Chapter 2
Mel had lost her initial fury with Geoff for swanning off for a sabbatical without any consultation with her, but her thoughts were still in turmoil when she set out to drive to Ginny’s on Friday afternoon.
Over the last couple of days, she’d drunk a lot of wine, eaten a lot of comfort food – aka chocolate, thick white toast and butter – and wandered around the house going over and over the situation she’d found herself in, becoming crosser by the minute.
Was she really going to accept this kind of behaviour from Geoff? Hell, she’d never had a gap year either, but she wasn’t bitter about it. Just accepted it was something she couldn’t afford to do at the time and got on with her life.
Meeting and marrying Geoff had given her a little taste of the travelling they’d both missed out on by not having that coveted gap year, when they started to holiday in Europe.
The two weeks of annual holidays they’d taken on the continent in the early years of their marriage – usually France, although Italy and Spain too held wonderful memories – those breaks sampling a different lifestyle had always been welcome and enjoyed.
They’d even flirted with the idea of emigrating to Provence one year when they’d visited a particular area and fallen in love with it, could imagine themselves living there and thriving.
Once back home, though, real life had chased that dream away and they had settled down into what became the normal routine of their married life.
Except now Geoff wanted a break from that routine.
After a whole year away, would he truly want to come back and pick up the pieces of their life together? A life he’d walked away from without consulting her? And a life, she had to admit, that had become lacklustre to say the least.
Would she even want him back? That question stopped her spiralling thoughts momentarily as she struggled to process everything. Did the day he left signal the end of their marriage? Something she had never envisaged.
But the disrespect he’d shown her by going behind her back organising this gap year, and simply expecting her to wait for his return, was indefensible. Unforgivably selfish was the phrase which began to dominate her thoughts. He clearly had not spared even one thought for her feelings.
She’d thought last year’s silver wedding celebrations had been selfish enough, but this ‘gap year’ had knocked it off the number one spot in her mind.
Geoff hadn’t wanted a party for their anniversary.
Instead, he’d booked them a suite for the weekend at a newly opened five-star hotel with a golf course and a luxury spa on the edge of town.
‘We both deserve a no-expense-spared treat,’ he’d said.
Which was true, Mel had thought, but it hadn’t been the romantic weekend she’d been looking forward to.
Geoff had played golf on both days and she’d passed the time with several treatments in the spa, swum in the hotel pool, had her hair cut and highlighted and spent several hours both days on her own, reading in the hotel library.
It was the weekend she’d realised that their marriage had become a habit.
Something that she suspected most people settled for as the years went by. Because what was the alternative?
True, the evenings had been spent together, but Mel remembered thinking, as she drank the celebratory champagne, was this setting the scene for the next twenty-five years? Together – and yet somehow apart.
* * *
As she turned onto Ginny’s driveway and parked alongside her sister’s top-of-the-range Mini, her mobile pinged with a text message. Mel turned off the ignition and took her phone out of her bag. Justin. Brief and to the point as usual.
Dad has just told me what he’s up to. Hope you’re OK, Mum. Bit selfish of him if you ask me. I got pretty angry with him on your behalf. Didn’t make a scrap of difference to his attitude. Sorry I can’t get home and be with you. Talk later.
Mel sat for a moment gathering her thoughts.
Everybody except Geoff himself thought his taking her for granted and disappearing off for a year without so much as a ‘by your leave’ was not right.
But how should she deal with it? Sit around waiting for him to return?
Or should she retaliate with an unexpected master plan of her own?
Do her own thing for the next twelve months?
The only problem with that was she didn’t have a single idea as to what she would like to do. Ginny had hinted she might have a suggestion – but did she truly have any other choice except to sit back and wait for Geoff to return?
Mel jumped as Ginny knocked on the roof of the car. ‘You going to sit in there all afternoon? We’ve got an hour before the girls are back to diss Geoff and plot your revenge.’
Ginny grabbed Mel’s overnight case from the back seat of the car and Mel followed her into the house.
‘Not sure about revenge. I just need to work out a plan for surviving the next twelve months,’ Mel protested.
‘There will be revenge,’ Ginny half turned to look at her. ‘If it’s only a full-on shopping spree for Christmas presents for you with Geoff’s credit cards.’
‘Hadn’t given Christmas a thought,’ Mel said. ‘Justin and I can come to you as per usual, can’t we? I definitely don’t want us to spend it alone.’
‘You won’t. Now, wine, tea or coffee?’
‘Tea, please. Wine later.’
Ginny was adamant that sitting back and doing nothing was not an option.
For the next half-hour, she vocalised her thoughts about what Mel needed to do to show Geoff he couldn’t just waltz off into the sunset for a year without there being some consequences to his action.
‘Honestly, Mel, you have to do something to show Geoff he can’t treat you like this. ’
Mel nodded. ‘I know. But it’s not that easy, is it?’
‘It could be,’ Ginny said. ‘You could spend three months in the South of France if you want to.’
Mel, taking a sip of tea, almost spat it out. ‘As if.’
‘I’m serious. Nadia is desperate to find a replacement guardian for their villa down there. Start date the first of December. I’ve spoken to her and she’d be more than happy for you to do it.’
‘Your friend Nadia as in Nadia married to Hugo Pots of Money?’
‘That’s the one.’
‘I didn’t know they had a villa.’
‘Hugo’s mother died about a year ago and left it to him.
Problem is, he’s now been headhunted by a hedge fund and is going to be based in Singapore for the foreseeable future.
So, what d’you think? A three-month break in the South of France with all expenses paid.
December until the end of February. Think of all the bad weather here you’d miss too. What’s not to like?’
‘What does being a guardian of a villa entail anyway?’
‘In this case, it’s basically house sitting. Making sure the villa is occupied. There’s a regular gardener and pool man, and various people to contact if anything unexpected crops up maintenance wise. Oh, and taking care of Croque Monsieur.’
Mel raised her eyebrows. ‘What or who is that?’
‘Nadia’s rescue dog.’
Mel sighed. ‘The idea of spending three months in the South of France sounds wonderful, but I can’t just up and leave like that.’
‘Why not? Geoff did.’
‘Because he left trusting I would be here to take care of everything,’ Mel said quietly. ‘I’d be letting him down.’
Ginny gave her the exasperated look she’d been giving her younger sister all her life when she thought she was being particularly difficult.
‘And he’s not let you down by leaving for a year?
It’s ridiculous that you think you have to simply accept what he’s done.
Besides, I’ve never known you to let anyone down in your life.
You go out of your way to avoid conflict by your silent acceptance of whatever you are asked to do.
That’s your problem in a nutshell – you are too good-natured and forgiving. ’
‘I wouldn’t say that,’ Mel muttered. ‘I’m feeling pretty angry at Geoff right now and know something has to change.
Me, my marriage or Geoff,’ she shrugged.
‘Running away to the South of France for three months wouldn’t solve anything.
I’d come back at the end of February to the same situation.
Geoff would still be away for another eight months. ’
‘You might come back with a clearer idea of what you want from the rest of your life,’ Ginny said sternly. ‘Which would be a good result, if nothing else.’
* * *
The weekend passed in a blur of family fun for Mel with Ginny and her two girls.
Friday evening after supper was full of laughter, playing competitive board games, the girls joining forces on occasion to beat their parents and Mel.
Brunch on Saturday was bruschettas at what Ginny called their favourite French-themed café before wandering down Totnes High Street with its numerous independent shops, and spending an indulgent hour or two drifting in and out of them.
Mel treated both girls to some make-up from their go-to beauty shop and bought Ginny’s favourite lipstick to go with a silk scarf she intended to give her as a small thank you for the weekend.
She did give her sister a pointed look, though, when they were in the local bookshop and Ginny gestured to a coffee table book full of fabulous photos of the C?te d’Azur, with a muttered, ‘Look what you could be enjoying for three months’.
That evening, Brian, Ginny’s husband, was dispatched with the girls to buy supper from an Italian pizza house ten minutes away.
Mel looked at her sister. ‘What a shame there isn’t a French restaurant in the neighbourhood for you to drag me to.’
‘Yes, that is a pity,’ Ginny conceded, opening a bottle of red wine to go with the pizzas when they arrived. ‘At least our wine is French. And tomorrow morning our croissants and pains au chocolat for breakfast are from the French delicatessen in town.’
Mel smiled and shook her head. ‘It’s not going to work. I’m not going to change my mind about the guardian thing.’
Ginny sighed. ‘No, I didn’t really expect you to, but I thought a weekend with a few French hints in it might make you think a little more about it.’
‘I’ll tell you what this weekend has done – it’s stopped me thinking about Geoff non-stop, so thank you for that.’
‘You know I really wish you would reconsider.’ Ginny’s words were interrupted as the kitchen door flew open and the girls ran in carrying boxes of pizza. ‘I still think you should. Oh, never mind, you always were so stubborn.’
Brian, following the girls into the kitchen, heard his wife’s words and laughed. ‘Says the most stubborn woman I know. Must run in the family. Thank goodness the girls take after me.’