Chapter Seventeen
June 2013
The past seven months had been difficult, for Lydia and for Theo and for everyone around them. The karaoke night had been the start of them finding their way again because somehow they’d been caught up in this life that was a dream at times. And Lydia wasn’t completely innocent. She loved being wined and dined and taken to nice restaurants and she hadn’t questioned it until Theo’s admission.
Three months after Theo told her everything, Lydia was made redundant from her job. But rather than being devastated, she’d come home to tell Theo and decided it could be a good thing. They’d decided that night that a move back to Bath was on the cards and Theo had been enthusiastic, pulling out all the stops and within five days he’d lined up an interview and subsequently got a job in Bristol, easily commutable from the city where they’d first met.
And now, with the sun high in the sky bringing with it a beautiful summer season in Bath, they were settled in a flat they’d rented while they looked for a place to buy. Lydia’s redundancy had been minimal but enough to tide them over for a while, and she’d established some firm contacts after her work on the paper so she had freelance assignments lined up from the minute she was out of a job.
Lydia opened the window in the flat they rented in Upper Oldfield Park, a stopgap before they bought their own place. Theo, true to his word, had cut his spending down and their savings were beginning to build again. The interest rate was rubbish but at least the amount was being added to every month.
‘Hey!’ Theo arrived home from work, minus his jacket. ‘How was your day?’ The second he came into the kitchen he wrapped her in a hug from behind and kissed her neck.
‘Get off!’ She giggled. ‘It’s baking in here. There’s no air.’
‘It’s Friday, I don’t care if I cook inside this place, at least it’s the weekend.’ He’d already taken off his tie and he filled a glass of water from the tap. ‘We should get away.’
Lydia unwrapped the watermelon from the fridge and cut it into wedges. ‘We can’t afford to, or we’ll be living in renters-ville forever.’
‘Someone at work told me about this place in the Cotswolds, glamping. And it’s cheap, only seventy quid for a pod.’
‘A pod?’
He took out his phone and showed her some screenshots he’d taken of the place and Lydia had to admit the temptation to escape to undulating fields dotted with sheep, nothing for miles around apart from each other, was too much to ignore.
‘Think double bed, en suite shower, fire pit outside to toast marshmallows when it gets colder in the evening,’ Theo carried on. ‘Come on, what do you say?’ His arms wrapped around her waist again and he held her tight. She never wanted to let him go. ‘It’s a glamorous holiday without the cost. We can afford this.’
She turned round and with her hands on either side of his face, slightly prickly from the stubble that was beginning to come through already since that morning, she kissed him full on the lips.
‘Is that a yes?’ he asked.
‘It’s a yes! Now get online and book it, let’s just hope others haven’t had the same idea.’
*
As luck would have it, there was one glamping pod left and so in less than an hour they’d packed up for a two-night escape in the beautiful Cotswolds. They’d stocked up at the supermarket, Lydia running in and out in under fifteen minutes, and drove the journey to their first experience of glamping. Dark grey clouds lingered as they followed country lanes narrowed with fattened cow parsley hedgerows. They passed traditional Cotswold stone houses with low walls and stepping-stone paths, and before the sun had fully set they pulled up at the glamping site where they were tucked away in a pod at the end. Perfect.
‘How long till we eat?’ Lydia had poured the wine and put marshmallows onto skewers ready for toasting later on, while Theo got the flames in the fire pit going and organised the barbecue food.
‘Half an hour, tops.’ He smiled at her, his deep brown eyes visible in the firelight.
Lydia rested the glasses of wine on the outside table and stood behind Theo, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, holding him close as he stoked the fire, and when he turned to kiss her the designer stubble he never let lapse into a full-on beard grazed her cheek but not unpleasantly.
‘I love you,’ she told him when he turned back to the fire.
‘I love you too.’
She stood up taller and looked around but apart from the odd light on the landscape or the glow of a fire in a pit at the opposite end of the glamping site, it felt like it was just the two of them with nothing else for miles around.
Theo did them proud with the evening meal and before long they were full with sesame, soy and ginger marinated steaks as well as middle-eastern-spiced chicken with a roast-pumpkin dip. They sat back in their chairs and looked up at the stars above them. Theo had brought a blanket outside and draped it across their laps, and they cuddled together drinking wine and enjoying a rare moment of simply putting normal life on pause and taking time for each other. Theo had shown her in the last few months just how important she was to him. He’d done wrong, he’d apologised and they’d worked through it. They’d moved out of London and back to Bath and their lives had taken on a calmer outlook.
Right now, Lydia couldn’t think of anywhere else she’d rather be than curled up in her boyfriend’s arms. He was hers forever, and nothing would ever change that.
Would it?