Chance Meeting

I don’t think I had ever felt so protective of anyone – in fact I had never been called on to be so shielding. I felt privileged that I was the one she had told her story to, and loved her even more for her trust.

I let her weep on until finally, exhausted by the outpouring of emotion she slept. I continued to hold her, and there was no further attempt at sex that night.

I lay awake for a long time embracing her and thinking of what she had told me. One thing she had said puzzled me, “Until I saw the back of your neck.” That seemed totally out of place in the context of all she had told me. What had the back of my neck got to do with it? I felt I could safely ask that question in the morning.

Eventually I dropped off to sleep with Alicia still burrowed into me.

I woke in the morning to find Alicia still asleep and in my arms. I carefully disengaged myself from her, crept out of the room, showered, dressed and prepared breakfast. I took both our breakfasts on a tray to the bedroom where Alicia was just waking.

“Breakfast, darling, I said.”

It has often been said that we do not look our best when we first wake up, and I suppose there is some truth in that. Now I was surely seeing Alicia at her worst. The ravages of her tears still marked her cheeks and she looked anxious, perhaps regretting the revelations of the night. In this moment of vulnerability I think I loved her more than ever.

“Come on, Alicia, sit up and eat.” I put the tray down on the table beside the bed and bent over her to raise her and put pillows behind her. She seemed to simply submit to this and said only the now familiar, “Oh Malcolm.”

“It’s all right, my love, it’s out now and we can stare down the monster, just as you helped me deal with mine.”

I took her hand and kissed it, and then she drew it to her cheek to let it rest there saying, “You really are a dear man.” I felt as if I wanted to cry myself, but instead I balanced the tray on the bed, sat beside her, and we ate in silence.

That day I was due back at work, but telephoned in to say I had a “family situation” to deal with, which was at least partially true since I fully intended that Alicia would be family and at that time she needed me there.

I waited until the afternoon by which time Alicia seemed to have brightened up. Long afterwards she told me she thought the morning light would bring about a change in my attitude, and that I would after all find her abhorrent. As she discovered that the contrary was the case her old self was gradually restored. It was then I decided to ask my puzzling question.

“Alicia, last night you said that you were still avoiding men until you saw the back of my neck; what ever did you mean by that?”

For the first time that day she laughed and said, “I found the back of your neck attractive.”

“The back of my neck!”

“Why not? People find all sorts of thing attractive. You men find women’s breasts attractive; their legs, hair, noses, eyes and so on. Women find all sorts of things attractive about men, so why not the back of a neck? I was looking for someone to ask the way top the post office and I saw the back of your neck and thought, “That looks nice I’d like to kiss it.”

She followed word with action and kissed the back of my neck, and that sent a frisson of desire coursing through me, but I decided that the moment was not ripe to follow it up.

Just between ourselves, I later tried to see the back of my neck with an arrangement of mirrors and I really couldn’t see anything especially attractive about it. But then, if Alicia thought it was, who was I to complain since that had brought me to the brink of marriage with her.

That brought the subject of marriage to the fore.

“Last night Alicia you asked me if I still want to marry you, I said ‘yes’, but you haven’t said you want to marry me.”

“Yes, as soon as possible please.”

As usual her bluntness caught me on the wrong foot, but I recovered sufficiently to express my delight and to kiss her at length.

It took five weeks to get the marriage arrangements settled. Alicia had no parents, but a remaining grandparent, some aunts, uncles and cousins came from far and wide. My own parents travelled some distance to the wedding and that caused a brief period of awkwardness. They had been very fond of Agnes and felt a little wary of Alicia, but as I suspected, it took them only a short time to become enamoured of her.

After the wedding breakfast we took off on a fortnight’s honeymoon and it was during the course of this that the matter of the house came up, and this gave rise to a couple of highly significant matters.

It was after our nightly love making that Alicia asked, “Could we get another house, Malcolm?”

My first thought was that she found it hard to live in the house I had occupied with Agnes, and I said so.”

“Don’t be silly, darling,” she laughed. “I know how much you loved Agnes from the way you’ve talked about her. I’m glad you loved her so much because it shows just how much love you’re capable of, and now I am getting that love. If you’d said you hated Agnes or said nasty things about her I wouldn’t be in bed with you now.”

“I’d like us to get a bigger house, I mean, yours is just a two bedroom cottage and I think we need a four bedroom house.”

“For two of us?”

“No darling, for three of us initially.”

“Three?”

“I didn’t tell you before, my love, but I’m pregnant. I think it must have been the first time we made love.”

“What?...Why didn’t you tell me?”

“And have you marrying me because I was pregnant? I wasn’t going to risk that. You were going to marry me because you wanted to be married to me, not because I might have blackmailed you into it.”

“You know that wasn’t…”

“I know, darling, but I had to be dead certain.”

“But if your going to have a baby we still will only need two bedrooms.”

“Malcolm, what are you saying? That we only have one? You are going to father at least three and possibly more.”

“But Alicia, you know I don’t get much money so how…”

“I’m afraid that’s another thing I haven’t told you.”

“My God, what else is there to tell me?”

“Well, my love, when I went away it was really to achieve two things. First, I wanted both of us to have time to think. Was our relationship one we really wanted to continue or was it a passing thing? I made up my mind that if you could accept me even after what I had to tell you, then you were the man for me.”

“What’s the second thing?”

“Ah, well, you see before I came to the city I had set in motion the sale of the property. I went back to complete the sale. I’m afraid, darling I’m…we are rather well off.”

“How well off?”

She mentioned a figure that shook me to the core.

“My God, what was this place you sold?”

“It was several thousand hectares.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“Darling, what would have happened if I had told you? You might have run because you didn’t want to take advantage of a rich woman, which knowing you it was the sort of thing you would do; or you might have married me for the money. You see, I had to be sure about that too. You married me for me and nothing else.

“Is there anything else you haven’t told me I ought to know?”

“Oh, just a couple of minor matters. On the day of our wedding a sum of money was deposited in the bank in your name. We can settle the details when we get home. The other thing is, I put of lot of my furniture and other stuff in store, so we won’t need to buy much for the new place.”

“Oh my God, why me, Alicia, you could have had almost any man so why…”

“Because I fell in love with the back of your neck; now do stop being difficult. I’m feeling turned on so make love with me again.”

Not then or since have I ever been able to disobey that command, but to be fair, Alicia has been equally compliant with my wishes in the matter. The outcome so far has been a four bed roomed house and two children with every intention to try for another.

Perhaps “try” is the wrong word because it suggests a chore and Alicia and I never seem to find making love a chore.