by Isla Gordon
‘Auditions?’ Flynn asked with interest.
‘Any kind of freelance acting work,’ she waved it away and didn’t elaborate on that further, so Flynn let it pass for now. ‘So the people are lovely, the work is good, I just … when I came to Bath I thought I would just temp for a month or two while I found my feet, and I feel like I’ve become complacent. Or scared? One of the two.’
‘What did you hope would happen after a month or two?’
‘Well, I thought I might become the most celebrated actress in the land and win both a Tony and an Oscar,’ August joked. ‘Anyway, we’re here now and I think this is the new baseline point to start my Tony and Oscar campaigning. But not tonight, because we have other strategies to discuss.’
They both sat up straighter, refilling their wines, and leaned in.
Flynn started things off. ‘So, the big question. Are we just going to pretend we’re married when we’re with Mrs H, or with everyone in the building?’
‘I think everyone in the building. I don’t think we should drag everyone else into a secret.’
‘Agreed.’
‘But I think with everyone else, and Mrs H, really, we don’t need to be super-explicit about it.’
‘Explicit?’ Flynn raised his eyebrows. He hadn’t planned to be. Was she imagining they’d be making out on the steps into the building?
‘As in, I don’t think we need to start marching the corridors referring to each other loudly as “DARLING HUSBAND” and “MY EXTRAORDINARILY BEAUTIFUL WIFE” or anything.’
Flynn smiled. ‘Gotcha.’
‘I really think we can get away with being pretty normal around people, nobody will be expecting us to start snogging in front of them.’
His eyes flittered to her lips, just for a millisecond.
August nodded, and seemed satisfied with that agreement. ‘The next step is that we need a backstory.’
‘Like, how we met, when we married, etc.?’
‘Exactly.’ She paused. ‘So how did we meet? When did we get married?’
‘How about we met at uni?’ Flynn suggested.
‘Which uni did you go to?’
‘Edinburgh, you?’
‘Ahh, I love Edinburgh. But I went to Exeter.’ August paused. ‘I don’t think we should say uni, it could open up a whole new can of worms. We could say we had a holiday romance somewhere?’
‘Sounds fun. We should pick somewhere we’ve both travelled to though, the devil is in the details and all that. Where have you been?’
August thought for a moment. ‘Where would be a romantic place to have met someone … I’m thinking ours should be a tale of “love at first sight, I knew right away he’d be my husband”, so maybe not a crowded bar in Mykonos. Ooh, how about a vineyard tour under the Tuscan sun? Have you been to Italy?’
Flynn shook his head. ‘I’m afraid not.’
‘What? You’ve never been to Italy? But it’s gorgeous!’
‘How about we go there for our anniversary,’ he teased. ‘Have you been to Portugal?’ He was picturing a pretty cove and August paddling in the water in the distance, probably wearing some billowing, rainbow-coloured kaftan.
But she shook her head. ‘Canada? Snowy mountains, meeting over a hot chocolate by the fireplace?’
‘’Fraid not. I’ve been to the US … ’
‘Me too!’ said August. ‘Where did you go?’
‘New York – you?’
‘Dammit. West Coast only.’
‘I’ve always wanted to travel around California, driving up that coastal road,’ Flynn mused.
‘It’s amazing. I’ll take you there for our second anniversary.’ August smiled at Flynn.
‘Did you say you’ve never been to Japan?’ he asked after a while, but she hadn’t.
‘Morocco? Hungary? Cuba?’ August suggested, and Flynn shook his head for each one.
‘Mexico? Switzerland? Spain?’ he proposed, and suddenly August sat up.
‘Spain, I’ve been to Spain, and I travelled all over. It was the summer right after I finished uni and I was out there for three months.’
Flynn sat up straighter too. ‘I was there over the summer too, after I’d finally become fully qualified in law.’
August did some quick maths. She knew Flynn was a couple of years older than her, and that law degrees, along with the placements, can take – was it six years? ‘I left uni in 2012.’
‘That’s the year I went! I just did the south coast and the Sierra Nevada National Park.’
‘So we actually could have had a holiday romance,’ August laughed, and then brought her wine up to her lips to hide her blush.
Flynn pushed past it. ‘Shall we settle on the national park then? Maybe we met on a camping trip?’
‘Where we slept under the stars? Yes! We could have been cold and besotted and ended up sharing a sleeping bag.’
‘Ha ha, okay,’ he agreed.
‘I would have even put out on the first date, that sounds so frickin’ romantic,’ added August. She picked up a notepad. ‘I’m just going to make a note of this so we can look back on it, like revision notes.’
‘All right,’ Flynn said, shaking himself out of that image when she put the notepad down. ‘So we met in the Spanish hills in the summer of 2012, where we had a holiday romance. Then we stayed in touch and got together back in the UK?’
‘Yep. You lived in London for a while, before Japan, didn’t you?’
‘On the outskirts.’
‘That’ll do. Nobody’s going to ask us about those details, I’m sure. People only care about the fun stuff, things like how we met, the proposal, the wedding, the honeymoon. How many babies we’re going to have and when, and if I’m not drinking because I’m pregnant.’ She took a drink of wine.
‘People wouldn’t ask about babies, would they? That’s so private.’
‘That’s all people ask women my age about. And yes, it’s private, but apparently my fanny and its goings on are fair game if the b-word is involved.’
Flynn cleared his throat. ‘Okay, well, shall we do the proposal next?’
‘I have an idea for this one,’ August sparkled. ‘Can I take the proposal story?’
‘Okay, shall I take the wedding?’ He held his hand out for a piece of paper from her notepad, which she tore off for him.
August paused when handing it over. ‘I think we should both plan the wedding. Do you want to take the honeymoon?’
‘Sure,’ he shrugged, and the two of them sat in silence for a while, thinking, making some notes, pausing to sip on their wine, their eyes meeting briefly.
Flynn watched her write, her head bent over the page, her legs crossed, swamped by that big, ugly, jade armchair. He enjoyed her gung-ho attitude and her colourful outfit topped with a messy bun. And he tried very hard not to think about the image of them sharing a sleeping bag under the stars.
Chapter 23
August
It felt so strange for August to be sitting here making up romantic stories about this man she’d just moved in with. Strange, but – now this might be the wine beginning to spread its fingers into her system – also a little thrilling. She was going to have to watch herself around this one. You do have a habit of flirting with the dark, handsome strangers after a little liquid stimulation, Missy.
But of course, as was always the way for August, she didn’t pay a lot of attention to her conscience, and sat forwards to pour them some more wine.
‘Finished?’ Flynn asked, putting his own pen down.
‘Yep.’
‘You go first.’
August cleared her throat. ‘This is my idea for the proposal. We’re in London, taking our final walk beside the Thames on a quiet, Sunday morning. You’ve been transferred to an office in Japan, and you’re leaving today. We’re promising each other that it isn’t the end, and I’m crying and you’re holding me, and we know you’re going to come back lots to visit because your company has a private jet.’
‘Nice,’ Flynn nodded.
‘I know, right? And I thought this way it ties in with you going to Japan for a while, in case that ever comes up.’
‘Good thinking.’
‘So, it’s a sunny morning, I have tears in my eyes, you tell me how pretty I am and how you’ll remember my face every time you see a sunrise, it’s all very Vera Lynn. And then,’ August stopped, chuffed with this next part. ‘I surprise the hell out of you by getting down on one knee, and asking you to marry me.’
‘You propose to me?’ Flynn asked, surprised.
‘Yep. On one knee and everything. And I tell you I’ve never known a more handsome and kind man, and that I don’t want to lose you, and then … ’
‘There’s more?’
‘There’s more! And then you say that I would never lose you because I am your everything, and the only way you can travel across the world is so that you can come back home and be my husband. And then you get down on one knee and pull out a ring, and propose to me!’
‘So we propose to each other?’ Flynn seemed impressed.
‘We were just always so in sync that we both knew it was the exact right time on that morning.’
‘But I still went to Japan? Weren’t you mad?’
‘No, not at all, because absence made our hearts grow fonder, and I used that time away from you to pour my everything into training with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.’
‘You went to RADA?’
‘I did in this version of my life.’
‘Very cool,’ Flynn nodded.
The truth was, August would have loved to have gone to RADA. Ever since she was young, she’d been keen on acting, though fear had held her back from a lot of opportunities. She’d been so excited when she started landing regular voice work in London, but a gnawing insecurity told her she wasn’t skilled enough, didn’t have enough in her repertoire, that it was too hard. She was so fearless in so much of her life that she worried, if I’m scared of this, maybe it’s not right for me? And so, acting was her passion, but she kept it part-time.
‘So how does all of that sound to you?’ August asked, hopeful, shaking herself from her thoughts.
‘It sounds perfect.’
‘You don’t mind that I proposed to you first?’
‘Of course not,’ he said. ‘I’m flattered.’
August beamed. ‘Okay, what did we do for our honeymoon?’
Flynn took a moment, looking at his notes.
‘Come on, spill,’ August coaxed, softly. She wondered why he was hesitating.
‘All right,’ Flynn started. ‘I know it’s not the most far-flung place and you probably want a honeymoon that takes you all over the globe … ’
August smiled at that, not that Flynn saw as he was staring at his paper. She didn’t necessarily need those things …
He continued. ‘But I thought our honeymoon could be in Edinburgh. You said you’d been to Edinburgh, right?’
‘I have, I loved it,’ she answered, surprised by his choice. She thought for sure he was going to suggest some little bolthole in the Japanese countryside.
‘So. We had our wedding, whatever that looked like, and then we took the train up to Scotland. Just you and me, and a couple of small bags each. We’d sleep on the train. I guess it could even be a sleeper train, depending on how far we were coming from. Either way, we’d probably be tired from the big day, and dozy, and so we’d travel and eat and watch the world go by for a while.’
August could just picture it. She sat back in her armchair and closed her eyes, listening to Flynn talk.
‘Once we made it to Edinburgh, we’d stay a couple of nights in one of the castle hotels, somewhere with a spa and a good restaurant. We’d explore the city, enjoy the history and the skyline, and then we’d travel further north and stay in a cabin by a loch, somewhere in the Outer Hebrides.’ He paused, and then said, ‘August? Did you fall asleep?’
Her eyes fluttered open and her smile widened. ‘Not at all, I was enjoying the imagery.’
‘I thought maybe you’d found the whole idea extremely dull-sounding.’
‘No way, I think it sounds perfect.’
‘You do?’ Flynn smiled.
‘I do,’ she proclaimed with a chuckle.
Flynn stood up and stretched. The evening was rolling into night and August could see he was beginning to tire, but he seemed to be enjoying himself. ‘I’m going to have myself a comfort break, grab another bottle, and then shall we figure out the wedding plans?’
‘Do you think we can plan a whole wedding in just one evening?’ August joked, standing up also and stretching her legs by pacing the room.
‘We became a married couple over the course of a couple of hours, I think we can do anything.’
Chapter 24
Flynn
‘August?’ Flynn called a few minutes later, returning to the living room with a fresh bottle of wine.
‘In here,’ she called from somewhere.
He looked around the room. He then glanced into his own bedroom and hers. ‘Where?’
‘In here … ’
‘In the bathroom?’ Surely she didn’t want him to come in there with the wine?
All of a sudden, a section of the wall swung open, wallpaper, mouldings and all, and inside stood August, illuminated by an orangey lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. She was looking around her in awe. ‘It’s perfect.’
Flynn stuck his head into what appeared to be a storage cupboard, not much bigger than the inside of a wardrobe, hidden in the living room wall. ‘It is?’
‘So perfect. Flynn, could I have this? We don’t have anything else we need to store, do we?’
‘I don’t think we do, but what do you need it for?’
‘I could record books in here. Remember I told you that before I came to Bath I was a voice actress and I used to do loads of audiobooks? Well, I don’t put myself forward for as much work as I did now that I’m further away from London and Oxford, where most of the audiobook action is. But if I could have my own in-house studio I can offer myself out as truly freelance.’
Flynn put his head further in, nutting a spider’s web on the way. ‘You can make a studio out of this?’
‘Easily. I mean it won’t really be a studio, more of a booth, but if I soundproof it and get a decent microphone, I know I could make it work.’
Her face was lit up, even in the dim of the closet, with an excitement he hoped to find also with his new job. She continued. ‘And best of all, I’ll once again be able to get my voice nice and trained up and I could add the next string to the bow of my grand masterplan.’
‘What is the grand masterplan?’
‘Let’s have more to drink before I tell you that. But can I have this? Do you mind?’
Flynn pretended to consider it for a minute, looking up and down and side to side inside the closet. ‘It is beautiful, I’m not sure I’m ready to let it go.’
‘Oh, shut up,’ August thwacked him.
‘The musty old secret cupboard is all yours,’ he relented.
They stepped back out into the living room, and August closed the door with a respectful gentleness. And just like that, it was one wall again.
‘Why do you think it’s hidden, designed to look like there isn’t a door there?’ Flynn questioned.
‘Well, you know how things were in the Regency period,’ answered August, heading back to her seat and dimming the lamp on her way past.
‘Not really … ’
‘You don’t know what they used to do? To the maids who worked in the houses?’
‘ … No … ’
‘When the women began to know their minds too much and started to speak out about the poor living wage and unfair conditions, the master of the house would shut them in the cupboard in the wall, for hours, as punishment. He would make them stand in there when they had guests, and they were not to make a sound.’ August dropped her voice down low, causing Flynn to lean forward. ‘Only, sometimes, the res
idents of the house would forget they’d shut one of the maids in there, and they’d go out for the day, and the maids, fearing making a noise, never protested. And then, you can probably guess what happened to them.’
Flynn blinked. ‘That’s awful.’
‘You just have to watch out, if you’re ever here alone and hear a tap-tap-tap that for a second you could mistake as a bird on the window ledge. But listen closely and you might just be hearing the ghosts of the women in the walls.’
‘That is not true, you shut up,’ Flynn cried, and he saw August’s eyes crinkle in the corner. ‘It’s not true at all, is it?’ She laughed. ‘You are a good actress! Did you make all that up?’
‘Every word of it. I have no idea why this cupboard is all wallpapered over, but I expect it’s because someone, at some point in history, whacked a bloody great MDF door in and it looked unsightly.’
‘I don’t know if I want to plan a wedding with you now,’ he said, to August’s amusement.
‘Yes, you do, come on. First of all, where do we get married. Would you like us to say we got married in Japan?’ she suggested.
But Flynn answered quickly with a definitive ‘No’. He’d thought a lot about having a wedding in Japan, for a long time, but he didn’t want to revisit that again in his mind for a moment, and it felt wrong bringing August out there – even as make believe. It felt like a betrayal to Yui, somehow.
‘All right … ’ she moved on. ‘Shall we stick to the UK?’
‘Yes, but nowhere local to here because you know somebody else in the building will have got married there and we’ll find ourselves down an even deeper ditch.’
‘Good thinking,’ August agreed. ‘Let’s not go with Edinburgh because I like your travelling-by-train-to-our-honeymoon idea. Have you been to Cornwall?’
‘I have, actually, just once when I was little.’
‘How about we say it was at a beach in Cornwall. There’s a nice beach at Watergate Bay with some good places to get a drink nearby. Fancy a beach wedding?’
‘Sounds great,’ he agreed. ‘Does it matter that I don’t know the area?’