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LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Mon, Feb 16
Temperature: 2º / 7ºC
Description: Showers
Precipitation: 10 mm
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Dear SOPHIE
Your reservation has been confirmed with the details we indicate below. Please find attached your hotel voucher, which should be presented at your hotel front desk. Your reservation number is 285269148.
Thank you.
Customer name: Sophie Thompson
Hotel: Saint Giles Hotel London
Check in: 16/02/2015 Check out: 02/03/2015
Single room | Breakfast included
Contact: soph.e.thompson@gmail.com
***
There's nothing like the smell of coffee in the morning, the freshly brewed aroma that surreptitiously floats in the air, awakening your senses for the new day!
The house was still quiet when I went to the office, holding my coffee mug. I closed the door carefully, pressed Play on Pablo Alboran's album and sat at the desk.
Blowing some steam off the top of the cup, I checked the weather and took a mental note I'd better look for my gloves. I also printed the hotel and flight reservations, made sure I had the USB drive in the pencil case and reviewed my teaching notes. Everything was set for another trip abroad.
I'm used to it, but it's always difficult for me to leave home; this time it was going to be even harder.
My eyes fell on my son's drawings pinned to the cork board, and I couldn't contain the chuckle. God, he's terrible! No, he won't be an artist, that's a fact! But to me, of course, those will always be priceless works of art.
Soon I lost myself in the pictures of him tacked to the wall and started flipping through the photo album I hold in my memory. It was impossible not to feel nostalgic. Remembering his first tooth, his first steps, the first time he kicked a ball, the first time he touched the sand and how he hated it. Oh, and his first word. Papa. I almost felt resentful back then! Apparently, P's are easier to pronounce than M's.
That boy is the light of my life, my greatest achievement, the thing that gives meaning to everything else. I look at him and believe I won't disappear when I'm gone; I'll keep on living through his memories, and then through the ones he will share with his own children.
I couldn't resist: I sneaked into his room and stayed there for a little while, watching him sleep, all snug in his bed, so quiet, so peaceful.
On the wall, over the nightstand, a large black and white picture showed one of those priceless moments made eternal by the camera: his tiny foot brushing Alex's face as he slept on the bed, conquered by exhaustion.
For someone who was quite reluctant about having children, Alex ended up becoming a good father. He was careful and protective, surprisingly patient and at the same time playful and funny. Quite often Charlie believed they were breaking rules together behind my back, either saying a curse word mama would never approve of or turning off the lights a bit later than what was allowed. Our boy felt they were partners in crime, and that daddy was the coolest bloke there was.
YOU ARE READING
While I'm Gone
RomanceOn the surface, Sophie had it all. The perfect marriage, a wonderful son, a successful career. But then, when Alex puts an end to their marriage, the day before she must leave for a two-week work assignment in London, her whole world is turned upsid...
