Second chance at first love
He was still the lad I’d fallen for – minus the floppy hair!
After moping around the house for a few weeks, I tried to look to the future.
I had an amazing, five-month-long adventure ahead of me. A trip of a lifetime.
On my travels, Derek often crossed my mind. But the pain soon subsided. In July 1999, I arrived home and, shortly after, I met someone.
I got a job as a teacher and in 2004, we got engaged.
Planning the wedding, I knew there was one guest I needed to be there.
Please will you come to the wedding?
I messaged Derek.
Of course, he replied.
It felt right that he should be there.
He and his wife were living in the UK then.
On the big day, I was over the moon saying my vows with my new hubby.
‘Congratulations!’ Derek said at the reception. There was no awkwardness, even though, if things had gone differently, I could have been his bride.
Years flew by, I had three wonderful kids.
Derek and I lost touch and every now and then I’d search his name on Facebook. Never had any luck. In 2015, my husband and I separated.
It was amicable, we’d just fallen out of love.
I moved house and adapted to co-parenting.
Then, in April 2017, a friend request popped up on my Facebook.
Opening up the app, my mouth dropped open when I saw those familiar brown eyes in the profile picture.
Derek!
An engineer officer for the RAF, he was stationed in Turkey.
Had three teenagers of his own, too.
But he still looked like the lad I’d fallen for years before.
Minus the floppy hairdo!
I tapped out a message, feeling like a giddy teenager again.
Chatting away,
I was secretly pleased when he said he’d split from his wife.
Within days, we were calling each other for hours.
Luckily I paid the phone bill these days!
Even after all these years, I could still tell
Derek anything.
And a few weeks later, he booked a flight to see me.
As he strode towards the car at the airport, I couldn’t stop grinning.
We hugged and laughed, went out for meals and enjoyed long walks on the beach together.
Even shared our second first kiss.
It was so romantic.
Over the next few months, Derek came back and forth from Turkey whenever he had a week off.
We introduced our kids to each other. Thankfully, they all got on well.
And in February 2018, when Derek returned back to the UK for good, we all moved in together.
The following month,
Derek got down on one knee.
‘Of course I’ll marry you,’ I smiled, then burst into tears.
Last August, we held a small ceremony with the kids and our parents. Everyone was so happy for us.
Now, we’re one big family.
Sometimes, Derek asks me if I ever regret all the years we were apart.
But the answer is no.
If we’d never split up, we’d never have had our amazing kids.
Everything that we went through in those years apart proved something I’d always known deep down. Derek is my soulmate. We’re better together.