Page 1 of A Wedding in Tuscany

London

Iclimb onto a stool at the breakfast bar and watch as my scrummy French boyfriend potters about the kitchen, his tall frame moving with practised ease. After being together for more than two years, he knows my kitchen better than I do, though to be honest, that isn’t hard. Tonight, he’s making coq au vin, one of his specialties, and it smells delicious in here. He’s an amazing cook. He says he’s ‘comme ci comme ça’?just all right?but that’s him being modest.

I love having Jean-Luc here in London, especially during the week?coming home to him after a long day of teaching, spending our evenings together talking or listening to music or watching television. It makes me feel like part of a normal couple. Well, a normal couple who share a flat with someone else. Thank god my flatmate, Jane, is so understanding?she adores Jean-Luc, and she certainly loves his cooking.

He’s not here all the time, mind you?just a couple of times a month for four or five days, sometimes longer. This time, it’s a short visit. He arrived today?Thursday?and can only stay until Monday morning, as he’s doing an interview in Bern on Tuesday. My boyfriend?International Journalist Extraordinaire. I’m so proud.

I definitely prefer his visits to London than mine to Paris, which are usually just for a weekend. That means an evening train there on a Friday and a late-afternoon train home on a Sunday. Hardly ideal?expensive too?but I’m just not ready to move. To Paris. With my hot boyfriend.

Yes, really.

He’s asked about a million times. All right, it’s six?a number I’m sure of because I’m counting.

I do love him. As in head-over-heels-he’s-my-soulmate love. In actual fact, I’ve loved him most of my life?first as my best friend in high school, then as a young woman exchanging letters across the world. But at nineteen I’d put an end to it. Stupidly. Because of a jealous boyfriend. A decade and a half later, chance brought us together again?in Paris?and I finally realised that I’d always been in love with him, that he was my person. I am not going to let him go again.

But London is home. And as much as I (mostly) enjoy my time in Paris, it isn’t. I’m not sure it ever will be.

And even if Jean-Luc started talking about moving here?which he hasn’t?well, I’m not sure I’m ready for that either?living together full time, I mean. What if we run out of things to say to each other? What if cohabitating obliterates the romance? Or worse! What if he gets bored with me? He used to be married to a supermodel anthropologist and I’m just a schoolteacher who hails from Sydney.

Now I sound like my sister.

‘Wine?’ he asks.

‘Hello, Cat Parsons, pleased to meet you,’ I deadpan. He tuts good naturedly, then pours me a glass of the red he brought with him from France. That’s another thing to love about him?he always shows up with wine. JK!

‘Salut,’ he says, clinking his glass against mine. We sip our wine, watching each other over the rims of our glasses.

See? Isn’t this lovely, just as it is? Why mess with perfection?

Lizzo starts belting out from my phone as it vibrates on the countertop and when I pick it up, it’s my sister’s boyfriend, Josh.

‘Hello, you,’ I say, accepting the video call.

‘Hey. So, I think I’ve figured it out.’ Josh is planning a surprise for Sarah’s fortieth birthday. My thinking is that turning forty is surprise enough?oh, my god, where did my thirties go??and that she hates surprises.

‘And?’

‘Tuscany,’ he says. One word, but he drags it out like he’s pitching a film location. ‘Tussscannnyyy.’

‘That sounds good,’ I say. ‘Sarah likes Italy.’

‘That’s it? I’ve been working on this for weeks and that’s all you’ve got?’

‘Sorry. How about this? Oh, my god! That’s brilliant and she will absolutely love it!’ She won’t. I mean, she will like a trip to Tuscany, but a surprise trip? Uh, no. My sister likes to organise everything down to the last paperclip, especially travel.

Josh rolls his eyes at me. ‘Hey, man,’ he says to Jean-Luc who’s just appeared at my shoulder.

‘Salut, mon frère.’ I love that these two get along?they really are like brothers. Sarah even said that Josh feels closer to Jean-Luc than he does to his actual brother. ‘So, Tuscany? I think this is a good plan, a good present,’ says Jean-Luc.

‘Thank you!’ Josh makes a face at me, like he’s been vindicated or something.

‘It’s not that it’s a bad idea?Italy, I mean?but how are you going to make the trip a surprise? Drug her, then carry her onto the plane and she wakes up in Italy? Surprise!’

‘Of course not. I just want to figure everything out before I tell her. Part of the present is that she doesn’t have to organise any of it.’

‘That’s the other thing. Have you met my sister? The one who organises her friends’ pantries for fun, who loves sticky notes, and lives and dies by her calendar? You sure you want to take that away from her? She may never forgive you.’

He laughs again. ‘I’m sure. She’s turning forty. I want this to be big and I don’t want her worrying about any of the details.’

---