The Wake-Up Call

by Beth O'Leary

We are all misled and misdirected from time to time. Perhaps there really is no shame in that, as long as we wake up to it before it’s too late to change.

(Why is it that when men sweat, it’s sexy, but when I sweat, I look like I’ve been crossbred with a tomato?)

want to look after you. So that you don’t have to do it all, for once.

How did you get from strangers to this, where you’re like one person split in two?

I would like to believe that I can let a person see me, and that once they have, they might think more of me, not less.

‘Lucas,’ she says, softly now. ‘You can relax. It’s just me.’ It’s just me. Like she isn’t fucking everything.

‘I promise to think the best of you from this moment on. To ask you if I think you’ve done something hurtful. I promise never to be unkind.’

on one knee and hand it to her. But this world isn’t perfect, and neither am I. Sometimes things are lost, and you grieve for them, and they change you, and that’s OK.

My love for you grows stronger every day. I want for ever with you. I want to find out how big and bright this love will be when we’re old and grey.’