Champagne Problems

Part Four

We still use the set of three code.

Sending 'xxx' at the end of texts or tapping each other three times randomly when we're together. Sometimes he would touch me three times while he's sleeping, gently tapping my lower back while he has his arm wrapped around me.

Theo closes his front door behind me, turning to start unbuttoning my coat to hang on the coat hanger.

"Theo honey! Where's your can opener?" Theo's mother, Eleanor, steps out of the kitchen, hair pulled up in a tight bun holding a tin can.

Oh crap.

"Oh I didn't know you were here Mrs Carter, good evening." My plan is ruined. I can't do it with his mother here.

"Good evening, dear. His sister's here too."

Are you kidding?

We follow Eleanor to the kitchen, finding Tessa stirring something in a saucepot while her husband, Eric, chops some vegetables on the kitchen island.

"Ah, Mallory!" Tessa turns the gas on the stove low before quickly pulling me into a hug, squeezing my frame. 

"Hi Tessa," I greet, "you're crushing me."

Tessa was tall. Like five foot ten inches tall and carried herself without an ounce of insecurity. I've always looked up to her, both literally and metaphorically.

"Whoops!" She giggles, pulling back and smiling inanely at me. She was acting so giddy and excited for some reason.

"Are you okay? Are you in the right state of mind?" 

"What?" Tessa laughs again, flapping her right hand at me, "No, why would I be?"

"You're acting as if you're hopped up on ecstasy."

Tessa goes to wash her hands again, "I would never." and turns up the gas and the stove and continues stirring whatever is in the pot.

"Where's your kid?" I ask.

"Oh, she's at my in-laws, I'm childfree for once.

"Here's the can opener, mum. Is it for the canned apple pie filling?" Theo hands the can opener to her after fishing it out of a drawer filled with random kitchen tools.

"Yeah, I don't have enough time to make one from scratch." Eleanor explains, "I hope that's okay."

Theo continues talking to his mother as I open his fridge to grab a bottle of water, noticing the bottle of Dom Perignon.

"Dom Perignon?" I pick up the bottle, analysing the label, "who bought this?"

Tessa snatches the bottle out of my hands and slides back onto the top shelf of the fridge. "I did," she says, closing the fridge door, "it's going to be a special night so I bought a bottle for all of us." 

"Tessa!" Eleanor hisses, widening her eyes rhythmically at her as if she's trying to communicate in some type of code.

I raise an eyebrow at them, "Special night?"

I glance between the three of them for a moment, all looking giddy and antsy like they're hiding a secret from me.

"Tessa probably is hopped up on ecstasy." Eric says, attempting to break the silence.

No one speaks.

"Right, well I'm going to go use the loo." I exit the kitchen, smiling at them awkwardly as I walk past them.

I work on the zip of my ankle boots, pulling it off before noticing a light twinkling from my peripheral vision. I look up, finding the twinkling spark of light between the crack of the living room door. Quickly pulling off the other boot, I walk over, cracking open the door and peaking in.

Twinkle lights decorate the walls. The smell of waxy vanilla overwhelms my nose as hundreds of tealight candles lay on every inch of surface. Side tables, bookshelves, the TV stand, the hardwood floor.

Oh my God.

Dread settles in my stomach as I quickly shut the door, pretending I never saw what was in the room. 

♡ ♡ ♡

Everyone talks together at the dinner table, enjoying Eleanor's lamb roast she cooked for us and the buttery roast potatoes Theo made.

"Lovely roast, Eleanor." Theo's father, Arthur, compliments his wife, sipping his bourbon. Eleanor blushes, smiling demurely before redirecting the conversation back onto me and Theo.

"How's work, Mallory?" She asks, cutting into her meat.

"Good," I say, reminiscing about today's work at the family law firm, "working on a child custody case."

I loved my job as a legal assistant, working on divorce and child support cases. My mother always found it odd that I've always opted to work in such an environment while growing up as a child of a divorce. I've always felt like it gave me closure in a strange way. 

"How about you, Theo? Are the new year sevens nice to teach?"

Theo starts talking about his job as a PE teacher at a secondary school. I can tell he loves it. He always wanted to work with kids.

He has always wanted kids.

"They're all really lovely." He says between bites of food.

"You're really good with kids. Hopefully you'll have some of your own someday."

"Yeah that's in the plans." Theo hands lands on my thigh, gently squeezing it three times as he turns to smile at me.

I smile back, not quite reaching my eyes as my heart shatters.