Together

You Matter To Me

There are few things in this world that I appreciate less than the rehearsal time of my early morning advanced choir, and that's tomorrow morning so whooooo...... haha. This is a fun and fluffy little chapter again, and there's a little shoutout to my Les Mis cast in there too hehe. I hope you all like it! Comment/vote x
-ab

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February 7, 2026

Patrick

Our last real day on our holiday is, yet another, early morning. Today, we are going into Edinburgh.

"Make sure that you look nice for today," I tell Harper. "We are going to go out for a nice dinner."

While that's true, it isn't the entire truth. We are going to see her friend Ava, who is starring as Jenna in the UK tour of Waitress. Ava, who played Eponine opposite Harper's Cosette back when they were in Les Mis, knows that we are coming, and couldn't be more thrilled. The two were quite close for the duration of their run. Really, most of that entire cast was quite the family. There's something special about that show, which allows people to create friends for life. Even the lowest-budget, community production of Les Mis helps people to form relationships which remain for long after the show closes, from what I've heard.

That's why I really made it a priority to be sure that we had time during our day in Edinburgh to catch Ava's matinee. In the morning, when we first get there, I'm taking her to the famous castle, of course, and then we are going to walk around the old town. After a late lunch, we are heading over to the Edinburgh Playhouse for the show.

"So, are you going to tell me where we are going?" Harper asks me as we are in the car.

"I'm going to go with no."

"Please?"

"You'll know soon enough. You're cute though. Keep that up."

Harper giggles. "Cute enough to be persuasive?"

"Probably not."

"What if I was twenty years younger than I am?"

"You'd almost definitely be cute enough to be persuasive. I've seen your baby pictures, love."

"God, fine. I see how it is."

She tries to keep a straight face, but can't quite do that, and bursts into laughter.

It isn't long before we find ourselves nearing our destination, and Harper starts to pick up on what's happening.

"Patrick," she says, biting back a smile, "are we going to be spending today in Edinburgh?"

"If it's alright with you," I give her a little wink. "In the morning, I was thinking the castle and old town, then we could hit up the Surgeons' Hall Museums in the afternoon."

I watch as she tries to hide her confusion with my suggestion for the afternoon, which is, of course, very fake. I actually googled, 'weird things to do in Edinburgh,' with hopes that I could find something strange, which she would totally not want to do, but be too nice to tell me that. As somebody who does not like blood and body parts, the Surgeons' Hall Museums would be just about the last thing which Harper would want to do on her day in Edinburgh. Hopefully, I'm actually going to be taking her to the first thing that she would want to be doing. Typically, a day spent in the theatre would take priority over just about anything else, in Harper's eyes.

"That sounds like fun..." she says, quite clearly lying through her teeth. For an actress, she isn't very good at this. Or maybe I just know her well enough to know that the way she is fidgeting with her fingers and biting her lower lip is a dead giveaway about her actual feelings towards, what she thinks, are our afternoon plans.

The castle in the morning is lots of fun. It's definitely the most famous of the castles which we have seen, so that's really cool.

We take lots of pictures, of course, and in a brief moment of rest, I post one of Harper to Instagram.

@patrickalwyn: my wife in her happiest state: exploring castles.

I use a location tag to place us in Edinburgh, then share the post.

The old town is pretty, and we could spend more time there than we do, but I insist that we must be on our way.

"Do we have to go to the surgery museum?" she asks. "Maybe we could skip that and keep walking around the old town? I'm perfectly content here."

I laugh. "Come on. I think you'll like it more than you expect to."

Of course, when I stop Harper outside of the Edinburgh Playhouse, and announce, "We're here," she is beyond confused, though seemingly brimming with excitement and squeals.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I never actually wanted to go to the surgery museum, and you have been tricked. We have two tickets to the matinee of Waitress, staring the one and only Ava as Jenna Hunterson."

"You're kidding!"

"Completely serious." I pull the tickets out of my jacket pocket. "Why do you think I made you dress up?"

"You're just... Patrick... oh my god, I love you!" she laughs, throwing her arms around my neck and pulling me into a hug. "Does Ava know?"

"We are getting a backstage tour after the production."

"Patrick! How did you pull this off without me knowing?"

"I have my ways," I wink at her. "Now, do you want to see this production or not? The Surgeons' Hall Museums are still an option, if not..."

"God no," she giggles. "Let me tell you just how glad I am that I don't have to spend my afternoon there."

I laugh. "That's about what I thought. Come on, let's go get seated."

In the foyer of the theatre, I notice Harper is eyeing a tee shirt that is purple, with the words 'Sugar, Butter, Flour,' written on it.

"Hon," I whisper to her, "Ava says that she's going to get you a shirt after the show. Don't spend money on it now if you can get it for free later."

"Oh my gosh, that's so sweet," Harper laughs. "And a good policy. I like that one."

"Hey, I just tell it like it is," I wink at her.

We find our seats, and they're actually better than I expected them to be, all the way up in the upper circle, which is even above the dress circle, where Harper and I typically like to sit at these things.

Harper purchases a programme from a stand near our seats, and smiles as she reads Ava's credentials. "I got to share a stage with her," she smiles. "That's pretty freaking cool."

"And she's going to kill it up there tonight, too. It's pretty freaking cool that you get to say that you even know her."

"I can't believe that you pulled this all off," Harper laughs. "I love you."

"I did it because I love you and you matter to me."

She lets out a small giggle at my very intentional Waitress pun. We can't say much more, as the lights dim after that, and it's time for the show to begin.