Epilogue

Life has a funny way of working out. From the moment Dahlia kissed me at the lake, my life took on another change. Well, it was already changing thanks to my newly acquired gold medal and world record, but now it was a step into the spotlight.

I forgave Dahlia for her words that broke me. We all fuck up sometimes and she has spent her whole life denying her sexuality and hiding huge parts of herself. She reacted to the press questions like a hunted animal. She used her acting skills to say what she had been trained forever to say. Denial.

She doesn't deny any more. She embraces our love in every way and we are very open about it.

Luckily, I am boring and Dahlia's new manager, Giselle, who I instantly adored, wasted no time in telling our story to the world. The real story.

She wiped away all the bad practices of Mr. Suit and before you knew it, the public was eating out of Dahlia"s palm again, only this time it was real and I think that made it better for everyone. Being a lesbian actress was not such a terrible thing anymore as it was all those years ago for Dahlia in the movie industry. Okay, a Christian Southern gay woman… a little more PR needed, but I was wholesome as Giselle liked to put it. My life was something people warmed to, they saw me and Grandmama, how hard I had worked in my career, and how I had now made this beautiful woman happy and they came round to the idea.

They just didn't know the things we got up to in the bedroom. Then again, they would probably like that, too.

As for me, I got my big chance and went to the Olympics to represent Great Britain the following year. I was on the form of my life and I was never in doubt that I would win there. I went into the final as the favorite. I ran my own race and I won the Olympic gold medal, almost easily, and felt overwhelmed and at peace all at the same time.

For so many years, I had thought I would never quite be good enough. I had always been the one who finished 8th, 5th, sometimes even squeezed a bronze medal. I had almost accepted that, that I was the ‘nearly' runner. The one that was close, but never quite close enough.

I'll never know exactly what made the difference to my times. I actually think it was Dahlia. In loving Dahlia, I had found a fierce passion inside of me that translated to my racing. I suddenly had a harder edge to me that came with the fullness with which I was experiencing the rest of my life.

Even in the time I lost Dahlia, I was feeling extremes of emotions I never thought possible and I poured all that feeling into racing.

Grandmama is still alive and mostly doing well. We spend a lot of time together when I am in London.

Dahlia and I have both traveled a lot, but it is becoming less and less for both of us. I am getting too old to race, so I have chosen to retire as a champion. I currently hold the Olympic, World and European Golds, but I won't be defending them.

Andy and I have been working hard on a training academy and developing a youth program to support the next generation of young girls- track athletes, just like me who have talent, but no funding to take their athletic career to the next level.

I feel excited about it, and it keeps me grounded. It is easy to forget where I came from sometimes when I am around Dahlia's lifestyle for too long. And if she has too much time in England, she gets the rain blues as she calls them and will jet off to Texas for a taste of the sun.

All in all, we are not perfect.

But we are honest, happy, open and in love.

We speak often about the future, about settling down properly in a forever home that will likely be somewhere in the US.

For now and for the rest of Grandmama's life, our home is in London. We have a beautiful town house in Kensington with an incredible roof terrace. I like to run in Hyde Park every morning.

We are getting a dog now I'm not travelling any more. I have always loved dogs, but just wanted to be able to give a dog a lovely home and I know I can do that now.

Dahlia wondered if we might get a perfectly coiffed pedigree dog, but that isn't what I want and she is happy to indulge me. I am scouring dog rescue places for a big cuddly bear of a dog that needs a loving home. I will take our dog everywhere with me and I can't wait.

We both have our passions in life that we still follow, although Dahlia is much more choosy about projects that she will take on, now. She will only act in something if she really believes in it and in the director. It has given her much more interesting roles and I love watching what it has brought out in her on the screen.

She obviously still has her Dahlia Dante magic. Her star quality is shining brighter than it ever has and the roles she is offered are bigger than ever.

Whether it is through love or through having Giselle as her agent instead of Mr Suit, who knows?

When we are alone together, we still have that magic. We still fit together effortlessly and comfortably in a way I have never felt with anyone and I know unequivocally that she is mine. I mean ‘mine' in a possessive sense, but I will never try to cage her free spirit.

When I look at her sleeping form in crisp white sheets as the morning light creeps through our big bay windows, I feel infinite tenderness for her.

This is what our love looks like and I can't imagine anything better.