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Nicola, age 7
One rare, beautiful spring Sunday afternoon in Galway, a very joyful and charismatic Nicola rushes into the kitchen wearing a dress with a short glittery skirt. Her mum is already there, preparing a peanut butter crumble for an after-dinner treat.
“Mum! Can I go outside? Maeve and I want to play fairies!”
“Alright dear, but both of you please stay close and don’t wander off.”
“Of course, Mum! Love you!” she says, giving her mum a kiss on the cheek.
Nicola quickly puts on her favorite glittery “fairy shoes” and runs out the front door, slamming it behind her. Her mum sighs and shakes her head, but cannot stop a smile from spreading across her face. Her sweet little girl has always been a beacon of light, captivating everyone she comes into contact with. One day, the world would see what she saw every day since Nicola was born.
Nicola sprints down the sidewalk past the three houses separating her house from Maeve’s, and she raps on the front door. Maeve’s mum comes to the door with a bright smile and a giggle.
“Nicola dear! Hello!”
“Hi! Can Maeve come out to play? We’re gonna be fairies!”
Maeve’s mum laughs. “Yes, she told me! Come on in, dear. MAEVE, NIC IS HERE!”
“Coming!”
With a spare pair of fairy wings in hand and the other pair already worn, Maeve comes barreling through the living room, nearly knocking everything around her over.
“Maeve, careful there!”
“Oops, sorry mum! Let’s go Nic…to the backyard we fly!”
Nicola laughs and puts on her wings as she follows Maeve to the backyard. Her backyard was like a storybook fantasy land—flowers grew everywhere in a remarkable array of colors. A fish pond was embedded in the middle of the yard, surrounded by shrubs swarming with honeybees and butterflies. A large willow tree overlooked a beautiful white gazebo.
“What kind of fairy do you want to be, Maeve?”
Maeve thought about it for a second, then shouted excitedly “Oh! I know! I wanna be a water fairy! I’ll be the guardian of the fish pond…I will protect all the fishes, frogs and lily pads!”
Nicola laughed. “Okay! Hmm…I’ll be the guardian of the willow tree…I will protect all the woodland creatures and plants from harm!”
“Splendid! Wanna make some flower crowns?”
“YES!”
Maeve grabbed a wicker basket from the patio, and they set off to collecting their flowers—hawthorn branches, varying colors of fluffy hydrangeas, yellow buttercups, white daisies, shamrocks, red and white clovers—oh yes, they knew how to make the very best flower crowns.
As Maeve grabbed a water lily from the fish pond, she spotted a patch of dandelions growing nearby.
“Look, Nicola! Dandelion fluffs!"
“Oh, I love those! It’s so cool watching the tiny fluffs carry their seeds into the world!”
“Did you know that if you make a wish and blow on a dandelion fluff, your wish will come true?”
“No way! Who told you that?”
“Mum told me! There’s a whole story around it that sounds just like the fairy tales we read all the time!”
Maeve picked a dandelion fluff and handed it to Nicola. “Here, give it a go!”
“What do I wish for?”
“Anything! That’s the fun of it!”
Nicola looked intently at the dandelion fluff, thinking really hard about what she wanted most.
She closed her eyes, squeezing them tightly shut. She said her wish to herself, then blew on the dandelion fluff.
A swift breeze picked up the seeds and carried them off into the great beyond. Nicola watched, beaming brightly as the sun, as each tiny seed chose its path. A butterfly landed on her hand shortly after, and she giggled as its tiny legs tickled her hand.
She couldn’t wait for her wish to come true. But wait she did, for she knew that all good things came with time.
Nicola, age 37
Nicola cannot believe how lucky she is to have the life that she has. All of the hours of hard work, exhaustion, stress and tears have paid off. Her career has taken off exponentially, her fans love her and she loves them, and she loves seeing them supporting her and promoting her work on social media in such a positive light. She has landed dream roles that she never could have imagined herself getting, including a role as a fairy in The Magic Faraway Tree—it was like reliving her childhood! Her friends and family are closer to her than ever before which, in the entertainment industry, is exactly what she needs to keep her humble and grounded. She would never take any of these things for granted.
And then of course, there was Luke. Just when she thought that she could never have love in her life, he became the love of her life. Her best friend, her rock, her ride-or-die, her dream leading man. It took them a while to get here, but it was worth the wait. He was worth the wait.
Nicola and Luke finished doing table reads for Season 4 earlier than expected, so they left to grab a well-earned lunch of chicken wraps, curry chips and a pint of Guinness. The London weather was unusually pleasant that day, so afterward they decided to take a stroll in a nearby, fairly secluded park they had found by accident one day. While they loved their fans so much, they found it rather difficult to find places where they could enjoy casual life together without the risk of paparazzi or unwarranted photos from fans. This was their happy place—as if it was meant to be found by them, and them alone.
Luke grabs Nicola’s hand and squeezes it, looking down at her with those baby blues and beguiling smile of his. That smile that made her melt every time, and matching his grin with a megawatt grin of her own. Five years now, and she still became a giggling, smitten mess around him. Although, in her defense, so was he.
“So how do you think the read went?” she said.
“I think it went rather well. I’m so excited to start filming soon. Dare I say, we’re gonna have a lot of fun with our scenes?”
“I think you might be right about that,” she said, smiling cheekily. She knew exactly which scenes he was referring to.
“And I get to sing again…finally!” Luke said, laughing.
“I cannot WAIT for that scene! It’s been far too long…you have the voice of an angel, Luke.”
Luke stops walking and pulls Nicola into his arms, catching her off guard and making her squeal. She looks up at him and her smile fades a little. Luke’s eyes look so serious all of a sudden, and perhaps even a little teary.
“Nic, I…”
“Yes? Are you alright?”
“Before we do anything…I need to apologize.”
“For what?”
“For…..everything. For New York. For London. For this summer. For them. For her. I was foolish to think everything was fine when it clearly was not. And my naivete led to me hurting the one person I love more than anything in this lifetime. Fame and peer pressure got the better of me, and I became a lost mess. I became a mess without you by my side, if I’m being quite honest.”
Nicola, tears welling in her eyes, let out a shaky breath. “Luke…”
“Please, allow me to finish. I cannot apologize enough for my mistakes, and how they made you feel. I will spend an eternity doing everything I can to earn back your trust. Because I love you, Nic. And I never, ever, wish to leave your side ever again, if you will have me—"
“You’re my mess, Luke.”
“Pardon?”
“You’re right. You are a mess. But so am I. And maybe it’s cheesy bringing that line into our actual lives, but life tends to imitate art, does it not? You can apologize all you like, but you’ve never left my side, even when you thought you had. I have always had you with me, Luke, and you’ve always had me, and no one can take that away from us. Our love goes beyond physical presence, and I will not allow anything to interfere with it. I love you, Luke. For all your faults, for all your triumphs, for everything about you. I love you. You do not need to apologize to me. We will tackle the ebbs and flows as a team, like we always have.”
Luke stared into her beautiful blue eyes, speechless in the moment. Tears welled in his eyes. He brought his hand up to her face, stroking her cheek lightly. He leaned down and kissed her gently, sweetly, and slowly deepened their kiss before he pulled back to look at her again. He shook his head.
“I don’t deserve you. Truly.”
“Don’t say that. You are enough. You are everything I could ever want, ever wish for.”
He gave her his signature cheeky, puppy dog head tilt.
“Wish, huh? Did you wish for me?” Luke giggled.
She swatted at his arm. “Stop it! When I was a little girl, I became obsessed with wishing on dandelions, and I've wished on them ever since. I believed they were the answer to getting everything I wanted in life. I wished to be an actress, for my family’s health, for true love…and then I would blow on the dandelion fluff so my wishes would float out into the world and hopefully come true.”
Luke smiled sweetly at her. Damn, she is adorable, he thought. “And do you believe in them still?”
Nicola looked around, spotted a dandelion growing from a crack in the sidewalk and picked it. She smiled up at Luke.
“I do.”
She hands Luke the dandelion, grinning widely and looking up at him as she wraps her arms around his waist. He kisses her forehead softly in response.
“Close your eyes, Luke. Make a wish.”