Even After All

Part Twenty

Chapter Twenty

                                                 

The hotel food was good, and they ate in relative silence sat across the lounge from each other, and Matilda appreciated the beer that accompanied it. Tonight had been awkward. Dylan conjured up so many memories just sitting there opposite, and there were both good and bad times that kept coming back to her. Because they had had good times, lots of them, and whilst she’d loathed him with every bone in her body she’d forgotten that. Now that he was back in her life she felt more rational, writing off almost six years of your life as a disaster wasn’t the most productive way to live. Now she felt better, her life wasn’t a waste. She hadn’t made a bad choice; she’d married a man she’d loved. It hadn’t worked, but the last couple of weeks proved that he wasn’t a bad man, and they did get on. That made her feel more optimistic, but on the other hand she could see the man that she’d fallen in love with still there under the veneer of success, the immaculate hair, clean shaven jaw and perfect clothes, the often goofy, romantic and funny man, the man who made her feel as though she was the only woman in the world.

                “Penny for your thoughts?”

She looked up at the voice and grimaced, “not worth that, I assure you.”

He lifted an eyebrow in question, “really? Cos from where I’m sitting they looked quite interesting.”

She shrugged, “just thinking about the past, which is exactly where we said we wouldn’t be. So tell me about Monday.”

He studied her for a moment, then with a soft sigh, he nodded, “there’s a hotel conference in Earl’s Court. I’ve managed to line up meetings with two of the top consultants on design and interiors. Thought it would be good to get a professional view on such a big move...and to be honest I’m not known for my knowledge of soft furnishings or colour schemes.”

                “I remember.”

After a month of knowing Dylan she’d agreed to a date, it had been a month of persistent and limitless pursuit though and she was exhausted at trying to batter him off. So they went to the concert together. And then he’d kissed her, and she was lost. By the end of the school year, less than three months later they moved into a basement flat in a not too special part of London, but it was their first home and she’d loved it. It was furnished with mismatched items, and the whole place was glum. So they planned to spend the summer decorating it, making it their home. And it was soon obvious that Dylan had absolutely NO idea when it came to aesthetics.

She’d laughed herself to tears in the middle of a DIY shop as he tried to convince her that sage green paint would look good in their bathroom where the suite was pale blue. Then there was the caramel wood gloss that he wanted to cover every piece of door frame and skirting board in. Just a complete no go.

Very soon he’d become her technician, decorating to the colour scheme and style she’d picked personally and very painstakingly.

                “I loved that flat,” he offered with a sigh, obviously remembering the same occasions as her.

She nodded, “things were so much less complicated when we lived there.” She glanced at him as she added, “and the fact that the colour scheme didn’t give you a headache.”

He shook his head vehemently, “there is nothing wrong with sage green paint.”

She giggled, “no, it’s an amazing colour...but NOT with an almost turquoise bathroom suite. Come on Dyl, even you can tell that!”