"Do we want to set any ground rules for this?" I asked.

"Wow, like what?"

"That neither of us insults the other and that if we are feeling upset or uptight, we pause for a moment."

"I came here to tell you how much I love you, not insult you."

Easy As Falling Off A Bike.
by Angharad.
part 205.

We sipped our coffees and I don't know if it felt like UN negotiators about to enter a meeting, or two cowboys sizing each other up for a gunfight. I didn't want to fight with Simon but at times I felt this irritation with him which I was now venting. We seemed to have developed this cycle where he would say or do something a bit dumb and I would seethe and scold him for it. It never used to be like this. Could it be my hormones? Cold turkey from the oestrogen withdrawal?

I suppose it might be like the menopause for some women, some of them have all sorts of mood swings. I hadn't noticed hot flushes, except the one I'm having now and that may be caused by having drunk a hot cup of coffee and being a bit embarrassed.

"Do you want anything else before we start?" asked Simon. He was wearing an Armani shirt and some cord trousers.It looked okay, with his CK leather jacket, posh casual.

"Hmm, could I have some tea in about quarter of an hour?"

He called over a waiter and ordered another Guinness for himself and asked for a pot of Earl Grey for me in a quarter of an hour. The man nodded and disappeared. Not in a puff of smoke or anything, I mean he just stepped out of my view in a very short time. He was back three or four minutes later, with the Guinness.

I've never known how anyone could drink that stuff but lots of people do. I suppose there is the odd, in my book very odd, sort who doesn't like tea. I almost sniggered to myself.

"Do we want to set any ground rules for this?" I asked.

"Wow, like what?"

"That neither of us insults the other and that if we are feeling upset or uptight, we pause for a moment."

"I came here to tell you how much I love you, not insult you."

I blushed with a degree of shame, like a real hot flush. I waited for a few moments before I could actually speak, and my eyes were wet when I did.

"I love you too Simon, your love for me I never doubted as I hope you didn't doubt mine?"

"I don't know, in recent days or weeks, you've been like a different person."

"I'm sorry, I've felt everything on top of me this last week or two."

"Yeah, I understand you have such a lot happen, not helped by the bank thingy."

"What is going to happen there, am I going to live in fear of reprisal from some Russian hit man?"

"No I don't think so. You were only useful to them as negative publicity. When we went public, it actually went against them. The UK police cleaned up some of them and their agents and deported them. We negotiated with them not to press charges and they agreed to annoy someone else."

"Goodness, I thought once they were after you, death was the only escape. I was wrong."

"I think some money changed hands."

"You bought them off?"

"Not quite, the big cheese in Russia suddenly found his wife and kid missing."

"What?"

"We asked a rival organisation to help make this one see our point of view. They kidnapped the aforementioned family, which Dad was able to negotiate a safe release."

"Wouldn't that be a bit obvious?"

"No they were in the UK at the time, taken from The Dorchester, although you'll never hear anything about it. Money was needed in UK or US currency and we guaranteed it, as merchant banks do."

"But you weren't directly involved?"

"I knew nothing about it until it was all over. The family of the mafia boss were released unhurt and he and the other gang went off back to Russia to sort it out. I believe a few of them have ended up in bodybags since on both sides. They are ruthless and once we were able to get them out of this country, we just hoped they'd be too busy with each other to leave us in peace.

The Russian government have since become involved and I suspect have added to the body count. They're bigger crooks and even more ruthless than the gangsters. They also have access to all sorts of intelligence and technology, including intel sharing with other countries' agencies, like MI5 and FBI.

It's a huge counter culture where they are all pretty nasty to each other, sort of dog eat dog. I hope the bank will manage to keep clear of them from now on."

"Yeah so do I, I'd take a dim view of being killed or kidnapped just to piss off my father in law."

"So would I. Does that mean you are still going to marry me?"

"Erm, it was a hypothetical case."

"Oh I see," his face seemed to droop a little.

He sipped his drink and after appearing to savour its flavour or coldness said, "I really am sorry for the other night. You had every right to be upset with me."

"I was very hurt. The one person whom I never thought would reject me, did so."

He blushed and looked away. I think there may have been a tear in his eye. He nodded, then had to blow his nose.

I gave him some time to recover and my tea arrived. It made a welcome break point. I poured myself a cup and offered him some, he declined.

"Cathy I have been such a fool, will you ever forgive me?"

"Will you promise never to reject me like that, ever again?"

"Of course."

"Then I will forgive you on one condition."

"What is that?"

"It's a toughie," I paused and watched him swallow. "I need you to forgive me for my stupid behaviour over the last week or two."

"I already have."

"Then I do too."

"Can we drink to a new beginning?" he asked looking for a waiter.

"I don't think we have completely sorted things out yet have we?"

"Haven't we?"

"No, we need to think about the future, are we going to be happy together or are we going to be destructive towards each other after a while? What about where we're going to live? Are we going to live together from now on or after we're married assuming we get that far?

Are you going to hold Des over my head for ever more, are you going to continue drinking excessively, you know it causes me a problem, or you do now?"

"I see, if was to change to suit you more, what would you give in return?"

"Tell me what you want me to give you, and I'll answer honestly if I think I can."

"Will you give up your degree?"

"No, I need to have a career. I can't have kids and I couldn't just be a housewife, it would drive me crazy. Besides Tom and the dormice need me."

"How about the cycling?"

"Why do you want me to give that up? Do you want me to be fat?"

He shook his head, "Will you give up your independent streak and allow me to spoil you now and again?"

"I have so far, although I admit it sometimes rankles me."

He smiled, "Big question, will you let me pay for dinner tonight?"

"No, we agreed to go dutch, but if it pleases you, you can pay for some drinks in a little while, with one proviso."

He shook his head, "What is it this time?"

"I drive home, I don't want you losing your licence."

He said nothing, but pulled out his car key and passed it to me.

"Thank you." I put the key in my bag. "I have something for you."

"What's that?"

I put my hand in his. He squeezed it and we both felt our eyes become wet and blurry.

"Thank you," he said and kissed my hand.

Then the silly bugger knelt down before me and said, "Catherine Watts will you marry me?"

"I will if you get up off the floor, you romantic looney." He laughed and so did I. I had to help him up, his knee still gave him a bit of trouble after the poaching incident. Once up, he put the ring back on my finger and we kissed briefly.

Some one on an adjacent table sent the waiter over with a small bottle of champagne. We invited them over and spent half an hour explaining that we'd fallen out over a misunderstanding and had made things up.

The older lady had a tear in her eye, "Ooh it's soooo romantic, I do hope you'll be happy together." Then she whispered in my ear, "Always let him think he thought of your best ideas, and let him be right occasionally."

I giggled and nodded.

"I know you from somewhere, don't I?" she said.

"I don't know, I've been in the paper about the mammal mapping scheme."

"You're the dormouse lady!" she squealed, "that clip was so funny, it's on youtube,I believe."

"Probably," I said, "I don't think I'll ever live it down."

"There are worse things to be remembered for," she said as if she had remembered my other airings in the media, "that is relatively benign. I do hope the dormouse was unhurt."

"She is okay, or was this morning. She's quite an old lady by dormouse standards."

"So am I by human standards," she laughed, "compared to a pretty young thing like you."

I blushed and muttered an embarrassed thanks.

"Look you must both come to dinner with us one night. I'm sure we won't be as exciting as some of your exploits, but we can serve a pretty mean Italian."

"As long as he's not in the mafia, I don't mind," I joked in response to her invite.

She looked at me for a moment, then saw the joke and chortled, "Yes very good." She asked her husband something and then said to me, "Here's our card, we are away until the beginning of March, but would be delighted to see sometime after that."

"Yes, I think I'm going to be tied up for the next couple of months with my project work. We have to be ready for April."

"Is that when it starts?"

"That's when the major funding becomes available, so officially yes."

We passed the time away for another half an hour and I made an excuse to leave, I had other things to do, including hiding after telling Stella I had an appointment first thing tomorrow.

Before we left, I asked Lady Butterworth, he was Brigadier Sir Reginald Butterworth, why she had sent the champagne over.

"You two were so romantic, Reggie proposed to me in a pub like this forty years ago."

"Goodness," I smiled.

"Yes, he was just a poor captain in those days."

"Still I'm sure you could see his potential."

"Oh yes, my father made sure of that, he was a colonel. What about your father?"

"He was a surveyor until he had a stroke a few months ago."

"Oh dear, poor man. How does your mother cope?"

"She died suddenly a little while before that, we think it was the shock of it that brought on his stroke."

"Oh how sad, so you've lost your mother before your wedding?"

"Yes, but I have a very able sister in law who will help me organise everything. It's not going to be for some time yet, I have a degree to finish."

"Good for you gel, I wish I'd had the opportunity that you young gels have today. That is a beautiful ring." She took my hand and called her husband, "Look dear Catherine has a beautiful engagement ring. I'll bet that metal is platinum."

"I believe so, Simon had it made to match some jewellery my mother left me."

"Oh how romantic."

"That's me," beamed Simon and we all laughed.

I drove us back to Tom's house, Stella had gone to bed and Tom was working in his study. He looked up and saw Simon's hand around my waist. He nodded and smiled, such a warm smile, I could have sunbathed in its light.

"So are you two back together, all fixed and forgiven?"

"Yes," we both said together.

"This calls for a twelve year old single malt I have, which I have been saving for such an occasion. "Cathy some glasses if you would."

I came back with two and he looked askance at me, "Where's your glass."

"I don't like whisky, I'm afraid."

"What, a Scottish surname and you dinna like whusky?" he sounded like a poor man's Dr Findlay.

"Fraid not, a cuppa is fine for me."

"Philistine!" he declared.

"Worse," said Simon, "a Sassenach."

"Not entirely, my mother's family was Evans, and they were Welshmen who could swim, and my paternal grandfather was a Scottish engineer who moved down to Bristol when my father was quite small, so he's actually a Scot too."

"Well ye canna be all bad then," said Simon in an accent that might have been Scottish, but then I queried Mel Gibson's in Braveheart and was assured it was like a Highlander of that period.

"No, I believe the Welsh bit is worth keeping!" I said before dashing off.