Chapter Text
“Andrea, can you please stop pacing the room?” Jack asked from the bed.
“I just…I can’t do this.”
“These are your parents we’re talking about.”
“Exactly!” She sat on the bed next to him. “In the six years that we’ve been dating, when have you ever seen my parents together?”
“I don’t think I ever have.”
“Again, exactly. My parents haven’t been in the same room together in ten years. Our engagement party is going to be the first time.”
“Do they hate each other that much?”
Andrea closed her eyes thinking back on the last ten years. Did her parents hate each other? She didn’t really know the answer to that because they never talked about it. After sixteen years of marriage, they sat her down one day and told her they were going their separate ways. She didn’t understand why. She always saw her parents as the true form of what soulmates were supposed to be. Her mom’s first marriage had caused damage that her dad had fixed with love, stupid jokes, Americanisms, and biscuits. Yet there she was ten years earlier crying herself to sleep because her world was over.
However, a year later, Andrea had found out the truth. It took her a long time to get over it and to forgive her mother to the point that the two of them could have a relationship. Exactly a year after her parents’ divorce, she found out her mom had cheated on her dad with an old fling. Anger had come between them and she had stopped talking to her mother, moved in with her dad, and pretended to know nothing. But her dad knew and they both did the best they could to fix a wound that had been big enough to affect the entire family.
“He could never hate her. Even after what she did, my dad could never hate my mum. I think he’s still in love with her.” Andrea took a deep breath. “My mum just feels guilty and avoids him.”
“So maybe it won’t be as bad as you think it’ll be.”
“It will be as bad as I think.”
Andrea didn’t know that at that exact time her mom was drowning her nerves with gin and tonic, trying to figure out how she would face her ex the next day. Even after ten years, the guilt still consumed her. Guilt that hadn’t allowed her to move on from her divorce or date anyone else for a decade. Flings? Yes, maybe, but nothing serious ever again. She had the love of her life and she had ruined it. There was no way she would ever find a man like her ex-husband — her second ex-husband.
“How many of those have you had?” Keeley said, walking into her studio.
“You’re supposed to be here to keep me company, not judge me.”
“Babe, I’m not judging you, but you do have to show up tomorrow…sober if possible.”
“How can I ever face him, Keeley?” Rebecca Welton stood up and paced her studio the same way her daughter was pacing her room a few blocks away. “The last time I saw him, it was over our divorce papers.”
“You know there are plenty of divorced couples showing up to their daughters’ engagements with no issues.”
“Did all the wives cheat on their husbands with their old team players? With their old lovers?” She raised her eyebrow. “I didn’t think so.”
“Are you ever going to stop punishing yourself for that? It’s been ten years.”
“No. I broke his heart, Keeley. I looked into his eyes and destroyed everything we had built together. So, no, I will never stop punishing myself for it.”
“Then maybe it’s time the two of you meet again because, Rebecca, honey,” she squeezed her friend’s arm as she stopped her from taking another step, “that man who you claim to have broken beyond repair is still very much in love with you.”
“No, that is impossible.”
“It sure shows you haven’t seen him in a decade.”
Keeley wasn’t lying. Andrea wasn’t lying. Ted Lasso was still very much in love with his ex-wife — his second ex-wife. He missed her. He hadn’t been the one to avoid her for ten years, but he had respected her decision. School events, birthdays, graduations, they were all planned so their paths would never cross. At first, Andrea had kept her mother at arm’s length because she had her own anger to deal with. After a few years, Rebecca had managed to keep the distance between them intact. If she had asked him, he would have wanted to see her.
“You’re thinking about her again, aren’t you?” Henry asked, sitting next to his dad and handing him a drink.
“What gave me away?”
“It’s that side smile you do. Every time you think about her, you smile like that.” He took a sip of his drink. “You never smile like that when you talk about mom.”
“I loved your mom very much…”
“But she wasn’t Rebecca. I know, dad. I learned that the first time I saw you together.”
“She was different.”
“So what happened?” He looked at his dad. “You never told me the truth, and Andrea always avoided the subject with me. But I noticed how she pushed Rebecca away for years and how the two of you never met again.”
Ted took a deep breath. Was he really going to tell his son the truth after a decade? “Rebecca cheated on me with Sam Obisanya. I know,” he put his hand up to interrupt Henry, “how can I still be in love with her? I don’t know, son. I guess when you meet the love of your life and you know deep in your soul that you are meant to spend the rest of your life with them, you’re willing to forgive the unforgivable.”
“Have you forgiven her?”
“Not quite.”
“What’s missing?”
“An apology. After she told me, she simply decided we needed a divorce. She didn’t ask me. She didn’t let me choose. She didn’t give me time to process. She said it was over because she didn’t want to be my Rupert. So we split up and she walked out of my life, but she never apologized. I’ve done my part. I’ve processed what happened, but I’d like to hear it from her.”
“Maybe this is the time.”
“This,” he said getting up, “is your sister’s engagement and no one is going to ruin that.”
Even though a decade had gone by, at their core Ted and Rebecca were the same people they used to be. Everyone around them knew that. If they were put in a room together, they would fall into their old habits and mannerisms. Andrea knew that and that was why she was terrified to put her parents in the same room. How would her mom react to seeing the man she had hurt? How would her dad react to being in the presence of the woman he was still in love with?