The Anniversary

“Shortly before I confronted you. When I was at the club.” Toby looked embarrassed. “He said he saw you with another man having lunch and you were all over him. Because of Emil’s behavior shortly before I thought it was him with you. I was stupid to let it get to me.”

Simone couldn’t believe Mike’s gall. Every year shortly before their anniversary Mike would call and say Simone was cheating. Toby knew this but because he wasn’t in the right frame of mind he had let it get to him. She was glad Mike was behind bars because she would have gone for him.

Toby reached into his pocket and withdrew a folded envelope. Simone saw the return address and immediately knew what they were.

“Maria showed me these.” Toby held up the envelope. “And she showed me the gifts you got me.”

Simone sighed and took the envelope, opening it to see the tickets.

“They were meant to be for our anniversary.” She murmured. Their twentieth. A special milestone. “I wanted to do something special.”

“You should’ve told me from the start, Simone. I hate surprises.”

“I know and everyone has been reminding me about it.” Simone leaned her head against her husband’s. “I’m sorry. I won’t surprise you again.”

“I’m glad.” Toby put his arms around her and kissed her, lingering on her mouth before pulling away. “The tickets say the cruise is in three weeks. Do you think you and Carl will be well enough for us to go?”

“Absolutely.” Simone made a face. “After this week I need a break.”

“So do I.”

Toby kissed her again, Simone sinking into his arms. She had missed him a lot. This felt like the man she knew and had married. Toby drew back and grinned.

“So when do we start packing?”

Simone laughed.

“For someone who hates surprises you are impatient.”

Toby didn’t respond. He simply pulled her back for another kiss. And he was still kissing her when their children came in with Maria. Maria saw they were busy and ushered the boys out, closing the door behind her.

*****

Five years later.

Simone knocked on the door and opened it, putting her head around the door. She stared as she saw the bride standing by the full-length mirror, looking pensively at her reflection.

“Oh, Charlie, you look gorgeous.”

Charlotte turned and gave Simone a slight smile. A blush that wasn’t part of the makeup dusted her cheeks.

“Thanks. I feel a bit strange, though.”

“Nonsense. You look incredible.” Simone closed the door behind her and crossed the room. They were the only two, Charlotte’s bridesmaids having already left to wait for the cars. “Carl is going to be bowled over.”

“I hope so.”

Simone knew that he would. Her son had matured a lot in the last few years. After his attack and realizing the girl he had a crush on had betrayed him, it had given him a hard knock on his confidence. For several months afterwards he went off the rails, refusing to listen to Simone or Toby, and had dropped out of school. Suddenly he was taking drugs and drinking to take away the pain.

It was only with Charlotte’s determination not to desert him that he realized after a year of giving himself hell that he was not to blame. It took a while for him to admit it but then he knuckled down, going back to high school and finishing his final year. He quit the drink and the drugs, went to work, and then he was accepted into North Carolina State to study English.

He had also realized something else: he had fallen in love with his best friend. Simone had known Charlotte had loved Carl for a long time but to have Carl finally notice her and realize that she was actually the person he was meant to be with had been a sweet moment. Simone and Toby still laughed at the expression on Carl’s face when things had clicked into his mind.

Things had been solid between them. Charlotte refused to give up on Carl and had supported him the whole way. Now both of them were about to graduate from North Carolina State and they had decided they would finally tie the knot, Carl having proposed to Charlotte two years before. Toby had been more than happy to cover the bill as a wedding present, which had caused some contention with Charlotte’s father but they had then decided to split the bill down the middle.

Carl couldn’t care less how they were married or what it was like but Charlotte wanted to please her parents so they were going to have the white wedding they wanted with a honeymoon in Hawaii after graduation. Looking at them now Simone couldn’t be more proud of them.

Charlotte sighed and sat, rubbing at her stomach.

“I’m so nervous.” She whispered.

Simone could understand. She sat beside her daughter-in-law and laid a hand over the younger woman’s.

“It’s normal, honey. I was terrified on my wedding day. I was afraid Toby wouldn’t turn up. That he had finally listened to his family and walked away from me.” Simone could remember her wedding day in great detail and that was what stood out the most. “We’d been together six years by then but it was always a fear at the back of my mind.”

“And now you’ve been married twenty-five years.”

Twenty-five years. Simone could remember the twenty-year mark when they had nearly been split up by Toby’s brother making Toby suspicious enough to believe Simone had been cheating. It had been Mike who had orchestrated the attack on Carl and Simone using his teenage lover’s boyfriend as a patsy. Carl and Simone had ended up in hospital, lucky not to be dead. Now he was locked up for twenty-five years for attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Louise, his girlfriend’s sister, Carl’s crush and Mike’s lover, had been given eight years for accessory charges and Jason and his six friends were all serving twenty-year sentences for attempted murder.

Simone felt like she didn’t breathe properly until she knew they were locked up for definite. Neither did Toby, who turned his back on Mike for the final time and cut off all contact with his side of the family. There were things that he could not forgive and this was certainly unforgivable.