Winter in Cambridge

Chapter 3 - Other half

Author Note

Accompanying song

Will you still love me tomorrow? By Amy Winehouse

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"Hi love, how was your day?" Tom asked his wife, Catherine, as he leaned in from behind and kissed her cheek.

"Good. Yours?" Catherine asked as she looked up and smiled at him while finishing the dinner she was preparing.

"Yeah, it was good," Tom replied as he went to the fridge and took out a bottle of white wine. He proceeded to grab two wine glasses and pour them each a glass before placing them on the kitchen island. One in front of Catherine and one for himself.

Their new home was still partially filled with moving boxes as the brand-new build had been delayed for a few weeks, and they had only moved in a few days prior.

It was a modern house with all the mod-cons like underfloor heating and a very high energy efficient rating. The interior was minimalist, with crisp white walls and a few black-and-white landscape photos. Every piece of furniture was new and modern except for Tom's office. He had insisted that he didn't need any new office furniture and had kept his worn leather desk chair mainly out of spite.

The original plan had been for them to move in during mid-August to give them time to settle in Cambridge before Tom started at the university in September, but that had been thrown on its head when their house had yet to be entirely finished.

It had caused a few arguments between them. Tom was happy to move in whilst the garden and flooring were finished by the developer, but Catherine was not. She had wanted their house to be completed entirely so that she didn't have any builders still coming in and out of their new home.

Catherine was now Head of Clinical Imaging at a pharmaceutical company in Cambridge. She had accepted the position after deciding to leave the NHS in Oxford from a similar role after Tom had been offered his job at Cambridge. She was, of course, going to follow him as she hated the thought of commuting.

She was a brilliant scientist in her own right and had multiple doctorates in the medical field, specialising in radiology.

Tom had met Catherine four years ago, during a charity gala in Oxford. They had been placed on a table next to each other and had hit it off instantly. They had moved in together within six months, and Tom had proposed barely twelve months into their relationship. They had now been married for two and half years after a six-month engagement.

Both of them had been focused on their careers, pushing themselves to be better and concentrating on their personal career development until they met each other. Then everything had changed. From the moment they met, they stayed in contact every day, either by text or seeing one another for the first six months without fail before moving in together. They had both fallen for one another quickly and had said 'I love you' within a month of meeting.

Tom had doted on Catherine, giving her everything he could, thinking it would make her happy, but Catherine always wanted more.

It stretched them financially to their limits. Even though they were both earning well over eighty thousand pounds each per year, it never seemed to be enough, especially for Catherine. She continually wanted the best of everything. Designer clothes, the newest gadgets, luxurious holidays, better cars, a bigger house, she always needed more.

"Here, try this..." Catherine said as she offered Tom a spoonful of some sort of sauce.

Tom sniffed it first, the spices invading his nose making it tingle, but it smelled okay, so he tried a little. As soon as it hit his tongue, his mouth exploded with fire, and he started to cough at the intense, spicy heat.