After finishing university, Alice started working at a company with a great teameveryone was friendly and close-knit. Her arrival only boosted the already healthy spirit within the team. She was the kind of woman who could put anyone at ease with her charming nature. Whenever you spoke to Alice, you couldnt help but feel you could trust her. She lived in a new flat just a short distance from her office.
Edward, one of her colleagues, took a liking to her almost immediately. When he learned that she owned her own one-bedroom flat, it sparked something in him. Approaching thirty, Edward didnt have much to his name.
He had a habit of playing the victim. He commuted from a small village every day for work. Oh, how hed complain about having to go back home at the end of a long day! In reality, though, he rarely made the journey backhed often end up staying over at various friends’ or girlfriends’ places. Alice seemed the perfect girlflawless inside and out. Everything about her was just right. And Edward clung to her for three years like a limpet.
Alice frequently travelled for business, bringing in a handsome salary, while Edward struggled; he was still completing studies, and his health wasnt the best. They saw doctors regularly, and having children turned out to be impossible.
Marriage was never discussed. Occasionally, their boss would talk about his nephew, who had proposed to his girlfriend only for her to be diagnosed with stage three cancer just before their wedding. They wed, and the young husband devoted his strength caring for his terminally ill wife Three years went by. Alice started to wonder: Hes living in my flat, Im covering all the expenses, and he hasnt so much as mentioned marriage. Alice voiced her concerns to Edward; soon after, he bought her a ring and announced their engagement.
Returning home from another business trip, Alice found Edward waiting. Im not ready to get married, he said. Im too responsible to take someone elses future into my hands Keep the ring, as a reminder of our wonderful love Alice was stunnedshe never expected such a parting gift from the person she cared about most.
Her boss soon sent her off on another business trip. He handed her a ticket to the West End and threatened her with the sack if she didnt use it. At the theatre, she happened to sit beside his widowed nephew. They ended up spending all their free time together during that trip. Alice fell pregnant; both were overjoyed.
They wasted no time in marrying, and made sure Alice felt every bit a princess on her wedding day. Ten years later, they now have two sons and are thinking about a third child. Whether its a boy or a girl doesnt matter to themwhats important is that their child is healthy. Theyve built a strong, loving family.
Edward, meanwhile, never really figured out what he wanted from life. He always considered having a family too expensive a pleasure, so he never risked taking responsibility for anyone else. After finally paying off his car loan, he purchased a new laptopa purchase that caused a bit of a stir. How hell manage to pay off this new loan remains a mysterySome evenings, Edward would scroll through photos of old colleaguessmiles, kids, reunions. Hed see Alice and her husband, faces aglow with life, their children gathered around a birthday cake or playing in a sunlit garden. Sometimes he wondered what might have been, but the fleeting feeling would always fade, replaced by the comfort of familiar routines and the low hum of his laptop.
As for Alice, each night as she tucked her sons into bed and listened to their laughter echo down the hallway, shed think back to how her life had almost gone a different way. She was grateful for the years that taught her patience, for the love that found her when she least expected it, and for the courage to start anew. Sometimes, as she locked eyes with her husband over the soft glow of a lamp, she realized happiness wasnt about having the perfect planit was about being open to the possibility that the next act would be the best one yet.
And so, gently, life turned its pages, carrying each of them forward. Some stories ended up exactly as they should, simply because their authorsat the moment they stopped rewriting the pastlet themselves believe in happier endings.
