Day 24

We had been bickering all morning with my partner. First there was the tax on the car, then the eggs at our local farm, and other topics I have forgotten about. We were both tense and our constant proximity was not helping. For a large part of our days we are apart. I remain in the study to write, read, and work on ongoing personal projects while my partner has the run of the bedroom, the living room, and the garden (that I sometimes invade). We are lucky to have all this space. Had we still been in our first floor one bedroom flat in London, I am not sure how we would have coped. But today, none of that mattered. We kept apart but still argued every time we met. I became increasingly aware of the fact but could not understand why it was happening. I didn’t feel particularly stressed. In fact, I had spent an agreeable morning working on a fiction story I have been meaning to write for the last ten years. I asked my partner but apart from the fact she had not been sleeping well, she couldn’t pinpoint why we were arguing. So I did the only thing I could think of. I wrapped my hands around her and we hugged for a while. We laid in bed, hugging, eyes closed, resting. Outside the neighbours were chatting and laughing. I could hear the baby babbling along with the adults. A saw could be heard every now and again along with a fly that could not find the bedroom window to escape outside. We were quiet, together in our shaded bedroom. The sun had moved to the garden allowing the space to cool down after the warmth of the early morning. ‘I’m peckish,’ I said as silence returned outside. ‘Yeah. Me too.’ ‘Do you want cheese and onion chutney?’ ‘With crackers.’ ‘And cucumber.’ ‘Yeah.’ Slowly our bodies parted and we walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. My movements were easy as I navigated the jigsaw puzzle that is our fridge. There was a looseness in my muscles that hadn’t been there before. My partner washed our breakfast dishes and I laid out the food on our plates. ‘Want to eat outside?’ ‘Okay.’ It was easy again, to talk, to be with one another.