It's always been you

Chapter 26 - Home Stretch

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MARCH 2015
LUCY POV

We were in our final year at LAMDA. 2 years ago I met two boys, one of whom I would fall in love with, the other who would become our best friend and biggest supporter. The time was flying by so quickly and before we would know it we'd all be finished with LAMDA for good.

Nikki had recently decided what she wanted to do in life. For years she'd mentioned on and off she'd love to try midwifery. So she bit the bullet and went for it. She had just started her degree and should graduate in three years. I was so proud of her. She was still working at Fitzgeralds almost full time so I didn't get to see her as often but we still made a point of speaking on the phone once a day.

Once a month Ollie and I had a dinner party with the gang at our place with a different theme each time. I loved experimenting in the kitchen and testing new recipes on our friends and Ollie was
beginning to love helping me cook. He'd hover around me in the kitchen as my Guinea pig and tell me if it needed more salt, less salt, more garlic, etc.

We were currently standing in the kitchen on a Saturday afternoon cooking up a Thai feast. I caught him smiling down at the coriander he was chopping and said "whatcha smiling at Olls?" "Nothin sweetheart." I raised my eyebrow at him. "Liar". "Promise you won't freak out?" "Oh god what?" "I was just thinking how I'd love to do this with our kids one day. You, me and two or three little ones helping us cook."

I gulped when he said it which he caught. "Relax Harris. I don't mean right now. But in a few years hopefully?" I smiled at him and kissed him. "That sounds perfect." The doorbell rang and I skipped down the hallway to answer it. Nikki and Hannah had arrived carrying Thing in his tank. I missed the little guy like crazy so I'd asked if he could come. I squealed with excitement when I saw him and immediately pulled the lid off his tank to get him out.

"Hi baby! Oh I missed you!" Nikki and Hannah walked past me towards the kitchen. "Where's Joe?" "He's picking Camille up from work and then coming. We got an Uber. What smells amazing?!" "Thai satay, green curry seafood and pineapple rice". "Oh my god yum!" They shoved past Ollie without even saying hello and began picking at the food in the pots on the stove.

"Oi! Out you two! Wait for everyone else!" They grumbled but turned to say hello to Ollie as he poured them both a glass of wine. The doorbell rang again. This time David answered it to find Ben, Joe and Camille who had arrived at the same time.

I kicked everyone out of the kitchen and got Ollie and David to work pouring drinks as I began playing up the food before placing it on the table for everyone to help themselves. Camille hadn't had time to change out of her Tesco uniform as she'd come straight here. She borderline inhaled some food and a glass of wine and groaned in pleasure. "Luce you have no idea how much I needed this. I did 10 hours today and didn't even get a break we were so busy!" I pushed the curry towards her and said "eat as much as you want. I made bucketloads like I usually do."

We sat around the table after dinner playing board games which almost turned in to a fight when we were playing Trivial Pursuit. Ollie knew the answer to a really random, obscure question so David accused him of cheating and reading the answer cards. And then it just snowballed from there, the rest of us laughing at their idiotic sibling fight.

We began talking about the future. Nikki was studying, Hannah and Camille working full time, Joe, Ollie and myself would graduate this year, David was almost finished his teaching degree and wanted to specialise in teaching music at a high school level to kids who were doing it rough, and Ben was working full time at the garage with dad. Life was kind of working out ok for all of us.