Paper Hearts

THEN: Chapter 3

"I tremble for what we are doing. Are you sure you will love me forever? I fear, and I hope" - Lady Mary Pierrepont

Eden:

From the day of the kiss onward, we were inseparable, Ollie and I. I wondered, frequently, how I had managed before his arrival in my life - because I had been lonely, of course I had, that's why I so often found escape in books - but I hadn't realised how lonely I had been until I had Ollie. 

I told Emma about him with an almost mean enjoyment; I'd always suspected that she would be the first to find a boyfriend. My Mum asked me what I was up to the day I came home after the kiss with swollen lips and a smile as wide as the River Thames. My smile widened, and I shook my head and maddeningly refused to tell her. She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling, too - I think she was, in some ways, relieved.

We made frequent trips into central London, Ollie and I (I loved how our names sounded together!). We made up the stories behind the paintings in art galleries, trooped all around the best museum exhibits, longed to steal a book from the British Library and twirled in the ballroom of Buckingham Palace  -until the security guards threatened to throw us out, that is. I took him on a tour around the Tower of London, a tour which I assured him was a million times better than the tours given by the Tower wardens. I think he believed me. 

After several hours in Harrods lamenting the cost of a jar of pear drops, we were sitting in a cramped cafe in Knightsbridge, eating the tiny cheese sandwiches that were the only things we could afford. 

"Ollie, d'you believe in fate?"

Ollie snorted, mouth full of bread, and raised his eyebrows.

"No" he responded firmly, swallowing, "Don't be ridicul-wait, do you?"

I reddened, "Maybe"

A pause ensued. Ollie leant back in his chair, considering.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you believe in fate?"

I shrugged, "I don't know. I just thought that it might have been fate, that day when it poured down with rain just as I was leaving Emma's. It might have been fate that I decided I could murder a coffee and the only free seat was the one opposite the guy reading one of my favourite books"

Ollie shrugged too, head on one side, "Did you ever think that might just have been coincidence?"

I looked at him, shrugged again to hide how much I wished I'd never mentioned it, "What's the difference?"

He looked at me steadily for a few minutes. Then he said something I hadn't been expecting.

"Eden, have I ever told you about my parents?"

I started, surprised; then frowned in confusion, "No. Come to think of it, you've never mentioned them! What about them?"

"They died. Four years ago"

I didn't know what to say. I gasped, clapped a hand to my mouth.

"Oh my God. Oh my God, Ollie, I'm so s-"

"Don't say that" he interrupted swiftly, "People say that to me a lot"

"Oh. Right. Sorry. Do you mind - can I ask what happened?"

He bit his lip, and for a moment I wanted to take the question back, push it back behind my lips like it had never passed them.

"I'm guessing you remember the London bombings? 7/7?"