“What are you thinking about now?”
It was evening, and visiting time was almost over. Dot looked at Lawrence and said, “Why?”
“That little smile on your face. I like it. I want to know what made you smile like that.”
“Okay, do I make something up or tell you the truth?”
“The truth.” Lawrence paused. “Although now you’ve said that, I’m a bit worried I might not like the answer.”
What the hell, go for it. “I was thinking about the time you asked me to marry you.” As she said it, one of the nurses arrived to check on Lawrence’s IV.
“Ooh, marriage proposals, lovely!” Rose was a cheery soul who loved to chat. “Was it wonderfully romantic?”
“He probably doesn’t remember it,” said Dot. “It was over half a century ago.”
The nurse feigned dismay. “Oh, Lawrence, surely you haven’t forgotten! Have you?”
“I remember,” said Lawrence. “I’m not that decrepit.”
“Go on then, tell me.” Rose beamed. “I’m all ears!”
Her ears were actually quite large and stuck out. For a split second Dot and Lawrence exchanged a glance, silently daring each other to smile.
“It was a Saturday evening.” Lawrence held up his arm, allowing Rose to get on with the task of unpeeling the tape holding one of the IV lines in place. “Started off sunny, then the sky clouded over as we were setting out. We’d been invited to a party at a friend’s house and my car had broken down the day before, so we had to walk there instead. It was about five miles away, but that was okay. We could manage it, no problem.” Drily he added, “Back when we were young.”
“Wait,” said Rose. “I need to know. Had you planned the whole thing? I mean, did you have the ring with you?”
“No.” Lawrence shook his head. “We’d only known each other a few weeks. I knew I loved her, but that was as far as I’d gotten. So anyway, we’d walked a couple miles along the cliff path when it started to rain. And Dot was wearing a new dress. A yellow one.”
Dot, sitting at his bedside, couldn’t believe he remembered the color of her dress.
“Pale yellow,” Lawrence elaborated. “With white daisies on it. And pockets on each side.”
“It was the sixties,” Dot explained to Rose. “Daisies and pockets were very popular back then.”
“When it started raining, she was worried about her dress getting wet, so I took off my jacket and let her wear it. But the rain came down harder. So then we tried to take a shortcut, leaving the cliff path and cutting across some fields. Which would have worked well if it hadn’t been for the locked gate.”
“Oh no, what happened?” Rose was expertly retaping the IV line.
And now it was Lawrence’s turn to smile. “I was helping Dot to climb over the gate. But she was wearing white, pointy-heeled shoes and she slipped on her way over the top bar. She went crashing down the other side, skidded, lost her balance, and ended up sitting in a puddle, splashed head to toe in mud. Well, that was it; I knew what girls were like when their new clothes got wrecked. I was just waiting for her to go ballistic.” He shook his head, evidently visualizing the scene. “But d’you know what? She started to laugh instead. And there was mud all over her face…and her dress…”
“And your jacket,” Dot added. “And you were still on the other side of the gate, looking stunned…”
“So then I climbed over the gate like a complete gentleman to haul her up. I grabbed hold of both her hands, and do you know what she did, Rose?” Lawrence raised an eyebrow at the nurse. “Instead of letting me help her get back on her feet, she deliberately pulled me down into the mud.”
“Nooo!” Rose was agog.
“I mean, what kind of a girl does that?” He shrugged helplessly. “She dragged me down with her and laughed and laughed, then she kissed me and rolled me around until we were both completely covered, then she kissed me again and I knew exactly what kind of a girl did that.” Lawrence’s mouth twitched. “It was the kind I wanted to marry. So that was it; that was when I asked her. There and then.”
“In the mud and the rain,” said Dot.
“In an empty field.”
“And with our clothes ruined.”
“I couldn’t have cared less.” Lawrence looked at Rose. “She said yes; that was all that mattered.”
“Ah, that’s so lovely.” Rose was clasping her hands together in delight. “So you never did make it to the party.”
“Oh, we did.” Lawrence smiled. “We wanted to celebrate with our friends. Weren’t going to let a bit of mud stop us.”
“They lent us a change of clothes,” said Dot. “Weird clothes, but at least they were dry.”
“They gave you a giant pair of dungarees,” Lawrence remembered. “And I had to wear a terrible pair of corduroy trousers. God, they were purple.” He threw his head back and laughed. “But we still had the most brilliant night.”
“We did,” Dot agreed. “Even if a couple people thought we were far too young to be thinking about getting married and said it would never last.”
“Ha, and you proved them wrong!” Rose beamed. “Look at the two of you now, fifty years later. Oh, I love stories like this. You give the rest of us hope; you really do!”
Dot opened her mouth to say, Except we aren’t married; we’re divorced. Then she met Lawrence’s gaze and closed it again. Why do it? Why disappoint Rose and prompt the question that would mean explaining all over again why their happy marriage had ended in unhappy divorce?
Instead she smiled and said, “We just struck lucky, I guess.”
When Rose had finished and moved on to the next patient, Dot looked at her watch and said, “They’re going to be kicking me out soon.”
“Yes.” Lawrence paused. “Thank you.”
“For what? The grapes?” Dot had eaten most of them herself. “Sorry about that. I’ll bring some more tomorrow.”
“Never mind them. Thank you for everything. Just…everything.” His voice cracked and he cleared his throat, embarrassed. “Anyway, you should be heading off.”
To her lonely attic room back at the B and B. It was funny how a hospital ward, with all its bustle and chatter, could come to feel like home. She said, “I suppose I should.”
“Thanks for keeping me company. Again. And for not telling Rose the depressing truth.”
“Didn’t have the heart to disappoint her.” Dot lightly touched his wrist. “I’m impressed, by the way, that you remembered what I was wearing when I fell over in the mud.”
“Just because I don’t talk about things doesn’t mean I don’t remember them.” Lawrence shook his head. “I’ll never forget anything about that night.”
Dot reached for his hand, curling her fingers between his. She’d felt like the luckiest girl in the world that day. It had been the ultimate spur-of-the-moment proposal, followed by a wild, impromptu celebration. Poor Antoine; all the immaculate planning and painstaking attention to detail in the world couldn’t have matched it. She looked at Lawrence and said, “I love you.”
Stunned, he gazed back at her. Finally he nodded and replied, “I love you too.”
“Who knows how much time either of us has left? I don’t think we should waste it.”
“Visiting time’s over, you two lovebirds,” Rose sang out as she made her way back past them.
“Seriously?” Lawrence whispered.
“Absolutely.”
“Oh my God.” He squeezed Dot’s hand. “Are you trying to give me another heart attack?”
Dot spluttered; his sense of humor had always made her laugh. “Do try not to have one.”
“Well, despite the fact that I’m lying in a hospital bed full of tubes,” said Lawrence, “this ranks right up there as one of the best days of my life.” He raised his head from the pillow and she leaned over to kiss him on the mouth.
Eleven years since the last kiss. Dot closed her eyes; how she’d missed him.
Well, we’re together again now. Until death us do part.
Her heart turned over. “You know what? Me too.”
“And is Antoine…you know, definitely off the scene?”
“Absolutely definitely.”
“You mean, out of him or me, you chose me?”
“Looks like it,” said Dot.
“Wow,” said Lawrence. “That’s amazing. No accounting for taste.”
“I know. Weird, isn’t it?”
He reached up and touched the side of her face. “I’m the luckiest man in the world. I really hope I don’t die just yet.”
Dot smiled, cupped her own hand over his, and murmured, “You’d better not. If you do, I’ll kill you.”