Day 314 - Romance

 ROMANCE

Prompt - Romance : Write about romantic things partners can do for each other

"And here we still are."

"Aye, after fifty five years.  Who'd a thunk it?"  Rab looked at the other three with a mix of wonder and disdain.  The familiarity of a lifetime and the strangeness of being together as a group after such a long time.  A long, long time.

Friends since they first met at school, scattered across the land to universities and jobs and marriages, movements occasionally bringing two, or even three, of them close enough to meet up.  A few xmases and new years early on, where all four had returned home, but that didn't last.  A couple of meetups with families in tow.  Now they were all retired, and widowed or divorced.  Kids long gone.  Homes empty.

It had been forty two years since all four of them had sat together in a room, with hours to spend in one another's company.  There was an immediate camaraderie, a sense of never having parted, and a lot of catching up to do at the same time.

So the stories got told, the drink got passed around.  Jobs passed over, careers now a laughing matter.  The cars they'd had, the places they'd been.  And eventually, their marriages.  The good the bad and the ugly.  The sex, the kids, the rows, shared and the separate.  The conversation drifted, in meandering fashion, to romance.  Who brought that one up?  It had to be Marty, didn't it?  He was always the romantic in the group.

So they talked about the most romantic moments of their lives, the ones they still smiled at, even if the relationship had soured in the end.  

This was Gordy.  "There was that one anniversary.  The first where the kids were away at uni, and we were free to do something for ourselves.  Rented a cottage on the Black Isle for a week, the sun shone for once, we swam in the sea, and made love in the water.  Only time we managed something like that, but what a memory to have.  Like merman and mermaid we were."  He grinned at the salty taste of the memory.

And Rab.  Nobody expected any great romantic moment from the gang's wee hard man, but there were parts of him the others knew nothing about.  "We were both travelling a lot for our jobs.  Just the once out paths crossed, and we both had to spend a night in Leicester.  Booked into a hotel as Mr and Mrs Smith and spent the whole time acting like we were having an affair.  Open like, so the hotel staff were sniggering at us.  Don't know what came over me really, but it was the best sex we ever had, and built more of a bond that anything else we ever did.  Served us well as a way of bringing the other one back when they got angry."

Then it was Graeme, Mr Timid.  Now here was a surprise.  "I guess it was when I proposed.  Took ,e ages to get the nerve, so I thought if I made a plan I'd have to stick with it.  Margie was going on holiday to Paris with her sister Dot.  I arranged with Dot that they'd be up the top of the Eiffel Tower at a certain time.  And when they got there I was waiting.  Dropped to one knee and asked the question.  She couldn't really say no, could she?"

Last came Marty, Mr Softy.  The trio awaited tales of giant bouquets, champagne, a trip to an island in the Indian Ocean, every cliché going.  "I reckon the most romantic thing between us was me making her  a cup of tea every morning, and taking it up to her in bed.  And her rubbing my feet every night once she found I got cramp.  I was the start of her day, she was the ending to mine.  Isn't that romantic?"

Romance.  It's whatever we want it to be, isn't it?