The Adventure Continues

[abrightboy]

For thatsfascinating.



The villa Malcolm rented was in the Languedoc, not far from Marseilles, south of Avignon. It was a very historic region, though Malcolm was particularly not interested in visiting Marseilles again. There was a charming village nearby the villa and if they were going to go to an historic city for a day, he'd rather make the trip over to Montpellier, where he'd never been at all, much less with Dr Whitly.

The villa had six bedrooms. As the driver brought their luggage inside the bright and spacious main room, Malcolm handed him some folded Euros and thanked him and shut the door behind him.

"First choice of a room is yours," he told Edrisa with a smile. "But you might want to explore first."

Comments

[abrightboy]

He huffed a small sigh of disappointment, but nodded, gesturing for her to bring it.

"You can have everything else."

He knew she didn't want to leave the room, probably even to go to the cafeteria. She had to eat something.

[thatsfascinating]

Edrisa picked up the tray and carried it over to his table.

"Are you sure you don't want more of this? It looks delicious. There's a salmon salad and a baguette and pie." She looked up. "Is there anything about French hospitals that isn't awesome?"

[abrightboy]

He closed his eyes and shook his head faintly. "This is enough for me," he told her. "Please have it."

[thatsfascinating]

He was upset, and Edrisa was pretty sure she knew why.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to pressure you to eat more. I was just saying how good it all looked.

She set the tray down with the soup closest to him, then went back to pull the other table over so she could use it.

[abrightboy]

He looked up at her response, realizing how he'd sounded and immediately relenting.

"No, Edrisa... that's not..." He sighed. "My head just hurts and sitting up makes me dizzy. I didn't m... You didn't say anything wrong."

[thatsfascinating]

She left the other table by the chair and came to his bedside, focusing on the fact that he felt dizzy.

"Do you think you can manage some soup?"

[abrightboy]

He nodded faintly. "Yeah. I-I'd like to try."

[thatsfascinating]

"Okay." She located the bed controller and handed it to him. "I'll be right here in case you need help," she promised. She could eat when he was done.

[abrightboy]

He got the bed in position with the controller and set it aside, shifting to he could face the tray properly.

"Come eat with me," he told her.

[thatsfascinating]

She lifted her eyebrows, then nodded. "Yeah, absolutely!" She picked up the fork and speared a couple chunks of fish and vegetables.

[abrightboy]

It was almost like normal, eating together. It made him feel a little better. He ate soup quietly for a few moments.

"We'll have to go shopping."

[thatsfascinating]

It was really nice.

"Oh, definitely! I mean, rings definitely. And clothes. Pobably not a huge wedding dress or anything, but something nice. For you, too." She popped the forkful of salad in her mouth, then hummed, chewed quickly, and swallowed, then grinned. "Probably not a wedding dress for you," she teased.

[abrightboy]

He managed a weak smile.

"We might have to go into the city. Smaller towns around here won't have the selection."

[thatsfascinating]

"I'm not picky." She speared a couple more chunks. "We can probably find something nice in one of the villages, you know? Something charming."

[abrightboy]

He looked over at her.

"We're not having guests. We can at least have haute couture."

[thatsfascinating]

"Well," she said with a smile. "If you insist. We should definitely have a photographer if we're going to be all dressed up, though."

She took a bite.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm looked over with a faint frown.

"Of course we're going to have a photographer. Don't you want pictures?" He poked at his soup. "I.... guess I always thought if I had a wedding, it'd... be a big deal. Something we'd always want to remember."

[thatsfascinating]

She raised her eyebrows and swallowed the food in her mouth. "Oh, I do! Definitely! And it's a huge deal. I definitely want to remember it. It's going to be beautiful."

She frowned a little, concerned, trying to work out how Malcolm was feeling about the idea.

"Do you still want to do it this way? If you don't, it's totally okay. We only do this once, right? I want you to be happy with it."

[abrightboy]

"I'm happy," he protested. "I want to do it. I just... I'm having trouble wrapping my head around how it's going to go, that's all. And that's probably the head injury. I'm probably not in the best place to plan it right now." He looked at her, his gaze imploring her to believe him. "But I want it."

[thatsfascinating]

"That's fine!" she assured him. "We don't need to talk about it now. We'll have plenty of time in the next couple days. You can rest right now."

[abrightboy]

He took a steadying breath and ate another bite of soup.

"This isn't very fairy tale, is it?" he noted softly.

[thatsfascinating]

Her heart ached at that, and she put down her fork and took his hand.

"Are you kidding?" she said softly. "You're my Prince Charming. We're going to have a beautiful wedding in a beautiful little village in southern France. It's pretty fairy tale." She smiled a little more. "Besides, have you read Grimm's fairy tales? They're pretty gruesome. This is, like, a hundred times better than those fairy tales."

[abrightboy]

"This is pretty gruesome, but... you're right. It'll be nice when we get there, right?" he conceded.

[thatsfascinating]

"It will be amazing," she said with perfect confidence, reaching up with her other hand to gently brush his hair back from his face. "We could get married right in the backyard of our villa. Or find a beautiful centuries old chapel somewhere. You don't have to decide right now!" she added quickly. "Not making plans, just...imagining possibilities."

[abrightboy]

"We'll look around when we get back there. It should be scenic," he said.