True Love Waits

By Anna Carey

Illustration: Shutterstock

UPLIFTING SHORT STORY WRITTEN BY JO STYLES

A chance encounter reminded Susan that the recipes for romance could last a lifetime…

Susan ducked behind a pillar and almost collided with a woman.

“Sorry,” she said in a hushed tone.

Why was she whispering? Adrian won’t hear me in this crush.

The shopping centre spread over two floors. On the lower one, trees stretched their branches towards the glass ceiling. Susan had never visited before; such huge places left her feeling a bit lost.

She peered around her shielding pillar. Yes, there he stood as skinny and angular as ever. It was him, wasn’t it? She squinted.

Unbelievably it was. Grey flecked his hair these days and he wore rimless spectacles. By his side stood a short brunette. His other half?

She had to be, judging by the way Adrian’s parents kept smiling at her. They stood close by, too. His dad’s hair had all but disappeared; his mum had dyed hers a tawny blonde. The pair had to be in their late seventies by now.

You’re not going to follow them, Susan told herself. That would be weird. It’s been aeons since you saw them last.

Her chest filled with grief. I do miss my youth.

Hello, love.” That’s how Stew, Adrian’s dad, welcomed her into the house when Adrian drove her round the very first time back in the eighties. She’d just turned eighteen and was Adrian’s first ever girlfriend. She’d never gone out with anyone else, either.

“Hello,” she replied shyly as Adrian strode towards the fridge.

“Cheesecake, Mum? Did you make one?”

His mum, Dee, appeared from the hall, her apple cheeks all rosy red.

“You and your cheesecake. Hello there, Susan. We’ve heard a lot about you. Oh, nothing bad, just that your dad works in retail and your mum speaks French. The cheesecake’s in the fridge, Adie. Help yourself.” She waved a hand at the table where pieces of machinery lay sprawled across sheets of newspaper.

“Your dad’s fixing an engine for Gary across the road.”

“Do you know much about motorbikes, Susan?” Stew held something aloft. “Piston?” He brandished something else. “Spark plug.” He smiled. “I might test you later.”

His laughter warmed Susan’s heart. The cosy kitchen brimmed with knick-knacks; they lined the shelf behind the sink. Pink gingham curtains with tiebacks dressed the windows and pictures of big, fat vegetables hung on the walls. She loved every atom of it all.

“Are you stopping for dinner?” asked Dee. “’Fraid we eat it off trays in front of the telly. We’re not ones for ceremony. Are fish fingers and chips alright?”

“Cheesecake first,” Adrian interrupted, hauling a dessert as big as a cartwheel out of the fridge.

“Pudding first, then,” Dee chuckled. “He’s into cheesecakes. He’s loved them since he was little. I don’t know why.”

That was the Bridge family – a disassembled, disorganised bunch.

Susan’s own mother liked them to eat at the table and talk about the world. Her dad spent all his time in his office finishing off work. Neither of them took much notice of Adrian, while Susan had ceased to be a novelty years ago.

Perhaps that’s why she ate meal after meal with the Bridges. She slotted right in after a few months. She even chatted about family members she’d never met.

“How’s Pat ever going to get on that plane to Oz, Dee, if he almost passed out trying to get on one to Spain?”

“Don’t ask me, love. He gets dizzy standing on a chair. I expect he needs some kind of medication. But will he take any? Will he heck. Oh, by the way, the girls at the factory are all going out tomorrow. Do you want to come along? They do curse. You don’t mind a bit of that, do you?”

That’s how their conversations went, overflowing with family gossip and invitations. Those were the days, alright.

In the shopping centre, the Bridge clan moved off, and Susan’s feet started following before her brain could say no.

Adrian held hands with his other half while Dee and Stew walked shoulder to shoulder like two chess pieces carved out of the same chunk of oak.

I wonder what Adrian’s doing these days, Susan wondered. Did he stay in engineering? His dad did pass those practical genes along.

Knock. Knock. Knock. The back door at the Bridge’s place in the eighties always took a pounding, then a face would peer round the wood and another tale of woe would be told.

“Stew, my radio/watch/kettle/heater” – it was usually one of those – “has broken. Can you take a look?”

“’Course I can,” Stew would say, never moving from his kitchen table workshop. “Drop it down there with the rest by the cupboard. I’ll look later. Do you want a cuppa? This is Susan, Adrian’s girlfriend. She likes watching me work.”

Susan met half the town that way. Everybody seemed to know Stew so, suddenly, they knew her as well. She heard a lot of local news with the scent of oil thick in her nostrils.

“Your factory’s shutting down, Stew?” she exclaimed one evening.

“They won’t make cars there anymore. What are you going to do?”

Stew looked grim.

“Everybody says I ought to set up a repair shop. Have you ever heard such a thing? I’m used to working on the production line. I screw side panels on.”

“You’d be great as a repairman,” said Susan. “You can do it. You already are.”

His smile made her feel nine feet tall.

“That means a lot to me. Thank you.”

Susan’s own dad never looked at her like that, her mum never said, “Listen to her, pet,” the way Dee did. “She has A-levels like our Adrian. She’s going up in the world.”

On the shopping concourse, Susan dodged around a buggy then a woman glued to her mobile phone. How long was she with Adie? Two years?

Everybody expected them to marry, the girls at the factory where Dee worked and all those people who dropped in to ask Stew for help. “You’re right for each other” they’d say. “You’re like a nut and a bolt.”

She thought the day of his proposal had arrived when Adrian whisked her off to a very posh pub in town. He’d sat twitching in his seat, barely saying a word until she’d sipped down her second glass of wine.

“You’re great, Susan. You’re lovely.” His voice shook. “But well, it’s not working, is it? Not any more.”

Her mouth dropped.

“What do you mean? We’re fine. We’re perfect.” She clasped a hand to her chest, her heart crashing against her ribs. “We can fix this, can’t we? We can spend more time together.”

“You’re always at my place as it is,” he pointed out.

“Should we see less of each other then?” She frowned. “I looked at wedding dresses with your mum last week. She said we’d have to have cheesecake on the menu at the reception.

“Your dad said he knew somebody with a Jaguar who’d let us borrow it. He told me he’d put the ribbon on it himself on our wedding day. We can’t split up, Adie. We can’t.” Her words stalled, her anguish making her tremble.

“I’m sorry.” Pale-faced, he rose from his seat. “I never wanted to hurt you, but it’s over, Susan.”

Through a haze of tears, she watched him leave.

He did try to break up gently, Susan thought in the shopping centre.

The Bridge clan had paused to look in the window of a dress shop, so she’d pretended to look in a shop full of baby clothes. Her sigh misted the glass. That’s first love for you, doomed to failure.

She glanced at her watch as Adrian, his other half, Dee and Stew wandered on. She couldn’t follow anymore; she’d run out of time. She turned the other way then beckoned over a stranger.

“’Scuse me. You don’t know where the Café Deluxe is, do you? I have no idea where I am today.”

The Deluxe turned out be a pleasant place, all white tablecloths and potted palms.

Susan made sure she wore a smile. The young woman sitting waiting for her mirrored it perfectly – cool, calm and reserved.

“Hi. You found it, then?”

“Yes, thank you.” Susan sat herself down. “Where’s Noah?”

The girl waved towards the counter. “There isn’t any waitress service. He’s fetching us some coffee.” How relieved she looked when Noah came striding over carrying a tray.

“Hi, Mum.” He unloaded the cups before he leaned over and kissed Susan’s cheek. “Where’s Dad?”

“He’s at the office today, but he should be here any moment.” Susan took a sip of her latte, then studied Josie. She looks so young, the way Susan used to.

Thoughts of breaking up with Adrian came streaming back. She’d charged through the streets to the Bridges’s house from that posh pub. She’d stood outside, hiding behind the hedge. Even so, the front door opened, and Dee came rushing out wearing fluffy slippers.

“Adrian’s just rung,” she wailed, throwing her arms about Susan. “I can’t believe it. I can’t.”

Stew appeared next, wiping his eyes with grease-streaked fingers.

“You’re like the daughter we never had.”

They all knew it was over. They all knew what they’d done, too. They’d made a horrible, heart-wrenching mistake.

There’s been no special desserts for you, has there, Josie? Susan thought at the table as Josie licked froth from her lips. No relaxed family dinners. No nights out. Do you know why? It’s because you’re a scudding cloud or a speck of dust in the wind. Here today and gone tomorrow.

God bless Stew and Dee. Susan missed them more than Adrian. You shouldn’t fall in love with your first boyfriend’s parents, and they really shouldn’t fall in love with you.

“Ah, there’s your dad, Noah,” she said, seeing her husband. She waved so he’d spot them.

“Sorry everybody, I was just clearing up some receipts.” He kissed Susan’s cheek when he reached the table, then sat down. “This is about a flat for you two then, is it? Is it close by? Do you need us to take a look?”

“Yes, that would be good, Dad,” said Noah. “There is something else, though.” Taking his girlfriend’s hand, he flashed the diamond ring on her finger. The one she’d hidden away so far.

“We’re engaged. Actually, we’ve already set a date for the wedding. We thought August next year?”

Susan blinked. Of course, there is certain point where the balance tips and commitments can be made.

“Yes!” She almost punched the air with her fist. She charged round the table and buried Josie in a hug.

“Don’t look so scared,” she added when she let go. “I don’t bite. Do you fancy coming out on Friday? The girls from my office are all going.

“You can come for dinner tonight at our place, too, if you like. It’s only fish and chips, though. We eat in front of the telly.”

Josie looked a little overcome.

True loves waits, and it should, Susan thought. “Welcome to the family,” she said with a grin. “Do you like cheesecake? Somebody gave me the best recipe years ago. I learned a lot from her… and her husband.

“I ought to tell you that story right now. It’s all about first love. It is a funny old thing, isn’t it? No matter how it turns out, it stays with you forever.”