Tanya Knight Books

“If you walk out of that door, we are done – we are over.” I hesitated. My mind wavered. Whilst I loved Rob, I’d had enough of his controlling behaviour. I wanted to leave, but was I really ready to leave behind my entire life?

At the age of 29, my life plan wasn’t really working. I’d hoped to be settled down by now. I’d wanted to be thinking about starting a family. At this rate I’d be a geriatric Mum, if I managed to become a Mum at all.

But enough was enough. I needed a fresh start. After two years of living with Rob, I’d finally decided that the constant rollercoaster of a relationship with him was too much. 

I took a deep breath, put my hand out to the door, turned around and said “Goodbye Rob. I’ve had enough. I will be in touch about collecting my things in a few days.” And I left.

I rocked up to my Mum’s house 45 minutes later. However old I get, I always seem to end up back at my Mum’s house. At least there I know I will get a sympathetic ear, a big hug – and of course some good food.

“Of course you can stay” said Mum. “You know there is always a place for you here.”

“Thanks Mum, I really appreciate it” I replied.

“So what was the final straw?” Mum asked. For months I had been keeping Mum updated on the trials and tribulations of living with Rob. 

“I told him that I was going out for Molly’s birthday tonight. He didn’t want me to go.” For some reason Rob tried to drive a wedge between myself and my friends. He seemed to want me all to himself and often stopped me from seeing my friends or going out. I always invited him, but he just didn’t want to be sociable with other people. Rob was quite a bit older than me – he was 39, so maybe that was part of the reason he didn’t want to hang out with my friends.

“And you aren’t going to go back to him again this time?” enquired Mum. 

“Definitely not – I’m done this time” I stated.

It was true that I’d had a couple of temporary splits with Rob in the past. And poor Mum was forced to listen to my troubles and then watch as I ended up going back to him. But not this time. It was final this time. It was time to start again. Otherwise I could see myself in a continuous loop, always wanting to be happy but never quite managing it.

I picked up my phone and called Molly. I brought her up to speed on what had happened and made plans to meet up with her and some other friends for a night out for her birthday. Molly was pleased as she knew I was more likely to stay out and have fun without the thought of having to go home to Rob at the end of the night. She was never that keen on Rob really – they just tolerated each other.

“3, 2, 1, go” shrieked Molly. The 4 of us all banged our shot glasses on the table and downed them in one. Our faces, as the vile mixture burnt down our throats, was amusing and we all burst out laughing. The music was loud, the lights were flashing, the atmosphere was rocking and we were all having a great time. It was ages since I’d really let my hair down and had fun. It was amazing to feel part of the social circle again. In the last couple of years I’d only been out a handful of times, hadn’t drunk very much and had felt rather isolated from my friendship group. Well, that was all over now. I felt confident that I’d done the right thing in leaving Rob. I was back in with my besties, and looking forward to starting afresh. It actually felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

“Let’s go dance” shouted Molly. We all grabbed each other’s hands and waded onto the dancefloor. The music was awesome and we spent half an hour or so dancing to some excellent dance tracks from the 90s. At last, hot, sweaty and rather thirsty, we headed back to the bar for drinks, and then made our way outside for some fresh air. I was drinking cider (my favourite) and the other girls were drinking a mix of WKD and vodka/cokes. Everyone was having a good time but we needed a little breather.

Whilst we cooled down in the night air, I brought the girls up to speed with my splitting from Rob. They were all totally supportive. Whilst he was a good looking chap, he had never made much (if any) effort with any of my friends, so they all agreed with my decision to move on. We started to shiver so decided to head back inside and have another round of shots. This always seems like a good idea at the time, but no doubt I would suffer the next morning. I was staying at Molly’s flat tonight so that I didn’t disturb Mum by coming in very late. I knew she would stay awake waiting for me if she was expecting me home, so it’s better to stay elsewhere after a night out.

An hour later we realised that it was 2am and started to think about heading home. 

“Chips, chips, chips” yelled the girls so we headed towards the chip shop. We were weaving about the pavement, a little worse for wear. But hungry – oh so hungry. We stormed into the shop and ordered chips with cheese. It’s amazing how brilliant they taste after a long night out.

As we waited for our chips to be served to us, the door opened and two guys walked in. They looked in their early thirties, and both of them were really good looking. One was tall, blonde and had a dazzling smile whilst the other was dark and had piercing brown eyes. Molly & I looked at each other and raised our eyebrows. We instantly knew that I would be attracted to the blonde and Molly would be attracted to the dark haired lad.

“Evening ladies” said the blonde chap. “How are you? Have you had a nice evening?”

“Oh yes thanks” replied Molly. “We’ve had a top night celebrating my birthday”. 

“How old are you today then? 25?” he asked.

Molly laughed, that would make her happy. 

“I’m 29 today” replied Molly. She was just a bit younger than me.

“Well I’m James, and this is Harry” replied the blonde.

“Good to meet you James. My name is Molly, this is my best friend Lily, and these are Evie & Georgia”. 

Our chips arrived, so we headed outside and started eating them. 

“Let’s wait for those lads” said Molly. “They were nice”. 

Evie & Georgia decided to head off – they were going to share a taxi to the village where they lived a few miles away. We said our goodbyes and agreed to meet up again soon. 

The two boys then arrived and we started to chat to them whilst eating our chips. They told us that they both worked for an engineering firm in the nearby town. They were best mates and shared a flat together. They were keen on sports – both watching & playing them. James (the blonde) was a runner and Harry played rugby. That made me quite excited as I had recently started running. I told James that I had done the local parkrun a couple of times. What a small world. He has also run the same parkrun but only on a few occasions. We decided to swap numbers, as did Molly & Harry. It was then time to head for home. James & Harry were heading in the same direction as us, so we all shared a taxi. That was a bonus as it was half the cost. In fact, the boys insisted on paying as they were going past us in any case, so we jumped out first after a free ride. 

We bundled into Molly’s flat, laughing and giggling. We both tripped up the stairs trying to race in the quickest, so probably made far too much noise. I’m sure her neighbours won’t be happy. Hopefully we didn’t wake them up. Molly heads to her bedroom and I head to the sofa and I’m pretty sure that we both crashed out instantly. After a night of dancing, drinking & chips, we had no chance of staying up chatting.

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