Epilogue
DOMINIC – THREE YEARS LATER
‘This view is perfect.’ Flavia stands at the window of the room we first had three years ago, when we came on the safari.
It’s New Year and we’re back in Cape Town for our first wedding anniversary, accompanied by Flavia’s mum and brothers and their families.
Flavia’s mum has recently started to date again.
She’s been to the cinema three times with the village vicar, a widower a couple of years younger than her, and after their third date told Flavia that she’d successfully tempted him into a little swearing (the S-word), and once she’d done that she’d been happy to kiss him.
Flavia said she was surprised by how okay she was about hearing all of that, because she just wants her mum to be happy, and Sofia does have to live her life rather than mourning Flavia’s dad forever.
Once Sofia had started to date, she decided that she was ready to visit Cape Town, the trip that she of course planned with her late husband. So here we all are.
The others have all been off on safari, for two nights, while Flavia and I spent some time alone, and are now back for us all to do some sightseeing together tomorrow.
We’re about to meet them for dinner in a waterfront steak restaurant, before taking a wander along the beach to welcome in the new year at midnight.
‘The scenery is perfect,’ I agree. You can’t argue with mountains and the ocean in one fell swoop, plus a lot of pretty buildings.
‘But not as perfect as the view I have right now.’ I move closer to her.
‘I love your back.’ It’s elegant, it’s graceful, it curves in a very, very nice way at her waist, and it’s basically just gorgeous.
Flavia obligingly does a little wiggle for me and I go over and wrap my arms around her, before kissing the nape of her neck. She leans back into me for a moment, and I turn her round and kiss her on her lips.
She responds immediately to the kiss, and I begin to pull her towards the bed.
Very, very disappointingly, she draws out of our kiss and shakes her head.
‘We have to be downstairs basically now,’ she says.
‘Seriously.’ I tut. ‘Why now for you to become strict on punctuality? I thought we agreed that I should loosen up on being on time.’ I kiss her again. ‘I am so ready to be late on this occasion.’
She laughs and kisses me back, but then again says, ‘No, we can’t be late. Mum’s really looking forward to this dinner.’
I draw back immediately. ‘You’re right. Let’s go.’
The restaurant is buzzing with New Year’s Eve party vibes. We order shared starters and the local sparkling wine. The wine arrives quickly, along with some bread. Flavia orders some sparkling water too. Very wise. She hates hangovers even more than your average person does.
We’ve seated ourselves so that no-one’s next to their partner, so Flavia’s at the opposite side of the table, but, as always, we often catch each other’s eyes for shared smiles and glances.
I’m enjoying this meal – Flavia’s family are great, and Vinny and Antonio both make great brothers-in-law – but I’m also very much looking forward to returning to our room and continuing where we had to leave off for dinner.
Our first year of marriage has been perfect in all except the regard that we both have very busy independent lives, with work and friends (although we do now know each other’s friends well), so when we manage to get away on holiday, it’s wonderful to be able to spend time alone together.
The starters are amazing, as is the main course.
I notice Flavia’s choice of the fish of the day rather than the rare steak that the rest of us are having, and am very surprised: we have this thing when we go to restaurants where we each try to guess what the other’s going to choose (we have very different tastes in food) and I’ve got pretty good at it and I really would not have predicted she’d go for fish here.
Steak and soft French cheeses are pretty much the only two things we both love food-wise.
Desserts done (again Flavia surprises me, when she turns down my offer of some of my cheese after she’s finished her slice of plum and pistachio cake), we all opt for coffees.
Well, apart from Flavia, who goes for a lemon and ginger tea, which is also odd.
She hates herbal teas. I wonder if she’s feeling ill.
When we’ve all finished, we head out of the restaurant and onto the beach.
As we walk, Sofia, Flavia’s mum, says, ‘I have an admission. I set the two of you up. I’ve never been sure whether I should admit it, but after your first year of marriage and seeing the two of you so beautifully happy together, I really wanted to tell you, because I’m just so proud of myself. I’m boasting, basically.’
‘Set us up in what way?’ Flavia asks.
‘I didn’t sell a raffle ticket to a single other person,’ Sofia says happily. ‘Just the two of you.’
‘Noooooo,’ Flavia gasps. I’m impressed by her acting.
Vinny told me when we were still in Cape Town, and I subsequently told Flavia, but we’ve never told Sofia that we knew.
‘Mum! So cunning! And underhand! Well. I can only say thank you. Although it was almost a disaster. We almost hated each other.’
‘Thank goodness you didn’t.’ Sofia puts an arm round each of our waists and hugs us. ‘Can we all agree that I’m extremely clever?’
‘Very clever,’ we all reply.
Vinny offers Sofia the open bottle of champagne that everyone’s been drinking from.
‘Drinking out of a shared bottle on a beach?’ she queries. ‘At my age?’ Then she seizes the bottle. ‘Hell, yes.’ She glugs a huge amount, and then says, ‘Perfect.’
The bottle goes round all of us several times, and then Antonio opens a second.
‘You should never begin a new year without a hangover,’ he states.
While the others tell him how stupid he is, I study Flavia.
She has, I realise, managed to avoid drinking anything at all on the beach – she’s always miraculously not the next person the bottle is passed to – and now I think about it the level of the wine in her glass didn’t change at all over dinner, and she was just on the water the whole time.
I’m beginning to wonder…
She could be ill. Or experimenting with a different cuisine while sober.
Or…
Now I really can’t wait to get back to our room; I’m consumed with curiosity.
When the countdown to midnight happens, we all share a very close group hug – none of the rest of us are going to be insensitive enough to pair off for New Year’s kisses and leave Sofia on her own – and wish each other a very happy new year.
Then Flavia does an enormous yawn, and I say, ‘We might go to bed now if that’s alright. Flavia’s got a lot of work to do when we get home so doesn’t want to have too many late nights.’
After a lot more hugs, we leave the others and begin to make our way hand in hand back across the sand.
We don’t really speak other than a few observations about what’s around us.
I’m too busy speculating in my mind and not wanting to pressure Flavia into saying anything before she’s ready, but also desperate to find out if I’m right, and Flavia seems to be busy yawning so hard she might genuinely be in danger of dislocating her jaw.
Eventually, we’re back in our room. Flavia sinks down onto the bed and flops onto her back.
‘I’m so tired,’ she mumbles.
I love her so much and I always want the best for her, but right now I would be incredibly disappointed if she went to sleep without putting me out of my misery.
‘I love you,’ I say, taking her shoes off for her, and then taking mine off and lying down next to her.
‘I love you too.’ She has her eyes closed and looks as though she might go straight to sleep any minute. There’s a long pause and then she opens her eyes and looks at me. ‘I have something to tell you.’
‘Yes?’ My heart is beating unbelievably fast.
‘I got a positive pregnancy test this evening just before we went out. I bought it while you were out for your run this morning. I didn’t tell you before we went to dinner because I wanted more time to talk about it just the two of us.’
All I can do is gather her into my arms and kiss her over and over again.
‘I love you so much,’ I say eventually. ‘This is wonderful news. Thank you, my beautiful wife, for doing this for both of us. I cannot believe my incredible luck in falling in love with the most perfect woman in the world when I was young, and now getting to be with her forever.’
‘Three short words,’ she says. ‘I love you.’
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