Too Late To Love Me I Already Left With His Twins (Lydia and Dave) novel Chapter 245

Lydia POV

་་

+20 Bonus

I almost didn’t go.

That was the first thing I told myself as I stood in front of my wardrobe that evening, staring at the ridiculous number of clothes I owned while somehow convincing myself that I had absolutely nothing to wear.

The comedy tickets were still sitting on my dresser.

Two tickets.

Two seats.

A night away from work.

A night away from the children.

A night where nobody needed me to fix a crisis, answer an email, mediate an argument, or explain why an influencer sleeping with her best friend’s husband was somehow my problem to solve.

And, apparently, a night with Theo.

I picked up one of the tickets and stared at it.

“You’re making this too complicated,” I muttered to myself.

I was.

So I stopped thinking.

I chose a simple black dress, paired it with heels and a small bag, did my makeup, and left.

The moment I arrived at the venue, I realized just how long it had been since I’d done something like this.

There was a crowd outside, people standing in little groups, laughing and talking while they waited to get inside. Some were dressed casually in jeans and sneakers; others looked like they had treated the evening as an excuse to actually dress up.

The entrance was brightly lit, with a huge sign displaying the comedian’s name.

Music played from inside.

Every few seconds, someone would walk through the doors and the people behind them would cheer because apparently somebody in their group had finally arrived.

Theo was waiting near the entrance.

He looked at me and smiled.

“You came.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“You sound surprised.”

“I was giving you room to change your mind.”

+20 Bonus

“I considered it.”

As smile widened.

“But you didn’t.”

“No.”

“Good.”

I shook my head.

“Let’s just go inside.”

We showed our tickets at the entrance, and one of the staff members scanned the codes before directing us toward the auditorium.

Inside, the atmosphere was completely different.

The room was dark except for the soft lighting around the stage. There were rows of chairs arranged toward a small raised platform, and at the center was a microphone standing beneath a single bright spotlight.

There was a DJ playing music between sets.

People were already laughing.

Not because anyone had said anything particularly funny.

It was just that kind of atmosphere.

The kind where everybody had shown up expecting to have a good time, so laughter seemed to come easier.

Theo leaned toward me.

“Where do you want to sit?”

I checked the tickets.

“Front section.”

He looked pleased.

“I knew you’d like these seats.”

“Don’t get excited. If this comedian embarrasses me, I’m blaming you.”

“Fair.”

We found our seats.

A few minutes later, the lights dimmed.

The crowd immediately erupted.

The host walked onto the stage, greeted everyone, made a few jokes about people arriving late, and introduced the opening comedian.

The first comedian wasn’t bad.

The second one was better.

2/4

+20 Bonus

• 20@gmus

But then the main comedian walked out.

e entire room erupted.

He walked onto the stage, looked around at the crowd, adjusted the microphone and said,

“Good evening, everybody. Before we start, I just want to know… who here is singie?”

Half the room screamed.

He nodded slowly.

“Okay. And who here is married?”

The other half screamed.

He looked between both groups.

“Interesting. Because everybody in this room looks tired.”

The room exploded.

I covered my mouth.

Theo leaned toward me.

“He’s good.”

“Don’t talk. I don’t want to miss anything.”

The comedian continued.

“Marriage is beautiful. Marriage is two people coming together to solve problems neither of them had before they met.”

I immediately burst out laughing.

Theo looked at me.

I pointed at the stage.

“That’s you.”

He laughed.

“Excuse me?”

“You’re laughing too.”

“Because it’s funny.”

“Exactly.”

The comedian moved on to relationships.

“Women say they want a man who communicates.”

He paused.

“Then when the man says, ‘We need to talk,’ suddenly she’s calling her friends, her mother, her therapist, her

3/4

pastor, her lawyer…”

The crowd screamed.

I was already wiping tears from the corner of my eye.

“And men,” he continued, “men say they want peace.”

He shook his head.

“But the minute their girlfriend says, ‘I’m fine,’ they start interrogating her like detectives.”

Theo leaned toward me.

Comments

Support

Share

ོ་།

20 8gnus

4/4

Honest answer

Lydia POV

“That’s actually accurate.”

I laughed so hard I had to hold my stomach.

The comedian wasn’t even finished.

“And why do women ask questions they already know the answer to?”

He looked around dramatically.

“Ladies, you know what I’m talking about.”

The women in the audience started screaming.

He continued.

“You ask, ‘Where were you?’

He pauses.

“He says, ‘At work.’

And you say, ‘Interesting.’

Interesting?!”

I completely lost it.

The audience was roaring.

Theo was laughing beside me, his shoulders shaking.

I leaned into my chair, tears rolling down my cheeks.

I couldn’t remember the last time I had laughed like that.

Not the polite laugh I gave clients.

Not the little laugh I gave when Anna said something ridiculous.

Not the tired laugh I gave my children when they did something stupid.

This was different.

My stomach hurt.

My cheeks hurt.

My eyes were watering.

At one point, I was literally wiping tears from my face while Theo looked at me like I had lost my mind.

“You’re crying.

“I know.”

20 8gnus

1/7

+20 Bonus

“You’re actually crying.”

Shut up.”

He laughed.

“I’ve never seen you laugh this hard.”

“It’s been a long week.”

Apparently, that was all it took.

The comedian moved into a story about trying to assemble furniture without reading instructions, and somehow turned a five-minute story about a bookshelf into something that had the entire room screaming.

By the time the final jokes came, I was exhausted from laughing.

The comedian thanked everyone, the music came back on, and the lights slowly brightened.

People stood, stretched, talked over one another, and started making their way toward the exits.

I sat back, smiling.

“That was actually fun.”

Theo looked at me.

“I told you.”

“Don’t become insufferable.”

“Too late.”

I laughed.

Then my phone vibrated.

I pulled it out.

Dave.

My smile faded slightly.

Dave: Did you like the food?

| I stared at the message.

I typed:

Me: Yes. It was really good. Thank you.

The reply came almost immediately.

Dave: Good. I wasn’t sure if you’d actually eat it.

I smiled faintly.

Then something uncomfortable settled in my chest.

Guilt.

2/7

1 frowned at my phone.

Why was I feeling guilty?

Dave and I weren’t together.

We weren’t dating.

We hadn’t defined anything.

He had sent me lunch.

Theo had taken me to a comedy show.

That was it.

So why did replying to Dave suddenly feel like I was doing something wrong?

I looked across at Theo.

He was talking to someone near the aisle, completely unaware of the tiny war happening inside my head.