Poison

Can’t wait to see you there, he said. I’m sick of hiding too.Chapter Twenty-SixLucasNobody was ever going to accept us, so fuck it. I was done with all thoughts of trying to make them.

I called up Beth from my work team and she was happy to dog sit with her boyfriend, and take advantage of house sitting the countryside alongside it.

I waited until they’d arrived before I finished getting ready, putting on a smart blue shirt and garish red and gold tie for the fun of it, and trimming my beard into order. I chose my finest tailored trousers and laced up my finest brogues, and my heart was thumping hard at the thought of seeing Anna there in town.

I fussed goodbye to Bill and Ted, and thanked Beth and Wes all over again, and I was churned up with pure waves of want as I set off to meet her.

I opted to take the truck, and parked up overnight in Broad Street car park before walking on through town to our agreed location.

And there she was, my Anna, right there and waiting – standing on the lawn right beside the Neptune fountain. Her usual sweet spot.

The water was tumbling down in a torrent and she was framed just perfectly by the orange glow of the lighting, and she looked divine.

Absolutely fucking divine.

Her heels were high, and her legs were bare. Her dress was silver satin and her hair was swept up in curls. Her eyes were dark and her lips were pale, and she was enough to stop my breath, as well as stop me in my tracks along with it.

Holy fuck, how I loved that woman.

She closed the distance between us, and her smile was shining bright.

“I missed you so much,” she said, and her arms were straight around my neck.

It felt so right to be there standing next to her that I didn’t give one single shit about any potential onlookers. The whole world could go fuck itself. I belonged there.

“Ditto,” I whispered. “I missed you so much it fucking hurt.”

She kissed me, and it was soft, but it said more than a thousand words. The way she took breaths, and the way her body pressed so tight to mine, and the way she ran her hand down my tie with a grin once she pulled away.

“You look great,” she told me. “I love it.”

“You look incredible,” I told her back. “I love you.”

We didn’t head into the nightlife straight away, just walked closer to the fountain and hovered there. Her eyes were fixed on the statue at the top, and they were glittering.

“Gonna make a wish?” I asked, but she shook her head.

“Just did before you arrived.”

I turned her face to mine. “And what did you wish for?”

“The impossible,” she told me. “And how about you? Going to make a wish this time? I’ve got a coin.”

I shook my head, holding on to my mantra.

“The universe isn’t responsible for my road ahead, Anna. I am.”

“Then let’s try to make it a good one,” she whispered.

We took it slowly as we walked hand in hand through to Oscars, pointing out the constellations overhead, just like we had a thousand times before.

Orion, and Sirius, and where’s the Big Dipper?

Is that Venus? Yeah, that’s Venus.

I hadn’t expected Anna to make even the slightest social event out of our evening out in public. It hadn’t occurred to me for a second that anyone on this whole planet would want to join us. But I was wrong.

There was a small crowd waiting at the bar that she walked right up to. She held me tight to her side as she made the introductions, and there was a bloom of pride in her smile that took me aback.

I hadn’t seen anyone proud of me in years.

“Lucas, this is Lucia, and Stacey and Melissa from my office.”

I said hello to all three and they shook my hand, and behind them were Peter and Jamie from finance.

I said hi to them too.

Then we hit the social. I bought a round of drinks, but went steady on my beer. Still, one turned into two, and two turned to four, and the stilted introductory conversations morphed into laughter and office jokes and embarrassing stories between co-workers.

I soaked in every single one, grateful beyond belief just to have a single taste of normality with Anna on my arm.

She’d finished two proseccos by the time the girls wanted to move on to the dance floor, and nobody had said a word about her alcohol consumption. She was grinning up at me as they dived into the beats, wrapping me up in her arms all over again.

“Dance with me,” I told her, and she laughed.

“This isn’t your kitchen, Lucas. This isn’t bopping around with nobody watching. I haven’t danced out in public in years.”