Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,126

She was amazed that he even knew the film existed, let alone that it was one of her favourites, and had to give him credit for that at least. It almost felt like he was trying to woo her all over again and Elise wondered if he had finally realised that things between them were well and truly broken.

Whilst it was wonderful and definitely a pleasant change to see this side of her husband, his actions this evening had not changed her mind at all and she knew with absolute certainty that she no longer loved him and, as such, there could be no future for them. No happily-ever-after. Not anymore.

She had already decided to leave their final discussion though until after Christmas and her heart lifted at the prospect of this perhaps being a pleasant one, rather than the usual drunken and abuse-filled day. She may be intending to break his heart at the end of it but given his behaviour over the last five years, she had seriously begun to doubt that he even had a heart left anyway.

As the end credits began to roll, Elise became aware of the fact that somewhere during the course of the movie Dale had linked hands with her and his arm was across her shoulders resting on the back of the sofa. This was so reminiscent of the old days that she inadvertently snuggled into him, breathing in his familiar scent and loving that it wasn’t tainted with alcohol for once.

Too much had happened for them ever to go back to the innocence of those early days, but tonight it felt like something magical had happened and they were both being allowed to enjoy their relationship as it had been, for one last time.

When Dale tugged her to her feet and led her up the stairs, it didn’t occur to her to argue. She wasn’t an idiot and she knew what was going to happen but she also knew that it felt right. Almost like a goodbye. She and Dale had been in love for countless years and even though for her it was over now, she couldn’t forget what they had had in the past and maybe they both needed this almost calm release so that they could remember the good, forget the bad and move forward.

They made love that night with a tenderness that had been sorely missing in recent times and although Elise didn’t enjoy it, she recognised the beauty of it for what it was. For her, it was closure and she knew that in the next few days things would undoubtedly get rough but at least she could leave with one beautiful memory of her marriage to hold on to.

She tried to blank from her mind the fact that she had promised Vaughn that she wouldn’t do this and she couldn’t believe how the whole time she was with Dale she felt that she was being unfaithful. This was her husband and yet she hadn’t once felt unfaithful when she had been sleeping with Vaughn. Even though he was probably having a merry old time with Olivia right now, her heart belonged to him lock, stock and barrel and she really had no idea how she was ever going to get it back.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The rest of the weekend was bizarre - it was the only way to describe it. After their strange truce of Friday night, Saturday and Sunday had passed in a whirl of normality. Household chores had been tackled side by side, shopping had been done and they had talked like they hadn’t talked in a long while.

Elise was pleased to realise that Dale had caught up his hours at work and was now trying to stay on the straight and narrow. There were moments when he talked with passion and she saw glimpses of the old Dale again, reminding her of the man he used to be and the man that she had first fallen in love with all those years ago.

On Sunday they had visited a car boot sale; really an indoor Christmas fair as it was far too cold and out of season for a proper boot sale. There were the usual items of junk for sale as well as some festive decorations and they found themselves buying odds and ends and bartering with the best of them to save fifty pence here and there. By the time they had finished they both had bags full of things that they really