"It's A Fool Who Plays It Cool" - A Short Story

His heart was racing, he felt his pulse vibrating like a big bass drum all through his body, he felt on top of the world and found himself smiling day and night thinking only about this new-found happiness...

"I think I love her" Jude thought as he sat on the bed thinking about her smile and looking forward to seeing her again the next day, in fact he couldn't sleep as he wanted the next day to be here now.
He lay awake remembering their first weeks together; the touches, the smiles, the laughter, the conversation, the kisses, the love-making. Everything was perfect, so perfect in fact that he felt a little afraid to think about how happy he was as not to jinx this new found love and happiness that had flown into his life like a welcome summer breeze after a long and dark winter.

Jude had had a hard time this last decade, a decade of loss, grief, broken relationships, sadness and loneliness. If anyone truly deserved to be happy it was Jude, he had enough years of bad luck and darkness...
He honestly thought that God had truly been testing him all these years and he was now hoping that, finally, he would be allowed to live and love with happiness and laughter in his world instead of all the black days that he had experienced in the past.
Some days he would look up to the sky and say "So come on God... what have you got for me this week?! Can't you just leave me alone? Please! What have I done?!"

So as he lay there in the moonlit glow of his bedroom he smiled and thought "So this is happiness... this is love..." But it wasn't just love for his new girlfriend, it was love for himself too, as he had rediscovered himself and he loved what he saw and felt within his heart, within his soul. He loved who he was, who he had become through all these years of life experience, these tests that he had had to endure.
Maybe his last true love, who he had nursed through a long and terrible illness, had sent this beautiful girl to him when he really needed her. After all just a few weeks before he was falling into another deep depression and questioning his God why he deserved such heartache.

Jude's life changed a few weeks before when he had been sitting in a London café watching the world go by when all of a sudden his eyes locked onto a girl with a luminous smile, so luminous that her heart could be seen through that sparkle in her eyes as she looked into his.
"Should I say hello?" Jude thought.... "Best not to..." he suggested to himself as he remembered all the past misfortunes and not feeling at all confident within himself.
"Hello, I'm Lucy!" she said as she approached him and reached out her hand to place within his. "I'm Jude... hello! nice to meet you!" he said nervously "Hey Jude! I love that song!" she said as she laughed, scanning his face and hair with her eyes. "Yeah I get that a lot!!" he laughed.

So just like a magical meeting written within a tacky novel they spent the whole afternoon together laughing, talking and enjoying each other's company in that London café, drinking endless cups of tea and coffee so that they would never have to leave their table.

Now, back up to date and three weeks later, Jude was lying sleepless in his bed thinking about the following day that he would be seeing Lucy. He was thinking about how he had spent ten years being shut off from the world, how he had closed his eyes and his heart to the thought of love and vowed never to be with anyone again... but sometimes when you least expect it fate lends an unexpected hand and sends you someone wonderful, an angel to save you...

Sometimes we can close our eyes to people and realise that we must have let a lot of the good ones go, but maybe all of that was meant to be as life was already planned out and the Gods had two hearts in mind that were destined to meet at a London café on a cloudy autumn day...

The next day Jude raced to Lucy's apartment, arriving there out of breath and sweating profusely as he rang her doorbell. She opened the door and they kissed and held onto each other so tight
"I missed you so much!" she said "Me too" he said "I have something so important to tell you! I have to get it out" she looked at him nervously and said "What is it?! My God tell me!!"
"I'm in love with you! I've never loved anyone as much as I realise that I love you! I was lying awake last night just thinking about you and how happy you make me!" he exclaimed to her with pride in his heart, a pride and love that he had always read about but had never really felt.
"I love you so much too!! I was worried to say it first! I didn't know how you felt about it..." Lucy said as her smile spread across her face and through to her heart.

They kissed passionately there on the doorstep. Jude felt like there was an orchestra's symphony playing throughout his body and felt it right through to his bones.
They looked into each other's eyes, took each other's hand and walked into their future together...


"Hey Jude, don't make it bad, take a sad song and make it better.
Remember to let her into your heart, then you can start to make it better."