‘Ben!’ she said. ‘Why are you… when did you…?’
The rain started to fall more heavily now and Derek and Claudine began to scream and run for cover. The rest of the guests, though, seemed transfixed.
‘Lily, I’m so sorry. I’ve been a complete prat,’ he said. ‘I didn’t talk to you when I should have. I didn’t tell you what was going on. I was scared and embarrassed.’
‘Oh, Ben.’
‘And in doing so, I lost the most important person in my life. The thing I was most scared of in the world happened and it was because of me.’
She shook her head, ‘But…’
‘No, wait,’ he said, his hair beginning to sag under the weight of falling droplets. ‘And I thought at first that perhaps it was no more than I deserved. But then, when I began to get better, I realised that you didn’t ever really leave me.’
There was a loud scrape as Frédérique got up and put the microphone down. Lily reached to touch his arm and they looked at each other briefly. He nodded, with a sad smile, before disappearing into the kitchen.
She wanted to make sure he was all right, but she couldn’t move. Didn’t want to move.
‘Ben…’ she said.
‘Please,’ he answered. ‘Hear me out. All those times when you spoke about moving in the past, I was scared – I’ll admit it. But good scared. Excited scared. I wasn’t sure whether I’d like it, whether it would work out.’
‘But…’
‘But I knew that it was something I’d do with you – because it was important to you. I never… in my wildest dreams I’d never imagined I’d let you walk away.’
‘Oh Ben.’ She rubbed his upper arm with her hand and their faces moved closer together. She looked into his eyes and felt suddenly more at home than she had for months. She felt the jagged edges of her jigsaw piece mould with his until finally everything made sense.
‘I was kind of stuck in a rut at work, but also worried about what might happen if I got out of the rut… I dunno. I never really realised I was so… so stuck until you walked away and I just couldn’t follow you.’
‘It’s OK,’ she said. ‘Really.’
‘I thought… I guess I felt like it was too late. And then you said what you said… You said to come. To be with you. And I realised that perhaps it wasn’t too late after all.’
She smiled, feeling a mixture of rain and tears on her cheeks.
‘I need to ask you to forgive me,’ Ben continued.
‘You don’t have to…’
‘Yes, I do. The things I could have said and done, the way I made you feel. That’s on me. And I need to know – can you forgive me, Lily?’ Rain was running down his face, but she was pretty sure he was crying too.
She looked into his eyes, drinking him in, barely feeling the now driving rain. ‘Ben Butterworth,’ she said. ‘You’re already forgiven.’
‘You really mean that?’
‘You know I do.’
Smiling slightly, his eyes shining, he leaned forward and kissed her mouth softly. And there wasn’t the fizz of excitement she’d felt with Frédérique, but a deep connection that rooted her to this man, this moment. Something that wasn’t instantaneous but had grown and strengthened from years and years of being together, of being in love.
In the background, she was aware that her sodden guests had begun to clap.
‘You should have said “You had me at hello!”’ Emily said, as she appeared at Lily’s side and gave her a quick squeeze. ‘Haven’t you watched any rom-coms lately?’
Lily smiled. ‘Sorry,’ she said, rain saturating her hair, running down her shoulders, turning her dress into cling film. ‘But then, we had our happy ending years ago. Then years of real life. And now, well this is something even Richard Curtis couldn’t top.’
And going up on tiptoes, she pulled Ben in for yet another kiss.
EPILOGUE
It was 4.30 p.m. and darkness had set in, providing the perfect backdrop for the Christmas lights strung back and forth above the marketplace in the shape of stars and colourful snowmen. Lily opened the car boot and lifted the last of the paper carrier bags inside, before shutting it and walking around to the driver’s side.
As she slipped in, she felt the residual warmth of the car’s heating against her back. She closed the door and rubbed her hands together quickly to restore some kind of feeling to her fingers before she gripped the wheel.