You Only Live Once

by Maxine Morrey

What I thought I wanted and what I actually needed had been, I realised now, two very different things.

Other people may have our best interests at heart but, in the end, these important decisions have to be our own and we know what feels right.

‘I like to think there’s always something redeemable, even when it looks like all hope is lost.’

Do you believe in soulmates?’ ‘I think I do, yes.’ ‘Do you think you only get one per lifetime?’ ‘No. I don’t. And I think they can come in all forms as well. I think you can have platonic soulmates as well as romantic ones.’

we do what we think we should do at the time. It’s easy for others to tell us what they think we should be doing or for us to look back with hindsight, but we don’t have all the information at the time, and we just have to act with what we have.

To be fair, that which met the eye was more than enough attraction for most people. Adding depth of character and a sense of humour to his attributes was making things a little unfair.

I appreciated that he had movie star looks and a body to die for, but it was like appreciating art for its beauty. It was easy to see the attraction, but I didn’t want it on my wall.

There was certainly no need to worry if they ran out of ice for this party. All they’d have to do was get Jack’s mum to look at the glass for the temperature of anything near it to plummet.

you did what you had to do to try and keep yourself sane. But I do think it’s possible to get into a habit, a rut, which can then be very difficult to get out of, partly because we’re so used to doing things a certain way, and partly because then doing something different can seem overwhelming.’

But I couldn’t go from zero to full speed. I’d wrapped myself up in my own security blanket for far too long to just throw it away in one swift move.

Sometimes, when Jack was close, it was easy to feel like a planet being sucked into his gravity field. And I knew that wasn’t a good idea. I had my own orbit that I’d been happily, or mostly happily, pootling around in for the last decade or so. I definitely didn’t need any celestial moments to come along and wreck all that.