In Another Life (2 page)

“Hey,” she smiled at him as she reluctantly removed her coat. The cool air outside had managed to permeate the space within the café.

“Hey, baby,” Sebastian greeted her with a bright grin which extended up to his hazel eyes, making them briefly sparkle.

“How’s your day going?” he asked as Marie reached for a menu and began to browse through the collection of deli style sandwiches.

“Mmm, okay,” Marie titled her head slightly to the right as she spoke, a gesture she always made when something displeased her.

“We had a client come in called All Purpose Shoes. Ironically their shoes seem to serve no purpose at all.”

“So don’t you like it there?” there was a note of tension within Sebastian’s voice which irritated Marie. Sometimes he could be as judgemental as her parents about her lack of focus.

“Its fine,” Marie shrugged casually as she decided upon a chicken club sandwich. “I mean, it’s hardly what I want to spend my life doing.”

“Well that’s just it,” Sebastian gestured towards her emphatically. “You need to start thinking about your future, about forging a career for yourself.”

Marie rolled her eyes and blew at a freshly free strand of hair. She’d heard it all before. She was constantly being told to plan for the future, to settle down and put to bed her childish notions of some grand life. But Marie was only twenty seven, in her mind the world continued to stretch beyond her full of limitless possibilities. She didn’t want to shut herself off and narrow her view like everyone else seemed so desperate to do.

“Let’s just order,” she suggested, not wanting to get in to yet another argument about her inability to commit to a career.

“Fine,” Sebastian didn’t sound pleased with her but he didn’t press the topic further.

*

Sebastian Fenwick had never had to look far when it came to his destiny. He was born in to the Fenwick dynasty. His family had made millions in the diamond industry and were synonymous with the sparkling gems. Marie wore a beautiful Fenwick diamond as part of their betrothal. As wonderful as the ring was, wearing it made her nervous. It was worth more than her parent’s house. But Sebastian had insisted that the only diamond she could wear would be a Fenwick one and they didn’t deal in a budget line.

With money and good looks, Sebastian had been among the most elite of London’s bachelors. By chance, he one day ran in to Marie, literally, when she was late to catch a flight during her stint as an air hostess. What attracted him to her was how uncomfortable she looked in the pristine uniform, wearing the obligatory bright red lipstick. Whilst stunningly beautiful, Marie appeared out of place, like a china doll placed among the Barbies. He instantly wanted, no needed, to get to know her.

The rest had been like a fairy tale. He had wooed her, fallen for her and now they were due to be married. But all fairy tales had to end; Sebastian knew that, he existed in the real world. However, for his fiancée, it was as if the magical world of stories never ceased to be poignant to her as she cast off her childhood days. Rather than be infuriated by her outlook it merely worked to further endear her to him.

*

“You know, we really do need to set a date,” Sebastian said decisively once his plate was clear. Marie, still chewing her own sandwich, rolled her eyes.

“Roll your eyes all you want,” he told her sternly. “But my parents are putting real pressure on me to set a date. We need to think about booking a venue, flying in guests, all these things take time and ample preparation.”

As Marie swallowed down the last of her club sandwich her head tilted to the right. Ever since she’d gotten engaged to Sebastian ten months ago the questions about setting a date for the wedding had been gathering with the momentum of a freight train to the point where she felt she was going to be knocked over by everyone’s incessant desire for her to finalise her union with him.

“Seb, we’ve been through this,” she sighed.

Like every little girl, Marie dreamed of her wedding day. She’d wear a pristine white dress, covered by a lace veil and be walked down the aisle by her father who would be beaming with pride. For one whole day, Marie would be a princess. But she knew that wouldn’t be enough for her. Twenty four hours hardly seemed like a fair amount of time for any woman to get to feel special and like royalty.

Marie also didn’t like making plans. Not adult plans. Getting married felt like the final nail in her coffin of being young and carefree. As a Fenwick, she’d be expected to act and behave in a certain way. She’d instantly be propelled in to high society and she wasn’t ready for that, a part of her feared she never would be.

“I know, and we are going to keep going through it until you make your mind up. Let’s at least go and look at some venues.”

It made Sebastian uncomfortable to push the wedding, as though he were talking Marie in to marrying him. But she was unusual; he’d always known that about her. He loved her quirkiness except when it interfered with his plans for their future.

“It’s not even been a year,” Marie said, trying to delay the inevitable. “Most women wait at least a year after they’ve been engaged before they look at venues.”

“How would you know that?” Seb asked, leaning forward. “You’ve not read any wedding magazines and Lord knows those books you’ve forever got your nose in aren’t about getting married.”

Marie lowered her gaze, feeling slightly hurt by his comment about her reading. There was a time when he told her how much he loved her insatiable reading habit. Like the seasons, even love seemed destined to change and Marie hated that.

“It’s what I’ve heard,” Marie replied quietly.

Sebastian saw the sadness behind her eyes as she spoke and instantly felt filled with guilt. He shouldn’t be talking to his fiancée so abruptly, he truly was becoming his father which was his greatest fear.

“Look, sweetheart, I’m sorry,” he reached out and took her hands in his. They were cold. Marie’s hands were always icy cold, even in the heat of summer.

“My parents are just hammering on at me to set the date. You know what they are like. And I honestly can’t wait to marry you. I love you. I want us to be man and wife.”

Marie managed to smile, wondering in her mind why no one ever said woman and husband, it was always man and wife? It didn’t seem fair somehow.

“I was planning on going home this weekend; I can discuss it with my Mom and Dad and find some suitable dates.”

“That’d be great!” Sebastian beamed, squeezing her hands. Marie returned the smile though her head titled to the right as she did so.

“You didn’t mention going home this weekend,” he added, looking quizzically at her. “We’ve got that party in Oxford we were going to go to.”

In truth, it was the party in Oxford which had prompted Marie to want to return to the comfort of her family home for the weekend. It was being thrown by one of Sebastian’s university friends. All of their parties were the same; boring events full of overly priced champagne where they each congratulated one another on being masters of the universe. Marie loathed going. Compared to all the trophy wives and girlfriends she felt like the poor man’s prize even though Sebastian insisted she wasn’t and that it was all in her head.

Despite being engaged to a wealthy man Marie refused to accept the trappings of his lifestyle. The clothes she bought, the apartment she lived in were all bought with the money she earned and hers alone. So when she showed up to parties with Seb, all the women were in designer clothes while Marie was strictly high street. The women would completely shun her as though she were from a different planet instead of a different tax bracket.

“My Mom asked me to go up and I’ve not seen them in a while,” Marie said flippantly. Her parents lived in Manchester, the city where she had grown up. Her voice still carried the regional lilt but London was such a melting pot of numerous accents that no one really mentioned it.

“I don’t like going to parties without you,” Sebastian admitted honestly. Without Marie there to be his anchor he could always drift in to the elitist world he had been brought up in. His father was privileged and cruel with it. Sebastian swore he would never end up like that, he often wondered if he’d been drawn to Marie as she was so confident in her social standing, she was never try to be anything she wasn’t and she kept Seb grounded.

“We can still Skype,” Marie said brightly. She enjoyed Skype, it was so much more fun than a phone call. She enjoyed creating visual gags for Sebastian. The last time she’d been at her parent’s he got to watch her attempt, numerous times, to place the contents of an entire bag of Malteasers in to her mouth. He had been crying with laughter by the end of it as Marie was choking on chocolate and honeycomb.

“I won’t sulk about you abandoning me for an entire weekend on one condition,” Seb said, smirking conspiratorially. 

“Oh?” Marie leaned forward, intrigued. She enjoyed conspiring. She always figured that being a spy must be a terrible amount of fun, if dangerous.

“When you come back, you have dates for me. Actual legitimate dates we can set for our wedding.”

Marie made an overly thoughtful face as she pretended to think on the terms of the deal.

“Okay, fine,” she declared after a dramatic pause. “Do we shake on it?”

“No, we do this,” Seb leaned across the table and placed a sweetly soft kiss upon Marie’s lips, which like her hands, were cold.

“You’re so cold today,” he commented when they parted. Marie raised her shoulders by way of response.

“Cold hands, warm heart, that’s what my Nan used to say,” she smiled.

“I’m guessing your Nan was as mad as you are,” Seb stated cheekily.

“Hey!” Marie playfully threw her napkin across the table at him. It fell short of its target and floated down between them, more a sign of submission than the defiant gesture it was intended to be.

“Seriously though, Marie, I want us to get things moving. I want us to set a date. We need this set in stone now.”

Marie nodded with understanding even though inside she trembled slightly. The only thing which should be set in stone were the dates upon your tombstone, everything else was flexible and free, at least to her.

“Are you taking the train back?” Seb suddenly changed the subject, his features softening slightly.

“No,” Marie shook her head. “I fancied driving back. Besides, I probably won’t finish work early enough to get the train.”

“Just don’t forget to Skype me,” Seb warned though he was smiling as he did so.

“I won’t, Brownie promise,” Marie held her fingers up in the symbol of the childhood club she had been a part of. Seb raised an amused eyebrow at his fiancée.

“Did anyone ever tell you how strange you are, Marie Schneider?” he asked affectionately.

“Not nearly enough.”

*

Amanda Pickens scanned her heavily made up eyes over the document Marie had just handed her. With every word she read the scowl darkening her sharp features intensified.

“These notes are just too brief,” she eventually declared, quickly handing the papers back to Marie as though they were contaminated.

Dumbfounded, Marie accepted them back, unsure how her notes could have been too brief. At the All Purpose Shoes meeting barely anything of merit had even been said. She’d highlighted the key points, those she could remember anyway. Surely Amanda didn’t want an account of what had transpired at the meeting verbatim?

“I covered all the main points,” Marie defended. Amanda rolled her eyes and shook her head, pursing her lips together as she did so.

“There’s not enough about the shoes,” she insisted. “When the client reads the notes back they want to read all about their product and how great it is.”

“But they didn’t really mention the shoes,” Marie countered. “They had the information pack which everyone read through-”