Follow My Lead Episode 34
Back home, they decided to have a picnic lunch in the kitchen facing the window.
“This looks good.” Marie indicated the tray in her hands.
On it was thick hunks of fresh seeded bread and some ciabatti, along with bottles of homemade dressing from another stall.
Lydia was right behind her, hands full with plates and cutlery.
“This looks wonderful.” She was smiling in anticipation.
“Lydia, how are things? Have you made a decision yet?” Marie asked.
“Decision?” Lydia was confused, but then remembered what they’d spoken about in their last phone catch-up.
Now she weighed her words carefully.
“I let the closing date pass for that job. I decided it wasn’t for me.”
She turned to smile at Danielle.
“And it’s your fault.”
Danielle had just taken a bite of bread and cheese and could only raise her shoulders in a comical gesture.
“It’s the way you’ve followed your passion and given yourself a fresh start. New career, new friends, a whole new life.
“I can’t tell you how impressed I am. I’ve found it inspiring.”
Danielle blushed as Lydia carried on.
“It’s made me realise there’s no reason that I can’t do that,” Lydia went on. “I don’t miss the city.
“I’m getting involved with the hall, I’ve been offered a job running the farm shop, and freelance opportunities have started to come my way.
“I’m settling in, making friends, finding new interests and passions. I’m happy.”
“And might one of those new passions be your friend next door?” Marie asked, dropping her voice discreetly, though there had been no sound from Cyrus’s garden for some time.
Lydia grinned.
“Cyrus is certainly a very important part of my decision,” she said, keeping her own voice low.
“Though he doesn’t know any of this yet.”
Marie’s hand had crept up to clutch the locket she wore round her neck.
“Oh, Lydia,” she breathed. “Is the feeling mutual?”
“I’d say so,” Danielle answered before Lydia could.
“You just have to see the way they are together,” she added with a soft smile for her godmother.
Marie’s eyes grew misty.
“How wonderful.”
At that very moment Lydia’s phone rang.
She glanced at the screen and groaned.
“If Cyrus makes my heart sing, Basil makes it sink,” she declared with such a mournful expression it made them all laugh.
“But I need to tell him,” she acknowledged.
With a grimace, Lydia went indoors.
She couldn’t help sighing as she perched on the arm of the sofa and prepared for another litany of doom.
“Basil! Hi,” she greeted him, deliberately chirpy.
“Lydia! I have great news!”
She did a double-take at the phone in her hand. Was this booming, excited voice really Basil?
“I went for that job and they’ve just phoned me to arrange an interview.”
She frowned. Job?
“Which job? Remind me.” She needed to be sure.
It was the one she’d told him about. She’d only mentioned it because she’d been thinking of going for it herself.
She hadn’t imagined she might find herself in competition with him.
“That was quick, wasn’t it?” he went on.
“Applications have only just closed. It must mean I’m what they’re looking for.”
It didn’t seem to cross his mind how duplicitous he’d been. He hadn’t even asked if she’d gone for it, too.
“I know we talked about you coming up to the city next week, but can we leave it for a bit? I want to leave my diary open.”
“Sure, Basil. Of course,” she agreed.
And that was where they left it, as she told Marie and Danielle when she rejoined them.
“I think I’ve just been dumped. I didn’t even have the chance to dump him first!” she said through her laughter.
She sat back in the chair, feeling as though a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
The conversation with Basil had told her two things.
One was that she had made the right decision career-wise.
She hadn’t felt the slightest hint of envy that he might be about to be offered a job in the media.
The second was about friends and friendship.
Her eyes came to rest on Marie and Danielle, gossiping away about Danielle’s dad’s imminent birthday.
This was what true friendship was. People like these women, who would always be there for her no matter what.