...it was always just the two of us

Write a romance where your character falls in love with the last person they expected to.

Theirs was a most unusual romance and two people that no one would have put together in the first place. Lydia was a ‘good girl’; well brought up, educated, never in trouble, went to church every Sunday with her kids and always tried to do the right thing. Eugene was a ‘bad boy’; was in trouble even in school, started using drugs and alcohol young, had many children by many different mothers at a tender age, and although he tried to be good always ended up making the wrong decisions. Until he met her. Lydia, after having many failed romances, came to learn that bad boys often had the hearts of gold…

Lydia had been living in Europe for the last few years, much to her parents' disdain. When she came back, broken-hearted and with a broken bank account, her parents begrudgingly helped her out, but only at a bare minimal this time. After all, she was always running back to them for help! They only did it because she had her young daughter, Sylvia, in tow. They both lived at her parents home fora fortnight, but that was all either party could tolerate. So, after some very hasty apartment shopping with her mother, Lydia found a cheap place that would put her daughter back into the school district with friends she knew, even if the place was an utter dump. Old patio furniture and broken doors for desks was all her mother would offer, which was stark contrast to the fashionable flats she had enjoyed abroad for the same price. Lydia called up old friends and immediately got jobs in the beauty industry she had worked in before, which was made easier because it was shortly before Christmas and the stores were hiring. She got enough temp work from cosmetic companies to pay the deposit, and landed a full time job in a posh department store just in time before Christmas. Lydia, dressed in fur and designer clothes, was praying her upmarket tights wouldn’t run during the interview because she could not afford to replace them. The soles of her shoes were worn thin and couldn’t be replaced in time to work on her feet all day, but she shined the tops of them to make a good impression. She couldn’t have gotten the job a moment too soon…

It was at the time of moving from her parents in another state to the new place that her life would be changed irrevocably. Lydia and Sylvia decided they had enough of staying at her parents, and since she had paid for the apartment, to go there, even if it had no furniture. She, of course, didn’t have a car...people always ask that, but when one lives abroad, the idea of maintaining a car, much less another home, is only left to the rich and famous. No, she had sold everything before the move and her driving days were over, and she was happy with taxis and trains overseas. So she relied on the public bus in the area she used to live in a lovely home with all her children, the other ones grown now. So, she sent her daughter on the bus for the youth fare, because that was all she could afford was the one ticket, to get microwavable food [thank goodness the apartment had a microwave, a plant with a few Christmas bobbles and a milk crate to sit on] and a blanket. They curled up together next to the baseboard heater and slept the first content sleep they had in a while. Lydia was free to start her new life, and her daughter could return as best as possible to ger old familiar one.

Of course, after a few days of floor sleeping, it gets weary. Her mother scolded her for leaving, but it had been enough. The poor excused for furniture she was willing to donate was there, and no way to move it. Lydia started asking around to see if anyone wanted to make some money for helping to move, and eventually she knocked on what used to be the old managers apartment. A woman about her age answered; she still maintained the pool and some of the grounds, and said her brother was in a position that he wasn’t working and needed money. He happened to still live in the city of the nearby state...if you could call it ‘living’. Lydia later found out he was staying at the condemned and foreclosed house he once shared with his family, now with no heat or water. He still had all his furniture and kids things, but had lost all custody due to drugs. Lydia didn’t know any of this, but the trepidatious look of his sister did lead her to believe there was something bigger going on.

His name was Eugene. He dressed in outrageous outfits looking somewhere between a glam rocker and an elf. He was polite enough, and made an impression on her parents as he moved those few belongings. A door for a table does not a house make, and even Eugene realized that they deserved better. He said he had this house full of furniture, and could bring some. So, for a second load, he brought his sofa, a kids loft bunk bed that Sylvia adored, and a TV, along with some other things. When he carried the TV, he fell hard, tearing his jeans and bloodying his knee. Lydia’s maternal side immediately helped him, so he went into the bathroom and took off the jeans and she used fresh wash clothes and bandages to clean him up. That was certainly an unusual first meeting way for a guy to have to remove his trousers! But sparks flew, and there was magic. Lydia was wearing a form-fitting pink top and jeans for the move, and he noticed how they hugged her curves. Sylvia was at school, and her mother was trying to get everything done to finish her bedroom and surprise her before she got home. But at this moment, Lydia’s and Eugene’s eyes met and they kissed. They fell into passion onto the couch, still not in the right place with the cushions off. It was magic…

Lydia was apprehensive about dating someone so soon after having her heart broken abroad. Eugene pursued her, in the only ways he could. He took the $20 she paid him to help move her and bought roses, and drove around until he saw her walking to her daughters school and offered a lift...it was only a few blocks away. Still, he insisted as he was smitten in this fish out of water romance. Being alone and vulnerable herself, it didn’t take long for her to succumb, much to her daughters eye-rolling and saying ‘no mom!’. She didn’t really have much to lose, and for Eugene she had everything to offer; love, kindness, a warm albeit modest home, and lots and lots of passion. Oh, there was fire! The first few months they actually had to shower together, unable to be apart even for that long. In retrospect, maybe not the best idea, but the happy splashing and talking put her daughter at ease. She had her friends back, and thanks to Eugene, a proper bedroom, and since Sylvia carried her stuffed animals and posters with her when she traveled and had plenty of clothes, so she was a normal tween again. Little did she know, that lofty bunk bed she would soon have to share.

Lydia and Eugene were happy; movie happy, ridiculously in love happy, the kind you only read about. Their differences only brought them closer. He may have been the last person in the world she ever thought she would fall in love with, but they couldn’t live without each other. Eugene needed rehab, and Lydia was more than happy to accommodate by going

along with to AA, NA and anything else A meetings, sometimes several a day. The only thing is, after being a tea-totaller her whole life, she had picked up a knowledge and love of wine in Europe. They would go to AA and then a wine tasting; she didn’t get the irony because she didn’t have an addiction, she just loved the taste and culture of it. Pot, she deemed, had no culture...what can you enjoy smoking under the bleachers in school that smells like a skunk and comes with scuzzy friends willing to do so? She didn’t get it. Of course, Eurgene’s undoing was far stronger drugs than that, and since she had no understanding of addiction, she didn’t get the cravings to use and abuse. But Eugene was driven to not have that be part of her life or their home, to not let the monkey on his back ruin this family after ruining one, so he tried hard to get clean. For the most part, it worked, and her love for him was like a warm bath that washed away his sins leaving him new.

The other thing that nagged at Eugene was missing his kids. Now, Lydia thought it was odd to think of them as a ‘family’, all different ages and races from different mothers that didn’t live under one roof, but to Eugene they were. His idea was, whatever kid that could come and stay with him for a while would find a place to sleep, even if it were in a pile like puppies on the floor. At the house now long boarded up, it was girls in one room, boys in the next. Some of them took to running away and hitch hiking from their own drug-addicted mothers to stay with dad, which wasn’t much better...that was how they had ‘family time’, So one night, Eugene started to cry as he lay in bed, missing his kids. Lydia thought she had fulfilled all his needs, but apparently he needed his own children around him. Since the courts had taken away custody [again, another red flag missed by Lydia], she vowed that she would use her good reputation to beg mercy from the courts and the mothers, since the kids would be visiting her clean and sober home, It worked, but be careful what you wish for…

It was difficult, to say the least...in fact it was awful, sometimes dangerous, and risky for her to do this. Some of the kids didn’t like her, particularly the girls. The boys liked her, but would threaten her just the same for getting into their space. Now, mind you, this was Lydia and Sylvia’s home, she was the only one working to support all these people in a high-end department store, and even with commission that is a fine salary for one, not for a lot of people. Soon, Sylvia had to share her room with girls that had no manners, and it was a strain. The boys would sleep on the floor, and relatives would come and go. One night, when they were sound asleep in bed, Eugene’s cousin came walking into their bedroom! Lydia about had a heart attack...who does that? He didn’t live there, didn’t have a key, it was the wee hours in the morning...this was so not normal. But it was normal to Eugene.

For some reason, at that point, her parents approved the match. They moved her to a lovely four bedroom house with a hot tub in a posh are that still served Sylvia’s school district. By now, she had a ‘step-brother’ that was going to school with her, catching the bus. Lydia arranged free lunches and any other subsidy she could, in order to afford the home...a massive improvement over the two bedroom apartment that one could hear every footstep in the building. They seemed like a family..

The years went by, and there was the yo yo-ing of Eugene’s drug problems and the kids acting up. Sylvia came to accept them newfound siblings, but on her phone she listed her home number as “hell whole”. There became more strains, although there was always the

love and passion, and Lydia got to the point she had to make an ultimatum; “ marry me and get clean and we have a proper family, or you move out as I am not paying for cable for constant war game videos and everything else!” Devastated, Eugene left for a while, meaning the kids had to be split up yet again. They missed each other desperately, and finally he agreed.

Since her parents had figured out the drain on Lydia’s bank account, as well as her time and energy, they no longer approved of the match, and his family didn’t because she was always creating bottom lines to a family that knew none. So, they decided to elope to Vegas. To save money, Lydia made Celtic wedding trop, using family tartans...Eugene looked like the leprechaun he truly seemed to be, and Lydia the Princess of the Dales. They looked resplendent as they took the bus to their wedding, happy to be together. They chose a chapel that looked medieval so it fit the part. In the end it was only them, but it had always been only them from the beginning...