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‘Fools’

Her ht so I would leave and move on But old Polly never learnt She alent out with successful men, businessmen, suits and chauffeured cars and busy schedules and she always, always failed So why not try someone new? Someone different?’

That had always been Gabe’s philosophy New, different, less It didn’t sound so pretty on her lips

‘It makes sense’ In a warped way it did He understood exactly why she had thrown caution to the wind

‘I had a list, of things I had never done, things most people did in their teens and early twenties Swim naked, sleep under the stars’ She flushed ‘Have sex on a beach’ She shook her head ‘It sounds so childish’

‘No, it doesn’t’ Gabe knehat it was like to one to teen parties, hadn’t experier Instead he’d hovered on the brink of death, he’d fallen in love, he’d lost everything

‘I’ve never done any of those things either,’ he confided, trying to push away the i in the ht

‘It was supposed toOnly now’ Her voice trailed off ‘I’veI alanted but I don’t knohat to do’

‘You don’t have to figure it out tonight’ Gabe was supposed to be keeping his distance, supposed to be the chauffeur, nothingher tears spill out, hot and heavy, he couldn’t not act Without thought he edged closer, pulled her in, wrapped his ar his

She fitted like a glove, her head on his shoulder, her chest against his, hip against hip

‘How could IThe one time I allow myself to just act, to not think and it explodes all over my dreams I need to be a CEO, not a mother’

‘Who says you can’t be both? When I was diagnosed I had so irl at school, to captain the rugby tea In the end my plan was to live And I did’

‘And the other things?’ she asked softly

‘I didn’t pull the hottest girl in school, but I fell in love with sorip and tried not to reby but took up marathons and triathlons—and I still aced e, they adapt, you’ll be fine’

‘How?’

Gabe sighed It took time, adjustment, pain—but she wasn’t ready to hear that Not yet ‘We can figure it out to to be okay’