This Cruel Love

“Will the shouting and smashing stop?” I asked, as I crossed my fingers under the duvet and prayed she’d say yes.

She took a deep breath and looked over at Daddy.

“Yes. It’ll stop now. You won’t hear that again, Ri Ri,” Dad said, rubbing the back of his hand over my cheek.

“Okay, Daddy. I love you.” I gave a weak smile as they both kissed me goodnight for the second time that day and left me to my thoughts.

I never heard a cross word exchanged between my parents ever again after that day.

Present Day

Justin: Tell the train driver to hurry up. I can’t wait to get my hands on you.

I glanced down at my phone to see the message that’d just pinged up on the screen. I couldn’t hold back my grin as I speed typed a response.

I hope you’re well-rested, stud. I plan on keeping you up all night.

I pressed the send button and watched as the three little dots danced about, telling me he was writing back.

Justin: I swear to God, Ryley, my balls are so blue they’ve named a new shade of the colour after them. I’ve missed you, baby.

I’d missed him too, and I told him in my messages exactly what I’d be doing in the next few days to show him how much. I knew he loved all that dirty shit, and I loved being his naughty girl. Lady in the streets, freak in the sheets, isn’t that how it goes? Oh boy, did this guy consume my every thought. He was my whole life, and I couldn’t wait to start our new chapter together. Being apart from him had been pure hell.

‘Ryley, when you meet ‘the one’ you’ll know. You’ll know because nothing and no one will ever stop you loving them, or wanting to spend every minute of every day with them. You’ll wish nights were longer, that days could be spent lost in them and nothing else. They’ll consume your whole body, mind and soul. Your tummy will ache with excitement at the thought of seeing them, being with them.’

/> Well, that’s what my grandma always told me anyway. She loved to recount the story of her epic wedding day every time I saw her. How she couldn’t wait to get down that aisle to marry my grandfather. She’d always laugh like a mad woman recalling how she would’ve run if she could have, she was so desperate to finally pin him down. I always cringed when she told me about it. I mean, that was my gramps she was talking about. But now that I’m older and a hell of a lot wiser, I get it, I do. I get it, because that’s exactly how I feel about Justin, my high school sweetheart.

We’ve been together since we were sixteen years old, and every year we just keep getting stronger. It hasn’t been easy being away from him these past few years whilst I’ve been at university studying. But that doesn’t matter anymore, we’ve made it. Now I’m on my way home to pin down my happily ever after, literally.

Sitting on the train, counting down the minutes until it was my stop was all I’d been capable of for well over an hour. That and sexting the man of my dreams. I couldn’t wait to see his gorgeous face, wrap my arms around him and breathe him in. The fact that I could do that every day now, and for the rest of our lives, made me smile one of those crazy insane-looking grins. People on this train are gonna think I’m a nutter, I’m sure of it.

I started to daydream, thinking about what my life would be like in six months. I was going to be Mrs Wright, and I couldn’t wait. A slight twinge of sadness hit my fluttering tummy, as I thought about my parents and how they’d been against us from the start. I don’t know why they disliked Justin. What was not to like? He was the most popular guy in our school. He came from a respectable, wealthy family and he was smart and funny. I thought maybe they were just reluctant to let me grow up. They didn’t seem to have the same aversion to my older brother, Travis, and his girlfriend Cassie getting engaged last year. In fact, they’d welcomed her with open arms. According to my mum, Justin wasn’t right for me. Maybe they thought I was settling down too soon. Whatever they thought, they were wrong. Who’d appointed them the experts on my love life? Not me. They didn’t know what we were like together when we were alone, when I was in his arms. I loved him and he loved me. So I wasn’t going to let their lack of support affect how our relationship progressed. I would marry him. I would move on with my life and become Mrs Wright, whether they wanted to be a part of it or not. I so hoped they wanted to be a part of it.

They seemed to have short memories, my parents. Grandma never did like my father when she was alive. She always said he wasn’t good enough for Mum. She even went so far as to say that the only good thing my father ever did was have me and my two brothers. My parents hadn’t learnt from Grandma’s mistakes. No, they’d just carried on her mantel for ostracising a man from outside, who dared to come into our family and make a mark. Hence the reason I was moving into Justin’s studio apartment to prepare for the wedding, as opposed to going back home to them. It wasn’t worth the stress and arguments our relationship caused.

Finally, the train slowed down as it made its ascent into the station where Justin would be waiting for me. I grabbed my bags and bustled my way down the aisle so I could stand at the doors and be the first off the train once it came to a stop.

An old lady smiled at me as I bumped past her.

“You’re eager, love.”

I couldn’t keep the smug smile from plastering itself all over my face.

“I haven’t seen my fiancé for over three months.” I shrugged. “So yeah, I’m eager.”

She chuckled to herself, no doubt lost in private thoughts of her own reunions of yesteryears. The train ground to a halt, and the lights for the door release finally glowed ‘open’.

I sprang out of the train and onto the busy platform. My legs strode forward as I headed towards the exit we agreed to meet under. Then he was there, and my breath caught in my throat. He was thinner and paler than when I last saw him, but he was still beautiful and deliciously mine, with his floppy blond hair and drop dead sexy smile. He scanned the crowds to find me, and when his eyes latched onto mine, I saw the fire ignite behind them. I loved that look on him. The look that told me he loved me, and would do anything for me. Before I knew it, I’d stopped still, and he was coming towards me with a massive grin on his face.

“Jesus, I’ve missed you.” He grabbed me into a bone-crunching hug and buried his face into my hair, breathing me in as if I was his oxygen.

I closed my eyes, losing myself in the magic of the moment and gasped back at him, “Yeah, me too.”

We stood embracing like that for a few minutes, lost in our little bubble. Then the bumps and shoves of the other passengers around us pulled us out of our reverie, and back into the now. Justin stepped back and took in a deep breath as he looked into my face, studying my eyes, my lips, everything.

“Have you been waiting long?” I asked, suddenly feeling nervous and on edge.

“About four years, give or take,” he joked, and I smiled as the nerves flew out of me as quickly as they’d appeared.