What If I Never Get Over You

by Paige Toon

over him and I’m not sure I ever will be. He was at the

wings just like that one,” Evan says, pointing at the old section. “Tudor?” I ask.

Holy Mother of fucking God, it’s Ash.

The three days we spent together felt like the start of something. And when he didn’t call or turn up, when he left me stranded and alone, it destroyed me. I had the biggest high followed by the lowest low and I still haven’t recovered.

I can’t believe I’ve wasted almost six years of my life pining over a man who didn’t even exist. I have never felt more hurt or betrayed. —

I could kick myself as I walk upstairs, because I’m trying not to smile.

“Well, it would have helped.” There’s a bite to his tone. “If you’d told me that you were Eleanor Knapley of Knap Sofas, I would have found you sooner,” he has the gall to add.

Ash is responsible for Nan’s rainbow of lupins? I’m too shocked by what he’s done to let the fact land.

I’m just stepping toward the wardrobe when I hear Ash say; “Don’t you dare.” I look over my shoulder at him, surprised at how sharp his tone is. He shakes his head at me, graver than I’ve ever seen him. “I’m not hiding you like a dirty little secret.”

“Do not ever refer to yourself like that again.”

“You’re the one that got away.”

“I like seeing you wrapped up in it. You look so at home.”

But here on Earth, four and a half billion years after our sun was formed, five billion years before it will start to die, one girl sits on a hill in Wales, falling in love with a boy. And nothing can stop it from happening.

“Trust me,” he murmurs in my ear, holding me close. “I want you. It’s you. It’s only ever been you.”

This is the beginning of the end. I feel it in my bones.