they left the pub and were out of sight of their friends her fingertips had reached out for his own.
A year on the magic had all but disappeared, replaced by the mundanity of life – which neither of them were really prepared for. Living in an overpriced rented flat in the wrong part of Hackney, Luke liked to believe that they both knew their time together was coming to an end. Far from being perfectly matched it seemed that the only thing they had in common was the ability to bring out the worst in each other. Rows would follow rows, tempered only by brief bouts of making up before the cycle would begin all over again.
In the September of their second year together Jayne fell pregnant and everything changed. Determined to try and interpret their new circumstances as proof of the genuine nature of their feelings for each other they put all their effort into papering over as many cracks as they could find in a vain attempt to rescue their relationship. Within a few months they had moved up to Manchester and the year after Megan was born they got married in a register office in Jayne’s home town of Bath. All the Bachelors came down from Manchester for the big event; Luke’s dad made a joke in his speech about how he had always feared that all three of his boys would end up being ‘Bachelors by nature as well as by name’; and Luke concluded his moment in the spotlight with his own words of wisdom: ‘Some people spend a lifetime looking for the right person to love and still never find them. I’m just thankful that having found Jayne so quickly I’ll be lucky enough to spend my lifetime loving her.’
It barely took a year before things fell apart. Luke got seconded to a building project back in London which meant he had to live in a hotel from Monday to Thursday; Jayne’s control issues became more and more exaggerated and eventually she refused to allow Luke’s parents to take care of their granddaughter for more than a single hour a week despite the fact that she was desperately in need of assistance. Finally, one afternoon in the summer that Megan turned four, Luke returned home to find a note from Jayne telling him she was leaving him for good and taking their daughter with her. Guessing that they’d gone to her parents’ house Luke got back into his car and drove to Bath only to be told by his father-in-law in no uncertain terms that Jayne didn’t want to see him. From there things went from bad to worse and Luke found himself bouncing from lawyers’ offices to family law courts and back again in a bid to see the daughter he was missing so much. After weeks of toing and froing access was established. Luke would drive to Bath on a Friday, pick up Megan, take her back home to Manchester and have her back in Bath for just after seven on the Sunday.
It wasn’t perfect. He could see that his little girl didn’t understand what was going on but there was nothing he could do other than to squeeze her hand and tell her everything was going to be all right. But it wasn’t. Things became increasingly bitter between Luke and Jayne as divorce proceedings began but even so Luke wasn’t prepared for the bombshell that Jayne dropped next: she was moving with her recently retired parents to France to start a new life. Luke tried everything to make her stay. He reasoned with her, pleaded with her and finally resorted to the kind of angry legal letters that only made matters worse, but to no avail. Jayne left and took his daughter with her. Flying from London to Brittany every other weekend, staying in impersonal hotels time after time, all took its toll on Luke’s already fragile state of mind but he carried on for the sake of his daughter. And then it started. One week he’d turn up to collect Megan and the house would be empty; the following week he’d be told that Megan had come down with a cold and was too ill to see him. On and on it went, excuse after excuse until the one time he turned up unexpectedly and
A year on the magic had all but disappeared, replaced by the mundanity of life – which neither of them were really prepared for. Living in an overpriced rented flat in the wrong part of Hackney, Luke liked to believe that they both knew their time together was coming to an end. Far from being perfectly matched it seemed that the only thing they had in common was the ability to bring out the worst in each other. Rows would follow rows, tempered only by brief bouts of making up before the cycle would begin all over again.
In the September of their second year together Jayne fell pregnant and everything changed. Determined to try and interpret their new circumstances as proof of the genuine nature of their feelings for each other they put all their effort into papering over as many cracks as they could find in a vain attempt to rescue their relationship. Within a few months they had moved up to Manchester and the year after Megan was born they got married in a register office in Jayne’s home town of Bath. All the Bachelors came down from Manchester for the big event; Luke’s dad made a joke in his speech about how he had always feared that all three of his boys would end up being ‘Bachelors by nature as well as by name’; and Luke concluded his moment in the spotlight with his own words of wisdom: ‘Some people spend a lifetime looking for the right person to love and still never find them. I’m just thankful that having found Jayne so quickly I’ll be lucky enough to spend my lifetime loving her.’
It barely took a year before things fell apart. Luke got seconded to a building project back in London which meant he had to live in a hotel from Monday to Thursday; Jayne’s control issues became more and more exaggerated and eventually she refused to allow Luke’s parents to take care of their granddaughter for more than a single hour a week despite the fact that she was desperately in need of assistance. Finally, one afternoon in the summer that Megan turned four, Luke returned home to find a note from Jayne telling him she was leaving him for good and taking their daughter with her. Guessing that they’d gone to her parents’ house Luke got back into his car and drove to Bath only to be told by his father-in-law in no uncertain terms that Jayne didn’t want to see him. From there things went from bad to worse and Luke found himself bouncing from lawyers’ offices to family law courts and back again in a bid to see the daughter he was missing so much. After weeks of toing and froing access was established. Luke would drive to Bath on a Friday, pick up Megan, take her back home to Manchester and have her back in Bath for just after seven on the Sunday.
It wasn’t perfect. He could see that his little girl didn’t understand what was going on but there was nothing he could do other than to squeeze her hand and tell her everything was going to be all right. But it wasn’t. Things became increasingly bitter between Luke and Jayne as divorce proceedings began but even so Luke wasn’t prepared for the bombshell that Jayne dropped next: she was moving with her recently retired parents to France to start a new life. Luke tried everything to make her stay. He reasoned with her, pleaded with her and finally resorted to the kind of angry legal letters that only made matters worse, but to no avail. Jayne left and took his daughter with her. Flying from London to Brittany every other weekend, staying in impersonal hotels time after time, all took its toll on Luke’s already fragile state of mind but he carried on for the sake of his daughter. And then it started. One week he’d turn up to collect Megan and the house would be empty; the following week he’d be told that Megan had come down with a cold and was too ill to see him. On and on it went, excuse after excuse until the one time he turned up unexpectedly and
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