“I never knew how blissful it would be to walk at my own pace,” I say to him.
“Without a chorus of ‘Carry me.’ ”
“Or ‘Are we nearly there?’ ”
“And ‘Walks are so boooring.’ ”
We carry on without speaking for a few minutes. On walks, there’s a joyous equality between silence and conversation. I’m so glad that “date nights” can be date days and that we are doing this rather than gulping down a restaurant meal and preparing a poisonous hangover. I never would have known that going for uninterrupted strolls would be one of the things I most missed when we had children.
Joel reaches out and takes my hand. I feel a jolt. It is more intimate than having sex. Anybody can do that, and we’ve been sticking to our weekly assignations. To stretch the comparison between the restoration of our marriage and weight loss, I’ve found that sex and going to the gym are similar in that the hardest thing is getting going, but it’s always worth it once you’ve started.
People don’t hold hands unless they are five or they really like each other. You don’t hold hands with a one-night stand. Mitzi and Cara don’t hold hands.
We walk on and it feels awkward at first. I want to wriggle away and immediately feel like adjusting my coat or scratching my nose. I miss the momentum that my solitary arm-swinging gives me. After a while, though, it feels as if he is propelling me forward and I him, that two arms connected can give you more energy than your own. We swing our arms together as though we have an imaginary child between them. We walk faster and faster until we begin to run down the hill into air that’s on the turn of winter.
It feels as though we’re hurtling into the future.
Acknowledgments
Arabella Stein has encouraged and guided me in writing this book ever since it was a one-sentence idea. She has reined in both my and Mary’s madness; made me laugh; suggested important amendments and encouraged me when I’ve been disheartened. She is not only my agent, but a brilliant reader and friend.
Thanks too to Ben Fowler, Sandy Violette, Tessa Ingham and everyone else at Abner Stein.
I’m grateful to Carolyn Mays, Francesca Best, and Caryn Karmatz-Rudy for all their excellent editorial changes. Karen Kosztolnyik at Grand Central is a wonderful editor to exchange emails with, and thanks must also go to her colleagues Amanda Englander, Deb Futter, Leah Tracosas, Elly Weisenberg, and Jamie Raab.
Over the years, my children have been cared for and the piles of stuff minimized by Jackie Strawn, Debbie Perera and Renata Zakrocka. Thanks also to parents and teachers at Little Ark and Thornhill Primary School, especially the mothers who have shared their gripes as well as looking after my children. Our families are also on hand with generous offers of help, especially grandmothers Sylvia Hopkinson and Jenny Carruthers.
Thank you, David Barker, my “go-to muso,” who created the new-baby playlist.
Bini Adams and Francis and Charlotte Hopkinson talked me through TV production and the various roles within it, as well as reading an early draft of the book.
Finally, thank you to William, Celia and Lydia Carruthers for all the ideas unwittingly contributed.
Contents
Front Cover Image
Welcome
Dedication
1: The Pile of Stuff
2: He Takes the Rubbish Out
3: Wet Towels on the Bed
4: An Incredible Cook
5: The Lost Keys
6: The Yellow Toothbrush
7: People in Glass Houses
8: Of Lice and Men
9: Ruskin’s Wedding Night
10: The List V2.0
Acknowledgments
Also by Christina Hopkinson
Copyright
Also by Christina Hopkinson
Cyber Cinderella
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 by Christina Hopkinson
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Grand Central Publishing
Hachette Book Group
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New York, NY 10017
Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com.
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First eBook Edition: April 2011
Grand Central Publishing is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
The Grand Central Publishing name and logo is a trademark of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-609-41864-9
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