk inside with his daughter, not after realising that maybe the routine I’d reluctantly found myself settled into—this predictable 9-to-5 life—wasn’t really where I wanted to be.
Nate and I had started our own property development company three years ago and we’d poured our hearts and souls into it, but recently I had begun to feel like I wanted to do something else, for myself.
But I also knew the business was getting busier and Nate wanted more time with his daughter, not less and me taking a backseat would throw a spanner in that dream.
I slid a cigarette out, twirling it between my fingers, staring up at the sky.
The stars were bright, scattered like a million tiny promises.
I smiled, thinking of that night in the New Forest, of Cecilia’s face lighting up, of the way she had always made me believe in things I never let myself believe in.
I wondered if I’d see her again. If I should reach out.
But I was a strong believer in the universe. In signs. If it was meant to be, it would happen. After all, I had run into her in a bar in Nice after six years—anything could happen.
The door creaked open behind me, and Nate poked his head out. “You coming in? ”
“Yeah,” I said, exhaling slowly. I glanced at the cigarette in my hand, then reached for the ashtray to put it out—only to realize I had never even lit it.
Shaking my head, I let out a quiet laugh and flicked it back into the pack before following my brother inside.