first_in_time | New Lives and Mourned Pasts

The trip was long but at least they had jobs to go to and somewhere to live even if it was small. They each had one suitcase half filled with clothes and a life they were leaving behind. Once they were left in the by the side of a dusty road on the outskirts of a small country town Barbara walked with Ian to their new home, unconsciously holding onto his hand as she had done so many times before. Their real estate agent waited at the door of their new home to hand them a set of keys. He wished the newly weds ever lasting happiness then left them to it.

"It seems I've missed my own wedding," Barbara said with a sigh as she put the suitcase down in the middle of the almost empty lounge room and chuckled a little. She was tired and felt dirty from all their traveling.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

first_in_time

Barbara had another small piece and let it sit on her tongue where it melted and filled her mouth with the taste of chocolate.

"You can finish it now," she said and put her fork down. "I think that being settled would be better for all of us, really. I wouldn't like to have a child while I was still adjusting."

From:

splendid_roman

He did finish it. "Having a baby is an adjustment in itself. It would be good not to be doing both at once." He then finished his tea and sat back. "Let's just get used to being here first, then we can worry about everything else."

From:

first_in_time

"Being here and pretending to be married," she added and put down her empty mug. For a moment she contemplated resting against Ian as he sat back against the sofa but stayed upright a little, not knowing if that was what he would like.

From:

splendid_roman

He nodded. "But pretending to be married more seriously than the other times we've done it, when it was just for a short time." And those times were for convenience, just the same as this was, but then they'd only been friends.

From:

first_in_time

"True. We didn't necessarily love one another at the time either," she added and blushed yet again. "Not like we do now in any case. I'm still getting used to that, too."

From:

splendid_roman

"So am I." He looked over and put an arm round her. "I like it, though."

From:

first_in_time

Barbara smiled warmly and looked up at him, the blush making her hot under the collar of her blouse.

"Me too."

From:

splendid_roman

He smiled back and leaned over to kiss her.

From:

first_in_time

The kiss had been somewhat expected and Barbara gladly kissed him back for a long moment. Eventually the butterflies settled in her stomach and the room stopped spinning, so she pulled away just a little.

"I like way way you make me feel," she told him, her arms encircling his waist.

From:

splendid_roman

Kissing Barbara felt good and he was happy that their future would include more of that. He smiled at her and put a hand to her cheek. He only got as far as opening his mouth to say what he felt when there was a knock at the door.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara frowned. "Who would be knocking on our door?" she asked.

From:

splendid_roman

"I'll find out." He let her go and went to the door.

On the other side of it was a woman, perhaps a little younger than Barbara, holding a plastic container. "Hello," she said brightly. "I'm Sandra, I live next door."

"It's lovely to meet you." Ian smiled at her. "I'm Ian." He called for Barbara to come and meet their neighbour too.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara went to the door and smiled at their visitor.

"Hello," she said to the woman who immediately introduced herself a Sandra. "It's a erasure to meet you. Would you like to come in for some tea?"

From:

splendid_roman

"Only if you're already putting the kettle on, I don't want to put you to any trouble" Sandra said. "I brought you some home made steak and kidney pie. I thought you might not want to cook the day you move in." She passed the box over to Barbara.

From:

first_in_time

"That is very kind of you," Barbara said and accepted the box before stepping aside to let Sandra in. "The kettle is almost always on, we enjoy tea quite a lot," especially since returning home, "how do you take it?"

From:

splendid_roman

"Milk and one sugar, thank you."

Ian showed Sandra through to the lounge. "Have you lived here long?" he asked, motioning for her to sit down, before he sat down himself.

From:

first_in_time

"All my life just about. I move to London to study then married and moved back here. I had dreams of living in some flat in the middle of the city all while I was a child but here I am," she chuckled. "What about you? What made you choose this place?"

From:

splendid_roman

"We used to live in London and we wanted somewhere quiet to settle down." That was enough to explain their choice without needing to go into detail. "We didn't mind too much where we lived, but we both got jobs at the village school and we liked the village when we visited."

From:

first_in_time

Sandra brightened a little more. "Oh! My twin girls are there, have been for the past couple of years. What do you teach?"

From:

splendid_roman

"Science. Barbara teaches history. But we teach secondary, so I don't think we'll be teaching your daughters. You don't look old enough to have teenage children." It wasn't just flattery - as good as it was to get on with the neighbours - she really didn't look old enough.

From:

first_in_time

"That's a bit of a shame," Sandra said but was still smiling, "it would have been nice to live next door to my girls' teacher."

Barbara brought a cup of tea in for their guest and placed it on the coffee table between them.

"Do you have children?" she asked.

"Twin girls," Sandra replied. "Are you planning on having any sometime soon?"

From:

splendid_roman

Ian was a lot less sure about the idea of living next door to a student's parents - it was impossible to tell what sort of parent she might be.

"Not just yet." He managed not to blush at the question, but he supposed it was something people assumed you did one you were married. "We've only just got married."

From:

first_in_time

"Newly weds!" Sandra grinned, "oh how exciting. Are you enjoying the life?"

Barbara smiled at Ian. "It's working well enough so far."

"What was the wedding like?" their new friend asked, "there weren't too many arguments I hope."

From:

splendid_roman

"Er, no. We eloped," Ian said bashfully.

"Oh, really?" Sandra sat up straighter upon hearing that. "You don't hear of many people doing that these days. What made you choose to elope?"

From:

first_in_time

Barbara paused for a moment, struggling over what to say. "There was a lot of pressure to do things the way out parents, friends, siblings and the like wanted us to and of course their requests were nothing like what we wanted."