Holly's Story - Part III

Chapter 6 - Married Life

3 hours after they decided to get married, Holly and Oliver walked out of Denver City Hall as husband and wife. Mr. and Mrs. Oliver O'Toole! Oliver drove directly to Holly's house and they loaded up his Jaguar and Holly's Toyota Prius with the few personal things she had. Holly moved into his house and immediately started changing the layout of everything, telling Oliver the setup wasn't practical. She even changed the position of the bed, which she noticed irritated him. Despite the fact she knew he didn't like it, she was happy to see that he didn't try to stop her. This was her home now, too! She was delighted by the sheer size of it. It was located in a superb well-established neighbourhood. The house had some kind of historical significance, but she didn't know what it was and frankly, she didn't care. What she did care about was the fact that it was in dire need of redecorating. She wanted modern furniture and trendy colours. At this point it looked and felt just like a museum. She looked forward to modernising it.

Holly was happy Oliver agreed to marry her and she was confident all would turn out well. She was also keenly aware how badly she needed to make something out of her life.

She looked at Oliver and he seemed so happy. He was almost bubbly, bouncing up on his toes. "Are you happy, Mrs. O'Toole?" He asked beaming.

"Oh my gosh, Oliver, don't call me that. It sounds awful."

Oliver looked surprised, but crestfallen by her answer. "Oh, Ollie, I didn't mean it that way. It's just that I don't like formalities. Just call me Holly. And yes, I'm so very happy. I'm glad you chose to marry me." She smiled at him, trying to ease any hurt Oliver might be feeling about her rejection of his surname. She knew it hadn't been a very nice thing to say to her brand new husband. "What a blunder!" She thought.

The damage was already done however. Oliver would never call Holly Mrs. O'Toole ever again.

Oliver didn't return to work that day. He called the DLO and informed his colleagues he had got married that afternoon and he was taking the rest of the day off. In the evening, Oliver suggested they go out to celebrate. Oliver was ready to call and make a reservation at Donatello's, a lovely Italian restaurant. Holly balked because she wasn't a great fan of Italian cuisine. She much preferred French food. Oliver then looked in the yellow pages for a local French restaurant. He started calling around to the ones he found, but he soon realised getting a reservation was going to be difficult. It appeared that dining at French restaurants was quite popular in Denver. He ended up making a reservation at the only one that had openings, Bistro Vendome on Kearney Street. When they got there, the place was packed. Their table was located outside in the courtyard, which was charming but not ideal for a mid-December evening. It was freezing and no one else was sitting outside. They were seated near an outdoor heater, but it made little difference in the freezing temperatures. By the time the food arrived, they could not sit outside any longer. Oliver asked them to pack their food into takeout boxes and they headed home to eat it there.

On their way home, it was deathly silent in the car. Holly was angry that her vision for a lovely French restaurant celebration had backfired so badly. Oliver was quiet because he already knew enough about his bride to know she wasn't happy; else she'd be chatting away regardless of whether he paid attention or not.

Once they got home, Oliver set the table with the best China he had and opened a bottle of his aged Carbernet Sauvignon to go with the French food. He was making a huge effort to make the best of an unfortunate situation, but Holly's bad mood barely improved. Once they finished eating dinner, Oliver asked if she wished to watch a movie. She informed him she hated Hollywood movies and didn't want to waste any time watching them. He asked how she felt about the old classics such as Casablanca or Roman Holiday. She said she didn't like black & white movies. Out of ideas, Oliver suggested she put one of her artsy movies on. She said she was tired and would rather go to bed.

They retired to bed early, as it was their wedding night, after all.

Oliver knelt by the bed and told her he'd like to pray for their marriage. She told him she'd change in the bathroom while he prayed and return once he finished. Holly was certain she saw hurt in his eyes. "Doesn't he understand I don't do religion?" She thought to herself, annoyed. She was not going to be dragged into church or any other organised religious meeting. The tediousness of such places would be the death of her, for sure!

She took her time in the bathroom. By the time she came back, Oliver was sitting up in the bed. He looked at her and smiled lovingly, inviting her with his eyes to come join him. She felt a little guilty for being grumpy. Her heart skipped a beat and turned a little summersault when her eyes landed on his naked, well toned chest muscles. He really was glorious!

She was wearing a very sexy red babydoll negligee and she saw the lust in his eyes. She loved that and made a mental note to use his lust to her advantage as often as she needed to. They had a fabulous official "first night". All grumpiness and vexations were forgotten. Apart from the sex, this marriage was going to take some work, Holly thought, but she'd try her best.

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Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and life being married to Oliver started to be a drag. Holly was getting tired of Oliver constantly nagging her to find an occupation. She hated all the options he suggested: enrol in a short course for something; volunteer at a school or a library where she would be able to talk to people about poetry; or get a job in a fashion boutique, which was another one of her passions.

What she really wanted, what she longed for was to write a book of poems. She needed to be able to express herself in poetry, which was the only connection she still had to Remy. She felt him slowly slipping away from her. He would eventually be completely gone and forgotten if she allowed it. It was her burden in life to keep his memory alive. Nothing would ever stop her from doing whatever she could to keep him alive in her heart.

Redecorating the house had been less fun than she had anticipated. Oliver was not happy for her to modernise the place and the little she was allowed to do made little to no difference. She spent her days moping around the house with no particular purpose or energy and feeling disappointed feeding her overall dissatisfaction.

Her marriage to Oliver was an experiment which was failing fast. It had become increasingly difficult to keep up the appearances of a happy marriage. She liked Oliver well enough. He was considerate for most part and actually very loving, not to mention extremely sexy and an excellent lover. However, she had hoped by now she'd be madly in love with him, just like she had been with Remy. Sadly, she had to admit to herself she was not in love with him and no matter how hard she tried, being in love with him was not anything she could force. Oliver was a sweet man but nothing more. The only thing she still liked about being married to him was their sex life. Sadly, even that had lost some of its initial allure. It was becoming more mechanical with each passing day, as if they both needed to have sex often to prove they still cared for each other. It had lost some of its warmth despite the fact they'd been married less than a year.

An upbringing of selfishness and disregard for those closer to her pushed Holly to think that marriage was where one applied all the efforts to make oneself happy, not to make the other person happy.

She had bought him a gift certificate with ten dancing lessons for his birthday. She wished he become a keen dancer so they could go and have fun once he knew how to dance, but he always said he didn't have time for that. Holly realised angrily, that dancing wasn't his thing because he always managed to make time for the things he cared about. Dancing was simply not one of them. She was once again unhappy and it became just another reason for resentment between them.

Recently, they'd been fighting a lot more, mostly over trivial topics. While she used indifference and sometimes the silent treatment to hurt him; he used his kisses. He was a wonderful kisser and he knew it. He often used that as a weapon against her. With one kiss, he could make her change her mind, if only briefly, to win a fight. She decided on the spot she wasn't going to allow him to do that anymore. She needed a new course of action. No more passionate kisses!

She still attended her Friday night poetry meetings religiously and Oliver attended weekly choir practices. They had such different interests that when they were together, conversation between them was awkward and stilted, since it was hard to find anything they had in common to discuss.

Holly noticed that slowly, Oliver stopped trying to find topics that suited her. Instead, he seemed more than content to read a book and leave her alone. He often retired to his den and spent the entire evening there while she watched her artsy movies or read her poetry. They were growing further and further apart. Neither of them seemed to know how to change it or appeared to be bothered by it… at least she knew she wasn't bothered in the slightest.

The marriage was obviously a disaster. However, she knew that Oliver was never going to do anything about it since he believed in the vows he had made to her more than anything else. It was all going to be up to her.

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Chapter 7 - The beginning of the end

Towards the end of the summer, Oliver planned a vacation for both of them in Washington DC. He told her he thought the change of scenery would do them good. Holly was keenly aware she didn't enjoy anything he planned for them. He tried to take her to see plays like Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing. She told him she hated Shakespeare, but he was adamant she'd enjoy it. She pointed out to him they had very different tastes in poetry. Eventually he stopped trying to please her and began making plans for things he cared about; telling her it was her choice to join him not.

Holly actually showed enthusiasm about going to DC with him. She made her own plans and the trip to DC was just what she required to put those plans into action. She decided she had finally exhausted all her options in the US and it was time to fulfil her long awaited desire to go to Paris. She started to pack boxes of clothes and other personal things and sent them on to Paris. She realised how lucky she was to have her own walk-in wardrobe. Oliver would never see how empty it was. Next, she checked her inheritance funds, surprised and delighted to learn her wise investments had nearly doubled her savings. Everything was going smoothly.

Oliver planned the DC vacation to coincide with the Labour Day holiday, which was on a Monday. He would only have to book two days off from work. They would return on Wednesday. Holly decided she wouldn't antagonise him during their last few days together. She had no wish to upset him more than he was going to be when she left. She suspected he actually did love her in his own quirky way; she had no doubt he did. Oliver was actually a very good man and deep down inside, she was sorry to do this to him. However, she had to look out for herself first and be her own hero. She convinced herself that Oliver would bounce back and she hoped he'd find another woman who would appreciate him as he deserved.

In DC, Oliver was like a child at Christmas. He obviously loved museums and got a huge kick out of visiting as many as he possibly could. Holly allowed herself to be dragged here and there through all the activities Oliver had planned. She just could not understand how anybody could possibly get any enjoyment out of looking at old and obsolete stuff all day long.

Tuesday dawned bright and beautiful with another full day scheduled to spend at yet another museum...the Postal Museum! "For crying out loud, the DLO in Denver is already a postal museum. Why do we need to visit this one?" She was irritated, thinking the day was going to drag on forever. She'd booked her flight for 4 pm that afternoon, so she had to be at the airport no later than 2 pm.

As she expected, the morning dragged on forever! Oliver stopped to read every single little plaque under every single exhibit. Finally it was lunch time and she was starving. They ate lunch at the museum's cafe. She kept looking at her phone to check the time.

"Are you expecting a call, Holly?" She looked up surprised but decided to tell him the truth, part of it at least, what she had told him in the past about museum visits.

"No, I'm just looking at the time. You know I find these museum visits quite tiring."

He smiled, thanked her for her forbearance and promised he'd make it up to her. She smiled back and told him not to worry about it. He told her the next exhibit he wanted to see was the Pony Express one and it held special meaning for him. He really hoped she would enjoy it. She smiled and said, "Let's go."

Holly soon realised Oliver was so fully absorbed with the Pony Express exhibit she could easily make her escape without him noticing. She quickly hailed a cab to go to the hotel and asked the driver to wait while she grabbed her luggage. Once packed in, the taxi took off for the airport. On the way there, she called the hotel and left a voicemail message for Oliver.

"Hi Oliver, I'm really sorry, but I can't pretend that I'm happy any longer. I'm tired of being married to a government official, especially one who seems to have no ambition. Since I've never been this close to Paris, I've decided to make the move I've been dreaming about for the last 10 years. I'll send you my forwarding address. Au revoir."

The very next thing she did after hanging up was to remove her wedding ring. It had weighed her down long enough. She threw it carelessly inside her purse and breathed a sigh of relief. "Paris, here I come!"