Chapter Twenty
ALTERED PLANS
As Amy arrived home the following Friday afternoon after a day in town with her mother, she was both surprised and concerned to see Matthew’s car already parked in the driveway. She loaded her arms with her shopping bags and headed into the house through the pouring rain, stumbling through the front door.
“…best opportunity to prove to everyone that she’s…”
Matthew was one the phone, and turned at Amy’s entrance.
“Speak of the devil, she’s just walked through the door.”
Amy walked over and kissed Matthew’s lips, before unpacking her shopping bags. During this time, Matthew ended his phone call.
“Who was that?” Amy asked.
“Jake.”
“How is he?”
“He’s great – he’s got a film premiere coming up in September.”
Amy smiled to herself – she was going on a tangent, far from her intended question.
“So… why’re you home so early?”
It was clear that this was the question Matthew was hoping to avoid. He took a deep sigh and interrupted Amy’s unpacking, sitting themselves down in the lounge room.
“What…”
Like a band aid, Matthew thought, like a band aid.“Amy, I’ve quit my job.”
It took a minute for this information to register in Amy’s mind, and when it did, she was furious. She leapt up from the couch.
“You WHAT?! You quit your job! Why! Why on earth would you do that! What kind of idiot are you?!”
She began to cry, and angrily unpacked the last of her shopping. It was the response Matthew had somewhat expected.
“Please hear me out.”
There was only angry silence, broken by Amy’s cries.
“Roylonson ordered a retrial this morning; one of the jurors decided they knew the defendants, and one of our witnesses gave hearsay.”
“So, what?” Amy shot back. “We’ve both done a million retrials before. They’re a nuisance, but we do them. What’s so different about this one?”
As Amy stomped around the kitchen, Matthew conceded, “I don’t want to do it anymore. I’m sick of fighting other people’s problems.”
“So you just quit, without even maybe thinking properly about it? What are we going to do for income, Matt? How’re we going to pay off our new mortgage?”
She wanted to continue, but Amy held her tongue on this last point. It was very personal, and she was sure Matthew would respond unappreciatively.
“Amy, just give me a chance to explain. Please don’t be so angry.”
Amy finished her unpacking and headed to the bathroom. “I’m having a shower.”
After giving Amy a short while to calm down, Matthew approached her in their bedroom. She lay beneath the bed covers, quietly sniffling, holding in her hand her treasured photograph of her being pushed on the swing as a child by her father. Over the years, the photo had become bent, creased and mangled.
Matthew took a seat on the edge of the bed, his hands moving to brush through Amy’s wet hair. She spoke almost immediately.
“I was ready to try again,” she said quietly. “I was expecting to begin our family.”
“And we will Amy, I promise. Nothing will change that.”
“But how can we start a family if we have no money? My career’s dead, so I was counting on yours.”
Matthew lay down along the bed beside Amy, wrapping his arms around her waist. “I want to focus on my music again. I’ll start contacting producers soon.”
Amy gave it a moment’s thought. “Are you sure this is what you want to do? You were so desperate to quit all those years ago.”
“I know, but now I have true inspiration to make music that I enjoy. I’m not being forced to do it now. I want to do it.” He pecked Amy’s cheek lovingly.
Amy sighed, and put the photo of her father aside. She turned to face Matthew, and breathed, “Okay.”
Matthew smiled. “Thank you. But there’s even better news.”
“Something better than that bombshell?”
“Remember our honeymoon, and how I promised I’d take you travelling more? Well, I think it’s time we had a European holiday.”
“A holiday?” Amy sighed, her head sinking deeper into the pillows. “Shouldn’t we be saving our pennies for the house?”
“But I think we need this. This year has mostly been an absolute mess for the both of us, and I think we deserve a holiday, you especially. So I was thinking we’d take it for three or four months – round off the year with it. We’ll travel anywhere in Europe – France, Italy, Britain, Greece, Spain – you name it and we’ll go there. And then, as I was speaking to Jake, I thought we might go and visit them beforehand.”
Amy thought for a moment, utterly bewildered.
“This is a lot to take in, after you told me you quit your job.”
“I know, I know. But I think this is what we need.”
Amy broke her gaze with Matthew. “I was really hoping to work on our family, though. I was hoping we’d have a baby by next year.”
Matthew gently placed his hands on Amy’s cool cheek. “And we will. I promise. I promise you that we will have a baby next year. Not that we’ll try, but that they’ll be born next year. I promise.”
He smiled, seeing that Amy was still overwhelmed.
“Sleep on it. I really do want to go on this holiday with you. And when we come home from it, we’ll have our new home to move into.”
Amy smiled in return, knowing that Matthew would easily win this negotiation.
Recovering Amy
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Recovering Amy (Amy, #2)
Romance“You’re mine,” it told her in her dreams, “you don’t deserve happiness”. She would wake up screaming most nights, crying, begging for forgiveness that no one dared to offer her. She was sorry – she didn’t mean for anything quite so terrible to happe...
