“He called? I told him not to!”
“And I had to see you, Mum! As if I was going to let you suffer alone.”
“But I’m not alone! I have Leo, and Gilly, and I knew you were coming back next week anyway, so I told him-”
“Lyds,” Gilly interrupted, now putting a hand on Lydia’s shoulder. “Don’t get worked up. We can hardly send Saskia back down to Cornwall now, can we?”
“I know,” Lydia said, and gritted her teeth. “I just feelbadthat she changed her plans for me.”
“You’re worth it,” Saskia said, surprising herself as well as the rest of them. Now Lydia’s gaze zeroed in on her daughter.
“You’re different,” she observed. “Cornwall has changed you. The old you would never have said something like that. Did you meet someone out there? Someone who’s changed you?”
Trust her mum to see right through her. Saskia’s heart lurched – this wasn’t how she’d planned to come out. But her mum had asked, and Leo and Gilly were there, and the moment somehow felt right…
“I did,” she said, and swallowed hard. “A woman. Her name is Kiera – Kivi – and I’m in love with her.”
There was a moment of silence, in which Lydia’s eyebrows almost met her hairline. But then she dropped them, looked away for a moment, and licked her lips.
“Well, welcome to the Sapphic side.” She chuckled. “Tell us all about her, Saskia.” She patted the sheets, then looked up at Leo and Gilly. They joined them on the bed, all looking at Saskia as if she were about to read them a bedtime story, and she laughed.
“Okay. Well, she owns the guest house where I stayed, and she has this dork of a dog called Toto…”
By the time she finished the story of how they came to fall in love while planning Cass and Felicia’s wedding, Lydia was looking tired. But the smile remained on her face, and grew even wider as Saskia concluded.
“That’s a lovely story,” she said. “Kivi sounds wonderful.”
“But you’ve only been together for a couple of weeks?” Gilly said, sounding worried.
“Yeah,” Saskia said, and bit her lip. “I know it’s odd. To know that you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, having only been with them for such a short time. But… it works. Somehow. I don’t know how to explain it. But we work. And wewillwork.”
“Oh, that’s not what I was saying,” Gilly said. “I’m more concerned that this situation has wrenched you apart, in such a crucial early stage of your relationship.”
“That’s true,” Lydia said. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Saskia.”
“It’s not your fault!” Saskia protested, shooting a faint glare at Gilly for bringing the mood down. “It feels like we’ve been together for longer. Almost since I first got there, in fact.”
“That’s still only a month or so,” Lydia said, nodding in rueful agreement with her fiancée. “I think you should go back.”
“What?”Saskia exclaimed, as Leo protested,“Today?”
“Not today,” Lydia said. “But soon. Tomorrow, even. Don’t let her get away, Saskia. Once you’ve felt the love of a good person, don’t let them go.”
“But when I go back to her, I want to go back as a whole,” Saskia said. “I want to go back to her with my life tied up in a neat, portable parcel. Rather than scattered everywhere, meaning that I have to leave her again. I want to go back forever, Mum. And if I leave Cornwall again, I want her to be with me.”
They all fell quiet as they digested Saskia’s point. Then Lydia shrugged, and winced as she clearly pulled on an aching muscle or something like that.
“Then I think you should crack on with it,” she said. “Now you’re back. Not that I’m trying to get rid of you – I just don’t want you to sacrifice your shot at true love. I did…” She looked over at Gilly with a sad smile. “…and it was pure luck and guts that brought her back to me.” Now she looked back at Saskia, and her gaze nearly skewered her. “Don’t let that be you and Kivi.”
“But… I’ll be moving three-hundred miles away. Doesn’t that… upset you?”
“Of course it does,” Lydia said, and pursed her lips. “But part of being a mother is accepting that your children will eventually have their own lives. And the wonder of living in the times we do is that we have a wealth of technology at our disposal. I mean, sure, they haven’t invented teleportation yet, but that’s where transport comes in.”
“We’ll come to see you, and you can come to see us,” Leo said. “Especially since your girlfriend has got a B&B, and all.”
“And there will always be a spare room for you here,” Gilly said. “If, for whatever reason, it doesn’t work out.”
“Your career is portable,” Lydia pointed out. “You’re young, healthy and fit. You have disposable income at your fingertips. Why shouldwestop you?”
