Weekend Away in Bruges – Part 2: The Long Way Back

They walked back the long way, past the quiet canals and the dark, shuttered shops. The lamps cast gold rings on the cobbles. A bell rang somewhere in the old town, soft and slow.

Pieter held her hand, as promised. His fingers were warm and slightly rough, and she found herself remembering the first time he had held it, outside a cinema in Leuven, twelve years ago, both of them too shy to say anything.

"You are smiling," he said.

"I am remembering."

"What?"

"You, in a terrible jacket, trying to buy me a hot chocolate with the wrong coins."

"It was a very good jacket."

"It was a crime."

He laughed, and drew her a little closer, and they walked on in comfortable silence.

On the little bridge by the hotel, Marta stopped. The canal was black and still, reflecting the lamplight in long wobbling lines.

"Can I ask you something?" she said.

"Yes."

"Do you still want me? Not as the mother of your children. As Marta."

Pieter turned to face her, his expression open and a little astonished.

"Yes," he said. "Every day. I have never stopped. I only stopped saying it."

Her eyes stung. "Say it again."

"I want you," said Pieter, very quietly. "I want to be your husband, and your friend, and the man who gets the chips on the bridge."

Marta laughed through her tears. "Can I ask you something else?"

"Yes."

"Will you take me upstairs, and let me tell you what I would like? Slowly, and with the door shut, and nobody calling for a glass of water?"

"Yes," said Pieter. "And I will ask first, every time."

They went up the stairs together, hand in hand. In the room, the candle on the table had burned low, and the canal murmured outside the window. Pieter did not rush. He asked her before every step, and listened to every answer, and when she laughed at his clumsy attempt to unfasten the necklace, he laughed with her. The four-poster bed creaked, and the curtains moved gently in the draught, and for the first time in a very long time, nobody was in a hurry.

Afterwards, they lay in the dark, her head on his shoulder, listening to the bells.

"Green?" asked Pieter, softly.

"Green," said Marta. "Very green. We should do this every year."

"Every month," said Pieter.

"We will need a very patient sister," said Marta.

"We have one," said Pieter, and held her close.

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