My beloved has inadvertently given me the perfect present – a whole day’s peace and quiet. Yes, he’s flown off to business meetings in Paris and won’t be back until late. Of course, I could have accompanied him and spent many a happy hour wandering around Paris on my own. It’s one of my favourite cities.
However, duty calls, we have back-to-back meetings at the club this evening. It’s difficult enough finding convenient times for us all to meet and I generally favour meetings just before our regular weekly one. Since none of us on the core management team live in the same town as the club, we try not to schedule multiple meetings on consecutive days. It’s not far but, with traffic, a round trip can take anywhere between 45 minutes and an hour.
I’m not getting off entirely scott-free. I still had to make him breakfast, press his jacket, take him to the airport and will have to rustle up a light snack for a latish dinner and collect him from the airport. The club’s close to the airport but I’ll have about an hour to kill between the end of my meetings and his anticipated return. I’ll pop round to my sister’s holiday apartment to check that everything’s in order for her arrival on Sunday. The shops will be closed and I know she’ll be desperate for a cup of tea and a light dinner after she’s landed. I shall leave her emergency supplies in the fridge.
My beloved has made a quick recovery from his chill which I think he picked up cross-country skiing on Saturday. I know he’s keen to go again – maybe later in the week. However, I don’t want him becoming ill as he’s off on a business trip next week and I don’t want anything to interfere with those plans.
As he’s in Paris, the City of Love, you might be wondering whether he’ll be tempted to buy me a little something for Valentine’s Day. The answer is unequivocably “No”. He’s been excused all present buying duties following my recently introduced dictate. And let’s face it, it’s not something he enjoys doing, or is one of his [few] competencies – unlike say, opening a bottle of wine. I’m saving him the angst and me the disappointment. Surely a win:win situation.
