January
Lenny Drake
lived with his wife Alicia in a small two-bedroom cottage on the banks of the
River Oxley and on New Year’s Day he woke up annoyingly early, having had a
disturbed night, as he was unable to sleep, and the reason for that was a
guilty conscience.
So he got up
and left Alicia sleeping and went downstairs where he sat in the kitchen
drinking coffee and thinking about the source of his anxiety.
What was
bothering him was the simple fact that he had lied to his wife.
They had only
been married for a few months and up until that Christmas he had never done it
before, and in the space of a few days he had done it twice, and his deceit
hung heavy on his mind.
The first time
was on Boxing Day when he feigned a migraine to avoid driving to Pipershaven to
spend the day with his parents and the second was on New Year’s Eve when he
told her that the car battery was flat so they couldn’t get to Sharpington for
a party at her sister’s house.
Two totally
different lies but both motivated by the same thing and that was the desire to
spend every minute of their first Christmas and New Year on their own.
He quickly made
a New Year’s resolution to never lie to Alicia again.
They were due
to eat New Year’s Day lunch at her parent’s house in Finchbottom, which he
didn’t want to go to because he wanted to keep Alicia all to himself, but he
had no choice because he couldn’t lie again so at nine o’clock he stopped ruminating
and made Alicia a cup of tea.
Five minutes
later, tea mug in hand, he was on his way upstairs to wake his lovely wife when
the phone rang, so he stopped and did a U-turn and picked up the phone.
“Hello”
“Lenny?” the
voice said “it’s Matt”
Matt was
Alicia’s Dad.
“Hi Matt, Happy
New Year” he said
“Yes Happy New
Year” he responded vaguely
“Is everything
ok?” Lenny asked
“No” he
replied, “not at all, it’s Annie”
Annie was his
wife,
“She’s been
throwing up most of the night, so we thought it best to cancel lunch as a
precaution” he continued “I’m sorry to let you down”
“Nonsense”
Lenny said, as he punched the air, “These things happen”
“I suspect it’s
been brought on by two much rich food” Matt elaborated “but just in case it is
a bug we have decided to quarantine ourselves”
Lenny suspected
it was more likely brought on by too much Pinot but he didn’t say that, instead
he just said
“Very sensible”
After he had
put down the phone he continued his journey up the stairs to his sleeping wife.
After tiptoeing
into the room, he put her tea on the bedside cabinet and slipped into bed
beside her.
Once he was
under the covers he leant over and kissed her neck and as she stirred, he
cuddled up behind her and began kissing her ear.
“We don’t have
time for that” she purred
“Oh, I think we
do” he retorted and nibbled her lobe.
“No, we don’t”
she reiterated “You’re forgetting about lunch at my parents”
“No, I’m not,
it’s been cancelled” he told her, and she rolled onto her back and gave him a
suspicious look
“Why?”
“Your mum’s
throwing up” Lenny said “Your Dad thinks it might be a bug”
“It’s more
likely too much Pinot” Alicia said and laughed, until her demeanour changed
suddenly.
“So, we don’t
have to get up and go out” she mused
“Correct” he
agreed
“Oh goody”
Alicia said and wrapped herself around him “We get to spend the whole day
together just the two of us”
“We do” he said
and kissed her
“And without
pretending to have a migraine or a flat battery” Alicia added
“What?”
“You know
perfectly well what” she said
“You mean you
knew all along?” he asked
“Of course”
“So why didn’t
you say something?” Lenny asked
“Because I
didn’t want to go either” she admitted and kissed him passionately which lead
to them having a very late lunch at home.
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