The Narrow House – Part 2: Rainy Sunday

It rained all Sunday.

The canal below the window was a sheet of beaten pewter, dimpled with raindrops. The bicycles outside the house were dark and streaming. The sky was low and soft and grey, and the lime trees shivered. In the narrow house, the lamps glowed warm.

They did nothing at all.

They made tea. They carried it up and down the stairs, spilling it on the steps. They played a board game on the bed, badly, with a lot of cheating. They read bits of the owner's library aloud, including a Dutch cookbook from 1962 that made Sanne weep with laughter. They ate bread and cheese and herring on the floor. Joost fell asleep on the sofa on the second floor with a book on his chest. Sanne watched him sleep, and felt a soft wave of tenderness she had not felt in years.

At dusk, the rain stopped.

The canal turned from pewter to gold. The lamps along the water flickered on, one by one, casting long wobbling lines on the black surface. The sky broke into shreds of apricot and violet. A boat slid by below the window, its lights strung along the rail, and someone on deck was playing an accordion.

They stood side by side at the open window, wrapped in one blanket, watching.

"It's perfect," said Sanne.

"It's four flights."

"Five."

"It's perfect."

She laughed softly. His arm slid round her shoulders. The evening air was cool and smelled of wet stone and woodsmoke.

"Can I ask you something?" said Joost.

"Yes."

"May I kiss my wife? In a narrow window, above a canal?"

"Yes," said Sanne. "And if I say stop, you must fetch the kettle."

"It's on the third floor."

"I know."

He kissed her, slow and warm, tasting of tea and rain. She kissed him back with fifteen years of fondness, a hand rising to his bobble hat. The accordion drifted past on the water. The lamplight shimmered gold.

When they parted, both of them were smiling.

"Green?" he asked.

"Green," said Sanne. "Very green."

They rent the narrow house every February. They no longer count the flights. They have both, officially, stopped complaining about the kettle.

More married couple romance: The Cruise · Couples Retreat · The Second Honeymoon