The Lido

by Libby Page

But he only had eleven chest-hairs’ worth of life inside him, and he knew that wasn’t enough to help her.

‘Love is love,’ says Rosemary. ‘Just like a tree is a tree. It can be a sapling or a hundred-year-old oak, but it still has roots and life and is at the mercy of the seasons.’

‘I think of my panic as a creature that follows me and can suddenly kick me in the back of the knees. But it’s like it lives inside me too – sometimes I feel like it wants to rip me apart.’