Love Always Wins

6

Thursday December 19th.

Seb in a tuxedo, Seb in his Ferrari race overall, Seb at karting event in September, Seb with a fan, Seb looking gorgeous in a suit, Seb in a checked shirt and jeans yesterday..... Chloe scrolled obsessively through image after image of him on Instagram. She'd been doing this for two hours solid. Not only was this turning out to be an unsuccessful attempt at sparking something in the depths of her blank memory but she was also doing it because she was missing him and that was a little confusing in itself because she wasn't sure how she was missing him. Was she missing him as her husband? A friend? Or was she just missing him because it felt weird being in his house without him actually being here? There was a knock on her bedroom door and Chrissie stepped in.
"You're awake then? Did you have a good sleep?" She smiled and walked over to the bed to sit down on the edge of it.

"Yeah." Chloe sat herself up, she wasn't going to tell her mum that she hadn't been to sleep and had instead spent the time looking at pictures of Seb.

"You managed to sleep with the light on?" It was unusual for Chrissie's daughter to sleep with a light on, she normally needed complete darkness.

"Yeah, guess I did." She locked her phone's screen so that her mum couldn't see what she'd been looking at. "And the sickness has finally gone, at least until tomorrow when all that shit starts again."

"Hey, don't knock it, it's a good sign that you have a healthy baby in there." Chrissie pointed at Chloe's stomach. "Are you hungry now?"

"Not really, no." Chloe got off of the bed and walked over to the window. Unlike the view she'd had in Ålesund and the night she'd been lucky enough to see the northern lights, outside now all she could see was the part of the garden that was illuminated by the lights fixed to the rear of the house. She wondered what Seb was doing now, he was spending two nights in Maranello, Italy, having attended a Ferrari convention and Christmas party yesterday and then taking members of his travelling team out for a meal this evening. He was due back tomorrow, around lunchtime and the time couldn't go quick enough.

"Come downstairs and I'll try and fix up something for you, you've not eaten a thing today and you know you need to eat not only for the baby but for your recovery too."

"I'm not bothered mum, I'm not hungry." She sighed as she spun round to face her mum, was she pining for him? Is that why she had even less of an appetite than usual?

"Well you should come back downstairs, you've slept more than your nan and dad this afternoon and that's going some. Richard was hoping you'd want to go for a walk earlier."

"Oh was he?" Feeling instantly guilty she wandered slowly back to the bed, she felt knackered and she knew she shouldn't have spent all that time glued to her phone. Her brother and her nan had arrived yesterday and while her nan was staying for Christmas, her brother was going to head home on a Sunday night flight. His job as a regional manager for a well known UK department store chain meant that this was his busiest time of the year and time off was severely limited.

"I explained how tired you get so don't worry, he went for a wander with your dad around the garden and then walked across the field to the lake and back. Maybe you could do that with him tomorrow, it'd do you good to spend some time with your brother while he's here."

"Yeah that sounds good." She replied. Maybe Seb could come too.....

"Are you feeling ok? You still look tired to me." Chrissie stood up and lightly stroked a hand down Chloe's cheek.

"I am still tired." And missing Seb.

"Probably a lack of food. Come on....." Chrissie grabbed her daughter's hand. "Let's go and find you a little something to eat."