“You have a son? What? How?�

“It’s with Lucy, my ex-fiancé. She got pregnant just before we ended things, and now I have a kid. Little Erik Garner. She named him after my dad. And he is gorgeous Hannah, just the handsomest baby you’ve ever seen! I can only imagine how good he’ll be when he grows up.�

“A kid! With another woman… that you just happened to meet this weekend. The one weekend you begged me to have away… Karl this all sounds incredibly dodgy, and after the problems we’ve been having… You know what, make your own way home. I’m gonna take a break from us Karl. I had this whole thing planned in Spain, but I guess I’ll go alone.�

“Hannah! Wait!� But she was already out of earshot, or at least she chose to not look back. I expected something like this, but that doesn’t make it easier. Three forces pulling in opposite directions; Erik, Lucy and Hannah. They were destined to rip my world apart and I would have to choose one of them in the end.

TheManxMissile wrote:
@Sutty - I'm becoming ever more attached to Hannah as a character myself, really nice to create and write a genuine female from the ground up.
And yes "Hannah" is stylish and beautiful. And my folder of "Hannah" images is starting to get large.

@Jak - Well writing four scenes where Karl cooks eggs would not be very interesting to read But unlike an Ian story or Mre, i plan on having a nice ending so he will get some good times as well.

@ALL - No more updates till Monday i'm afraid. Popping away for the weekend, but then i will be back around Uni and normal speed will resume.

You can prescribe as much cosmic significance, fate, as you like to the major events in your life. Create this illusion that there is some higher power at play and all you do is get swept along for the ride. In your head there are just some days destined to be extraordinary and defining. They’re not normally overcast Mondays in Linkoping.

I can spend as long as I like battling the darks sides of my life and just as I think things are finally settled down yet another issues flies out of left field. Before these issues have really hurt me but I have become stronger, I’ve tried to put them aside. I didn’t know where Hannah went and I wasn’t going to hunt through the laptop to find out. I had a week and I was going to spend it with my son.

Lucy had left me with an “open� invitation to come and see him. Probably not with the intention to take it up 24hours later but here I was on her doorstep in Leuven. We were on semi-amicable terms but that didn’t mean it wasn’t awkward. And then things got super awkward…

“Honey? Who’s at the door?� And into view strolls Phil… Talk about crap coming from left field!

In many ways I wasn’t surprised. They had been friends for as long as we had been friends. Certainly hadn’t thought they would get together but it wasn’t beyond ridiculous possibility. Phil and I hadn’t really seen each other in like 2 ½ years since the end of the 2014 Tour of Britain and I moved to America.

Now to run into him, as Lucy’s other half and surrogate father to my son… Feels like I’m in a sloppy story running short on ideas. Nevertheless we all sat down to have a rational and adult talk about the situation. I wanted to be involved in Erik’s life and Lucy wanted that as well. The biggest problem was of course the fact we lived in two different countries, roughly 1,300km apart.

Lucy still wasn’t back to racing but Phil was heading off the next day. We agreed that it would be good to spend some time with Erik this week. I’d stay at a hotel and could come over. It was going to be good. I’d never done anything like this, it was scary and exhilarating! And it would be nice to catch up with Lucy somewhat.

Erik was just this incredible kid. He was adorable, although I might be biased and so smart for his age. I really had to try hard to not spend every minute just holding onto him. Before I’d never given any major thought to a kid or anything that major in my life. He shared so many of Lucy and my features.

He was blond with blue eyes, scarily Scandinavian but with a twist of Lucy’s build and head shape. It was really freaky to see so much of me combined with so much of her. The first couple of days were spent learning about him, and just catching up with Lucy. Of course some of it was awkward but really not that bad. We were both adults and were going to act respectably.

We went out around the City as a family in the days. Leuven was pretty nice, classily Belgian without the need to overdo it for tourism. Lucy and Phil moved here to aid their careers by making traveling and training easier. Speaking of which Phil would be back for Thursday and we decided to go out as a group for some fun.

Real friendships have this thing that just lasts. Phil got back when we were in and it took no time before we were joking around like old times. Perhaps it wouldn’t be quite as simple if we talked about Lucy but it was a topic we could happily ignore for now. I’d missed this. He had been my best mate and Lucy had been a great friend. It was something I’d been missing for a long time.

A babysitter took care of Erik as we headed into town. Nothing major we just planned to hit up a bar for a few hours and have a good time. It took no time before it felt like old times, going out after a race or training and being drunken idiots. The evening was relaxed and the conversation flowed easily. The drink flowed just as easily and the hours ticked by.

Lucy ducked out first, leaving me and Phil chatting at the bar. Aided by the drink we eventually moved onto relationships. It was clear how much he was into Lucy, but he was reluctant to talk about it. Instead we focused on me. Not about any lingering feelings for Lucy or even about Hannah, I didn’t mention her. He could tell something was up with me and took some action;

“Hi, have you met Karl?�

It had certainly been an interesting week. I got home about a day before Hannah was due back so it gave me some time to organize my thoughts and set myself up for the inevitable confrontation. Chances are this was going to be horrible and yeah it was kind of my fault.

Hannah did arrive back on Sunday. She came home, we barely spoke all evening. The tension could have been cut with ladle and the awkwardness practically drunk. We both knew how this was going to end, and in some ways that made it easier. That night we were both together, and not together. By the time I woke up she was already gone.

All that remained was a note on the fridge. “I’ve gone home. You’ll know when to call me again. Love Hannah.� It all made sense really and I just could not offer what see needed right now. There were bigger things to me, as harsh as that sounds. Now was the time to clear everything up.

TheManxMissile wrote:
@Dippo - They've been in there since the early acts. This one was just hard to disguise. Also a fair bit of Scrubs slotted in, and a little bit of New Girl.