This is a companion piece to If.
For those of you who laughed through If - just a warning a "Goren/Eames marriage" is no laughing matter. - Dix.
What If?
We long for what we don't have and sometimes get what we don't want.
What if they got married and it was frustrating and hard?
Three scenes from a marriage. The third day, the first week and the third month.
Opposites Attract
She hit the snooze button for the second time, and pulled the blanket over her head to block the sun streaming through the open blinds and the sounds coming from the bathroom. He'd rolled out of bed twenty minutes earlier, before the alarm began to peel. What was that saying she wondered? Decide in haste - repent at leisure. They'd been married three days and already she was wondering what she'd gotten herself into. What had she been thinking marrying Bobby Goren?
Everyone knows that opposites attract, so no one should be surprised when Miss Peaceful Slow Morning had married Mr. Leap Out of Bed, Throw Open the Blinds, Sing Loudly in the Shower.
When the singing stopped, Alex pushed the blankets back and eased out of bed. Still deep in the fog of early morning, she flipped the sheet and duvet up to make the bed and fluffed her rumpled pillow. She was sitting in the kitchen cradling a hot cup of coffee when he came into the kitchen, with a towel barely wrapped around his waist. She acknowledged his presence with a nod and he leaned down to brush his lips against her cheek. She smiled in spite of herself as the joy at having him near and nearly naked in the kitchen, their kitchen, rose inside her. He poured himself a coffee and pressed the lever on the toaster to brown the two pieces of whole wheat bread she'd dropped in moments earlier. She finished her coffee and headed for the shower without a word. When the toast was cooked, he leaned against the counter and ate the dry toast one piece at a time.
Let Me Check My Calendar
They'd been married just a week. It was Saturday morning. She was standing in the kitchen flipping the pages on the wall calendar. He was hunched over his binder at the kitchen table.
"What about the weekend of the twenty-seventh?" She asked.
"No," he said with a shake of the head. "That's the week I'm helping Lewis at the car show."
Alex nodded. "Right." She said crisply. "I remember."
"Two weeks after that." He said. "It's a long weekend. If we book it now, getting the time off won't be a problem and it will give everyone lots of notice."
"No, that's the weekend "Gorgon, Space Aliens" opens and I've promised to take my nephew."
Now it was Goren's turn to be frustrated. "All weekend?" He said with more force than he meant.
"As long as it takes." was all she said.
They were quiet a moment. "So maybe it won't be a wedding reception so much as an anniversary party?" She said and let the calendar pages fall back into place. He stood and wrapped her into a gentle hug, resting his head beside hers.
"That's it," he said "An anniversary party. We could make it an annual thing." She sighed a little and thought about the future.
What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine too.
"Bobby." Alex said coming into the living room with a single page in one hand and a pen and the check book in the other. He was sprawled across the couch. A gigantic book on South American insects was propped on his chest. At the sound of her voice, he swung around and put his feet on the floor making room on the couch for her.
"What's this charge on your credit card?" She handed him the paper to look at.
He closed the book and looked at the paper. He squirmed a little, looking at the paper in her hands and then at her. "An anniversary present." He said finally.
"For our anniversary?"
He nodded
"It's not for months!"
"No." He shook his head. "Our six month anniversary."
"You bought me a present for our six month anniversary?"
He shrugged and grinned.
She shook her head and smiling signed the cheque for the credit card company.
FIN
Thanks for reading. - Dix