On the edge

Chapter 14: Second chances and double bottoms

France was marvellous. All of it. The food, the landscapes, the villages; the weather, the beaches, the forests,... Even the people we nice, Sue had to admit. Apparently, they were not quite all as annoying as the tourists that came to her shop. For a week and a half, the world stopped turning, and on open fields, under apple trees and the starry sky; in a stable in between the piles of hay, and on the back seat of James' old van, there was absolutely nothing in between him and Sue. And they both wished it, they, could always be like that. Free.
"Maybe we should move," James suggested, as he looked at the rows of cars to his right and left, and the ferry, several meters in front of them.
"And yet, we'd still have to work," Sue replied, wondering what it was he didn't want to go back to; their daily routine and their work, or St. Margaret's Bay.
"Yes," the blond agreed, "But everyday life would surely be much easier to endure if we wouldn't have to share it with like, at least half of the town we live in."

"Well, don't look at them," Sue countered cockily.
James turned his head to his left and stared at her, a bit confused about where all that sass was suddenly coming from.

"Everything alright?" he asked.
"Sure," was all the red-haired replied.

"Alright..." James said slowly and turned back, to look out of the front window again.
She'd tell him in time. For a while, they both sat in awkward silence, until Sue could no longer keep her mouth shut.
"I mean, where are we even supposed to go?" she wanted to know, "It's not like you'd actually have an idea where to go, or what to do; mostly about your shop... And what would your parents say?!"
James only shrugged.
"I don't know..." he said, "I'd close down the shop and open another one wherever we'd go... My parents would understand."
He paused for a little moment before going on, "They'd probably even be happy. Be happy that I am. And my father loves visiting the family all across the country, so..."
"And where would we go?" Sue asked again.
Again, James lifted his shoulders before answering her question.

"Where would you like to go?" he asked, "Maybe we don't even have to go far; Canterbury may-..."
"No," Sue cut him off, "Nobody wants to go to Canterbury,"

"Okay..." her husband continued hesitantly.

"How about Ashford? Or London, of you like. Essex!" he exclaimed, "You could continue your studies and-..."

"Do you really believe that?" the red-haired asked.

"Believe what?"

"That you'd be happy anywhere else but at home?"

James looked his wife in her eyes, a bit surprised at first, but quickly smiling at her, quietly. She had told him so many times during the past weeks, how much she regretted never having returned his looks until several months ago. And yet, "Look how well she knows me..." he thought.
"Probably not," James admitted, "Not as much... Even after all that town has done to me..."

"There's no place quite like home," Sue finished his sentence, and he nodded in agreement.
"But you're my home now," James then said, "Wherever you'll go, I'll follow. And wherever you stay, my heart will too; and my soul will come to rest. Because you're what makes me the happiest."

He grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly. Sue giggled a little and said something about how cheesy a person could possibly be. But James knew that although she didn't say so, Sue would have gotten onto a ferry and have travelled the world with him. She would have left the French coast with James, not only for Dover but... Africa! Probably Australia, New Zealand, and the end of the world, too. And that was more worth than any of these places could ever have given him.

"Here," Joanna handed Sue and James a shot of Tequila each.
She then turned around to Nicholas and, as Sue liked to call them, blond and blonder, to give out several more glasses of alcohol.
"The round's on Brian," the brunette announced.
"Why Tequila...??" Nicholas complained, but Joanna silenced him with a single look.