The sound highlighted that she was underwhelmed.
“Is it a voucher?”
“Nope. Open it.”
“Grant… we’ve talked about not printing off your dick pics…”
I just laughed. I had sent Marie a couple of dick pics, just to see her response. She’d been sitting opposite the dining table of some rather snotty friends we had at the time. I think that was when her wine had ended up coming out of her nose.
There was the sound of tearing paper and she pulled out the plain postcard with my unappealing scrawl written across it and frowned.
“Go to the place where you first met the children.”
She looked up at me. “I hope there’s wine there?”
“I’ll go get you a glass and meet you there.”
She shook her head. “Make it a large one.”
“I know. You’ve always enjoyed my large one…”
“And we wonder where Joseph gets his sense of humour.”
Marie first met Max, Jackson, Claire and Callum in the entrance hall after a horrendous journey from New York to England, having to stop in Reykjavik due to a passenger on the plane needing a doctor urgently. We’d then been delayed for five hours because of the weather, so when we’d finally gotten home it was almost dark. We were grumpy and had to face four children, who were hugely underwhelmed that I was bringing home the woman who was going to be their step-mother.
“Here’s your wine.” I passed her a large glass of red, a Malbec I knew was one of her favourites.
“Is my present in here?” She raised her eyebrows. “I’m hoping it’s big.”
“This obsession with size definitely stems from my dick, doesn’t it?” I muttered the words quiet enough to stay between us, just in case Seph was lurking.
“It’s you who has that obsession.” She linked an arm around my neck and pressed herself close to my body. “Although I wasn’t thinking of your dick the first time I stepped foot in here. Do you remember those four little faces? I think Jackson was covered in chocolate and Callum had his top on back to front because Max had dressed him.”
“I do remember. Do you remember how Claire smiled at you when you undid your hair?” Marie had long dark hair when we first met, almost to her waist. I used to wrap it round my hand when I was taking her from behind and wake with it draped across my chest.
“She told me a couple of days later that she thought I was Snow White.”
“And not the wicked stepmother? That was fast progress. Look behind the plant.” I pointed to where another envelope was.
She stepped away from me and I immediately felt the loss. It had been like that every time.
I’d loved my first wife, but I’d felt differently for her than I did for Marie. Marie breathed life into everything; when she wasn’t there, I was restless, aimless, even with my work. I wasn’t sure if soul mates existed, but Marie was always the most important pieces of my jigsaw.
She tore open the envelope again and smiled when she saw the postcard.
“Go to the place where I proposed for the second time.”Her eyes met mine. “Grant, tell me there is a gift at the end of this and it’s not just a wild goose chase.”
“There’s a gift. It’ll all make sense. Do you want me to carry your wine?”
“That’ll be a hard no. Let’s go to the store. Come on.” She held out her forefinger and I linked mine with it, following her into the house and down the hallway to the kitchen and then the store. We passed Seph on the way and he smiled broadly, knowing exactly what was going on because the kids had helped with this. With some of it, anyway.
The cold store was cold, and I’d been tempted to miss this stop out, as we were both almost ready for bed, but it was crucial in walking through the memories we had.
“Do you remember that night when we were in here?” I knew she would, but I wanted to hear what she remembered.
Marie laughed and wrapped herself into me. “All four kids had chicken pox, I’d lived here four weeks and I’d just about managed to get Max to eat something other than meat and vegetables. You’d come out here to get the fish out of the freezer and I followed you because I needed you to tell me that I wasn’t fucking everything up.”
“You weren’t.”
