Chapter 25 – Sailing

The next day, Martin entered the conference room early enough to take the same seat as the day before. He assured that Martinus Elzenbosch would have the seat next to him, by putting his file and notebook on the chair. The conference was about to begin, when Martinus hurried inside the conference room. He was glad to discover that Martin had saved a place for him. Looking at his watch, Martin stated matter-of-factly,

'You're late.'

'Oh those bloody traffic jams, it took me two and a half hours to get here. Two and a half hours for just 84 kilometres, uhh …52 miles! The A2 was totally blocked between Vianen and Abcoude!'.

'Well, you made it!'

'Yes, just in time, I hate being late!'

Soon the two men were completely absorbed by the program that was offered by the conference leaders and Martinus soon forgot the stress of the morning rush hour.

The day at the conference went very well. At lunch the same group of doctors of the previous day, together with Peter Cronk and Martine de Jager, gathered at a table and spent a very animated lunch time. Although none of the doctors were of a very talkative nature, but thanks to the very curious young participants who asked all sorts of questions, they now vividly exchanged a lot of knowledge and discussed some interesting cases of phobias they had seen in their practices. Slowly but surely the bond between them grew stronger. Soon other participants looked somewhat enviously at the little group that also tried to work together when workshops were organized to alternate the presentations.

In the meantime, Louisa, with James and Morwenna, went shopping in the centre of Amsterdam. Edwin the Vries decided to bring them to the city centre.

'I could bring you to the PC-Hooft street, but then you would only be able to look in the shop windows… Unless you wish to buy a new handbag for 5000 euro?'

'God no Edwin, please bring us somewhere less expensive. I wish to buy something, not just watch and spend all my savings for one bag!'

The two women also spent a very pleasant day. Of course they also assured that James could play a bit. They found a big toy store with baby swings and a small slide. With the help of his mum and Morwenna, James succeeded in scrambling on it and sliding down, straight in the arms of Morwenna. The boy had a lot of fun for a while. When he got tired, he napped in his stroller and the two friends happily continued scrutinizing the cloths of their liking in the shops and boutiques. Louisa found a very nice corn flower blue dress.

'Louisa, you look absolutely wonderful in this dress, you MUST buy it!', Morwenna told her.

A black jacket with accents in the same blue colour made the outfit complete. In a shoe shop Louisa also found shoes in the same colour, not too high heeled. So with the dress, the jacket, the shoes, a nice T-shirt with "I love Holland" for James and lots of other packages, she was ready to go back to the hotel. Morwenna also had been lucky to find nice new colourful earrings, a new pair of jeans and a funny computer gadget for Al.

'Let's call Edwin and ask him to bring us back to the hotel', Louisa suggested. 'I could kill someone for a nice hot cup of tea!'.

As soon as they arrived at the hotel, Louisa ordered a large pot of tea at the room service. They had bought some cake and a cheese stick for James at a bakery shop.

'Don't tell the Doc, Morwenna, I guess he wouldn't appreciate the intake of these empty calories, but we are on holiday and holidays are meant for spoiling yourself a bit, isn't it?'

James was happy to be at "home" and crawled all around the room, scattering around some of his toys.

Morwenna absented herself for a moment, but soon returned from her own room, with a rather long, oddly formed parcel in her hands. She handed it to Louisa, saying

'Here Louisa, this is for you and the Doc. I want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to travel with you to the Netherlands. I wouldn't be able to do it by myself'.

Louisa put the parcel down and said

'Morwenna, that's very kind of you to say! Thank you for the present, what is it? Shall we wait for the Doc to come back or shall we open it now?'

Morwenna laughed and pointed at James who already tried to tear the paper from the parcel.

'As curious as mummy, that's my boy!', Louisa grinned and she helped her son open the gift.

'Oh that's very practical, we can use it right away! Look James, what a nice chair. Very thoughtful of you Morwenna, now Martin doesn't have to bother disinfecting borrowed high chairs in the different places we will stay during our trip'. She winked to Morwenna, when she said that.

'Where did you get it from?'

'Edwin bought it at IKEA, when we were shopping'

'Well done! And thank you so much', Louisa said and kissed the young girl on both cheeks.

By the end of the afternoon, Louisa and Morwenna moved the cot, the chair, a filled baby bag and some toys and books to Morwenna's room. The two women decided what would be on the menu for James today and Louisa gave Morwenna some further instructions on the bed time routine of her son.

'Louisa, why don't you let him stay overnight, instead of picking him up at the end of your evening out? I don't bother and it will give you both the opportunity to fully benefit of your date!'

'That's nice of you Morwenna, thank you. Hmm, I think Martin would like to see his son before going out, so we'll drop him off here when we are leaving ,OK?'

'Of course, no problem.'

Soon after that, Martin entered the room. He looked satisfied. 'You had a nice day, I can see it', Louisa said when he bent over to kiss her. She gave him her wonderful smile and his eyes immediately softened.

'Yes, indeed, I had, and you?'

'I'll let you be the judge of that later, OK?'

Martin picked up his son and touched the baby's forehead with his two forefingers. James smiled and buried his head in his father's neck to show his affection. Louisa smiled when she saw it. This greeting ceremony had become quite a routine for her two men.

Martin took a couple of minutes to relax with his son on his lap.

'Uhm, we will have to prepare for our evening out, now'.

'Yes, I'll bring James to his babysitter then'.

Martin gave his son a kiss on top of his head and handed him to his mother. He then went to bathroom a shower and a shave.

Martin put on a dark grey suit and a white shirt. He knew now that Louisa liked to see him dressed in a white shirt. Although he didn't like it very much himself, he decided to do without a tie and to leave the top button undone, because he wanted to please his beautiful wife.

And beautiful she was, stunning even, he noticed when she came out of the bathroom, fully dressed in the dress and jacket she bought that day. She wore her hair in a simple knot, one of the ways he liked most. He gazed at her, swallowed hard and crossed the few meters that separated them. One of the things he had picked up from the sessions with Dr. Johnson, was that women like to be complimented, even if it wasn't necessary for his wife because she was beautiful all the time – whatever she was dressed in.

'You look wonderful' he said. In fact they both said it in unison. Louisa looked at him approvingly. 'Thank you for not wearing a tie, she added. Carefully, not ruin the hint of makeup she wore, Martin kissed his wife softly on her lips.

'May I invite the most beautiful woman of the continent to accompany me?', he said while presenting her his arm.

Louisa chuckled and said, 'Of course, most handsome man of the world!'. Together, they left the room.

Morwenna, who was just seeing out the waiter who had taken care of the room service, looked at them in awe.

'Doc, Louisa, please let me take your picture, you're such a wonderful couple!'

'No!', Martin said with a harsh tone. But exactly at the same time, Louisa answered enthusiastically, 'Of course Morwenna, go ahead!'

Martin grunted, but watching his beautiful, cheerful wife, he gave in. He even tried to put a rather friendly face. The result was a picture of Louisa broadly smiling with a rather stiff looking Martin next to her, looking down at his wife. At least he didn't scowl and a good observer would notice the softness in his eyes focussed on the beautiful creature next to him. Morwenna was very satisfied with the result.

As Edwin wasn't available that evening, because of an exam the next day, so Martin had ordered a taxi. They arrived in front of a small restaurant at the harbour. The waiter lead them to a quiet corner of the restaurant and soon brought a glass of water for Martin and a glass of white wine for Louisa.

'How did he know what we would order?' Louisa asked.

'Because I told him so', Martin replied. 'Just enjoy the evening, everything has been taken care of'.

Louisa for once decided not to lecture him on her right to make her own choices and did what he told her to do, she just enjoyed being out with him, without much chance on being disturbed by a baby, a dog, a patient or whoever seemed to be in their way. Louisa made a little wish Oh please, let nobody, absolutely nobody in this restaurant get ill or choke in a piece of meat!

As usual, Martin wasn't very talkative, but the happy summary of the shopping day, Louisa gave him, clearly amused him. In particular, the part where Louisa told him how clever James scrambled on the slide. It made his lips turn upwards into a small smile.

Their table was located in a cosy, romantic corner, just the way Louisa liked it. The starters were great, a salad of fresh shrimps, more a ceviche, actually. Really delicious.

There was a creamy vegetable soup between the starter and the main course. It tasted as if the vegetables were harvested that same day. Much to Louisa's surprise, Martin didn't object to the small dot of crème fraiche on top of it.

Then as the main course, the waiter brought them a beautiful plate of asparagus served like they do most of the time in the Netherlands: with chopped boiled egg, ham, butter sauce and new potatoes. On Martin's explicit request, they served the sauce separately. That made it possible for them to take just a tiny bit of it and not soak the asparagus in it.

'Martin, you have made an excellent choice, this is really delicious', Louisa complimented him.

'Hmm, yes, nutritious, fresh and healthy', he stated.

Exceptionally, Martin had also ordered a dessert. He had asked the restaurant to make a little chocolate cake for Louisa. It was covered with a chocolate icing, topped with a pink coloured heart that was decorated with tiny curly white chocolate letters saying: Louisa, thank you for being my wife, my everything.

Louisa, when she saw it was speechless, a tear of happiness found its way down on her cheek. Martin gently wiped it away with his thumb and Louisa grabbed his hand to kiss it.

Although she usually wasn't someone to take pictures of everything she ate, Louisa simply had to take a picture of this beautiful cake, as a memory of this wonderful evening. As Martin was still gazing at his beautiful wife, who appeared to be so happy with this simple present. He wasn't aware that Louisa captured his admiring eyes in the picture. The first picture she ever had from her handsome husband without a grumpy scowling face. Maybe the picture was an even bigger present to her than the cake in itself. Of course, it also tasted deliciously.

'Mmm, Martin, you should taste this, it is exquisite!'.

As an ultimate gesture to please her, he took one bite of the cake.

'Very good indeed', he said. But still too much empty calories, he added inwardly.

In the middle of the restaurant stood a concert piano, some chairs and some music standards. When Louisa was finishing their dessert, a small group of music players took place on the chairs and they began to tune their musical instrument. A couple of minutes later, the musicians started to play. Not much later, some of the other guests started to dance. Louisa looked at them enviously and regretted very much that she never learnt how to dance a waltz. She remembered the dance on their wedding day and most of all Martin's sharp "AU" when she stepped on his ankle.

A few numbers later, Martin stood up, lightly bowed and stretched his hand to her and said,

'Louisa, may I have this dance?'

'I'm flattered, thank you, but…are you sure? I didn't exactly win "Dancing with the Stars", you know.'

As an answer, Martin took her hand, pulled her up and lead her to the dance floor. Martin pulled her closer to him. As the band played a rather slow number, they start to move slowly, with only small moves that Louisa could easily follow.

'Think about the advice of your friend Bert: go with the flow', Martin whispered in her ear.

Then the band started a new number. Louisa recognized it at the first tones.

'Our wedding song! Martin, thank you!' She knew Martin wouldn't like it, but she really had to suppress the urge to kiss him in the middle of the dancing floor. Instead, she pulled him very close end held him in a close embracement. She'd save the kisses for later...

They danced closely together, Martin made it easy for her to follow his steps. He appeared to be a talented dancer and the occasional time that Louisa stepped on his toes, or disturbed the rhythm of the dance steps, he quickly restored the balance. They both enjoyed being so close together without being disturbed. Martin made a mental note that they should do this more often, even when they would be back in Portwenn. Maybe he could teach Louisa how to dance… They alternately spend some time on the dance floor and at their table. Finally, the band announced the last number and after that, Martin lead her back to their table.

'This was wonderful Martin, thank you so much for this evening out', Louisa whispered in his ear. She couldn't resist her urges and kissed him on his cheek.

'Better than the horrible wedding night, I hope', Martin replied. And thank God, no Bert around with his awkward ideas, he thought.

'Absolutely! Let's go back to the hotel', Martin said.

'My idea!, Louisa agreed, 'I have some interesting purchases to show you', she added with a mysterious smile..

To be continued - I hope you enjoyed it!