You're Always You

Chapter Two

Lydia Minett

"I know, Ma." Lydia smiled while holding the cellphone against her ear. Currently, though oddly, Lydia was sitting on the floor of the closet, her head between two of David's coats. "I'll let David know, too. I'm sure he won't mind."

"You sure?" Lydia's mother said into the phone. "I don't think David would like much of a short notice. Your father certainly didn't prepare me for the sudden travel!"

"David won't." Lydia said firmly with a smile, her head leaning back against the wall in the back of the closet. "You know David won't mind the sudden surprise. Of course you can come up for dinner tomorrow, especially if you're going to be in town."

Letting a smile slip onto her lips, Lydia let her fingers run through her short, brown hair. "I'll talk to you tomorrow then, Ma, alright?"

"Alright. Take care of yourself! Eat well!"
"Thanks," Lydia said as she hung up the phone with a smile. When she was younger, Lydia had a terrible relationship with her parents. The girl always bickered with her Russian parents who thoroughly believed that they were doing best for her. And sometimes, they were.

Sometimes they weren't.

Lydia was all for just... never talking to her parents again after graduation from high school. She was prepared to cut ties with her family, the Petrov family, entirely. That is, until she began to date David in high school and David convinced her otherwise.

...It was probably the best decision David gave her, in her opinion. David influenced Lydia's life in a lot of different ways, but encouraging her to hold on to her family was among the best. After all, when Lydia moved out from home and moved into an apartment when David went off to the military, she began to get closer to her parents.

Moving away was what helped their relationship.

Having that relationship with her parents made Lydia feel so happy. So content with life - far more than before with the bickering. She had David on one side and her parents on the other. It was perfect for the woman.

Truly, Lydia couldn't even picture being with another man. To her, Lydia felt like David was crafted on a perfect platter to be served just for Lydia. David was so unbelievably supportive in her decisions, just as she was with his.

When David decided to head off to serve in the military, Lydia supported him wholeheartedly - even if she was nervous and scared for him. And when Lydia expressed that she loved the idea of being on broadway, singing across the stage... David encouraged it.

After every failed audition in their hometown of NYC, David just kept encouraging her. Until, one day, he didn't need to encourage her. Until broadway started to want her.

Lydia felt like she was starting to live out her dreams.

Everything was perfect in her life.

Considering the fact Lydia was working in broadway now, she didn't have to rush herself to get out the door. They had a call time, but the call time was typically a bit later than an average start to a work day.

...Lydia personally enjoyed that it was a bit later, since she got to sleep in. She felt bad about the fact that David didn't get to sleep in, but he never complained.

David was that kind of man. The man that did things for Lydia instead of complaining about them. Like, she couldn't count the number of times he took her to a museum because she wanted to look at the drawings and paintings in art museums. Or the statue parks that David walked her through which she loved the admire in NYC.

If Lydia didn't push through with acting and broadway, she liked to imagine that she would've ended up doing something with drawing. Maybe... a professional animator. Or... graphic design. Something.

But Lydia ended up in broadway and those kinds of things became a leisure activity.

Though when they spent time together and went on dates, it wasn't always about Lydia. Sometimes they went to David and looked at things that he wanted to talk about.

Which, sometimes included his glory days on the football team.

Whatever made him happy, she was fine with.

Making David happy made her happy.

...

Which was also why she was sitting on the floor of the closet instead of doing something a bit more normal, like... not sitting in the floor of a closet.

A habit which Lydia picked up a long time from first dating David in high school was slipping notes onto his body. The notes were small and simple in high school, of course, but Lydia loved it. She would tuck a stickynote into his notebook without him noticing to find later. Or she would stuff a notecard into his backpack without him noticing.

David even started in on the fun and hid notes in Lydia's belongings, too.

Year by year, the notes got a bit more elaborate. Lydia began to make the notes longer and more detailed. She began to hide them in more complicated places - but places he would certainly find eventually.

Without a doubt, however, Lydia and David always smiled when they found a card.

Given how much Lydia loved to make him smile, she was currently stuffing an assortment of love notes that she spent writing out into his clothes that were hanging up. Some she stuffed into hidden zippers in his coats. Some she stuffed in the breast pocket of his shirts - where he rarely seemed to check.

If Lydia was feeling real sneaky, she would unfold and stuff them in his pants before folding them back up.

...Lydia couldn't count the number of times she unintentionally washed one of the notes since he never found it or left it in his pocket, but she didn't mind.

There were twenty more out there for every one note.

Lydia's personal favorite note that she hid ended up being the one she stuffed between David's phone and phone case. David never took it off, therefore he never saw it.

He carried it around with him and never knew.

It was cute, and Lydia knew she would love the day that he found the note. He would certainly come home and announce it to Lydia when he did find it.

Because that hidden note was golden.

Regardless, Lydia only had a short amount of time to stuff the love notes in his clothes. Given she was on a timeline, Lydia only spent a few more minutes hiding notes that made her smile before standing up and getting changed herself to head off to practice.

Her fellow actors were waiting and expecting for Lydia to arrive, after all. For broadway performances that Lydia had been in before, she was always the ensemble.

But in this one? Lydia was one of the lead actresses.

She truly couldn't wait for David and her parents to see her perform. It would certainly be one of her proudest moments, without a doubt. To see where she had come from, struggling financially with parents that she bickered with nonstop... to a loving husband, parents that now had big hearts, and to be standing on the edge of a stage in front of hundreds and thousands of eyes.

Lydia always loved to be at the center of attention and having the spotlight, but... damn. She never pictured it like this. She never pictured the sound of people clapping for herself as well as the cast and crew. It was a beautiful sound.

One that she was certainly going to tear up after the first performance.

...But the first performance wasn't going to happen if she was late.

Agh!