Her dad died four weeks ago.
Things have been rough. The family had decided to take a previously booked holiday to the coast two weeks after the fact, and while everyone was raw, it was good to get away – so when, a couple of weeks later, a trip up took us north, we were up for the opportunity to get some much needed head space.
A couple we had planned to go with couldn’t make it in the end, so we had each other to ourselves for the weekend. A bit of shopping and some lunch before the long drive up towards Manchester, blaring Hamilton and singing at the top of our lungs.
Some seclusion from external forces is good for a relationship as long in the tooth as ours; eight years means we’re happy as anything just being in each others’ company, in silence or chatting about nothing in particular; my best friend’s impending bachelor party, or the ridiculous Christmas decorations already up in the restaurant we ate at that night, or the ”subtle vanilla notes” of our wine.