The End of Us by Olivia Kiernan

Author:Olivia Kiernan [Kiernan, Olivia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-26T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

Right before I proposed to Lana, we took a trip to the South Coast. We stayed just outside Worth Matravers. The weather was dry, the roads sun-baked and dusty. The sea-blown brittle hedgerows were heavy with rosehip and blackberry blossom. We rented a cottage that could have manifested from a postcard. It had a thatched roof, walls strewn with ivy and red roses.

On our last night there, we went to a pub set high on the cliffs overlooking the sea. The tables were huge slabs of granite, warm from the day’s sun. We drank locally brewed cider and ate chips from newspaper. Later, loose-limbed and giggling, we stumbled down the quiet roads towards our cottage. My arm was round Lana’s waist, hers looped over my shoulder, her hand clinging to my neck, like she was gripping the mast of a boat on a rocky sea. The sky was so clear, it was as if I could reach up and pluck a star from the darkness. We stopped outside the small blue cottage gate and kissed. I tasted the sweet and sour stickiness of cider on her lips.

‘Lie down,’ she said, tugging me towards the ground. ‘Look.’ She tipped her head back.

We lay down. In the middle of the road. And gazed upwards, the tips of our fingers touching. The earth, like a cradle, swayed left then right. It was as if we were floating, up, through the inky night, stars falling, like rain, around us.

‘We’re going to do great things together,’ Lana said. Her voice breathy, happy.

‘Take that sushi cookery course,’ I replied.

She didn’t laugh but even without looking at her, I knew she was smiling. ‘How else would we lord our brilliance over our friends?’ A pause. ‘We’ll buy some stylish big house with enough rooms to prove we don’t need them but not so much that it’s obnoxious.’

The earth swayed.

‘You’ll make partner at the surgery,’ she whispered. ‘Everyone in the Village will know who you are. I’ll work part-time so that I can finish my master’s. Become a real-life psychologist. We’ll entertain. Our hosting will be exquisite. We will be the couple everyone thinks of for their parties. And when we’re not dining with others, we’ll eat out.’

‘We’ll have a reserved table at the best restaurant in town,’ I added.

‘They hold it, just in case we turn up,’ she said.

‘We’ll have other properties. A holiday home in Portugal or France.’

‘No. Somewhere in the UK, so we can drop into conversation ad nauseam how we’ll be nipping down to the coast for a few days.’

‘Cornwall,’ I said.

‘Sandbanks,’ she replied.

The couple who dream together, stay together. Or at least until death us do part.

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