Sanditon Melodies

Chapter 44: Epilogue

Six months later

Charlotte woke up late on a Friday morning in April feeling pretty groggy. She'd got in late last night as she was performing at a charity event in Brixton. She had snuck into bed trying not to wake Sidney and then completely conked out from the exhaustion of the past few months. Life had been so intense recently, but thankfully, after today, Sidney and Charlotte had a few much needed days off. Charlotte turned her head to Sidney's side of the bed, but he wasn't there and she instantly felt bereft. She hated waking up to an empty bed, but equally, she was pleased that he hadn't woken her this morning as she had really needed a decent sleep. As her eyes adjusted, she noticed there was something lying on Sidney's pillow. Frowning sleepily Charlotte heaved herself onto her elbows and shuffled over to take a look. Her face broke into a big smile. There was a single red rose and a note on the pillow. She picked up the rose and smelt it and then read the note.

Happy birthday! Sorry I'm gone, but I didn't want to wake you. Hope last night went well. Will be back 6ish for our quiet night in. All my love. S xxxxx

P.S. Follow the roses...

Charlotte sat up and looked around the room and she saw a trail of red roses leading to the door. She slipped out of bed and followed them, picking each one up as she went. The trail led from the bedroom, along the hallway to the kitchen diner, where on the table Sidney had laid out various breakfast items and there was also a large present wrapped in butterfly paper... along with a card and another note which said:

You can open this one without me... xx

Charlotte looked at the present for a moment, then decided she needed coffee before opening it. She put the roses in a vase (smiling as she did so for it was a really romantic gesture) and made a coffee. Once she had a coffee in hand, she opened the card first and then unwrapped the present... It was a BRIT Certified Platinum Music Award for her debut album. Had she really sold over 300,000 units? The thought was mind blowing! It wasn't technically a gift from Sidney, but it was really thoughtful of him to give it to her today. She only wished he was here with her to celebrate. It was a shame he had to work today. He'd really tried to get the day off, but there were things he couldn't get out of. At least they had the evening together tonight.

Charlotte propped the award against the wall and took a selfie with it to send to Sidney with a thank you for the flowers and breakfast. She kept glancing at the award as she ate a croissant and drank her coffee as if not quite believing it was real. If you'd have asked Charlotte this time a year ago what she thought her life might look like today, it was nothing like this. Everything that had happened had been amazing... yet so completely surreal and she wondered if she would ever get used to this. Thank God she had Sidney by her side to go through it all with her. He was her guide and her rock when life went pretty crazy. Being with him these past six months had been simply wonderful and Charlotte felt like the luckiest girl in the world that she had found him.

Unlike Sidney, Charlotte had the day off today so she had booked herself some spa treatments at a local hotel. It felt weird celebrating her birthday by herself. When she was at Uni, she had always been with her family as her birthday nearly always fell in the Easter holidays so there was usually a big celebration. However, Charlotte was actually kind of relishing the prospect of having a quieter day, and in particular some much needed "me" time as it was something she had not had for quite some time. After having breakfast, and somehow resisting opening the presents from her family (as she wanted to open them with Sidney around), Charlotte got ready and headed off to the hotel.

Sidney was hard at work when Charlotte's text came through on his phone. It was a photo of Charlotte with her platinum award and it made him smile. He fired a message back.