Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

1989

Eve studied her reflection in the grimy mirror, quietly pleased with what she saw. She ran a hand through her short, straight dark hair, ensuring it was slicked back just right. Her worn leather jacket hung open, revealing a fitted black tank top that hugged her frame like a second skin. Her eyeliner was thick, annoyingly uneven, but she’d run out of time to fix it now.

“Eve, are you coming or what?” Ruth’s voice rang out from the kitchen, where the rest of her flatmates were gathered.

“Do you have to shout? She’s literally in the next room,” Nicole scolded.

Eve smirked as she heard Ruth giggle in response.

She lived with three flatmates in total. Ruth and Joanna were her best friends, inseparable. They’d bonded instantly when they met on the first day of university, three kindred spirits, all fleeing their small northern towns for the promise of London. But then there was Nicole. They’d only really chosen to live with her because Ruth had fallen in love with the flat, and there was an extra room they couldn’t afford otherwise.

Nicole was different. They were all law students, but that was where their similarities ended. Nicole was from Devon, as southern as they come, with parents who paid her way through university. No weekend job, no real struggles, at least as far as Eve could tell. Instead, Nicole spent her time complaining, about their drinking, about their noise, about them bringing people back to the flat when she had class the next morning.

And of course tonight was no different. All four of them had just finished their first exams and were ready to blow off steam after weeks of cramming statistics, case law, and endless notes in the library. They might have been ambitious, aspiring lawyers, but they were also first-year students, young, free, and living in the big city. And tonight, the gay bars of Soho were calling. But of course, Nicole was staying in and making a start on next semester’s reading, and whatever shenanigans were happening in the kitchen right now would surely be enraging her.

“Alright, alright, I’m coming!” Eve shouted back, keen to separate Ruth and Nicole before the bickering really started.

Eve took one last, satisfied look in the mirror before running out the door.

They piled onto the tube, laughter echoing through the carriage as Ruth put on her best Nicole impression, exaggerating her posh accent and sighs of disapproval. Eve grinned, glancing around at the eclectic mix of passengers.

In the corner, a group of women in leg warmers and permed hair shared a beer, chatting animatedly, their laughter bubbling through the space. A businessman in a crumpled suit slumped in his seat, clearly having had one too many post-work pints. Across from them, a group of punks blasted music from a tinny cassette player, jeering at one of their own over his outgrown mohawk.

This was why Eve had fallen in love with London. Here, anyone could be anything, and no one batted an eye. The first time she had set foot in Soho, it had felt like a revelation, a dream she never thought possible back in Bradford. Here, she wasn’t odd or different. She just was. And that was enough.

“I’m telling you, nothing beats the gay bars in Manchester,” Eve insisted as they climbed the steps of Oxford Circus station, slipping seamlessly into the pulsing streets of Soho like they belonged there.

“Right, and I might actually believe you if you’d been on more than one night out there,” Ruth scoffed, rolling her eyes. A born-and-bred Liverpudlian, she was never going to be convinced.

“You only loved it cause you copped off,” Joanna chimed in knowingly.

“What?” Eve laughed, feigning innocence.

“Who knows, maybe you’ll find the love of your life tonight,” Joanna teased, nudging her playfully.

“Oh yeah? Demi Moore gonna be in there, is she?”

“Keep dreaming, Unwin,” Ruth said with a smirk.

The queue outside the Soho pub snaked along the pavement, a restless, glittering crowd wrapped in sequins and leather. As they shuffled forward, Eve’s gaze drifted across the street.

A lone woman stood beneath the neon haze of the bar’s signage, her dark curls wild and untamed, her petite frame caught between shadow and light. There was something about her that Eve couldn't take her eyes off, something arresting. Maybe it was the way she hovered, frozen in the moment, as if caught between decision and doubt.

Joanna followed Eve’s gaze and rolled her eyes. “Don’t even think about it, Eve.”

“What?”

“That one has ‘straight girl freaking out’ vibes written all over her.”

“She’s pretty fit, though, right?”

“Ridiculously fit.” Ruth nodded.

“But she’s standing outside a gay bar like she’s about to have an existential crisis.” Joanna added. “That spells trouble.”

“Alright, alright.” Eve raised her hands in surrender. “I’ll leave it.” But even as the queue inched forward, she kept stealing glances at the woman across the street.

—

An hour later, Eve followed her friends out of the bar, laughing as Ruth delved into her pockets to find her crumpled pack of cigarettes.

“You know those things will kill you, right?” Eve said.

“What? Since when?” Joanna shot back in mock horror, as she pulled a cigarette from Ruth’s packet and put it to her lips.

“And you can do that inside.”

“Yeah but then who would see our damsel in distress act as we ask for someone, anyone to save us and bravely give us a lighter.” Ruth replied, padding her pockets dramatically for a lighter before heading towards a group of women who were hovering in the queue for the bar.

Her eyes had already drifted back across the street. The woman was still there, although she had assumed a new position. She was perched on the curb, knees drawn up as she hugged them to her, staring at the neon sign with that same wide-eyed uncertainty.

“That fit woman is still there,” Eve commented.

“Eve don’t do it,” Joanna groaned as she watched Eve step off the curb and begin to cross the street towards the stranger.

“Eve there’s a bar full of actual gay women inside!” Ruth joined in but when they got no response from their friend she wafted a bored arm and the two of them went back to their feigned hunt for a lighter from the attractive women in the queue.

Eve slowed as she neared the woman, she was even more beautiful close up. Her curls defied gravity, her cheekbones were sharp enough to cut glass, and her big, dark eyes were fixed on the sign above her.

“I think she might’ve stood you up,” Eve opened, her voice laced with amusement.

The woman blinked, startled. “Excuse me?”

“Your date…” Eve trailed off at the blank stare. “Or whoever you’re waiting for.”

“Oh, um, no. I’m not waiting for anyone.”

Eve smirked. “Well, in that case, you should know they don’t do curbside service here.”

Another pause. Another blank look.

“If you want a drink, generally, you have to actually go inside the bar.” Eve explained.

The woman let out a tired smile. “Oh, right. Yeah.”

Eve tilted her head. “We don’t bite, y’know. Not unless you want us to.”

“Oh, I’m not... I mean, I’ve never…” the woman looked horrified.

Eve chuckled softly. “Sure, I get it.” She nodded, turning back toward her friends.

“Wait!” The woman called out to her suddenly.

Eve spun on her heel. “Yes?”

“If I come inside, will you buy me a drink?”

A slow grin spread across Eve’s face.

“I’m sure that could be arranged,” she replied, stepping towards the woman and extending a hand to pull her to her feet.

The woman eyed her warily before, finally, sliding her hand into Eve’s. Her skin was warm, softer than Eve expected, and for a moment, neither of them moved.

Then, with a firm tug, perhaps a little stronger than necessary, Eve pulled her to her feet. The woman stumbled, colliding into her with a startled laugh.

Eve steadied her with a smirk. “I’m Eve, by the way. As in, first woman.”

The woman’s lips curled into a small smile. “I’m Suki.”

Chapter Text

1989

Suki followed Eve into the bar, watching as she weaved through the crowd with effortless confidence. She moved with a swagger, completely at ease, safe in the knowledge that this was her scene, her people. Suki found herself envying that certainty.

Everything about Eve demanded attention. Her dark-lined eyes smoldered beneath grungy but deliberate makeup, and her tank top clung like a second skin, accentuating the toned lines of her stomach, the curve of her breasts. Her jeans were snug to her legs, as Suki’s eyes followed their long, easy stride.

She’d never allowed herself to look at a woman like this before, not really. To take them in. To admire. To want. And she was surprised by how much she did want.

As they reached the bar, Eve turned, flashing a playful smirk. “So, go on then. What’s your poison?”

Suki’s eyes darted over the rows of bottles, the gleaming beer taps, the seemingly endless selection of drinks. Her mind scrambled for an answer. “Uhh… I’m not sure,” she admitted, voice barely above a mumble.

Eve arched a brow. “Well, what do you like?”

“I don’t really know. What do you drink?”

“Lager, mostly.”

Suki wrinkled her nose. “I don’t think that’s for me.”

Eve chuckled, shaking her head. “Nah, I don’t see lager for you either.”

Suki laughed too, surprised by how easy it was to be around this woman. Eve didn’t make her feel foolish for not knowing, didn’t expect her to have it all figured out.

“How about I surprise you?” Eve suggested, her eyes glinting with mischief.

Suki hesitated. “I don’t like surprises.”

“Tough,” Eve laughed and when the bartender finally approached, Eve leaned in, effortlessly commanding attention. “A lager for me, and…” she glanced Suki up and down, assessing. “A large brandy.”

“Brandy?” Suki blinked at her, taken aback.

“A classy drink for a classy bird,” Eve winked as she ran a hand through her dark locks.

Suki couldn’t help but feel warm inside, like the light of Eve’s attention and flirting was literally warming her from inside out.

—

They nestled into a corner table of the crowded bar, the air buzzing with music and laughter. Conversation flowed effortlessly between the two of them, family, music, fashion, school, one topic melting effortlessly into the next. And before Suki knew it one drink had turned into two, and then turned into three. Every so often, Suki caught glimpses of Eve’s friends behind her, making exaggerated gestures, clearly trying to get their friend’s attention and teasing her.

But Eve ignored them completely, her focus locked on Suki like nothing else in the room mattered. Like nothing else in the world existed except for the two of them and this conversation, crackling between them like something electric.

Suki wasn’t sure if it was Eve herself or the quiet thrill of knowing they’d never see each other again, but for the first time in a long time, she felt like she could just be herself. And, to her surprise, she liked this version of her. She liked who she was when she was with this stranger.

“You’re getting married tomorrow?” Eve spat her drink out at Suki’s revelation.

“Yep.” Suki nodded matter-of-factly.

“Was it like an arranged thing?”

“What, cause I’m Asian?”

“No, cause you’re only 18!”

“No one’s making me do it,” Suki countered defensively. “It’s totally my choice. It’s what I’m supposed to do.”

“Is it? It’s nearly the 90s-”

“I know that, but Nish, he’s…" Suki paused, struggling to find the words. "Handsome enough.”

“Wow, I can just feel the love radiating off you right now.” Eve’s reply was dripping with sarcasm.

“He’s ambitious, and charming, and he really is quite handsome.”

“Alright, so tell me this. If Nish is all that, why have you found yourself alone in a gay bar the night before your wedding?”

The smile dropped off Suki’s face, it was the same question she had been asking herself outside on the pavement for the past two hours.

“Sometimes I just wonder, I’ve spent my whole life being the person everyone else wants me to be, I’m not actually sure I know who I am. And I was lying in bed earlier, just staring at the ceiling, and I thought to myself, I’ve got just one night to do this. This is the last night I can do this, so why not just stop thinking about doing this and just… do it.”

“Where do your parents think you are right now?”

“I said I was going to bed early, that I needed to get my beauty sleep.”

“You know your parents, they don’t always know what’s best for you. Mine spent so long disapproving of my life choices. But at the end of the day, I never trusted their opinion when they hated my thrash metal music, so why should I listen to their opinion on my choice of gender in a life partner?”

“So they… disowned you?” Suki asked.

“Disowned is a strong word, but we’ve not spoken since I moved here. And don’t get me wrong, sometimes that feels horrific. But you know what no one tells you before you come out?”

Suki shook her head in response.

“It doesn’t matter what the consequences are, I’ve never met anyone who regretted coming out, only people that wish they’d done it sooner.”

“But don’t you miss your parents?”

“I think I miss the relationship that I hoped we would have.”

Suki nodded, processing what Eve was telling her, she couldn’t imagine a life without her parents, without their approval. It was all she’d ever strived for.

“Thrash metal hey?” She eventually piped up, moving the conversation along.

“Yeah y’know, drums, guitars, swearing.”

“I prefer my metal with a slower tempo, low tuned guitar, crawling riffs, music dripping with desperation.”

“What?” Eve laughed in disbelief. “Are you like, a doom metal fan? Suki you dark horse!”

Suki threw her head back and laughed. “I have to listen privately, my parents would be horrified.”

“You know the night is young right?”

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s go find a mosh pit and let loose,” Eve had a mischievous glint in her eye.

“Oh I don’t know about that…”

“Have you ever been to a gig before?”

“No, my parents would never-”

“Ok, and after tomorrow, what are the chances you and your new hubby are going to head out to a gig?”

“Well-”

“Let me get this straight, no pun intended. Tomorrow, you’re marrying some bloke, who is apparently kind of handsome and charming, but who you really don’t know that well?”

“Yes.”

“And tonight is your last night of freedom, your last night to be exactly who you want to be before you go off and be what someone else wants you to be for the rest of your life?”

“I wouldn’t quite put it like that-”

“And this stunning lesbian you’ve just met happens to want to sweep you off your feet and take you dancing. That seems like fate to me, no?”

“I really don’t know,” Suki checked her watch. “I’m supposed to be getting married in 14 hours.”

“All the more reason to seize the day!”

—

Before long, they had slipped away from Eve’s friends, finding themselves in a basement bar around the corner. The air was thick with heat and music, the bass thrumming through the floor, vibrating up Suki’s legs as they danced. Colored lights pulsed overhead, shifting in waves of red and violet, casting shadows across Eve’s face. To Suki, she looked devastatingly beautiful.

As the night wore on, their bodies, slick with sweat and exertion, seemed to gravitate toward each other, drawn together by something unspoken. By the time the hypnotic lull of Lovesong by The Cure drifted through the tinny speakers, Suki knew one thing with startling certainty, she'd never before felt the way she had tonight.

Whenever I’m alone with you, you make me feel like I am free again.

Suki could barely breathe. It wasn’t the crush of bodies around them or the alcohol humming warm in her veins. It was her. Eve. Standing so close their arms brushed, the contact sending a spark straight through her. The scent of her, the heat of her, it was intoxicating.

Whenever I’m alone with you, you make me feel like I am clean again.

Her pulse hammered. Her heart was a wild, stuttering thing in her chest. She swallowed hard, knowing what she was about to say was a lie.

“I should go.” She shouted over the music.

Eve’s brows knitted together, assuming she’d misheard her. “What?”

Suki tried to keep the pain from her face as she reiterated herself. “If I stay any longer, I’m going to do something stupid.”

Eve’s lips quirked, a flicker of amusement, realising in that moment that her dance partner didn’t really want to leave.

“Define stupid.” Eve eventually countered, stepping in closer to make sure that she would be heard.

Suki’s thighs pressed together involuntarily at Eve’s response, heat and electricity rushing through her body. She didn’t know what she was saying, how could she want this feeling to ever end.

Before she could overthink it, before she could talk herself out of it, she reached out, cupping Eve’s face with steady hands, tracing the warmth of her skin, the sharp line of her jaw.

She pulled her close, leaned up and pressed their lips together.

It wasn’t tentative or careful, it was deliberate and eager. It was full of desire as their tongues found each other and Eve’s arms engulfed her in their bubble on the dance floor. The music, the crowd, the entire world faded away until there was only this, Suki, Eve and the tinny sound of The Cure.

However far away, I will always love you

However long I stay, I will always love you

—

Later that night, when the harsh lights of the bar flickered on, illuminating the once dark room, Suki blinked her eyes rapidly, looking lost all of a sudden on the dance floor. The reality of where she was and the day that lay ahead of her setting in. She checked her watch. 2am. How could she prolong this night? How could she continue to delay the inevitable that lay ahead of her?

As if reading her mind Eve nudged her. “I don’t know about you, but I quite fancy some chips.” She smiled.

Gratefully Suki nodded and followed her out through the throngs of the crowd, Eve nipped into the nearest chip shop, swerving the crowds as she returned moments later with a styrofoam container of chips, covered in sauce.

They looked around for somewhere to sit that wasn’t taken up by drunken revellers, but the crowd seemed to be growing and growing.

“You want to walk and eat?” Eve offered.

Suki nodded with a smile, taking a chip from the container and as Eve led her away from the bustling crowd.

They walked, and they walked, and they walked some more. Neither of them seemed eager to stop, as if pausing might break the spell of the night. The city around them blurred into the background. It was all just a distant hum of traffic, the occasional flicker of streetlights, and the rhythmic sound of their footsteps on the pavement.

After what felt like an eternity they stopped at a quiet bench on the Embankment, looking out onto the Thames where they continued their conversation. Suki had never known anyone so attentive, so genuine. Eve listened, really listened, her eyes alight with curiosity, nodding along as if every word Suki spoke mattered. And when Eve talked about losing her sister, about moving to London, about her dreams of becoming a lawyer, her voice carried such passion that Suki found herself leaning in, drawn to the sheer force of her zest for life.

Suki had spent so long carefully choosing her words, shaping herself into what she thought others wanted her to be. But here was Eve, the total opposite of that. What you see is what you get and tough luck if you don’t like who that person is.

The night stretched on, time losing all meaning until the first light of dawn began to creep over the horizon.

Eve glanced up. “The sun’s coming up.”

Suki followed her gaze, watching the sky shift from deep indigo to soft pink. A new day was beginning.

“It’s your wedding day,” Eve spoke again softly, as if just realizing it herself.

A silence fell between them, an understanding that their time together was coming to an end.

“I’ll never forget this night,” Suki murmured.

“Me neither,” Eve replied, her voice gentle, sincere.

“Thank you.” Suki said, sincerity in her voice.

Eve frowned slightly, tilting her head. “For what?”

“You’ve made me feel still.” Suki smiled simply.

For the first time in a long time, Suki felt truly seen, not as someone’s fiancée, someone’s daughter, someone’s responsibility. Just Suki. And that, more than anything, made her heart ache for the life that she would prefer to be laid out in front of her.

Eve stretched an arm around her silently as they both looked out across the Thames at the sunrise, soaking up their final moments together.

Chapter Text

2002

Eve trotted behind her colleague, trying to quickly scan through the paperwork that he had just thrust into her hands as he stormed ahead of her towards their law firm's conference room.

“Honestly, Eve, would it kill you to be on time just once?” James muttered under his breath, he’d barely spared her a glance after he’d thrust the case notes into her hands. “It’s so unprofessional.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she murmured.

Her friendship with James was usually warmer, but this was the third time this month he’d covered for her with their boss when she was running late and she guessed his patience was wearing thin.

“So who exactly are we meeting today?” she asked, after failing to quickly read through the papers as they walked.

“The Panesar wife has come in, we need to persuade her to testify for her husband. We’re four weeks out from trial and she’s been avoiding us completely.”

“The Panesar case?" Eve asked, mentally running through the names of her own open cases. "I thought John was on this one? I’m not really up to date with the particulars-”

“Well you would’ve been if you’d made it to the staff briefing this morning, or yesterday morning for that matter.” James rolled his eyes.

“It’s the bloke that murdered his neighbour right?”

“Just follow my lead Eve.” James sighed and pushed the door to the conference room open.

Eve followed her colleague into the room, but the moment she stepped inside, she froze. A jolt of electricity shot through her as her eyes landed on the woman sitting before them.

She was poised, perfectly composed, one leg crossed over the other, fingers resting lightly on the arm of the chair as if she owned not just the seat, but the entire space around it. Her hair was slicked back into a severe half-up, half-down quiff, accentuating her already striking features; high cheekbones, a razor-sharp jawline. Lips painted in a shade that dared you to look too long.

For a second, Eve thought she must be mistaken. She blinked rapidly, willing the illusion away. But there was no mistaking that face. Suki was here.

It had been at least a decade since they had danced the night away in that back-end Soho bar. And yet, here she was. The woman who had once pressed her body against Eve’s on a crowded dance floor, who had poured out her life story between stolen kisses, and who had then disappeared without a trace, leaving Eve to compare every woman she met since to the goddess she had spent so little time with.

“Suki?” Eve breathed, the name escaped before she could stop it, barely more than a whisper.

Suki’s head snapped up, her gaze locking onto Eve’s. For just a fraction of a second, something cracked in her facade, a look of confusion maybe at the stranger who seemed to know her name. Then, just as quickly, it was gone, smoothed over as if it had never been there at all.

“I think it’s Sukhwinder,” James muttered, nudging her hard in the ribs and tapping the case notes she was holding.

Eve didn’t respond. She was still staring, still reeling.

Suki took a measured breath, straightened her posture, and lifted an unimpressed eyebrow.

“You can both call me Mrs. Panesar.”

James, oblivious to the undercurrent thickening the air, stepped forward with easy confidence.

“Hello, Mrs. Panesar, thank you for coming in. My name is James Crassly, and this is my colleague, Eve Unwin. We’ve been assigned to your husband’s legal team.”

Suki rose smoothly, extending her hand to James, who clasped it in a firm shake. But when she turned to offer the same to Eve, Eve simply stared, dumbfounded, her mind still racing.

A beat of silence.

Then, Suki lowered her hand, expression unreadable, cool. “Shall we get on with this?”

“Yes, of course, I realize you’re a busy woman.” James gestured toward a seat opposite her and took his own.

“Before we begin,” Suki said, settling back into her chair. “It’s been a long morning. Do you have coffee facilities here, Mr. Crassly?”

“Of course, Mrs. Panesar. Did they not offer you anything at reception?”

“Black coffee, thank you,” she replied, dismissing his question without a second thought.

James hesitated, glancing at Eve, accustomed to her handling the coffee runs.

Suki caught it instantly. She arched a perfectly sculpted brow. “Problem?” she asked, her tone light, yet laced with something sharper. “Or do only your female colleagues know where the kettle is?”

Eve barely held back a smirk. She marveled at the woman Suki had become. Gone was the teenage girl she once knew, the flashes of innocence she had clung to in memory. The beauty remained, but it was different now, it was no longer soft, no longer delicate. It was something else entirely. Controlled. Deliberate. A thing of power.

Eve found it intoxicating.

James cleared his throat, fumbling to cover his discomfort. “Of course, of course. I’ll be right back.” He hurried out of the room.

Suki turned her full attention to Eve as soon as the door clicked shut behind James.

“Suki-” Eve began but Suki raised a finger to stop her.

“I’d appreciate it if our previous encounter wasn’t mentioned to anyone else on my husband’s legal team,” she said flatly.

Eve was silent, her mind was racing. She couldn’t believe that was the first thing that Suki would want to say to her. After all this time.

“Would that be at all possible?” Suki pushed, clearly keen to sort this before James returned with the coffees.

Suki’s words were phrased like a question, but there was an undercurrent of a demand to Eve, to keep her dirty little secret.

“Errr, I think maybe it’s a good idea for me to recuse myself.”

“You absolutely cannot do that.” Suki looked aghast, her facade slipping even further.

“But-”

“What kind of questions would that raise? What if the prosecution got hold of that information? What if my husband did for that matter?”

“What? He’d kill me as well would he?” Eve countered stubbornly.

“That’s hardly a tasteful joke given the circumstances, is it Eve.”

“Suki, are you scared of him? Because there are organisations that I can-”

“I don’t need your organisations Eve, I need you to pretend that 10 hours of your life 13 years ago never happened. I don’t care how good your defence team is, Nish is going to jail for an inordinate amount of time, and the last thing I need right now is for some insignificant detail from my past to jeopardize that.”

Eve ran a hand through her hair, trying to cover her hurt.

“This does affect the case though," Eve eventually spoke up. "It calls into question your husband’s entire defense.”

“How so?” Suki looked confused.

“I know you weren’t having an affair with the victim.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Are you gonna make me say it?”

“Say what exactly?”

“Am I the only person in the world who knows…” Eve paused, checking the door was closed firmly. “Who knows that you're gay?” she whispered.

She saw the tension in Suki’s jaw as she glanced at the closed door.

“Or if not gay then-”

“You think you know me?”

Eve sighed, “Suki I don’t think you know yourself.”

The intervening years seemed to have pushed this woman farther and farther back into the closet.

The loaded silence was interrupted as James re-entered the room. Placing the coffee in front of Suki, she glanced at it and gave him a withering look. Despite herself, Eve had to suppress a smile, it was clearly not up to her usual standards.

“Right, well. As I said earlier, thank you for coming, Mrs Panesar.” James settled back into his chair. “We wanted to talk to you about your husband’s defence, and how it is that you can help us, and him, when this goes to court.”

“What do you want exactly?” Suki replied coolly.

“Your husband’s defense is that you were having an affair with the victim, that this was a crime of passion. The victim’s wife… err…” James checked the papers for a name.

“Ayesha.” Suki finished for him.

Eve watched as Suki’s eyes shot to her and then back again at the mention of that name. Eve’s interest piqued, Suki was hiding something.

“Yes that’s it, Ayesha, well she claims there was no such affair. But if you could confirm the… well the affair was taking place, it would go a long way to building our case for the jury. See we think that the CPS was a little overzealous with their charges in this case, if we can get his crime reduced to manslaughter, well then it would significantly reduce your husband’s sentencing.’’

“I will tell you what I told the police, over and over again, since the day Nishandeep was arrested. I was not having an affair with Hardeep. And I’m not going to stand up in court and perjure myself.”

“We would never ask you to-” James scoffed.

“Were you having an affair with anyone?” Eve piped in.

“Excuse me?”

“You were quite specific with your words then, you said you weren’t having an affair with Hardeep. So I just wondered if your husband put two and two together and got Hardeep, when he should have got four?” Eve asked, watching Suki intently for her reaction.

Suki’s eyes flashed with anger, and she stared Eve right in the eye as she replied defiantly. “I was not having an affair with anyone Ms. Unwin.”

James looked from one to the other, confused at the animosity that seemed to sizzle between the two women. “We wondered then, if you would support your husband’s case by being a character witness? Loving husband, attentive father, these things always help in reducing sentencing.”

“I’m a busy woman, I have four young children that need me.”

“Is that a no?” James was taken aback.

“It’s a no.” Suki confirmed.

“Do you not think they need their father too?” James countered.

Suki smiled. “I’m not sure freeing a murderer and releasing him back into my children’s home is something that would necessarily have a net-positive effect on them. Don’t you agree, Mr. Crassly?”

“I really would urge you to reconsider-”

“What I would like to know is what my husband’s prospects are, if he is found guilty that is?”

Eve understood now, this woman had come here today, not to help dig her husband out of the hole he had found himself in, she’d come to ensure that there was no way he could climb out of it.

“Murder carries with it a life sentence.” James replied.

“So he’ll never get out?”

“He’ll be eligible for parole in 20 years.”

“I’d hardly call that a life sentence.” Suki muttered.

“Yes well, we could debate over the purposes of incarceration in retribution or rehabilitation until the cows come home, but I expect you’d prefer that we don’t take up any more of your time.” James slapped his hands on his knees and rose to his feet.

Taking the hint, Suki rose to her feet, gathering her coat and bag, rummaging around in her handbag as James and Eve picked up the paperwork that was strewn on the table.

Just before they exited the room Suki turned to the two lawyers in front of her. She extended her hand towards Eve first. A perfectly ordinary gesture. Formal. Polite. Expected.

Eve hesitated for only a fraction of a second before clasping Suki’s hand in hers.

And there it was. A whisper of paper, pressed discreetly into her palm. The contact lasted no longer than necessary, just long enough for Eve to feel the weight of the note slip between their fingers.

Suki withdrew, turned to James, and shook his hand just as smoothly. No hesitation, no flicker of anything beneath the surface.

“Thank you for your time,” she said, voice measured, professional.

And with that, she turned on her heel and walked out, her posture immaculate, her presence lingering even after she disappeared from sight.

Eve swallowed, pulse quickening. She could feel the slip of paper burning against her palm.

James let out a low whistle, shaking his head. “Cold fish, that one, hey?”

Eve forced a shrug, keeping her expression neutral. “Maybe.”

“In her defence, have you spent five minutes with Nish?”

“No, I’ve never met him, not my case normally, remember?”

“Textbook narcissist,” James muttered, nodding towards the case notes in his hand.

Eve barely heard him. She was too busy staring down at her clenched fist, fingers curled tightly around the tiny, folded note.

“And I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a DV case too.” James continued.

“Yeah, probably,” Eve murmured, distracted. Had Suki written her a note? When had she even had chance? What did it say? What did she want? Her mind whirred with questions as James whittered on.

“Are you coming for drinks tonight?” James interrupted her thoughts.

“Drinks?”

“Yeah, Jack’s retirement party, remember?”

Eve’s grip on the note tightened. “Maybe, I dunno mate, I’ll see how I get on today.”

James gave her a clap on the shoulder before heading off, but Eve barely noticed. The second he was out of sight, she ducked into the nearest toilet, locking herself inside a stall.

Heart hammering, she uncurled her fingers, smoothing out the tiny scrap of paper.

The words were familiar. A quiet echo of a song. Of a moment that they had shared.

However far away…
Meet me at the pub on the corner.

Eve’s breath caught. Her heart skipped a beat.

Chapter Text

2002

Eve stepped into the pub, nerves thrumming beneath her skin like a low electric current. Her palms were clammy, and she ran them down the front of her coat as her eyes scanned the room. The clatter of glasses, the low hum of laughter, it all faded when she caught a glance of Suki again, tucked away in the corner.

Their eyes met, and something fluttered low in Eve’s stomach. Suki's lips curved into a small, knowing smile as she nudged the chair opposite her out with her foot for Eve, casual, cool, effortless.

To Eve, it was one of the sexiest things she’d ever seen.

"I got you a lager. Hope that’s still your poison," Suki said, motioning to the drinks on the table as Eve approached her.

Her voice was even, but Eve could see her fingers toy idly with the edge of her own glass, betraying a nervous energy beneath the surface.

Eve’s heart thudded in her chest, as she slid into the chair across from her and removed her coat. She let out a quiet laugh, shaky and warm. “Yeah… though after today, I could probably use a whiskey chaser.” She shook her head slowly, as if trying to clear it. “I can’t believe it’s really you.”

Something like regret flickered across Suki’s features. “I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

“I was…” Suki paused, searching for the right word. “I was rude, earlier.”

“You really were.” Eve arched an eyebrow, but her tone was light, teasing.

“I just wasn’t prepared for you to walk through that door.”

“Trust me, I was pretty floored seeing you sitting there.” Eve smiled. “I mean, what are the chances?”

Suki laughed gently, and the sound sent a ripple through Eve’s chest. “And look at you. Big-shot lawyer now?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t go that far.” Eve felt a flush creeping up her neck, her pulse dancing under her skin. She took a large gulp of her drink, trying to steady herself.

“When we met all those years ago, you were drowning in law papers, stressing over exams, dreaming of this life.”

“You remembered?” Eve whispered.

“I remember everything about that night,” Suki replied softly, holding Eve’s gaze.

“Me too.”

For a moment, neither of them spoke. The silence between them wasn’t awkward, it was heavy with the weight of that night, the way it had lived in their bones since. A what-if they had both kept tucked away, revisited only on the loneliest nights.

“So..” Eve said finally, breaking the moment with a crooked smile, her tone light, almost teasing. “Four kids hey? Sounds hectic.”

Suki gave her a wry look. “Ah. So you’ve read my husband’s case files. I guess you know everything there is to know about me now?”

“Highlights, maybe.” Eve’s eyes sparkled as she said it.

Suki leaned back, letting out a soft chuckle, but there was a shadow behind her smile. She didn’t want to talk about the life she had lived with Nish since she last saw Eve. Eve had always represented something else, something separate.

“Let’s talk about you,” Suki said, flirtation curling at the edges of her words. “What have you been up to? When did you graduate? Are you still in touch with those flatmates of yours from back then? Are you still living here? Are you seeing anyone?”

Eve smirked, eyes narrowing playfully. “Smooth way to slip that last one in.”

“Was it?” A smug smile spread across Suki's lips.

“Alright then,” she laughed. “I graduated almost a decade ago. I’m still in touch with Ruth and Joanna, they’re actually together now. Civilly partnered last year. Yes, I still live in London, I bought my own flat in Walthamstow. And no, I’m not seeing anyone right now.”

Her eyes held on Suki’s for a beat longer than necessary. Then, with a teasing tilt of her head, she added, “Are you?”

Suki’s demeanor shifted the moment the question left Eve’s lips. The open warmth in her face vanished. “What do you mean, me? I’m married.”

“Yeah but…”

“But what?”

“What about Ayesha?”

“What about her?”

Eve sighed, her voice gentler now. “You can talk to me y’know.”

“Oh yeah, sure,” Suki said with a tight smile, “as an upstanding member of my husband’s legal team?”

“As your friend,” Eve countered softly.

That word seemed to land with a thud between them.

“We’re not friends, Eve.”

“Then what would you call us?”

Suki didn’t answer. Couldn’t. She let the silence stretch, filled with the weight of the unspoken.

“There’s nothing to tell, nothing happened with me and Ayesha,” she eventually quipped.

“I saw your face back in that conference. If nothing happened, I know you wanted it to.”

Suki looked away, letting out a breath that trembled on its release. “I suppose I did, yes,” she whispered sadly. “But what difference does that make now?”

Her confession hung in the air between them, intimate in its honesty.

“Suki… did he hurt you?”

A bitter laugh escaped Suki’s lips. “What makes you say that?”

“He murdered someone in a jealous rage.” Eve’s tone was careful, deliberate. “I’ve worked with victims-”

“I am not a victim,” Suki cut in sharply, her voice slicing clean through Eve’s concern.

“Ok, I’m sorry." Eve held up her hands in apology "I just… I guess I’m just sorry for what your marriage became.”

“Me too.”

Eve offered her a soft, crooked smile, trying to lighten the air between them. “You know… I’m glad we’re doing this. Seeing you. The real you. The woman in that meeting today, sexy as she was, was absolutely terrifying.”

“What makes you think this is the real me? Technically, we barely know each other.”

“That’s not how it feels.”

“I’m a different person now… I’ve had to be.”

“Tell me about your kids,” Eve said softly, changing course, offering her something safe to land on.

And it worked. Suki’s expression warmed immediately, melting at the thought of her children. “Kheerat, my oldest, just turned thirteen. Then there’s Jagvir, Ashneet, and my youngest, Parvinder, he’s almost two. The house is complete chaos, obviously. But I love them more than I ever thought possible.”

There was something healing in the way she said it. In the way her whole face softened when she spoke of them. The tension dissolved, and Eve decided there and then not to mention her husband, Ayesha or the looming murder trial. She didn’t know what she expected from this moment, she just knew she didn’t ever want it to end.

The afternoon very quickly gave way to evening as they filled each other in on their time apart, hours slipping past in the dim glow of the pub. Their glasses emptied and refilled. Laughter wove through their conversation, fading into silences that felt just as easy.

Eve slid off her stool, the faintest smile tugging at her lips. She crossed the room, fingers brushing over the battered jukebox before slipping a coin inside. A few button presses, a soft whir, and then the opening chords of Lovesong by The Cure hummed through the speakers.
She turned back, meeting Suki’s gaze across the room as she headed back to their table.

“I can’t believe you remembered this. You know, I can’t hear that song without thinking of you.”

Suki smiled, her gaze lowering for a beat. “Me neither.”

Eve sat back down across from Suki and reached across the table, her fingers brushing over Suki’s hand, tentative at first. The contact sent a jolt through both of them, electric and unmistakable. A promise, or a memory, or maybe both. Slowly, Suki turned her palm upward, inviting. Eve’s fingers slid into hers, hesitant but sure as they both stared down at their intertwined hands, warm, familiar, and fragile in the hush between them. But the spell was quickly broken by the pub lights flickering and the soft clang of the bell for last orders.

Suki withdrew her hand rapidly, the flickering lights sending her back down to reality with a bump. “Wow, is that the time?” She checked her watch. “I should go, I’ve got to get back to the kids.”

Panic nudged at Eve’s chest. “Can I call you?” she asked, the words escaping before she could stop them. “I don’t want to wait another thirteen years.”

Suki studied her for a long moment. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”

“No,” Eve admitted honestly, “but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t.”

“You like to live dangerously, do you?”

“I’d like to live with you in my life.”

The words seemed to catch Suki off guard. Her mouth opening as if to say something and then closing again.

“Don’t try and tell me you don’t want to?” Eve pushed.

Suki cleared her throat and pushed her chair back to stand abruptly. “It was good to see you, Eve.”

“You too,” Eve said, the ache in her chest sudden and sharp, the finality of Suki’s tone forcing her into submission. To accept the situation as it was.

Suki silently gathered her coat and handbag together as Eve watched her, slipping her own coat on, she dropped into step behind Suki as they exited the pub and spilled out onto the dimly lit street outside.

Suki stopped and turned to her companion, a look of hesitation on her face and they took each other in one last time.

“I’m this way,” Suki nodded towards the tube station.

“I’m that way,” Eve gestured in the opposite direction.

Neither of them moved though, neither really wanting the evening to end. As they stood there in silence they could both here the faint sound of their song, still playing and wafting out from the pub.

Before Eve knew what was happening Suki grabbed her arm, tugging her gently but firmly toward the alley beside the pub. The quiet swallowed them as Suki leaned back against the cool brick wall, pulling Eve towards her until their bodies were pressed lightly together.

“Kiss me,” Suki whispered, her voice low and trembling.

Eve froze, breath catching. “Are you sure?”

Suki’s eyes didn’t waver. “It’s the one thing I’m sure of.”

Eve didn’t need to be asked twice. She’d been fighting the urge since the moment she first saw Suki in the conference room. Gripping at Suki’s hips, she pulled her in, pressing their lips together, hungry, urgent, years of longing spilling into the space between them.

Suki’s hands came up to frame Eve’s face, her tongue sweeping past her soft lips, devouring her like she was afraid she’d never get the chance again.

It should’ve felt reckless. It should’ve felt wrong. But the only thing that had ever felt wrong was not doing this.

When they finally pulled apart, breathless, Suki rested her forehead against Eve’s, eyes closed, fingers threading through her hair, grounding herself in the moment.

“This afternoon is the first time since the last time I saw you that I haven’t felt lonely,” Suki whispered.

Eve tightened her hold. “Me too.”

Suki exhaled shakily, then gently pushed her back, unable to meet Eve’s eye. “Goodbye, Eve.”

And before Eve could stop her, she was gone, disappearing into the night, leaving Eve in the quiet aftermath, heart pounding, lips tingling. Wondering if she’d ever see her again.

Chapter Text

2012

The sky over London was beginning to blush with the last light of evening, streaks of gold and mauve bleeding into the skyline. Crowds were flowing toward the Royal Albert Hall, like tributaries feeding into a river, groups of women wrapped together to fend off the cold, couples holding hands, teenagers practically vibrating with excitement.

Suki adjusted her scarf as she stepped out of the tube station, her daughter striding ahead with all the urgency of someone whose entire night hinged on punctuality.

“Mum, we’re going to be late!” Ashneet groaned, tossing a look over her shoulder, a perfect mix of teenage exasperation and dramatic flair.

Suki waved a hand dismissively. “We’re just going to miss the support act, Ashneet. No one cares about the support act.”

“How do you even know?”

“Ashneet, if we’re late then so are all of these thousands of people around us,” Suki motioned to the throngs of people that surrounded them.

Ashneet rolled her eyes, exasperated at her mother and she continued to storm ahead. Suki chuckled quietly at her daughter. They didn’t get many nights like this, just the two of them, no distractions, no exams stress, no brothers pushing and shoving against each other and vying for their mother’s attention. And though Adele wouldn’t have been Suki’s first choice, she loved that she could give this night to her almost-grown girl.

The Royal Albert Hall loomed like a grand old jewel, domed and glowing, every curve of its architecture steeped in history and music. As they stepped into the building, Suki couldn’t help but glance up, taking in the ornate ceiling, the velvet-draped boxes, the chandeliers casting soft pools of golden light. Ashneet, beside her, too busy fussing about finding their seats to really take in their surroundings.

They found their seats, halfway up the tier, just off centre, with a perfect view of the stage. The hall buzzed with voices, with the low hum of anticipation.

“See,” Suki motioned to the empty stage, raising an eyebrow at her daughter. “Plenty of time.”

“Whatever mum,” Ashneet rolled her eyes, pulling her camera out of her bag to take pictures.

The lights dimmed gradually, a soft hush falling over the crowd like a curtain being drawn.

Then Adele walked onto the stage like she owned it, casual, magnetic, a goddess in black sequins with a laugh that echoed across the rafters. The first chords of Hometown Glory rolled out, rich and slow and familiar. A murmur of recognition passed through the audience, like a collective exhale.

Suki didn’t think of herself as much of a fan, this wasn’t her kind of music. But even she had to admit that there was something about Adele’s voice, powerful and raw and aching that caught her off-guard. She glanced sideways, only to find Ashneet mouthing the words quietly, her eyes shining in the soft light, completely lost in the music. Forgetting, only for a moment, to be her sullen teenage self, apathetic to everything she encountered.

And just like that, Suki’s heart cracked open a little.

She watched her daughter more than the stage. The curve of her cheek, the way she held herself, the fierce intelligence that lit her face when she was fully present like this. She was taller now, more self-assured, with opinions and dreams of her own. Not a little girl anymore. But not a stranger yet either.

Suki reached over, gently threading her fingers through her daughter’s, just for a moment. Ashneet squeezed her hand once before letting go, embarrassed, pretending to adjust her jacket.

The rejection stung, she’d realised long ago that happiness for herself was something unattainable, something she had had to turn her back to. And so she had poured herself into her children’s lives, and all of a sudden, Suki felt almost overnight, they were no longer children. They wanted independence, their own lives, they wanted to make their own mistakes. Her mother had always told her that your children are only lent to you for a short while, and to enjoy them while you can before they head on out into the world. But Suki wasn’t ready for that yet, she wasn’t ready to let them go. She leaned back in her seat, eyes closed for a moment, letting the voice and the strings and the warmth of it all wash over her.

But before long some incredibly familiar notes filled the air, Suki’s chest tightened as she sat bolt upright, her knuckles white as she clung to her chair. It was like the oxygen had been sucked from the room, leaving her gasping, weightless, unmoored.

No. Not this song.

“Whenever I’m alone with you, you make me feel like I am home again...” Adele began to sing.

“Mum, are you okay?” Ashneet’s voice barely registered, distant through the ringing in her ears.

Suki forced a nod, her throat too tight to speak. “I’m fine Ashneet.”

“You’ve gone really weird.”

“I’ll be right back.”

Before her daughter could question her, she pushed out of her seat, down the aisle and through the doors, stumbling into the empty corridor outside. The cool air hit her like a shock, but it wasn’t enough to steady her.

She leaned against the wall, pressing her palm flat against the cold surface, trying to ground herself. She’d escaped the room, the crowd, the watchful eyes of her daughter, but she couldn’t escape the song. It was still playing, its melody bleeding through the tinny overhead speakers in the hallway, distorted but unmistakable.

This song had begun to haunt her, she didn’t know when and she didn’t know how, but the song had gone from being her safe space, her escape, to being something that haunted her. It was a song that reminded her of everything she could never have, everything she had walked away from.

Of all the songs to cover. Of all the concerts. Of all the tickets her daughter could have chosen.

Her vision blurred, hot tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. How could Eve still have this hold, even after all these years?

How could a single night, a night that should have long since faded into memory, still echo through her like it had never ended?

—

Eve stood at the edge of the private box, champagne flute dangling from her fingers, trying her best to look engaged as one of the firm's clients launched into a story about some tax loophole he’d apparently ‘cracked wide open’. She’d moved into corporate law a few short years ago, lured by the promise of more money and less emotional baggage from criminal law. But she’d never quite felt comfortable with the boys’ clubs she seemed to always be thrust into.

The laughter from the others in the box rose like forced bubbles in the air, boring jokes from boring men. She was here because she had to be, corporate hospitality, firm loyalty, faces to be kept smiling.

The Royal Albert Hall was undeniably stunning, all red velvet and grandeur, the kind of place people dreamed about seeing shows in. But Adele? Not exactly Eve’s thing. Too emotional, too earnest. She preferred her music gritty and raw, something she could dance or drink to, not cry over.

The music was clearly not to these men’s taste either as they talked and joked over the music, like the woman singing it wasn’t only a few metres away.

Still, she was on her fourth glass of champagne, and had managed to keep the conversation moving, her client charm switched firmly on.

Then the opening notes of Lovesong floated into the air, soft and haunting.

Eve stilled. It wasn’t even Adele’s song.

"Whenever I’m alone with you, you make me feel like I am home again..." Adele sang out.

The sound wrapped itself around her chest, slow and bittersweet, stirring something she couldn’t quite name. A tightness bloomed in her throat. The champagne she’d been drinking suddenly turned heavy in her stomach, like it didn’t belong there anymore.

She cleared her throat, too sharp and sudden, drawing a glance from one of the partners.

“Excuse me,” she muttered, not waiting for a response before slipping out of the box.

The corridor was cooler, quieter. Dimly lit. She leaned against the wall for a second, pressing the heel of her hand to her sternum, as if she could rub the ache away.

And that’s when she saw her.

Suki.

Pressed against the opposite wall, head tipped back, eyes closed. Her face bathed in the faint spill of light from a stained glass sconce overhead, lips parted slightly like she was holding her breath, or trying to catch it.

For a second, Eve thought she might be imagining her. The sudden emotional hit, the strange nostalgia in the song, the champagne, all of it warping reality.

But then Suki opened her eyes. Their gaze met.

Neither of them moved.

The music still drifted faintly through the walls behind them, Adele’s voice laced with longing.

"However far away, I will always love you..."

Before Eve even knew what she was doing she strode over to the woman in front of her, her body moved before her mind could catch up, closing the space between them in just a few strides.

And then she was holding her.

Suki barely had time to react before she was wrapped in Eve’s arms, warmth and familiarity flooding through her in a way that made her dizzy.

“Eve, what are you…?”

Eve pulled back just enough to meet her eyes, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Dance with me.”

‘My daughter’s in there Eve.’

“Dance with me,” Eve insisted, her voice low but unwavering. “Just for two minutes, Suki. I don’t care who’s singing it, this is our song. If that’s not fate intervening, giving us this moment, then I don’t know what is.”

Suki opened her mouth to protest, but the words never came. Instead, she let herself sink into Eve’s arms, let herself feel the warmth of her body, the way she still fit against her like no time had passed at all. Eve’s hand slipped to her waist, her other threading their fingers together, and Suki let her head fall onto Eve’s shoulder.

It had been over twenty years since they had first met, and they were still practically strangers. And yet, they couldn’t help it, the two of them just let go.

Suki forgot about the concert, about the daughter waiting for her beyond those doors, about the life she had built that never quite felt like her own. She forgot everything except this, this slow, stolen dance with the only woman who had ever truly seen her.

The lyrics wrapped around them, a whisper of something unfinished, something undeniable.

However far away
I will always love you

However long I stay
I will always love you

Whatever words I say
I will always love you

As the song faded, Suki took a shaky step back, reality beginning to seep in. But before she could go, Eve tightened her grip, refusing to let her slip away so easily.

“Meet me after this,” Eve whispered, her breath warm against Suki’s skin.

Suki’s pulse quickened. “What? Where?”

“I don’t care.” Eve’s gaze held hers, steady and certain. “Anywhere.”

A slow smile spread across Suki’s lips, a thrill of something reckless and right rushing through her. “Okay.”

“I’ll be out front. Ten o’clock. I’ll be waiting.”

Chapter Text

2012

A wide grin spread across Eve’s face the moment she spotted Suki among the crowd, her bag slung over one arm, coat wrapped tight against the November chill. She’d spent the past hour unable to concentrate on anything but the possibility of seeing Suki again. She hadn’t quite let herself believe she’d actually show up until she saw her now, a frown softening when she caught sight of Eve. Recognition flashed in her eyes, and with it, a surge of excitement radiated between them.

“Where does your daughter think you went?” Eve asked, smirking as Suki reached her.

“I sent her home in a taxi,” Suki said, fingers toying absently with her earring. “Told her one of my tenants called about a leak.”

“One of your tenants?” Eve echoed, admiration evident.

Suki shrugged with practiced casualness, though there was a glint of pride in her eyes. “I’ve picked up a few properties since we last saw each other.”

“A property mogul now?” Eve teased, raising a brow, her voice warm and just a touch flirtatious.

“Something like that,” Suki murmured, cheeks flushing under Eve’s gaze. She glanced around, suddenly restless. “So... where around here can we get a drink?”

Eve’s grin widened, her eyes not leaving Suki’s. “I know just the place.”

Without hesitation, Eve placed a hand lightly on the small of Suki’s back and guided her toward a nearby pub. The touch was casual, natural even, but it sent a jolt of warmth up Suki’s spine, a thrill that lingered far longer than the contact itself.

They fell into step easily, the night air crisp around them, but the tension between them was anything but cool. Suki stole a sideways glance at Eve as they walked, mesmerised by the way she ran her hand through her hair, the way her piercing blue eyes glinted with mischief, the way she sent Suki a crooked, confident smile. Suki’s stomach filled with butterflies. Eve hadn’t changed one bit. She possessed the same confident stride and subtle swagger that she always had. Suki had always been in awe of it, of Eve’s ability to know exactly who she was, to hell with what anyone else thought.

When they reached the pub Eve pushed the door open, holding it for Suki with a subtle flourish. As they stepped inside, the cozy hum of conversation and clinking glasses wrapped around them like a blanket. As Eve paid the bartender and guided them both through the pub, drinks in hand, Suki let herself imagine that this was a date. What if Eve had asked to take her out? What if she’d dressed up knowing she’d be wined and dined? What if the butterflies in her stomach weren’t a rare indulgence, but something she allowed herself to feel more than once a decade with Eve?

Something felt different tonight. Electric. From the moment Eve pulled her into that first embrace, Suki had felt it, like the years apart had only intensified the effect Eve had on her. Time had sharpened that pull, made it stronger. And in the quiet, private places of herself, it had also given her space to accept who she really was, even if she never said it aloud.

She recognized it now in a way she hadn’t before, the charge rushing through her veins, the unmistakable feeling of being alive. It was a feeling she’d only ever experienced with Eve, and briefly with Ayesha. But tonight, after she had rejoined her daughter in the auditorium, she had felt a shift. For the first time there was no wedding the following day, there was no looming trial. It had dawned on Suki that there was just this night. Just Eve. Just her. Just possibilities that had never seemed attainable before.

The thought sent a jolt through her, fluttering in her throat, her stomach, and between her legs. She squeezed her thighs together without thinking, the feeling almost too much to bear. And now, as they slipped into a secluded booth in the corner of the pub, their knees brushing briefly under the table, Suki wondered if Eve felt the same way.

She traced the rim of her glass, her eyes flicking up to meet Eve’s. “Do you have a partner?”

Eve nearly choked on her beer. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, grinning. “Straight to the point as ever.”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Suki said, a teasing edge in her voice.

“Yeah, I do. Naomi.” Eve leaned back against the worn leather of the booth, watching Suki closely. “She’s good. Great, even. We rub along nicely.”

Suki arched a brow, undeterred by the existence of this woman, her tone light but laced with mischief. “Is that a euphemism?”

Eve let out a short, amused laugh. “Not an intentional one.” She took another sip, then tilted her head with a smile. “How about you?”

Suki’s fingers tightened around her glass. “I’m still married.”

Eve’s expression darkened slightly. “Yeah, but I was there when he was sentenced to twenty years in prison.”

Suki nodded slowly, swirling the amber liquid in her glass. “I haven’t laid eyes on him since the day he was arrested.”

Eve hesitated. “So why don’t you divorce him?”

Suki let out a humorless laugh. “And then what? He’s still going to get out one day. It feels like I’ve got the sword of Damocles hanging over me, just waiting for the day he walks free.”

Eve’s jaw tightened. “You know if you don’t divorce him, everything you’ve built over these years, those properties you’ve bought, any money you make, all of it, he can claim a piece of it.”

Suki set her glass down with a quiet clink and met Eve’s gaze head-on. “Eve, I don’t want to talk about him.”

The weight of her words settled between. Eve held her eyes for a beat, then gave a small nod, shifting the conversation without protest.

“So,” she said finally, voice softer now, “what do you want to talk about?”

“Not him,” Suki whispered. Her husband’s presence still lingered, threading its tendrils through every part of her life. She didn’t want it to colour this moment too.

Suki glanced around the pub, checking for any curious eyes. Satisfied they were alone in their corner, she reached out and lightly brushed the top of Eve’s hand, so gently Eve barely felt it. Then, slowly, she laced their fingers together, enjoying for a moment that familiar buzz of electricity that always hummed between them, just under the surface.

Eve felt it. The way the air seemed to change around Suki, how intent sparked off her like flint. Heat radiated from her, and as Eve’s eyes drifted from Suki’s mouth to the delicate curve of her throat, she couldn’t help but imagine what it would feel like to kiss her there… to kiss her everywhere.

“I want you, Eve,” Suki finally said, her voice low but steady. “I want all of you. Just for tonight. I can’t go back to my life always wondering what this could be like.”

“An itch you just need to scratch?” Eve offered, though her voice faltered on the joke.

“Are you telling me you don’t think about it?”

“I’m not saying that,” Eve murmured. “I’ve thought about it… a lot actually.”

“And?”

Eve looked into Suki’s eyes, deep, brown, unwavering. This Suki seemed to have an acceptance of her sexuality that had been missing ten years ago. Whatever had happened in the intervening years, Suki had grown into herself. Freed from the shadow of her husband, she seemed to glow.

Eve thought of Naomi. Of their quiet flat, of someone waiting for her to come home. But she couldn’t look away from the woman across from her, the woman who had been the subject of all of her ‘what-ifs’ for over twenty years. The sultry look in Suki’s eyes, the invitation there, it was everything Eve had dreamed of.

And in that moment, she made her choice.

“We can’t go back to mine, Naomi is there.” Eve eventually spoke up.

“My place is out, the kids are all there.”

Eve nodded slowly.

“So what are we gonna do?” Suki challenged.

“I keep a suite in the hotel round the corner-” Eve began as Suki raised an impressed eyebrow. “Well my firm does anyway. It’s for when clients have to come in from outside of London. No one’s using it tonight.”

Eve looked hopefully at Suki, her heart pounding in her chest, half expecting her to run away as she’d done before.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Suki raised an eyebrow, and Eve was sure she had never been so attracted to anyone in her entire life.

—

“Suki, are you sure about this?” Eve paused in the corridor outside the hotel room, her voice low, hesitant.

But Suki’s eyes met hers with a fire that didn’t waver. There was no hesitation, no flicker of doubt. Just a woman who knew exactly what she wanted.

She took the key card from Eve’s hand, her touch slow and sure.

“It’s the only thing I’ve ever been sure of,” she said, voice low and certain.

The lock beeped. The door clicked open. Suki pulled Eve inside and slammed it shut behind them. In the same breath, she had Eve pressed against it, one hand firm around her throat, the other gripping her waist with possessive heat.

Before Eve could speak, Suki’s mouth was on hers. Her soft lips parting as her tongue demanded entry, and Eve gave it without question, a soft gasp escaping her as two decades of unspoken hunger erupted between them.

They shed their coats in a tangle of motion, fingers fumbling just long enough to drag them off before letting them fall to the floor in a careless heap, Suki’s handbag thudding down beside them.

Eve’s hands quickly reached for Suki’s waist, clinging to her, breath stolen, heart racing. Suki’s confidence was magnetic and Eve was completely, utterly mesmerized.

And yet, in the blur of heat, Eve knew Suki had never done this before. Not like this. Not with a woman. Not with anyone she’d truly wanted. She didn’t just want to have her, she wanted to worship her. To make sure that tonight, Suki knew what it was to give in to her most ardent desires.

Gently Eve began to regain some control, she pushed Suki back, guiding her toward the bed with slow, deliberate steps until the backs of Suki’s knees hit the edge. She fell onto the mattress, and Eve followed, pressing her down, their bodies molding together as their mouths continued to explore each other. With a slow, knowing movement, Eve slid her thigh between Suki’s legs, pressing in just enough to draw a soft, breathy gasp from her lips.

That sound. That perfect, helpless sound. It sent a thrill down Eve’s spine, awakening something deep and primal inside her. She wanted more. She wanted to pull every delicious noise from Suki’s lips until she was trembling beneath her.

She dipped her head, her lips trailing across Suki’s cheek, along her jaw, down the column of her throat. She felt the shudder of breath against her skin, the way Suki’s hands clutched at her back, the way her thighs opened up for her, welcoming the contact.

Eve’s free hand began to explore, tracing her thumb over the side of her breasts, roaming lower as her fingers traced the curve of Suki’s waist before sliding down to grip the swell of her ass, guiding her to wrap her leg around her, pulling her closer, pressing their bodies flush together as her thigh pressed into the place she knew Suki would need it most. She tried to commit the moment to memory, to savour the feel of Suki below her.

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this,” Eve murmured against her skin, her voice rough with desire.

Suki let out another soft gasp, her hips bucking up to meet Eve’s.

Eve pulled back just enough to meet Suki’s gaze, her fingers toying with the hem of her shirt, her heart pounding in her chest. “Can I?” she asked, her voice thick with need.

Suki’s lips parted, her eyes dark, her body already giving her answer before she even spoke as she raised her arms above her head.

“Please,” she whispered.

Eve slowly dragged Suki’s top up her stomach, her lips following the path of newly exposed soft skin, leaving warm, wet, open-mouthed kisses in their wake. She moved higher, pressing her mouth to the soft swell of Suki’s breasts, as her elegant, black lace bra was revealed.

Suki’s breath was coming in short, uneven gasps as Eve tugged the top over her head and tossed it aside.

“You are so beautiful,” Eve murmured, her fingers tracing lightly over the lace, her voice thick with reverence and desire.

Suki barely had time to react before Eve’s hands pulled the lace aside, a tiny ripping noise reverberated between them as the material tore under her touch.

“Sorry-” Eve began.

“I don’t care,” Suki breathed in response. “Keep going.”

Eve grinned, her mouth descending onto Suki’s now exposed breast in an instant. Another sharp gasp gushed from Suki’s lips as Eve’s tongue flicked over her nipple, followed by the teasing scrape of her teeth. She devoured one nipple, and then the other as her hands explored, gently massaging them as Suki whimpered loudly, her hands gripping the back of Eve’s head, holding on tight as she gave her entire body over to Eve.

Sensation overwhelmed Suki as she allowed herself to feel everything, Eve’s mouth, her hands, the steady press of her thigh between Suki’s own. Her entire body trembled under the assault of pleasure, and she barely recognized the sounds spilling from her lips.

She was lost in it, lost in Eve, in the heat, in the way her body seemed to unravel with every touch.

But she didn’t want to be a passenger, not tonight. She wanted to claim the moment, to take the reins of her own desire. She had imagined this with Eve for what had felt like most of her life, in quiet, aching flashes. She had spent too many years being taken, cast as the subject of someone else’s fantasy. But this night was hers.

Without warning, Suki pushed Eve off her. For a moment, Eve lay there, breathless, wondering what had happened, until she turned her head and saw Suki hastily kicking off her shoes, fingers fumbling with the button of her jeans.

A rush of understanding and desire coursed through Eve. She wasted no time, peeling off her own top, then her jeans, stripping as fast as she could until she was bare. By the time she tossed the last of her clothing aside and turned back, Suki was smiling over at her, a wicked, hungry smile. Her eyes devoured Eve’s body, her smooth breasts, her dark pink nipples, her tight stomach, her bare mound.

Before Eve could say a word, Suki pushed her onto the bed, straddling her in one fluid motion, interlocking their hands and pressing them into the bed, trapping Eve in her embrace. She smiled down at her, her eyes devouring Eve’s torso before her mouth descended. Eve felt the deliberate press of Suki’s lips, first on one breast, then the other. A shiver ran through her as Suki’s tongue flicked over her nipple before her lips closed around it, sucking hard.

Eve let out a deep, guttural moan, her head falling back, her body arching into Suki’s touch. But before she could get lost in it, Suki pulled back, still gripping her hands, she tugged her upright. Their bare bodies pressed together, skin to skin, the sensation making Eve’s breath catch. She could feel it all, the heat, the rapid beat of Suki’s heart, the hardened peaks of her nipples brushing against her own.

Suki cupped Eve’s face, her dark eyes filled with something raw, something reverent.

“I’ve spent over twenty years imagining this moment,” she whispered, her thumb stroking over Eve’s cheek.

Eve’s lips curled into a grin as she leaned in, brushing their mouths together. “You have no idea.”

Then Suki leaned in and deepened their kiss, slow, savoring, as if she had all the time in the world.

Because finally, after all these years, they did.

Eve’s hands traced slowly down Suki’s back, making her shudder with pleasure, they danced along her thighs as their tongues searched each other, featherlight, teasing.

“Can I touch you?” she whispered between kisses.

“What?” Suki was taken aback for a moment. Permission was not something she was used to being asked for. “Yes Eve, touch me.” Suki finally breathed excitedly in response.

Smiling up at her, Eve’s hand slipped around Suki’s lower back, anchoring her in place, while the other traveled slowly up her inner thigh, finding her center with practiced ease. Her knowing fingers slipped between her folds.

A soft smile curved Eve’s lips against Suki’s mouth as her fingers brushed over slick heat. “You’re so wet,” she murmured, her voice thick with desire. She stroked slow, knowing, deliberate circles over Suki’s clit, savoring the way her body responded.

Suki let out a sharp moan, her head falling back. “Eve…” she gasped, her voice raw, desperate. “That feels so good.”

Eve started up a steady rhythm, tightened her grip on Suki’s waist, urging her to ride her touch.

“That’s it,” she encouraged, as Suki began to move with her, began to ride her fingers as she wrapped her arms around her neck. Her pleasure climbing as she chased her peak. She couldn’t believe they’d never done this before, couldn’t believe that she had spent her life avoiding this ecstasy. And for what? In this moment, all Suki ever wanted was to do this, to be here, with Eve, over and over again.

The sensations were overwhelming, Eve’s fingers, teasing and precise, the way she seemed to know exactly how to unravel her. Every brush of her fingertips sent shivers coursing through her, her nerve endings sparking with white-hot pleasure as she felt Eve’s lips explore her neck.

Years of longing, of suppressed desire, all honed down to this moment. To Eve’s touch. To the way she made Suki ache, made her burn.

“Harder Eve,” Suki whispered, barely able to form the words. She rocked her lower half into Eve’s hand now because she needed this release. It felt like it wasn’t enough and yet too much all at the same time.

Eve took that as her cue, increasing the intensity, her fingers circling faster and faster. “Come for me Suki,” she whispered into her neck.

“I… I… oh my God Eve,” Suki's voice rose in pitch as she rode faster and faster.

And then it hit her like lightning, sudden, unstoppable, incandescent. Her whole body arched, seized by a pleasure so fierce it was almost holy, as if the world had cracked open just to let this moment through.

“Eve!” she cried, the word ripped from her throat as her body shattered around it, jerking with every pulse of ecstasy. Stars burst behind her eyes, and for one brilliant second, she felt utterly alive.

She collapsed onto Eve, both of them falling backwards onto the bed. Suki was breathless and trembling, the aftershocks still rippling through her as she lay on top of Eve. Their bodies pressed together, sticky with heat, chests rising and falling in sync as they lay in the quiet dark, lost in the moment.

Suki lifted herself onto her forearms, the magnitude of the moment leaving her breathless. She gazed down at her lover with a smile that felt like it might break her, unable to believe how incredible everything had just been.

Eve’s fingers trailed lazily along the curve of Suki’s spine, slow and reverent, before coming to rest on her cheek. Her touch was gentle, grounding.

“That was…” Suki began, then trailed off, her head shaking slightly as emotion welled up in her chest. Tears shimmered in her eyes.

Eve brushed a single escaped tear away with the pad of her thumb, her brows knitting in soft concern.

“Hey… what’s this?” she asked, voice wrapped in tenderness.

“I don’t know,” Suki said, a quiet laugh slipping through her words. Her smile was watery, radiant. “I’m happy.”

“Yeah?” Eve laughed, her voice light but touched with awe, like she couldn’t believe this was real.

“Yeah. Very.” Suki laughed too, a quiet, breathless sound that felt like it came from somewhere deep. Her smile widened, luminous and unguarded, and she leaned down to kiss Eve languidly.

Their foreheads pressed together as their lips broke apart, breath mingling, hearts still pounding in tandem. The room was quiet, as if the world had stepped back to let them have this, just the two of them, suspended in something rare and golden. Suki’s chest ached with something like joy, like recognition. For the first time, she felt the shape of what she’d been missing all her life. And for tonight, just tonight, this was hers. Tomorrow, she would return to her life, but for now, it was only Eve, and everything that lay ahead of them in the hours to come.

Chapter Text

2014

Suki stepped out of the taxi, tilting her head back to take in the towering glass building before her. Sleek. Modern. Imposing. A world away from the dingy gay bar where she had first met Eve.

She took a deep breath and stared at the revolving doors ahead. Just inside, a burly security guard was laughing with a cluster of receptionists behind the wide front desk. Important looking businessmen moved through the glass atrium with polish and purpose. She imagined Eve, somewhere in there, making coffee, meeting clients, reading contracts.

Of all things, Suki had looked her up on LinkedIn. It had been so easy that, at first, she couldn’t understand why she hadn’t done it sooner. Maybe she hadn’t wanted to burst the bubble, the delicate, dreamlike presence Eve had taken on in her memory. But after three weeks of obsessively refreshing Eve’s profile, Suki knew the truth. She hadn’t resisted because it would remove the intrigue of Eve, she’d resisted because it was too hard, too tempting, too powerful. Knowing where Eve was, what she was doing, it pulled at her. And once she knew, it had been impossible not to come here.

But this wasn’t supposed to be about her. This was about Ashneet. If Suki could talk to anyone about her daughter, it had to be Eve.

It had started as a stupid argument, one that spun out of control before Suki even realized what was happening. Ashneet stood in the kitchen, arms folded, voice tight with frustration.

“It’s not a phase, Mum. It’s who I am.”

And Suki, despite everything, had laughed. Cruelly. “Who you are? Don’t be so dramatic, Ashneet.”

The look on her daughter’s face, devastation giving way to fury, was burned into her memory. And before Suki could take the words back, Ashneet had packed a bag and walked out the door. She hadn’t spoken to her since.

Suki had long accepted her life in the closet, made peace with the quiet sacrifices, the buried truths. Maybe it hadn’t been fair to Eve, but those brief, stolen moments they’d shared had felt like enough. At least, that’s what she told herself. Enough to know who she was. But never enough to bridge the gap between the woman she was with Eve and the one she had to be in the rest of her life.

But Ashneet didn’t compartmentalize. She didn’t hide. And Suki resented her for it. Hated the ease with which her daughter moved through the world, the quiet confidence she carried so naturally.

And now Suki felt nothing but shame, shame for her resentment, and deeper shame for how she had treated her daughter because of it. Ashneet had done what Suki never could, she had come out. Bravely. Honestly. And Suki had shut her down. She’d broken her daughter’s heart. And, in doing so, she’d broken her own.

She needed to talk to Eve. Because in the nearly fifty years she’d been alive, Eve was the only person who had ever truly seen her. The only person who might understand. Who might give her the courage she had never been able to find.

At least, that’s what she told herself.

But now, standing here in front of the revolving doors to Eve’s world, Suki realized something else.

Maybe Ashneet wasn’t the reason she’d come.

Maybe she was the excuse.

Maybe she had just wanted to see Eve. Needed to even. Maybe her selfishness knew no bounds.

The night they had shared after the Adele concert played on a loop in her mind. The way Eve had looked at her, touched her, made her feel like the only person in the world. The way they had talked for hours, bodies tangled in warm sheets, as if time had paused just for them. Eve had brought her a kind of pleasure she had never thought possible. She had whispered in her ear, held her in a way Suki hadn’t known she needed to be held. The whole night had etched itself into her soul.

Leaving Eve that morning was one of the hardest things she had ever done.

She had slipped out before Eve could wake, before those sleepy blue eyes could meet hers and make it impossible to walk away. She hadn’t trusted herself to stay strong if she saw the look in Eve’s eyes, or worse, the softness of a goodbye. So she left quietly, stealing away like a coward, heart cracking with every silent step.

Eve has a girlfriend, she had told herself. I have a husband. I am not gay.

But even then, she had known that last part wasn’t true. It had never been true.

She knew it in the days that followed, when she could still feel Eve’s touch like a phantom on her skin. She knew it in the quiet moments at night, when her own hand brought her to a soft, aching ecstasy, and all she could think of was Eve.

Walking away, knowing what they could have had, had broken something inside her. Over the years, anger had taken root, and bitterness gnawed at her from the inside out.

But now, standing here, a new fear gripped her. Not just fear of the past, but the raw, unrelenting terror of being rejected by the one person she could not bear to hear it from.

She scanned the street and spotted a coffee shop across the road. Its wide windows looked out onto the building, offering a place to gather herself. Maybe she would sit for a while. Try to calm her nerves.

But the courage she was hoping to find in the coffee shop never came. Three cups of coffee later, she was more jittery than before, sitting bolt upright in an oversized armchair by the window, fingers wrapped around an empty mug, eyes fixated on the building entrance across the street. Time stretched endlessly, each minute pressing heavier on her chest.

What was she waiting for? Eve to walk out? Courage to strike like lightning? A sign that she wasn’t making a huge mistake?

Just as she was about to give up, just as she’d convinced herself this was a foolish, desperate attempt to reclaim something long gone, she saw her.

Eve.

She came striding out of the revolving doors, her energy just as Suki remembered. Charismatic and impossible to ignore. She wore a tailored navy suit, the cut sharp and clean. Her hair was shorter now, slicked back but slightly tousled. She looked every bit the high-flying corporate lawyer. Grounded. Self-assured. Effortlessly cool.

And then Suki saw her.

The woman.

Tall. Striking. Wearing a long camel coat over slim black trousers, heels clicking confidently on the pavement. She stood with casual poise, her phone in one hand, the other resting lightly in the pocket of her coat. She looked like she belonged there. Like she belonged to Eve.

“You’re on time!” Suki heard Eve call out, her face lighting up as she crossed the pavement.

The woman slipped her phone away as Eve reached her. She opened her arms without hesitation, and Eve stepped into them. One arm wrapped securely around her waist, the other cupped the back of the woman’s neck. They kissed, long, certain and unashamed.

When they pulled apart, Eve murmured something only the other woman could hear. She laughed softly, brushing her hand down Eve’s arm. Eve laughed too, that open, familiar laugh that once belonged to Suki.

Suki froze.

A sharp sting of jealousy cut through her. She couldn’t look away from the easy way they moved together. As they turned to leave, their fingers laced effortlessly, without needing to look.

Suki watched until they disappeared from view, Eve’s laughter still ringing faintly in her ears. Like a melody she no longer had the right to hear.

She didn’t know what she had hoped to gain from this moment, she only knew it had been a mistake. One that had cut her heart in two, and one she would not make again.

Chapter Text

2018

The early morning air was damp, the kind of moisture in the air that clung to your skin and crept through the fabric of your clothes. A thin mist lingered just above the ground, curling around the Gurdwara’s steps like a ghostly veil. The quiet hum of the waking city murmured in the distance, cars far off, birds just beginning their dawn chorus, and the faint rustle of leaves stirred by a gentle breeze.

Suki hurried towards the Gurdwara, a deep blue scarf draped over her shoulders, pulled snugly around her against the cold, the ends fluttering slightly with her movements. Her hair was styled in her usual way, although today the top seemed to tower above her head, almost as if the extra height might give her the confidence she did not feel she had.

It had been a long and difficult week, and she had woken that morning with a strong pull to come here, to find some community that might ease the familiar tug of loneliness. Kheerat had introduced her to his new girlfriend this week, his usual type, beautiful and bolshy. Suki had seen the way her son looked at her, and she found herself envious. That adoration, that easy contentment in a partner, was something she had turned away from her whole life.

She was just about to enter the gates of the Gurdwara, feet crunching softly on the gravel path, when a shape caught her eye. A figure was slumped on the bench beneath the old sycamore, half-hidden in the shadow of its bare winter branches. Suki paused, frowning slightly. There was something strangely familiar about the way the figure was curled up, the hunch of the shoulders, the messy hair falling across their face.

A cold breath of wind stirred the loose edges of a navy coat wrapped tightly around the sleeping form. Suki took a cautious step closer, her heart beating faster now, a strange prickling creeping up the back of her neck. She squinted, trying to make out the features beneath the thick folds of the coat.

Then the figure shifted slightly, pulling the coat tighter around themselves with a shiver, and in that movement, something clicked sharply into place inside Suki. Recognition flooded through her in a sudden, overwhelming rush.

Eve.

Her mouth fell open but no sound came out. She glanced around instinctively; the Gurdwara grounds were still quiet, the familiar hum of the early Sunday congregation just beginning to stir behind her. For a moment she just stood there, frozen between disbelief and action. Then, moving quickly, she crossed the few steps to the bench.

“Eve?” she whispered, her voice breaking the stillness. She reached out, her fingers trembling slightly, and touched Eve's shoulder, giving it a gentle shake. “Eve, it’s me.”

Eve woke with a start, her eyes darting around as they took in their surroundings before she clocked the woman towering over her, concern etched on her face.

“Suki?” she mumbled, confused.

“What are you doing here?” Suki asked, more abruptly than she had intended.

“Um…” Eve slowly pushed herself into a sitting position, brushing the hair off her face as she peered around her at the unfamiliar surroundings. A thumping in her head, just behind her eyes distracting her. “Where are we exactly?” she finally asked.

Just then a group of women walked up behind them, headed towards the entrance of the Gurdwara. They called over to Suki, waving at her to join them.

“Sat Sri Akal,” Suki called back, nervously smiling at them. “I’ll be right there!”

“You look incredible,” Eve whispered, still not quite familiar with the surroundings she had woken up to, but mesmerised by seeing Suki towering over her.

“You look…” Suki’s eyes tracked over her. “...less incredible.”

“What are you… how did you find me?” Eve blustered.

Suki squinted her eyes skeptically at the woman sitting before her. “Eve, please. You just happened to fall asleep on the bench outside my Gurdwara?”

“What?” Eve seemed surprised, looking round to see the imposing building that stood behind her.

“So this is just a coincidence?” Suki raised a cynical eyebrow.

“Um… I think so.” Eve padded her pockets, pulling out her phone and groaning when she realised the battery was dead.

Eve’s memories from the night before came fluttering back into her consciousness, she had been drinking with some mates in Shoreditch, she remembered that much. She rubbed her face and brushed her hair back with her hand.

“What’s that?” Suki asked as she saw Eve’s bruised and bloodied knuckles.

"I…" Eve’s gaze dropped to her hand confused. "I’m not sure.”

Suki’s eyes flickered to the bench. "Did you sleep here?"

Eve blinked up at her, still not quite woken up and still shocked at the woman standing over her. "Are you sure you’re real?"

Suki let out a soft laugh at that comment. "You really were hitting it hard last night weren’t you?"

The laughter seemed to irk Eve however, it seemed to trigger something in her.

"Forgive me for thinking you’re some figment of my imagination. It’s just I remember a morning six years ago when I woke up in a hotel suite, completely alone."

Suki exhaled, guilt settling into her features. "I’m sorry Eve. I had to get back to my kids."

Eve let out a dry chuckle. "I’m not a heavy sleeper, y’know. A little shake of the shoulder, a note even, you could’ve said something that didn’t leave me feeling completely abandoned."

Suki’s expression tightened. "That was never my intention, Eve."

"Look, it’s fine, really. I’ve had my fair share of one-night stands-"

"That wasn’t what that night was to me." Suki countered quickly, taking a glance around her after her comment, checking there were no stragglers from the Gurdwara that were listening in to their conversation.

Eve scoffed, rubbing at her temples. Even in her hungover haze she was struck by how, after all this time, Suki still remained so far into the closet. Petrified that someone, anyone would catch on to who she truly was.

“Eve I’m sorry-” Suki began to apologise but Eve waved her arm vaguely in the air to silence her.

"Honestly, don’t worry about it. In my experience, everyone leaves eventually." She added matter-of-factly.

“That night was everything to me, Eve,” Suki pleaded. “But when I woke up I just panicked.”

“Yeah, whatever. The explanation would’ve been helpful a few years back. But not now.”

“Eve, I’m worried about you.”

Eve sighed heavily, she didn’t have the energy to be mad at this woman this morning. “It was my birthday yesterday,” she eventually mumbled.

Suki nodded in understanding, everything suddenly fitting into place.

“Happy birthday,” Suki smiled quietly. “To you and to Erica.”

Eve laughed hollowly. “How messed up is this hey? You don’t know when my birthday is, but you know all about my dead sister.”

“I can’t even imagine how hard it is to celebrate your birthday without her each year.”

“Not a word from my parents obviously.”

“Oh I’m sorry Eve.”

“If only they could see me now hey? They’d be so proud.”

“They should be. But you’re not thinking clearly right now, you’ve not slept, you’re hungover-”

“Go back to your life Suki. You don’t owe me anything.” Eve pushed herself to her feet.

Suki reached out her hand and grabbed Eve’s forearm, holding her in place as she had started to walk past her.

“Let me buy you a coffee?" she offered when Eve turned to look at where Suki had made contact with her.

“Why? What’s the point?”

“Like I said, I’m worried about you.” Suki dropped Eve’s arm quickly as another group of women shuffled past them towards the Gurdwara, their chatter filling the quiet morning air.

Eve let out a hollow laugh. “Just walk away, Suki. It’s what you’re good at.”

“That’s not fair.” Suki looked heartbroken at the comment, and for a second, Eve almost regretted saying it.

“You can’t even talk to me without looking over your shoulder to check your little mates aren’t watching. You really think you want to get a coffee with me?”

“I’m sure.”

Eve studied Suki’s face, the fierce conviction burning in her eyes. She could walk away. She should walk away. Every time she had let Suki in, she had ended up heartbroken, unable to get her out of her head for weeks, months, even years. But something about the way Suki looked at her now made Eve pause. Maybe it was stupid, but part of her wanted to recapture the magic that always sparked between them. Part of her hoped it could fix her.

Eve arched an eyebrow. "We could have a pint instead? Hair of the dog and all that."

Suki shook her head, unwavering. "It’s 8am on a Sunday. I’m buying you a coffee."

Eve smirked as she buttoned up her coat. "I’ll take the coffee, but don’t think I didn’t hear that tone of judgment in your voice."

Suki laughed softly, the Eve she had always known flickering back into view for a moment as they fell into step together, heading towards the coffee shop at the end of the street.

Chapter Text

2018

Eve slid into a booth by the window of the coffee shop without a word, her shoulders hunched, her eyes dull. Suki lingered at the counter, ordering two coffees, but her gaze never left Eve. Her usual spark was gone, the usual swagger replaced by a woman who looked shrunken somehow, worn thin by whatever had happened the night before.

She looked like she was coming apart at the seams and it broke Suki’s heart to see.

With two steaming mugs in hand, she joined Eve in the booth, placing Eve’s coffee gently in front of her before sliding into the booth opposite. For a moment, she said nothing. She just watched her. Wanting to help. Wanting to fix it. Not knowing how.

Finally, softly, she spoke. “Eve... please tell me. What happened last night?”

Eve exhaled hard, dragging her hands down her face like she could scrub the memory out of her skin.

“I’m not entirely sure, my memory’s a bit hazy,” she muttered. Her eyes drifted down to her bloodied knuckles. “But… it’s not looking great, is it?”

Suki leaned forward slightly. “Maybe it was just… a wall? Or something?”

Eve gave a hollow, humorless laugh. “No. It was a bloke. It was definitely a bloke.”

Suki blinked. “Okay…?”

“He was doing the usual, jeering, making comments. Normally I’d brush it off, but last night…” Her voice wavered. “I think I was looking for a fight. I think I just wanted to feel something that wasn’t…”

Eve trailed off, unsure what she was feeling.

Suki’s eyes softened. “Did it help?”

Eve shrugged, her voice barely above a whisper. “Maybe… for a few seconds.”

“Well, it sounds like he had it com-”

“Oh God.” Eve suddenly groaned, her head falling into her hands as a memory floated back into her consciousness. “His mates called the police.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“They did, I think that’s when I ran away.” Eve’s eyes grew wide with panic. “Oh my God, what have I done?”

“It might not be that bad-”

“Suki you don’t get it, I beat some bloke up in a bar, with a whole bunch of witnesses. If I get arrested I’ll get charged, and if I get charged then I’ll get disbarred. I’ll never practice law again.”

“Eve. Breathe. You’re spiraling. You don’t know what’s going to happen yet.”

“How could I be so stupid?” Eve breathed out.

“What about Naomi? Is she still around? Can you call her?”

Eve blinked, like the name didn’t register at first. “Naomi?” Then she shook her head, hollow laughter escaping her lips. “Oh Naomi. God no, we split years ago.”

“Ok, is there anyone else?” Suki asked, the memory of the woman she had seen Eve with outside her office building playing on her mind.

“No,” Eve replied glumly.

“What about Ruth and Joanna, you’re friends from uni?”

“They’re in Brighton now, three kids, they don’t need this from me.”

I’m sure they’d want to help if you-”

“I’m on my own Suki. I’ll always be on my own.”

“You know that’s not true.” Suki replied, sincerity in her voice.

“Says the woman who always leaves,” Eve replied, not unkindly, but with something sharp behind it.

Suki fell silent. There was nothing to say. Eve was right. She always left.

“Sorry,” Eve added, voice softer now. “I know it’s complicated for you.”

“It is…” Suki murmured. “And then again, it’s not.” Guilt rippled through Suki at Eve’s apology, in spite of the situation she found herself in, in spite of the way Suki had treated her. “Sometimes I wish all the relationships in my life were as easy as this one.”

Eve arched a brow. “Really? I’d say this is the most complicated relationship I’ve ever had. I mean, can you even call it a relationship?”

Suki was taken aback at Eve’s words, it was so far from how she viewed her experiences with Eve. This relationship was the only one in her life that she never had to lie, that she never had to hide any part of herself. When she was with Eve she felt lighter, she felt more herself than she ever had. It had never occurred to her that Eve might not feel that same relief when they were together.

“Suki come on,” Eve continued when she noticed Suki's confused expression. “I mean, how would you even explain this to someone else?”

“I don’t care about explaining it to anyone else.” Suki tapped her chest gently. “In here, this is the only relationship that makes sense to me.”

Their eyes fixed on each other, the weight of Suki's words falling between them. It felt to Eve like this was the first time Suki had ever acknowledged out loud her feelings for her. The honesty of it had taken her by surprise, Suki had this ability to be so cold, so distant one moment and then come out with the most romantic of things as a throwaway comment.

“Have you ever wondered what life would be like…” Eve began gingerly. “What if we’d run off together that first night we met? If we’d seen where this could go and you didn’t go through with your wedding?”

“Sometimes,” Suki nodded slowly. “More than sometimes actually.”

Eve gave a sad smile and reached for Suki, she intertwined their fingers, bringing their hands to her lips as she pressed a kiss to her knuckles. But Suki flinched, pulling her hand away and glancing around the empty café.

“Sorry,” she murmured, shame flickering across her face as she caught sight of Eve’s crestfallen face.

Eve just nodded, the moment already gone.

“Just with the Gurdwara round the corner-”

“It’s fine.” Eve cut her off, wanting to move swiftly on from the rejection.

“I’m not…” Suki tailed off, she didn’t know how to finish that sentence. Not gay? They'd both know that was a lie. Not ready? Well that just seemed too obvious, and it implied that one day maybe she would be. “It’s not exactly how I’d want my children to find out.”

Eve nodded silently.

“How are your kids?” Eve finally offered.

Suki welcomed the change in topic like a lifeline. “Kids? I wish they were still kids. Kheerat’s nearly thirty now, always trying to prove himself with the businesses.”

“And the other three?”

“Jagvir locks himself away in his room with his video games for what feels like 23 hours a day. Same with Vinny, although he’s recently set his sights on becoming a DJ.”

“A DJ?” Eve looked surprised.

“Don’t ask, his music makes my ears bleed, but he seems to love it.”

“And your daughter?”

Suki hesitated. Her smile faded. “Ashneet is a doctor now.”

“Oh? That’s amazing, no?” Eve frowned at the sudden shift in mood.

Suki exhaled. “We have a complicated relationship.”

“What happened?” Eve asked, concerned.

Suki looked into Eve’s warm blue eyes, suddenly afraid of her reaction, a familiar feeling of shame washed over her.

“She came out to me, a couple of years ago." Suki eventually said. "Let’s just say I didn’t take it well.”

Eve’s eyebrows lifted. “Your daughter’s gay?”

“Bisexual apparently,” Suki corrected.

“There’s no apparently about it. Did she tell you she’s bisexual?” Eve replied, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

“Yes.”

“Then that’s what she is.”

Suki bit her lip, the truth of it cutting deep. Her silence said everything.

Eve’s tone darkened further. “Hang on a minute, you’re not speaking to her because she’s bi?”

“She left, Eve. I couldn’t stop her.” Suki tried to explain, seeing herself through Eve’s eyes for the first time.

“What exactly did you say to her?”

“I… I don’t remember exactly.” Suki lied.

“Well, I guarantee she does. Every single word.” Eve shook her head. “I can’t believe you. It’s one thing to bury yourself in the closet your whole life, but you can’t honestly expect your daughter to do the same?”

“I don’t-”

“You do realize she’s probably out there blaming herself? Hating herself? Because of you.”

Suki’s eyes filled with tears, but her reaction just seemed to enrage Eve even more as the gravity of how she had treated her daughter settled, as she slowly registered the rejection that her daughter had been dealt was the same as hers.

Eve abruptly stood, snatching her coat from the back of the chair.

“I should go,” she said, her voice cold.

“Eve, don’t leave like this,” Suki pleaded quietly, her voice cracking.

“Why not?” Eve shot back. “Should I wait around for us to hook up again, and then you can sneak out without saying a word?”

“Eve, please…” Suki’s eyes darted nervously around the coffee shop, her cheeks burning as she scanned for anyone who might have overheard. Her heart thudded painfully in her chest.

Eve let out a short, bitter laugh, watching Suki squirm. Then, without another word, she stormed toward the door. Suki scrambled after her, desperation rising like panic in her throat.

Outside Eve came to a sudden halt on the pavement and whirled around, her face flushed with fury. The anger had risen quickly and was now cresting into something dangerous.

“Whatever this is, whatever it was, it’s over, Suki.”

“Don’t say that-” Suki’s voice was small, almost lost in the noise of the street.

But Eve wasn’t finished. Her voice dropped in volume but surged with emotion. “You know... I think I was looking for you last night.”

Suki froze mid-step. “Looking for me?”

“I was lost. I was alone. And then I saw the sign for the Gurdwara. It felt like fate, like you were appearing again, just when I needed you the most.” Her voice cracked with a hollow laugh. “How pathetic is that?”

“It’s not pathetic,” Suki said quietly. “Sometimes… sometimes all I want to do is see you too.”

“But you never do anything about it, do you?” Eve snapped, her eyes blazing. “Because deep down, you’re still so ashamed of how you feel about me.”

Suki bit her lip hard, her silence more damning than anything she could say.

“I wish I’d never walked over to you that night we met,” Eve whispered, venom laced through the sorrow. “I wish I’d left you sitting on that pavement alone.”

“Please don’t say that-”

“I’ve spent half my life in love with a self-hating, won’t-come-out-of-the-closet woman.”

Suki’s breath caught. The word love rang in her ears like a siren, cutting through everything.

“You, my parents, you’re all the same.”

“I am not the same as the-”

“You know what actually no,” Eve snapped. “You’re worse. Because you know what it is to be gay. You know there’s nothing you can do about it. And still, you’re trying to pass that shame down to your daughter.”

“I never meant-”

“And my self-esteem was so low, I just accepted whatever you could give me,” Eve continued, her voice trembling. “I accepted the scraps you offered, the tiny pieces of you I was allowed to have.”

A long, suffocating silence fell between them.

“But you know what I just realized?” Eve said, her voice sharpening again. “You’re not a victim. You did this to yourself. And now you’re trying to do it to your daughter. Do you really want her to be as miserable as you are?”

Suki shook her head, tears spilling down her cheeks, her body trembling under the weight of Eve’s words.

Eve’s expression didn’t soften. “Do me a favour, Suki. Next time you see me on the street, just walk away. Please. I am begging you.”

She turned without waiting for a reply, walking quickly down the pavement until her figure blurred into the cityscape.

Suki stood frozen, her breath shallow, her chest aching. The world moved around her, indifferent and cold. Tears welled in her eyes as she stood in the middle of the pavement feeling utterly alone.

Chapter Text

2021

Eve stepped off the bus and drew in a slow, steady breath, letting her gaze sweep across the square. After spending the last three years at Her Majesty’s pleasure, everything felt sharper now. Colours seemed more vivid, sounds more distinct, like the volume of the world had been turned up in her absence. The cool air kissed her skin, and the sunlight warmed her gently, as if the world were offering a cautious welcome back.

Walford was just as Stacey had described it during all those late-night conversations in their shared cell. There was the pub on the corner with its faded red trim, the corner shop nestled beside it, and the open market where Stacey had told her of the times she had flirted with punters while flogging knock-off leggings.

Eve spotted a tired-looking fruit and veg stall beneath a sagging awning. The vendor was nowhere in sight, and the produce had clearly seen better days. She made a mental note to come back later. Stacey’s ex-husband still deserved a reckoning for the hell he'd put her through. She promised herself that she wouldn't lay a hand on him, she was done with prison cells and locked doors, even if the thought did give her a flicker of satisfaction.

She wandered deeper into the square, walking slowly, letting her legs adjust to the feel of freedom. The place buzzed with life, kids raced past on scooters, an old man hunched over his bacon sandwich outside the greasy spoon, and a woman battled a stubborn dog that refused to move from a tree.

She didn’t know which house belonged to Stacey’s mum, and she hadn’t planned much past the hope of bumping into her old cellmate. Her new wife. Drawn by the soft hum of birds and the scent of cut grass, she wandered into the communal garden at the centre of the square. The roses were in bloom, the lavender dancing lightly in the breeze. She hadn’t smelled freshly cut grass in three years. She hadn’t even known how much she missed it until that moment.

Eve sank onto a bench and let the quiet settle around her. If Stacey showed up, great. If not, there was always the pub. But for now, this, the sunlight, the breeze, and the sounds of normal life, was enough. She closed her eyes and listened. A football thudded in the distance. Someone was humming nearby. A snippet of conversation drifted past. She inhaled deeply and tried to hold the moment in her lungs.

“Mum!” A voice cried out from across the square, the voice snapping her back like a whip crack.

Eve’s eyes flew open. A handsome young man rushed from one of the houses, slamming the door behind him and chasing after a woman striding into the square.

Her breath caught. Her body stilled.

Suki.

She looked just as Eve remembered, composed, commanding, impossibly beautiful. Heels clicking, a sleek handbag tucked beneath one arm, not a hair out of place. Her son trailed behind her, flustered, trying to keep up.

Eve watched the scene unfold in front of her, her mind whirring as to whether Suki had ever told her that this is where she lived. She was sure when her husband was arrested this hadn't been her address, she would have remembered. Every small detail that Suki had revealed about her life in the time they spent together seemed to have seared into her memory. She was left to wonder what the chances were, that her first day out of prison she would end up here, end up in the vicinity of this woman again.

“Mum, just listen, yeah? I really think I should be at that meeting-” Suki's son didn't seem deterred by her brisk walk away from him.

“That’s up to Kheerat, not me,” Suki replied crisply, barely slowing her pace.

“Can you not just tell him to include me? He listens to you.”

Suki stopped walking, she'd now made it to the other side of the large hedge from Eve’s bench. Eve instinctively ducked, moving to make sure she was nowhere near Suki's eye line.

She imagined Suki’s face if she saw her, surprise, shame, panic. She thought back to the last time they saw each other, just before she’d been arrested. Her words, sharp and unrelenting. That look on Suki’s face, the tears in her big brown eyes. The memory of it broke Eve’s heart all over again.

“Vinny,” Suki snapped, “if you want your brother to take you seriously, you can’t keep running to your mother.”

Another voice called out from across the square.

“Mum!”

A young woman jogged toward them, despite the jog she carried herself with a poised intensity, dark eyes, sharp cheekbones. Unmistakably Suki’s daughter.

“Yes, Ashneet?” Suki said, not hiding her impatience with either of her children.

“About tonight-” Ashneet began.

“I haven’t got time for either of you today,” Suki interrupted, checking her watch. “I’m late to meet a supplier. You haven’t updated me on the surgery situation,” she said, pointing to Ashneet, “and you,” she turned to Vinny, “still haven’t dealt with the Slaters’ eviction. Am I supposed to do everything myself?”

Ashneet rolled her eyes. “I told you I’d think about the surgery job. But Mum, dinner-”

“If this is you trying to get out of it-”

“You know Kheerat’s not coming tonight, right?” Ashneet interjected.

“Kheerat has a business meeting with Ranveer Uncle,” Suki replied without missing a beat.

“Which I should be at!” Vinny snapped. “I thought I was supposed to be getting more responsibility.”

“So did I,” Suki replied coolly, raising an unimpressed eyebrow. “So did I.”

“What does that mean?” Vinny replied defensively.

“You’ll get more responsibility when you learn to handle what you already have.”

Ashneet scoffed. “So golden boy gets a free pass, and we don’t?”

“He’s closing a huge contract for us with Mumbai and you want to go drinking with your mates. These two excuses were not made equally, Ashneet.”

“But-”

“Huṇa kāfī hai!!” Suki waived her hand dismissively. “I’ll see you both at seven. Sharp.”

Ashneet groaned. “You’d be fine with it if it wasn’t a gay bar.”

“I’m sure the gay bars of London will still be open after dinner,” Suki replied, already walking away.

Eve remained hidden behind the hedge, her heart thudding, hands trembling. She watched Suki disappear, mesmerised by her. She had never seen Suki like that, embroiled in family arguments, navigating the chaos of motherhood. That part of her life had always been so separate from the time they had spent together. But now, seeing her like this, and accepting of her daughter, Eve felt a pang of sadness, this was the part of Suki she had never been allowed to know. This wasn't the box of her life that Suki had confined her to.

Now, crouched and hidden, the reality hit her hard.

Could she live here? Pretend not to know Suki when they crossed paths? See her with her family, hear her voice in passing, and never be able to answer it?

Suki would hate her being here. The fear of being outed would sit between them like a loaded gun.

And Eve… she couldn’t live with that. Not the daily sting of being unwanted. She’d been unable to get over Suki when they were worlds apart, how would it be at all possible to do it when Suki lived so close?

She stood suddenly, brushing herself down, her breath shaky but firm.

She looked at the square one last time. The imposing pub, the worn stalls, the stubborn lavender. Everything that had, just moments ago, promised a future.

She walked away from the bench, away from the garden. She didn’t know where she was headed yet, she’d call Stacey and explain, call her probation officer too. But wherever she went, it would need to be somewhere far away from Suki Panesar.

Chapter Text

2025

The bell above the door rang out, signaling someone had entered.

“Be right with you!” Eve called, finishing up her document and saving the file.

Ruth had given their receptionist the week off, leaving Eve juggling everything, paralegal work, answering phones, booking appointments. She thought back to the days when she’d had her own assistant, someone who fetched her coffee and kept her day on track. She missed it more than she cared to admit.

The phones hadn’t stopped ringing all morning, and the inbox was overflowing with urgent queries. Eve had already triaged three walk-ins, printed out case files for a client meeting that never showed, and fielded two frantic calls from a woman whose ex-wife was threatening to move their children abroad. With Ruth off in court and no receptionist to filter the chaos, Eve was left juggling everything on her own. She hadn’t even had time for a proper coffee, settling instead for a lukewarm cup that sat half-drunk beside her keyboard.

She stood, attempting to smooth out her creased trousers, and stepped into the main reception.

The office was modest, a converted ground-floor flat on a side street in Brighton, all scuffed skirting boards and mismatched chairs, with faded posters about tenants’ rights peeling slightly at the corners. A battered filing cabinet leaned precariously in the corner, and someone had once tried to brighten the place with a potted plant that now looked half-dead. The office was worlds away from the slick, towering buildings Eve had once worked out of.

Rounding the corner she froze when she saw who was stood in the doorway, just a few feet away from her.

For a moment, Eve couldn’t breathe. Her heart stuttered in her chest as if time had folded in on itself. It was like seeing a ghost, except the ache that bloomed in her chest was all too alive.

Suki.

Eve felt it like a punch: the sudden, overwhelming yearning. The kind she’d buried so deep she didn’t think it could surface again. And yet here it was, unmistakable, coursing through her with a heat she hadn’t expected, hadn’t prepared for.

“Hello stranger,” Suki said, trying for lightness, though her voice trembled at the edges.

Eve blinked. They had a nasty fated habit of bumping into each other, but this? This felt like it was orchestrated. Intentional. Too coincidental to be an accident.

“Suki?” she finally said, still disbelieving.

“Surprise.” Suki smiled weakly.

Eve didn’t respond right away. Her mind was scrambling to catch up. Her body was already reacting, hands slightly trembling, knees unsteady.

“What are you doing here?” She finally spoke up.

“I got sick and tired of waiting for fate to intervene.” Suki's eyes pierced into Eve's when she spoke.

Eve nodded slowly, her brain still catching up, mind whirring with what that small sentence could mean. “How did you find me?”

Suki hesitated, then gave a sheepish shrug. “I, um… hired a private investigator.”

Eve stared. “You what?”

“I know it sounds a little unhinged,” Suki admitted, letting out a breathy laugh.

“Right, yeah, it kind of does.” Eve nodded absently, still reeling. Suki had looked for her. Really looked. The absurdity of it mingled with something dangerously close to hope. She kicked herself for it, hated that sliver of hope that surfaced still, after all this time.

“How have you been?” Suki offered, but her words felt too small for the moment.

“I don’t really know how to answer that, it’s been what… seven years?”

“Yes, a lot can happen in seven years,” Suki replied, looking around the room with its faded decor and mismatched furniture.

Eve felt a pang of guilt. She’d read about Suki in the paper, she’d read how she’d tried to leave her husband, she’d read how he couldn’t bear the thought of her living without him, and she’d read that he had tried to kill her, before taking his own life.

She’d thought about reaching out, for a long time it was all she thought of. She had imagined going to see her, of checking in, how could she not? But she wasn’t sure how she’d be received, and she wasn’t sure if she’d wanted to open that door again.

“I umm,” she began. “I read about Nish in the paper.”

The words landed like a soft thunderclap, reverberating in the space between them.

“Oh.” Was the only reply that Suki gave her.

Did she detect hurt in her voice? Eve couldn’t tell.

“I’m sorry,” Eve said gently. “I thought about reaching out. I just…”

“It’s okay.” Suki offered a tired smile, one that tried to be light but didn’t quite make it.

Silence stretched between them, not sharp, but thick with memory. Charged. There were a thousand things Eve wanted to say, but none of it felt safe to speak aloud.

“Did he really book you a joint funeral?” Eve asked.

“I don’t want to talk about him.”

“You never do.” Eve sighed.

“I want to talk about us.” Suki’s eyes pierced into Eve’s.

“Us? There isn’t exactly an ‘us’ is there?”

Suki opened her mouth to speak again but was interrupted by the shrill ringing of the phone. Eve blinked, as if pulled from a dream, and offered Suki an apologetic smile before turning away.

“Pride Legal, how can I help?” she said, her voice a touch too bright, too controlled.

She dropped into the receptionist’s chair and clicked her mouse, eyes darting between tabs as the caller launched into a complicated explanation. Eve typed, or tried to, her fingers hesitated over the keys. She murmured acknowledgements, furrowed her brow in all the right places, but her eyes kept flicking up, drawn irresistibly back to the figure standing just feet away.

Suki shifted on her feet. She stood in the doorway, pretending to read the peeling posters that adorned the reception area. Eve couldn’t help but think how out of place she seemed here, like a ghost from another life.

“…Yes, I understand,” Eve said, forcing herself to refocus on the caller. “You’ll need to file an appeal within twenty-one days. Yes. I can email the form if-”

She stopped, realizing she’d opened the wrong file entirely. Her hands trembled as she corrected it. “Sorry, yes, just give me a moment to pull that up.”

By the time she finally hung up, she barely remembered what she’d said. Silence rushed back into the room like a wave.

Suki broke the silence, clearing her throat. “Would you mind if we talked? Somewhere not… well, not here.”

Eve raised an eyebrow, rising to her feet again. “Somewhere private?” she asked, her voice calm but sharp-edged.

“Not necessarily.” Suki winced. “Just… somewhere that isn’t your place of work, at least.”

Eve let out a quiet sigh, her expression unreadable. “I’m on my own here today. I can’t really just shut up shop.”

“That’s okay,” Suki said quickly, too quickly. “We can talk when you’ve finished for the day.”

Eve studied her for a beat, suspicion creeping into her gaze. “Suki…” she began slowly, “don’t take this the wrong way, but why? What’s the point?”

Suki opened her mouth, but Eve pushed gently on.

“You being closeted, and so ashamed of who you are. I just, I can’t do it Suki, I can’t be around it. It’s not good for me.”

“Please, just…” Suki’s voice faltered. “Have one drink with me. That’s all I’m asking. And after that, if you still want nothing to do with me I’ll understand. I’ll leave you alone, for good.”

There was silence. Long, uncertain.

Eve’s expression softened just enough to let the hurt show. She didn’t speak right away. She looked at Suki’s face, the same face that had seemed to haunt her for her entire adult life. She hated that the pull in her chest was still there, still alive, still waiting.

“Okay,” she said finally. Her voice was quiet, almost cautious. “One drink.”

Relief crashed across Suki’s features like sunlight breaking through clouds. Her whole face lit up in a way Eve hadn’t seen in years; warm, hopeful, young. It took Eve’s breath for a moment, catching her off guard.

“I should be finished here by six,” Eve added, looking away before that smile disarmed her further.

Suki nodded, hope surging beneath her ribs. “Great. I’m staying at the Malmaison, down by the marina. Do you know it?”

“I know it,” Eve replied, a touch coolly, but her voice lacked the sharpness it had before.

“I can reserve us a table on the terrace,” Suki offered, still gentle, still trying not to overstep.

“Okay.” Eve gave a slow nod. “I’ll see you there.”

She sat back down in her chair, turning towards the computer, busying herself by pretending to read some of her emails. Suki lingered for a beat, watching her, the temptation to say more caught in her throat. But she didn’t. She left quietly, the bell above the door the only sound to mark her exit.

Eve sat still for a moment after the door closed. Her fingers tapped nervously against the edge of the keyboard. One drink. That was all.

But her heart was already beating like it wanted more than that.

Chapter Text

2025

Suki sat on the terrace, the evening sun sitting low, casting the hotel terrace in a golden light. She held tightly to her novel in one hand, though she hadn’t turned a page in ages. The brandy by her side was long forgotten too. Instead her eyes scanned the busy terrace, checking and rechecking her watch.

She’d been sitting here too long, her nerves bubbling under the surface, exhausting her. She’d reserved her table an hour earlier than Eve finished work, desperate not to miss her if she decided to show up early. But now, it was almost seven o'clock and she’d been nervously waiting here for over two hours. Her anticipation seemed to have spent the entire time building to an almost unbearable level.

The decision to bring along her book had been no help at all in distracting her, instead she had sat there replaying each and every conversation she’d ever had with Eve. In particular she couldn’t seem to shake the memory of Eve’s face the last time they had seen each other. Her broken demeanour and the look of sadness before she’d walked away from her.

Suki tried to focus on the gentle sounds of the sea, on the beauty of the sun setting on the horizon, but her mind wouldn’t stop whirring. What if she didn’t come? She had every reason not to. Maybe she wouldn't. Maybe wanted to at first but then she’d changed her mind. Maybe she'd never planned to show up at all.

Then she felt it, a presence almost. Her heart jumped. She could swear she felt eyes on her. She scanned the terrace again, frantic, hoping it wasn’t just her imagination.

And there she was. Eve.

Standing by the bar, bathed in golden light, she looked like a fever dream. She wasn’t smiling, that familiar lopsided grin was missing, but even from across the terrace Suki could see her blue eyes sparkling. She felt her own face change before she could stop it, a grin breaking loose, spreading through her chest and catching in her throat like a sob.

Suki closed the book carefully and laid it in her lap. Her fingers trembled, so she masked it by clasping her hands together. She didn’t speak, she couldn’t. The lump in her throat rendered her silent.

She held her breath as Eve approached, stopping just in front of her. Suki’s pulse thudded behind her ribs, steady and insistent.

This was the closest they’d been in years.

And still, she couldn’t find her voice.

“What are you reading?” Eve finally broke the silence, nodding towards the book on her lap.

“Oh, The Price of Salt,” Suki replied, relieved that Eve had broken the silence.

Eve raised an impressed eyebrow. “Careful, reading a queer book in public, someone might get the wrong idea about you.”

Suki nodded, a small smile gracing her lips as she placed the book to one side. “I deserved that.”

She indicated the seat opposite her for Eve to join her, which she did. Settling herself as they both looked over at each other, quietly assessing.

The silence was broken when the waiter came over and asked if they wanted any drinks.

“Just a beer thanks mate,” Eve replied, motioning to Suki to see if she wanted another drink but when Suki shook her head the waiter left them to it.

“How have you been?” Suki eventually cut through the silence.

“What did your private investigator tell you?” Eve challenged her.

Suki gave a breathless laugh. “He said you went to prison for GBH shortly after we last saw each other, that you got out four years ago, and that you’ve been working for your friend Ruth as a paralegal here in Brighton.”

“Nothing else?”

“Well, he said plenty. But I kind of wanted to hear it from you.”

Eve sighed and leant back in her chair, she still seemed to be measuring Suki up, she’d spent the day thinking through every possibility of what she might have wanted. And she was growing impatient with the small talk.

“Suki, what are you doing here?”

Suki took a deep breath. “Sorry, I’m nervous,” she admitted, voice low. “I’ve thought so much about what I wanted to say to you, but now I’m here, it’s so hard to find the right words.”

Eve tilted her head, trying to read her. “Okay.”

“I don’t even know where to start.” Suki let out a breath, her voice trembling.

“How about at the beginning?” Eve replied patiently, leaning forward again, her eyes soft, imploring Suki.

Even after everything she'd put her through, it broke her heart how kind Eve continued to be. She reached for her brandy glass, taking a large gulp, feeling the warm liquid run down her throat and into her stomach, settling some of her nerves and giving her the confidence to begin.

“For as long as I can remember, I’ve always done what’s expected of me," she began. "I was a good daughter, then I was a good wife, then a good mother. I never knew how to be anything else, I never knew I was allowed to be. And Nish... I married him so young, he reinforced all of that, putting me in a box he felt I belonged in. He had ideas of what a marriage should be, what I was allowed to do, what I was allowed to wear, who I was allowed to see. He controlled every inch of my life and told me it was love.”

“That’s not love Suki.”

“I know. I think in the back of my mind I always knew. I knew because I had you.” Suki paused for a moment, looking to Eve to gauge her reaction. But she continued when she saw Eve’s kind eyes imploring her on. “From the moment we met you showed me what love really is, you showed me it’s not controlling, or cruel. Because of you I knew that love could be kind, and exhilarating. It could be-” Suki was cut off as their waiter returned with Eve’s drink.

They sat in silence as he placed a beer mat on the table, seeming to take an eternity to pour her beer into a glass and gently place it down.

He beamed at the two of them, oblivious to the tension at the table. “Is there anything else I can-”

Suki cut him off with a wave of an authoritative hand.

“That will be all.” she snapped.

“Thanks mate,” Eve called after him as he walked away, looking slightly perturbed.

Suki watched the waiter leave, making sure he was out of earshot before she continued.

“When Nish was released from prison, he just inserted himself back into my life. He thought that we could just go back to how it was before, and stupidly I thought maybe that was possible. Maybe I could get it right this time, be a good wife to him, be the person everyone needed me to be. But it didn’t take me long to realise… no amount of sheer will power could turn me into that person. I’d spent my whole life playing a role I should never have played. I felt so alone. Before long it became unbearable. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, my hair started to fall out. Being with him, not being who I was… it was slowly killing me.”

Eve didn’t speak as she watched Suki take another large gulp from her brandy glass. She’d never known Suki to be so honest, to be so aware of the life she had chosen to live being so at odds with the woman that she was. The woman Eve could always see she was desperate to be.

“Eventually my kids, Vinny and Ashneet, started to notice how miserable I was. They took me to one side and told me I didn’t have to be with him if I wasn’t happy. I don’t think I realised how much I needed that permission from them. But as soon as I got it, I realised I couldn’t spend another second as his wife.”

“Is that when he tried to kill you?”

Suki shook her head. “That was a little while later. I ran away, moved away to Glasgow. I had to, I knew once I left him he'd be dangerous. I thought after a while he’d calm down, that he’d accept it and let me go. I can see now how naive that was of me. Eventually, he found me, threatened our children if I didn’t come home. I realised I had to tell him the whole truth.”

“And what truth is that?” Eve urged, watching as Suki seemed to squirm at this part.

“My truth.” she replied. “I told him that he could’ve been the best, kindest, most incredible husband in the world and it wouldn’t have made a difference. I told him I’d spent my whole adult life in love with a woman.”

Eve gulped, her mouth dry. Those words she had long known, long hoped to hear, finally came tumbling out of Suki’s mouth.

“I think the idea of me being with someone else, of my life going on without him, of everyone knowing who I was and what I felt, and what it meant about our marriage was all too much for him. I think he thought if we died together, then he would kill my truth too. That I would be his forever.”

“Suki,” Eve breathed. Eve reached across the table and took her hand. Their fingers tangled as if they remembered the shape of each other, even after all this time. “If it means anything, I’m really proud of you.”

Tears welled in Suki’s eyes as she smiled. “That means everything.”

They sat in silence for a little longer, both watching their intertwining hands.

“When the dust finally settled, when I realised that he was dead and I had survived, it was like a cloud had lifted. Like this weight I didn’t even know I had been carrying my whole life just… vanished. And for the first time in years, I could see everything so clearly.”

Her voice cracked, but she kept going.

“We Sikh’s, we believe everything happens according to Hukam, the divine will. That life unfolds the way it’s meant to. And I really believe that. I know now, you and I… we’re part of something far greater than I could ever fully understand.”

Eve’s eyes welled. She blinked against it, her throat tight.

“Nearly forty years ago I met this bolshy lesbian on a Soho side street and I fell totally and completely in love with her. Not that I knew it for a long time. Over the years, that bolshy lesbian has unknowingly saved me time and time again.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“I do.” Suki replied, conviction in her eyes. “In my darkest moments, deep down I knew who I was, I knew who I wanted to be. And that’s because of you. I’m so sorry it took me so long to get here, that I hurt you for so long. But I’m ready now, I know who I am. This is me, this is who I am and I realise that all I want, all I have ever wanted is to be with you,” she said softly. "I love you."

Eve’s hand stayed in Suki’s, but her voice shifted.

“Suki I love you too, I always have. But love, that was never our problem. I can’t be that person that I was for you. It’s not good for me.”

“I would never ask you to be that person again, Eve. You want me to shout it from the rooftops? I will.”

Eve was silent for a long time. A tear slipped down her cheek. She didn’t wipe it away.

“I’ve never been able to shake you,” Eve eventually whispered.

A smile spread across Suki’s face at Eve’s quiet admission, soft but radiant, her eyes catching the glow of the setting sun as it dipped toward the horizon.

“Can I kiss you?” Suki asked, her voice almost a whisper, but steady.

Eve stared at her, blinking. “Here?” she said, the surprise plain in her voice.

Suki nodded without hesitation, the confidence in her stillness unmistakable. There was no darted glance, no folding in on herself. Just the open question, and the space she offered Eve to answer.

“Okay,” Eve said softly.

Suki rose to her feet, holding her hand out for Eve to join her. Eve placed her hand back into Suki's as she pushed back her chair and rose to meet her, their fingers interlocking as they grinned at each other.

Suki stepped in closer, her fingers trembling slightly as they brushed Eve’s cheek, then threaded through her hair, finally settling at the nape of her neck. The sea breeze tugged at her loose strands, but her eyes stayed fixed on Eve’s, searching for permission once more.

Eve’s gaze flicked to Suki’s lips, then back to her eyes. That silent glance, charged with unspoken years of longing, was all the answer Suki needed.

She leaned in slowly, as if the moment might shatter if rushed, and pressed her lips to Eve’s, soft at first, unsure. The kiss held the ache of waiting, of wanting, of not knowing. Then Eve parted her lips, deepening the kiss, her arms curling around Suki with a relief that felt like coming home. Nervousness melted into something bolder. The kiss grew more certain, more assured.

When they finally pulled apart, breathless and smiling, their foreheads rested together, savoring the closeness. Suki’s hand traced down Eve’s bare arm, lingering, before their fingers laced together. Joy shimmered between them in the waning light of dusk.

“Dance with me,” she whispered.

“What?” Eve laughed, looking around. “There’s no dance floor, there’s no music.”

“That can be fixed.” Suki grinned through her tears. She turned toward the bar and waved to a man standing nearby.

Eve watched in disbelief as he moved behind the bar and picked up an acoustic guitar, finding a stool he sat down and began to strum the music to a song that had followed them for over thirty years.

“Did you…?” Eve trailed off, laughing at the absurdity as her heart felt like it would explode in her chest.

“Dance with me, Eve.” Suki repeated.

She wrapped an arm around Eve’s neck, her other hand finding Eve’s and pulling it up to interlock by their chests.

“Who knew you were such a romantic Suki Panesar?” Eve joked.

Suki laughed. “Not me, that’s for sure.”

Their foreheads pressed together again, and they swayed gently to the music, letting it wash over them as the man began to sing.

Whenever I'm alone with you

You make me feel like I am home again

Whenever I'm alone with you

You make me feel like I am whole again

“What happens now?” Eve whispered.

“Anything we want.” Suki replied, pulling Eve closer to her, grabbing onto happiness with everything she had.

Chapter Text

2029

Morning light filtered gently through curtains, painting golden stripes across the bedroom walls and the tangle of sheets that wrapped loosely around their naked limbs. The air was warm, still heavy with the quiet hush of sleep and the soft scent of skin.

Suki lay on her side, one elbow nestled into the pillow, her bare shoulder catching the light. She watched Eve stir beside her, the slow flutter of lashes, the way her brow twitched as she hovered between sleep and waking.

“Good morning, beautiful,” Suki whispered, voice thick with affection.

Eve cracked one eye open, her smile lazy and lopsided, sleep still clinging to her features. “How long you been watching me?”

Suki smirked. “Never you mind.” She leaned in, pressing a slow, tender kiss to Eve’s cheek.

Eve stretched, arms reaching above her head, her whole body arching with a feline grace as she curled back up and turned to face her wife. “Why are you so perky this morning?”

“Because,” Suki murmured, pulling Eve's arm around her body and trailing her fingertips along Eve's bare arm in a featherlight path. “Today is our anniversary.”

Eve blinked, confused, and let out a sleepy laugh. “I think I’d remember the day we got married.”

“Not that anniversary.”

A pause. Then Eve’s eyes lit with amused suspicion. “Wait... it’s not our sexiversary is it?”

Suki snorted. “That’s not a thing.”

“Maybe it should be a thing,” Eve said, grinning now, her voice teasing.

Suki rolled her eyes, but her smile betrayed her amusement. “We first met on this very day, forty years ago.”

Eve’s expression softened. “Is that right?”

“Mm-hmm.” Suki nodded, leaning forward again so their noses were almost touching.

Eve closed the gap, her lips brushing against Suki’s in a kiss as slow and soft as the morning itself.

When they parted, Suki whispered, “Do you want your present now? Or later?” Her voice dipped low, playful, her gaze dark with suggestion.

Eve tilted her head, pretending to consider. “Well that depends…”

“On?” Suki raised a brow.

“On what it is.”

Suki gave her a look, one brow arching higher in delicious implication.

Eve’s eyes lit up with sudden clarity and desire. “Now,” she said, her grin blooming wide as her sleepiness melted away. “Definitely now.”

Suki laughed as she leaned in and kissed her wife, grazing her lips gently before working her tongue into her mouth with practiced confidence. Eve sighed into her, her body already responding, tension melting from her shoulders as she surrendered to the closeness and grasped at Suki’s shoulders.

With a fluid motion, she rolled Eve onto her back, maneuvering on top of her and slipping a thigh between hers, the press of her body slow but insistent. She rocked her hips gently, tuned into the subtle shifts of Eve’s body beneath hers, every hitch of breath, every soft sound of pleasure.

Suki’s lips left Eve’s with deliberate slowness, charting a slow path, across her cheek, along her jawline, until she found the soft, sensitive hollow of Eve’s neck. She lingered there, listening as Eve’s breath caught in her throat. She knew her wife’s body like the back of her hand now. She knew the rhythms that undid her, the sensitive spots that made her tremble. She smiled softly against her, then gently scraped her teeth across Eve’s soft skin. As anticipated, Eve gasped, her fingers digging into Suki’s arms as a flush bloomed across her chest.

Her mouth moved lower, trailing kisses down Eve’s chest, with slow deliberate pressure. She could feel Eve’s heartbeat quicken under her mouth, could sense the slow tremor that ran through her when she licked a slow path towards Eve’s waiting nipple, her hand trailing in tandem, ghosting down Eve’s stomach with the lightest touch as it headed towards its destination.

Just as she finally lowered her mouth to cover Eve’s nipple, a sharp buzz shattered the silence. Eve’s alarm clock blared loudly, obnoxious and intrusive, jolting them from their cocoon as Eve groaned in frustration, eyes fluttering open.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Eve muttered, flailing one arm toward the nightstand while trying to keep the rest of her body perfectly still. She slapped blindly at the alarm until her hand found the button and silenced it.

“What time is it?” Suki propped herself up just slightly, still nestled halfway down her wife’s body.

“Sorry, I totally forgot I set it early today. I’ve got a client in court,” Eve was apologetic.

“What time do you need to leave?”

Eve squinted at the clock. “I don’t know, maybe half an hour?”

Suki’s mouth curled into a slow, wicked grin. “Well then we’ve got plenty of time, don’t we?”

Without another word, resumed exactly where she’d left off.

—

By the time they made it down to the kitchen that morning, Eve almost skipping behind her wife, it was already in full-blown disarray. The kind that Suki would once have found intolerable, the sort of chaos she had spent most of her adult life trying to control. But here, in the soft light of morning, a sense of joy settled over her as she watched Priya, Vinny and Ty bickering around the kitchen table.

The source of the bickering seemed to be that Vinny and Ty had nowhere to eat their breakfast, it was adorned with half-drunk mugs of coffee, half-eaten bowls of cereal, and a half-finished pile of wedding favours — tiny soaps wrapped in hessian, scattered with dried flowers.

“Why are you even making these?” Vinny rolled his eyes.

“It adds a personal touch,” Priya replied with a satisfied smile, securing a strip of hessian around one of the favours and placing it gently into a box.

“Personal touch?” Vinny looked unconvinced.

“Yeah. Although, with our history, it’d probably be more accurate to chuck in a little baggy of cocaine on each place setting.” Priya grinned, her voice light with mischief.

“What’s cocaine?” Ty asked, wide-eyed, looking up at Suki with earnest curiosity.

“Oh, nice one, Priya,” Eve groaned as she reached for the kettle.

“Oops,” Priya laughed.

“You know what, putt, I think it’s time for you to run upstairs and get dressed.” Suki said gently to her grandson. She waited for the sound of scampering footsteps up the stairs before she shot Priya a withering look.

“Death stares from the lesbi-nans,” Priya grinned, nuding Vinny.

“You know Habiba’s going to flip when he runs home asking her about cocaine,” Suki argued as she collected two mugs for herself and Eve. One normal and one travel one, Eve was most definitely running late now.

“Oh chill out, he won’t remember that tomorrow.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be at the florist’s this morning picking up the flowers?” Suki chose to ignore the comment.

“Nope. Vinny said he’d do it,” she replied, nodding toward him. He sat at the far end of the table, quietly nursing his coffee.

“I’m just waiting for the bathroom to be free. Ash has been in there for, like, forty-five minutes.”

“So you sat there looking grumpy has got nothing to do with the hangover you’re pretending you don’t have?” Eve chimed in, cheeky grin spread across her face.

“I was at a business meeting, thank you very much,” Vinny replied a touch too quickly.

“Sure you were.” Eve snorted.

“How did it go?” Suki asked, ignoring the teasing.

“Yeah, fine. I need to-”

“No Panesar Empire chat on my wedding weekend, please!” Priya interrupted, covering her ears. “You lot don’t realise how boring you all sound.”

“I’ll catch you up later, mum,” Vinny continued, brushing her off. “Actually, Eve, I could use your help on a few clauses they’re trying to slip into the contract.”

“Sure, just email them over.”

“You should start charging him for all this free advice now you’re a proper solicitor again,” Priya said.

“Family doesn’t charge family.” Eve replied simply, exchanging a smile with her wife.

The front door burst open, letting in a gust of cool air and bright morning light as Ravi and Avani stepped in and headed to join them all in the kitchen.

“Why is it so chaotic in here?” Ravi asked, surveying the scene.

“Maybe because you’re marrying bridezilla this weekend,” Vinny muttered into his cup.

“Still time to back out,” Eve added with a smirk.

“Oi! There is definitely no time to back out,” Priya said, swatting at Eve with a dish towel and just missing her shoulder.

“I still can’t believe they’re getting married,” Avani said, laughing.

“I’d have put money on them killing each other,” Vinny added.

“You never know what the future holds, isn't that right baby?” Priya replied, pulling Ravi down to her for a kiss amidst the disorder.

“Ew,” Avani shot them a disapproving look, before holding up a large duffel bag. “I brought my stuff. Where do you want it?”

“Anywhere for now, putt. I still need to make up the spare room for you and your mum,” Suki instructed.

“Why are you staying here tonight?” Vinny asked, frowning.

“I didn’t exactly have you down as the traditional type,” Eve added, pouring two coffees for herself and Suki.

“She’s not. She just likes being the centre of attention,” Avani muttered.

“And what’s your excuse?” Her mother countered.

“I’m doing everyone’s makeup tomorrow morning, aren’t I?”

“You better not make me regret that,” Priya warned, narrowing her eyes.

“Relax. I need the pics for my socials anyway. Gotta get those customer reviews in so grandma gives me the investment money.”

“I told you, if you want me to invest, you need to put together a proper business plan,” Suki said.

“And I told you Uncle Vinny was meant to be helping me, but he’s done nothing.”

“Since when did ‘help’ mean ‘write the whole thing’?” Vinny retorted.

“Right,” Suki said, her voice firm enough to cut through the rising bickering. “Does everyone know what they need to do today?”

“Yes,” came a chorus of replies.

“Vinny, you’re getting the flowers. Ravi, what time does Davinder get in from uni?”

“Midday. Then we’re heading straight to the caterers.”

“Good. Eve when you finish work you need to meet the calligrapher to collect the place cards and final guest list.”

“Yes, boss.” Eve gave a mock salute as she handed her coffee over to her.

“Avani and Priya, you need to finish the favours and get them to the venue by four so they can dress the tables. Got it?”

“Grandma we know!” Avani rolled her eyes as she took her place at the table and begun to help her mother with the favours.

“And what’s Princess Ash doing today?” Priya asked, dryly.

“She’s still jet-lagged,” Suki explained, defensive of her daughter.

“Jet-lagged? She and her girlfriend got in from Canada three days ago!”

“Then they can come with me and Ty. We’re heading to the Gurdwara to make sure everything’s in place. Then I need to pick up your lehenga after the final alterations, and I need to make up the spare room for you both.”

As if appearing once hearing her name, Ash came sauntering down the stairs and stepped into the chaos of the kitchen, freshly showered and already dressed for the day. Behind her, her girlfriend Katie followed a little hesitantly, glancing around the crowded kitchen with wide eyes, clearly still adjusting to the sheer volume of the Panesar household.

“Oh, look who finally decided to join us!” Vinny exclaimed, throwing his arms out theatrically.

“What?” Ash said with a grin. “We’ve been up for ages. Took a walk, grabbed a coffee.”

“And then hogged the bathroom for the best part of an hour.” Vinny added pointedly.

“Ty just went in to brush his teeth,” Ash replied apologetically as Vinny headed for the door.

“And speaking of Ty,” he continued, “you know he’s nine years old, you two might want to keep the volume down on your night time activities.”

Ash blinked, confused. “What are you on about? We’re still super jetlagged, we were out cold by eight.”

A beat of silence passed as six pairs of eyes rounded on Suki and Eve, both now remarkably focused on their respective coffee cups.

"Oh my God, that's gross." Avani finally piped up. "You two are like properly old."

“Well,” Eve said, screwing the lid onto her coffee mug. “I think I’ll take that as my cue to leave. I’ve got court this morning.”

“I’ll walk you out,” Suki said, already following her into the hallway.

The kitchen faded behind them, replaced by the quiet hush of the corridor. Eve pulled on her coat, sending a lopsided grin Suki's way.

“I told you we were too loud last night,” Suki whispered, her voice low and teasing, slapping Eve’s arm in mock annoyance.

“We?” Eve arched a brow, her lips twitching. “As I recall, it wasn’t me making all the noise.”

“Hmmm, and whose fault is that, exactly?” Suki murmured.

“Guilty as charged,” Eve said, laughing as she raised her hands in surrender. Then she let them fall, catching one of Suki’s and giving it a quick squeeze before lacing their fingers together for a moment longer than necessary.

They stood in companionable silence, their bodies leaning instinctively toward each other in the quiet. Suki brushed a strand of hair behind Eve’s ear, her knuckles grazing the line of her jaw, and Eve closed her eyes briefly, savoring the touch.

Eve reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a small box. “So… I did actually get you something for our anniversary today.”

Suki blinked in surprise. “What? I thought you didn’t remember?”

Eve gave her a sly smile. “Yeah, well, I wanted to make sure I got my present this morning, didn’t I?”

Suki opened the box, her breath catching slightly. Inside was a simple, ruby red, keyring, engraved with the words: However far away, I will always love you.

"The ruby colour is to signify forty years," Eve explained softly as she watched Suki run a finger across the engraving.

Emotion flickered across Suki’s face, quiet but fierce. She looked up at Eve, eyes soft. “I’m so lucky you chose to walk over to me all those years ago.”

“Yeah,” Eve replied, voice roughened with fondness. “I know.”

Suki leaned in and kissed her, slow, certain, a familiar warmth blooming between them as Eve’s hands slipped to her waist, holding her there like she never wanted to let go.

But before the kiss could deepen, a blur of motion came flying down the stairs.

“Eww, Dadaji, stop it!” Ty yelled, launching himself between them and trying with all his might to wedge them apart.

“Stop what?” Eve asked, breathless with laughter.

“Nana Eve, you stop it too!”

“Alright, alright!” Eve backed away reluctantly, grabbing her bag. “I’ll leave you with the little homophobe.”

“What’s a homophobe?” Ty asked, looking up at Suki with wide, curious eyes.

Suki sighed dramatically. “Oh great, thanks for that.”

“See you later!” Eve called over her shoulder, still laughing as the door shut behind her.

Suki watched the door click shut behind Eve, her smile lingering as Ty tugged at her hand, already mid-sentence about something he deemed urgently important. Around her, the chaos resumed; Vinny thundering up the stairs in a race to the bathroom; Ashneet and Priya bickering in the kitchen; Avani’s duffel bag of makeup now exploded across the living room floor.

Still, she smiled.

This life, noisy, tangled, and overflowing with the people she loved, wasn’t the one she had planned. It was better.

In the middle of the commotion, Suki felt at home. Grounded in the mess, held by the laughter, content in a happiness she’d once thought wasn’t meant for her at all.