“He doesn’t believe in marriage. He had a very bad divorce with his ex-wife. His kids live in South Africa with her, or his son does. And he’s busy all the time. He’s got a big project now after the holidays.” Mother MaryMeg smiled as she listened to her.
“Well, that doesn’t sound so bad. Except for the part about not believing in marriage. But that’s probably just temporary after the divorce. If you love each other you’ll work it out. I can’t wait to meet him.” Alex still had no idea when they would see each other again. Miles was frantic about it too.
She went to see Bert the next day with his Christmas present and she told him about Miles. He could see immediately how much she loved him. He remembered a love like that and envied her for a moment. But he was happy for her, if it lasted and was real.
“Beware of happiness,” he warned her, as she looked at him as though he was crazy. “Misery is a wonderful thing for writers and will drive you to write your best books. But happiness will make you lazy and complacent. You’ll forget about your priorities and sit around all dewy-eyed with the one you love. Happiness can destroy a career if you’re not careful.”
Alex decided that all the wine he drank had finally gotten to his brain. She told him all about the shooting of the TV series, which he found very interesting, except that she had fallen in love with the producer, which he assumed would be a passing thing for both of them and didn’t take it seriously. She tried to tell him it was the Right Man at the Right Time, as he had promised, and he didn’t want to believe her. He was in one of his cranky moods and didn’t want to remember those feelings.
“You’ll get over it,” he told her after the usual bottle of wine, and Alex felt sorry for him, thinking that Bert went too far sometimes and was a sour old man, and he didn’t understand how much they cared about each other or how fabulous Miles was. She forgot sometimes how much he had loved the young woman who had died, and that losing her had changed his life forever.
And when she visited Brigid, she found her pregnant again, with twins this time, which had come as a shock to her and they couldn’t afford, but Pat’s parents were still helping them. He had taken a second job, and they were going to buy a house with his parents’ help. The twins were due in June, if she didn’t have them early.
“You’re turning into a baby machine,” Alex said, laughing at her.
“I know,” Brigid said proudly. She was still on extended leave and she admitted to Alex that she wasn’t going back to work until the children were older. She wanted to be at home with them, and childcare would cost them more than she made at her job.
Two days after Christmas, Alex went back to New York. She had three days left to extend her lease with the owners of the apartment. They had been understanding, and she hadn’t gotten around to it yet. She had no plans for New Year’s Eve, and didn’t want any. She was going to work, and prove Bert wrong that happiness would destroy her career. She was still annoyed at him. What a stupid thing to say, just because he’d had a terrible time and lost the woman he loved.
She was at her desk on New Year’s Eve, working on an outline by hand on a big yellow pad and having trouble concentrating, when the doorman rang and told her there was a delivery. She wasn’t expecting any, and wondered if Miles had sent her something. They had been talking to each other from South Africa every day, and he was as miserable as she was, and they still didn’t know when he’d have time to visit her in New York, or have her come to London during a break. The project he was working on was all-consuming and ate up all his time.
She opened the door for the delivery, and found Miles in front of her with a bottle of champagne and an armload of Chinese takeout. He set it down on the table and pulled her into his arms. She screamed with delight and he spun her around.
“What are you doing here?” She beamed at him.
“I couldn’t stand it anymore. Duncan wanted to be with his pals, I had nothing to do in JoBurg, and all I wanted to do was be with you.” He looked at her seriously as he said it. “I have no right to ask you this, Alex, but would you move to London for me, and live with me? I’m paying my ex-wife a fortune. I had to pay her half the value of the farm and the London apartment, which wiped out my savings, and I don’t want to sell the farm. I’m in no position to ask you to marry me, but I love you, and I want you with me for the rest of my life.” It was all she’d wanted to hear and all she cared about.
“You don’t have to have money to marry me, you know,” she told him, but she wasn’t pushing for marriage either, and she had her own money, mostly from her writing, and a small amount left from the sale of her father’s house.
“I’m not going to marry you as a pauper,” he said clearly. “And I’ll have to help my kids for a long time. And I don’t want you to be responsible for my debts if something happens to me, and you would be if we’re married. The whole institution seems like a bad idea to me.” He had made a lot of money in his life, and spent a lot of it financing his horse breeding and maintaining the farm, and then for his divorce, which was why he was so bitter about his ex-wife now—that and the fact that she had taken their son to South Africa. And she had just married her boyfriend, so she was staying, and he and his children would have to continue to fly back and forth to see each other, which was difficult and costly for him.
“I don’t need to get married. I just want to be with you.” She had no one to answer to but herself.
“That’s all I want too. So will you move to London to be with me?” he asked again. She didn’t need to think about it. She nodded. All she had to do was give up her apartment, pack her suitcases, grab her typewriter, and go. “How soon can you come?” She figured it out for a minute.
“In the next couple of weeks, sooner if I can. How long are you here for?”
“I have to go back tomorrow, we start shooting on the second.” It was tight, but he had come to spend New Year’s Eve with her.
They spent a magical night and saw the New Year in, and made plans for her arrival in London. She wanted to spend time at the farm, it would be a good place to write, and she could work in his apartment too, when he was working. It would be an enviable life, and she finally felt as though she had a home. Their plans were set by the time he left the next day.
When she notified the owner of her apartment that she was moving, they were sorry to hear it. She spent two days packing, and after that she went to see Rose just to touch base with her and talk about the new book.