Bernice and Ashley the Untold Stories
04/06/00
Bernice sat stretched out on the couch in the vicarage sitting room as the light faded outside the window and the moon and stars staked their claim on the sky. She looked out watching as the moon light shone on the garden making the little left over drops of rain shine like a million diamonds. As Ashley came in she turned.
“A penny for your thoughts” he said
“They aren’t worth that much” Bernice laughed “I was just looking at the way the moon makes the garden look and thinking how lovely it is when I have an evening off.”
Ashley sat at the end if the sofa , lifting her legs and placing them in his lap gently massaging her feet.
“Ash” she said after a few minutes
“Hum ?”
“What do you think of the situation with Sarah ? I mean what do you think is going to happen ? I can still hardly believe it”
“To be honest” Ashley replied “I don’t know what to think. I mean I spoke to her and she seems quite adamant she’d done the right thing. I do know one thing for sure , this village can be very unforgiving. While I think they’d find it difficult enough to cope with the break-up of one of the longest standing couples particularly when someone else is involved , I think they’ll have even more trouble with her leaving the children behind”
Bernice shook her head “I mean Richie’s so young” she said “I can’t see him settling down with 3 kids can you ?”
“I don’t know but if they do take them on they’ll have to find somewhere bigger to live you couldn’t swing a cat in the Holiday cottage”
“It makes you wonder about relationships when you hear about this sort of thing. I mean what goes wrong ? How do you just fall out of love with someone ?”
“Maybe you don’t” Ashley sighed “maybe you just get so used to being together that you forget what made being together so special in the first place. You forget what you loved about the other person. love turns to apathy and instead of being committed because you love them you stay because it’s easy and what you’re used to. then when someone new comes along you look at what you’ve got and only see what it’s become , not what it was or could be again. In those circumstances it’s easy for a relationship to fall apart.”
Bernice sat up taking Ashley’s hands and looking intently at him “that’ll never happen to us will it Ash ?” she said
“Not if I can help it” Ashley replied “I love you so much that I think sometimes it couldn’t get any stronger. Then you do something , or say something , or just kiss me and I love you a little bit more. Every morning when I wake up I remind myself how lucky I am to have you and I plan to do that for the rest of my life if you’ll let me.”
“You know that I love you. Don’t you ?”
“Yes of course I do”
“No but I mean really love you. I know it may have taken me a while and god knows I could kick myself for not seeing it sooner. Now I can’t imagine what my life would be like without. it’s not even the big things , it’s little things like sometimes when I’m serving in the Woolie and someone says something or something happens and I just can’t wait to tell you about it.” Bernice said her face reflecting the passionate conviction with which she meant to get her point across “If someone had told me a year ago that we’d be here now I’d have laughed in their face and now it seems so right , so natural. I know at first I gave you a hard time about offering to marry Gavin and me and stuff , but I cans see now that it must have been so awful for you. if you loved me half as much then as I love you now , then the thought of having to not only have to watch me marry someone you knew was wrong for me , but to perform the service must have been so painful.”
“I only ever wanted to make you happy. If marrying Gavin made you happy then I would have done it just to see you smile”
“You know” Bernice continued “I thought I was happy with Gavin. I really believed I was in love. I couldn’t have been more wrong , now I actually feel like I know what it is to love someone. You are my destiny , you were always meant for me and now it seems like everything that’s happened to me only was a means to an end . I love you more that anything or anyone I’ve ever known. I always will , and if years from now a fleet of 19 year olds came knocking at my door I’d send them all packing!”
Ashley out his arms around her squeezing her so tight she almost couldn’t breathe. “You’ll never know how much it means to me to hear you say those things. You have no idea how long I wished you would.”
Bernice kissed him , slowly , passionately “Yes I do” she whispered “Too long. I’m sorry”
*****************
The next morning Bernice woke up to the clinking noise of coffee cups and the smell of fresh toast as Ashley came into the room with breakfast on a tray. She rolled over and smiled sleepily at him.
“What have I done to deserve this ?” She asked
“You have been you !” Ashley said sitting on the bed beside her resting the tray on his lap.
Bernice sat up and taking the coffee cup he offered looked at the clock on the bedside table.
“It’s late” she said “You should have woke me earlier”
“I would have , but I went to the post office for some milk and had Viv on at me again about being the guardian of the village’s morals and what was I going to do about Sarah”
“Honestly !” Bernice said scowling “To listen to Viv Windsor talk you’d think she was pure as the driven snow ! Well I’m telling you Ash , if she comes into the Woolie again mouthing off about you and me one more time I swear I’ll ask her to leave !”
“Oh I wouldn’t worry , as far as Viv is concerned you and I are old news she’s like a dog with a bone at the minute over this stuff with the Sugden’s. Anyhow , I had no reason to wake you , your mum’s opening up for you today isn’t she ?”
“Yes . I suppose we should make the most of it , when Kathy goes off to Australia she’ll be spending most of her time at the diner.”
“Well then what would you like to do with your morning off ?”
Bernice thought for a moment then looked at Ashley smiling “Don’t laugh !” she said “But milk isn’t the only thing that you’re running short of. the larder is looking really empty. So why don’t we go shopping ?”
“Shopping !” Ashley said fighting to stifle a laugh “For food ? you want to spend the morning in Tesco ?”
“I told you not to laugh” Bernice said playfully slapping him on the shoulder “I just think it’d be nice. We’ve never done it. Please Ash”
“If it makes you happy” Ashley said finally letting out the laugh “Besides that way I can be sure to buy things you like , and while we’re there we can always stock up on you things to keep here to save you lugging them back and forward. you know shampoo , that lovely bubble bath you use , that sort of thing”
“See it’s a good idea ! Now just let me get ready and we’ll get going !”
*******************
An hour and a half later they were pulling into the Tesco car park. “Are you sure about this ?” Ashley asked , still amused by her choice of way to spend her morning off.
“Yep” Bernice answered gathering up her bag and getting out of the car.
They got a trolley and headed for the door. it wasn’t long before Ashley got into the spirit of the outing. She was right there was something warm about shopping together , planning meals for the week , comparing each other’s likes and dislikes. They’d managed to get as far as the freezers before any major disagreement.
“No Ash !” Bernice said smiling “Plain vanilla is so boring , lets have something exciting like chocolate fudge , or this , chunky cherry” She held up an ice cream carton with pictures of very rich vanilla ice cream with lumps of whole cherries in it.
“But I always have Vanilla” Ashley said making faces at the thought of Cherry ice cream
“Please Ash!”
“Look. I’ll tell you what. We’ll get both” Ashley replied indulgently at her.
“Ok” Bernice said placing two cartons in the trolley “But I bet I’ve tempted you with my chunky cherry before the week’s out !”
“I don’t doubt it !”
They both laughed as they made their way toward the cosmetics section and Bernice added shampoo , tooth paste and conditioner. Ashley stood looking at the vast array of bath foams on the shelf as she came beside him.
“Ok which one’s yours ?” he asked
“Well it’s one of that five” Bernice replied pointing to five different coloured bottles of Radox on the top.
“Ok let me guess” Ashley said lifting the first one down and unscrewing the cap smelt it “Well that’s not it” He proceeded along the line as Bernice watched until he came to the forth bottle. “That’s the one.” He said triumphantly “I’d know that smell anywhere.”
Bernice nodded smiling and was about to reply when she spotted something quite unexpected over his shoulder.
“Ash” she said “Isn’t that Sarah and Richie ?”
Ashley turned to see then walking toward him “Yes” he said “Seems we aren’t the only couple stocking up”
“I don’t know what to say to them” Bernice whispered as it became obvious they had been spotted.
“Just try to act naturally”
“hi you two” Richie said as they approached
“hi” Ashley answered as Bernice and Sarah avoided each others gaze “Doing a bit shopping”
“Yeah , it’s amazing how many things you need when you move in somewhere new” Richie answered
“And how’s everything” Bernice asked try to sound casual “Are you settling in ? You’re in the holiday cottage aren’t you ?”
“Yes” Sarah replied defensively “I suppose Viv has made sure everyone knows by now. We must be the talk of the village”
“It’ll die down” Ashley said determined not to get into this in the middle of the supermarket
“I keep telling her that” Richie replied
“Yeah well I suppose you two were delighted I mean now the village has a whole new scandal to talk about , they’ll be leaving you alone. Personally I think you are all a bunch of hypocrites !” Sarah said in a voice loud enough to turn heads around them , then stormed off as Richie looked apologetically at them and followed after her. Leaving a stunned Ashley and Bernice with no means of reply and nothing to do but watch them go.
