Mark stole little glances at her while she scanned the paper.
She wore a plain white tee shirt, a turquoise pendant necklace, and jeans.
She looked stunning.
"That new Johnny Depp film is showing..." she murmured, studying the show times "...something about pirates?"
"Ah, no thanks" he replied, pretending to busy himself with the sports section.
"Oh, why not?" she whined, looking over at him. They were sprawled out on the couch, Mark sitting up right, Juliet lying down, her feet in his lap.
He laughed, turning to her, lowering his paper. "Because...I'd rather you make googly eyes at me rather than Johnny bloody Depp!" he smirked.
She nodded, "fair enough" she said, understandingly, and then turned back to the paper.
"Oy!" he scoffed, tickling her feet.
"Stopit!" she squealed.
He threw his paper to the ground, and continued to tickle her...slowly moving his hands up to her stomach. She was paralysed with laughter.
He was straddling her, hands moving around her waist while her laughter heightened.
"I love you! I love you!" she blurted, hoping the sentiment would have him take pity on her and cease the onslaught of tickles.
It did. He stopped, "alright then.... Johnny aint' got nothing on me!" he winked.
Juliet grinned up at him, "Come here!" she ordered, with a wave of her hand.
He lowered himself onto her, kissing her neck feverishly, making his way towards her lips...kissing her passionately; she wrapped her arms around him, bringing him into her. This was heaven.
She had made another excuse with Peter, about being sick and unable to go into work. She'd held her head and puffed her cheeks out while whining to him that morning.
He'd gently rubbed her back and kissed her forehead. "You do have a bit of a temperature" he'd said, worry in his tone.
She'd insisted on not staying locked up in the house all day, preferring to go for a stroll sometime in the afternoon to clear her head and get some fresh air into her. While Peter advised against it, he couldn't persuade her otherwise.
The moment he'd left, she'd thrown come clothes on and rushed to Mark's, wanting to spend as much of the day with him as possible.
She giggled as he kissed her some more, his lips hovering about her neck, planting butterfly kisses that tickled and seduced.
"Look...." She tried to speak, in between her heavy panting and small kisses. "....Are we going to go to the movies or not?" she squealed as he ran a hand over her stomach again, pushing her top up to get to the skin, he tickled again, and she laughed loudly, and he continued to kiss her.
"Ah! AH!" she giggled.
"Shut up, then!" he warned with a smirk, removing his hands, he came up for air again, "you are mine for the rest of the day! ...And I refuse to share you with Johnny Depp or any other Hollywood heart-throb...got it?" he moved in to connect his lips with hers.
"Alright...alright.... I give in.... I am yours!" she gasped, pulling him into her.
But, alas, just then the phone rang.
"Bugger!" he huffed, pausing his pashes.
"Don't answer it!" she whispered in his ear, pulling him back to her lips.
The ringing continued. "Stay right here!" he warned, as he jumped up and raced into the kitchen. Juliet sighed as she heard the beginnings of his conversation.
She sat up, reaching for the remote; and started flicking through the channels. 'A perfect murder' was showing on cable, she was amused for about three seconds, until she clicked to what the story line was. And she promptly turned to the discovery channel instead.
"No way! That's awesome, mate!" she heard Mark yell into the phone.
She heard him say his goodbyes, and then she turned the telly off, and nestled back into the couch, eager for him.
He walked in slowly, and stood by the couch, looking down at her with a sullen face and his hands in his pockets. "Some bad news" he started, "well...some good news that is bad news, today!" he corrected.
"What?" she asked, sitting up, with a stern face- ready for a blow.
"Err...well my agent got this phone call from some wealthy suit who wants to come to the studio today and make a few purchases.... it should bring in a load of cash"
She forced a smile and nodded slowly. "That's great..."
"Yeah, he wants me there to help haggle and to help persuade him on the pieces...."
She nodded again. "Guess I'll be off then..." she said, standing.
"Look, Jules- I am so sorry, I don't want to do this, honest, but..."
She held her hand up, "don't apologize! This is great news!" she forced a bigger smile.
"You understand, then?" he asked, hopeful.
She stepped towards him, wrapping her arms around him; "I love you, and I will see you tomorrow!" she said, planting a kiss on his lips.
"Thanks, Jules" he smiled.
She grabbed her coat, looking to him once more, "but hey! You owe me a movie!" she smirked.
"Definitely!" he smiled aswell, "a sappy romantic, Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock comedy with Brad Pitt or something...I promise!"
She rolled her eyes and grinned, "I'll hold you to that!"
She headed for the door, Mark following, "I do appreciate you coming around today, though, I really do!"
She kissed him again, "anything for you!" she winked, and headed out.
Mark sighed. "Bugger!" he hissed again when he'd closed the door on her. But she still heard, and gave a little smile as she went on her way.
She started down the street, unsure of what to do for the rest of the day. Going back to the office was definitely out of the question. So was going back to the apartment, as there was nothing to do.
She had an idea. Reaching into her bag, she dialled the familiar number.
"Er, yeah?"
"Hey Jamie!"
"Ummm...Jules!?"
"Yeah! Hey, how are you for lunch today?!"
"Um, well, actually I'm in school at the moment"
She let out a laugh. "School?...You are kidding, right?"
"Well, no"
"What the bloody hell are you doing in school?"
"Well not 'school' so much.... its just a class...a LOTE class..."
"Jamie, what are you up to?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, I thought about what you said."
"Did I tell you to go to school... I don't recall!" she teased.
"No, about having a bloody big hole in me and all that...expressing my true feelings.... and so I....er..."
"Yes..." she urged.
"I'm learning Portuguese"
She burst out in excitement, "Jamie, that is so bloody romantic!"
"Mmmm, yes, I thought so"
"But, what good will Portuguese be when she's over in France and you're stuck here?"
"Well....I was wondering if I could take you up on that offer to buy me a plane ticket...?" he asked in a very small voice, ashamed to ask his little cousin for such a huge favour.
"You daft fool! You know I will!" she laughed.
He cleared his throat, and his line went silent for a moment, "Jules..." he started.
"Yep?"
"Um, the teacher is giving me dirty looks right now..." she heard him lower the phone and make his apologies, 'yeah, I'll just be a minute' he was saying. "...Stupid old bag!" he muttered, thinking Juliet couldn't hear him, she giggled.
"I have to go"
"I understand. Look, come by tonight and I'll give you the money, ok?"
"Thanks so much Jules"
"No problem, you great big romantic, teddy bear!...Bye!"
"Oh! And, Jules?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks...for, you know...."
She nodded, "anytime daaarling" she clicked her phone off.
Well, now at least she had an agenda. She was going to go to the bank, withdraw some money for Jamie...maybe a little for herself... shopping may aswell fill in her day.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I'm home!"
She turned off the TV, stood up, heading into the kitchen where Peter was standing, head poking about inside the fridge. When he stood up, a bottle of wine in hand, he adjusted his tie and smirked at her.
"Hello babe!" he beamed.
"Wine?...Don't we have Heineken..." she asked, stepping forward and kissing his cheek.
"Oh no, this calls for wine!" he smiled wide.
"What does?" she took a step back, smiling up at her husband who was so bursting to tell her something.
"Well...err....maybe you should sit down!"
"Oh god, we're not having a baby are we?" she joked, taking a seat on a stool.
He raised an eyebrow, "are we?" he asked.
She smiled and shook her head. "Ah, no!....So what on earth could call for wine?"
"Um, well..."
"Peter? What is you're secret?"
"Well....I was in a private meeting today...."
She nodded, thinking this may be a boring story about how he won his latest case, blah, blah, blah. She never was much interested in his work.
"...With the Wallace brothers..."
She kept nodding.
"And, as it seems...they had a hidden agenda behind my partnership...."
This, caught her attention. She raised an eyebrow, and kept smiling.
"....It would seem that....well, because they have such a firm establishment here and all, they cant very well pack up and move their families and everything.... So I suppose they thought it kind of perfect for me to take on the partnership, because we are newly weds, and don't have kids and so..."
"Pack up and move, where?" her blood suddenly ran cold.
"Um, well...to Australia.... Melbourne, to be exact!" he grinned form ear to ear. Juliet, however, could not share his enthusiasm.
"Wh....what?" was all she could manage.
"Australia! ...you know, G'day, mate and all that..."
"What do you...?" she began to question.
"They are starting up business in Melbourne, and want to send one of their partners down there to help things run along smoothly..." he was still smiling, Juliet couldn't understand why.
"And you said, what, exactly...?"
"Well, I said id have to talk with you first, obviously...but I gave them a pretty big hint that it'd be a yes!""You did what?!" she felt like screaming. It took a lot of strength to hold her tongue.
"Well. I know leaving family and friends will be hard. But we'll make new friends, and if all goes well with the firm, then we'll have plenty of money coming in to get us back over to England every few months...."
"And..." she wanted to say, 'what about Mark and I?', but bit her tongue, hard, and thought of something else to tie her to England. "...What about my business?"
He creased his brow, thinking this would be the hard part of convincing her to leave. "Well, I will be getting a steadily large profit, Jules, we wouldn't really need you're business.... so you could sell it...or lease it...or leave it for someone else to run, you know, make Marcy partner or something...?"
Her jaw hung open.
"Jules!" he took her hands in his, and stared into her eyes. "This is so great for us!...We will make a killing down under...we will be set for life...and it's a great place to raise kids, and...."
"I cant!"
"Jules, hear me out...this will be great!"
She shook her head. "No, I don't want to...we cant...tell them to find someone else to up-root!"
"Juley, baby!" he spoke softly.
Just then, there came a loud call from the front door, someone was in the house. "Jules?!". Peter and Juliet listened as footsteps made way towards the kitchen, and Jamie appeared; smile fading when he saw tears forming in his cousin's eyes.
"Err....hello...caught you at a bad time, have I?...Jules, Jules! Are you ok?"
She wiped her eyes. 'NO!' she wanted to shout. 'No, I most certainly am not ok!'
Instead, she gave a feeble nod, and sprang to her feet. "Er, yes...we were just discussing..." she drifted off, hurrying off towards the lounge room, where the money was sitting on the coffee table, in a white envelope.
Jamie followed her, concern etched in his face. "Jules..." he tried talking to her, but she waved him off, handing him the money.
"When are you going, then?" she changed the subject.
He ignored her, touching her elbow lightly, "what the bloody hell is wrong?" a thought crossed his mind, he turned back for the kitchen, "Peter!" he bellowed. Juliet ran after him.
"Peter, what have you done to Juliet?" Jamie demanded.
Peter was leaning against the kitchen counter, hand to his forehead. "Jamie..." he started slowly.
"Tell me!" he ordered, turning to Juliet who stood by his side now, tugging on his arm, "what is happening?"
"We are going to Australia!" Peter suddenly snapped.
Jamie gave a nod, "on holiday?" he asked. And then it clicked. Why else would Juliet be crying?
She ignored Jamie as he laid a hand on her shoulder; she was looking at Peter, who was holding her gaze.
"Well...at least I'm going!" Peter confirmed.
"With or without me?" she asked.
"I better get going..." Jamie whispered, slinking out of the kitchen.
"Call me!...and...err, thanks!" Jamie yelled, and let himself out.
"With, or without me?" she asked Peter again.
In his head, Peter noted this was their first real fight since becoming husband and wife.
"I have no choice," he whispered, "yes"
She gasped a little. "Right then"
"Right" he said aswell.
"Well...I...err"
"Are you coming?" he asked, in the smallest voice.
"I....I....don't know...." She squeaked.
They stood in silence.
"Let me know when you do" Peter whispered, and took the wine into the lounge with him, where he slept that night. Alone.
Juliet sat up in bed, not getting a wink of sleep. She kept trying to call Mark on her mobile, but he wasn't answering. Probably still haggling with the man who wanted his paintings.
She cried herself to sleep that night. Because she knew. Even though she hadn't admitted it out loud, yet. She knew she would go. Peter was her husband, after all.
AUTHORS NOTE
Hmm, getting a little serious now. Only 3 chapters (or less) till the end.
Thanks for all the reviews so far. I don't know how this chapter will be received, what with the twist; some of you may not like it. Oh well. Apologies but no regrets, I'm afraid.
