Paris Sketch 4

He grasps her hand and gives it a gentle squeeze. She looks at him and smiles, but it never reaches her eyes. If the eyes are the window of the soul, her’s seems to be somewhere different right now.

His own smile fades and the tightness returns to his lips. This trip was supposed to rekindle the romance, to help them rediscover each other, but the last few days have felt more like two polite acquaintances on a grand city tour. She holds his hand, smiles and nods at all the right times, but the spark is gone. Their personal connection has been broken, eroded imperceptibly by time and business.

As soon as their youngest son had left home, he had arranged this trip. A final hurrah for two parents who had done their time and released their children into the world as fully fledged adults. But the new quietness in the house brought with it the horrifying realisation that they no longer had anything in common. Even their old household roles were now redundant. The silence they had dreamed of for twenty three years was now physically painful, but neither of them had anything left with which to break it. It had risen like a tide of icy water until he could feel it licking the nape of his neck. Now he spends every day fighting just to stay afloat as his emotions become numb with the cold.

The silence had followed them to Paris, only broken by the occasional clicking of her infernal camera. He was sure photography was another defence designed to make him keep his distance. Despite having been here for four days, they had taken none of the usual tourist selfies, there were no pictures of the two of them smiling. No proof that they had ever been there together.

It would be easier to just let go, to drift in separate directions on a slow tide of cold quiet. But the last thirty years together had to count for something. He had sworn to love, honour and cherish her unto death, not just for the duration of their parental duties.

And so he would keep squeezing her hand, wrapping his arm around her waist and whispering compliments whenever he had a chance. Paris has no power to save his marriage, but he does. His lips tighten further still as he determines to fight for the heart of the woman who once loved him.