For the Road

She closed her eyes for a minute and took in the breeze gently caressing her face, the rustling leaves overhead on the tree, and the warmth of the sun whilst sitting on the grass. A long deep breath in, her exhale is interrupted.

“You’ve made too much.”

Snapping back to attention, she looked over to him, “Sorry?”

“There’s a lot of food here, I’m not sure if just the two of us can get through it”, he takes a knife and cuts into some cheddar.

Watching him eat for a moment, feelings of frustration come over her but she manages not to say anything. Looking over the picnic food; cheeses, dips, breads, meat, fruit, cakes, and sweets, there actually was quite a lot, but she didn’t want to admit it. “Don’t worry, we’ll manage”, she picks up some fruit and slowly eats, drifting off into a daydream. He realised that he may’ve upset her a bit and looks up at her, putting his hand on top of hers, “thanks for organising it, it’s really nice”, a little smile comes over his face. Locking eyes for a moment, she gives him a little smile back, nodding in acknowledgement, slowly taking her hand away.

Sitting quietly in their thoughts, eating, there’s not a lot of eye contact; an awkward glance here or there, neither of them know what to say.

Looking down the road in her daydream state, she squints a little to see how far along it she can get.

“Wonder what’s out that way. I haven’t been down there before. You?” she turns toward him waiting for his answer, only to find him scrolling on his phone. The phone drops to the grass, “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t...”

“That’s ok, honestly, it’s fine, it really is...”

“What was the question?”

“Oh, I was just wondering what was down that road and if you’d ever been that way before, but it’s ok. It’s not like we’d been chatting or anything, seriously, it’s all good. Carry on with your thing.” She turned back, her face slightly flushed.

He takes a moment, “You were daydreaming again”.

“I know, I’m not upset or anything, I know I was daydreaming, silly really”, she picks up a pastry and presents it to him, “try a mini quiche.” He complies, taking a bite.

Looking at her, at her face; her hair, her eyes, her nose, her mouth, taking it all in as he slowly chews, grinning, “it’s delicious, your food always is.” She calms and gives a genuine smile, “thank you, I’m glad that you like it.” There’s a sigh and a comfortable chuckle between them as they start to relax into the day.

Telling stories to each other, there’s laughter, teasing and making faces at one another; reminiscing. Sipping on some wine, they look down at the picnic simultaneously and abruptly stop.

“Half of it gone already”, he said with some sadness in his tone. She looked over back towards the road, “looks that way…”

Trying to catch her attention again, “did you want some more?” She snaps back into his presence, “yes, yes of course. But why don’t we pause for a minute? Let some of the food digest”, she pats her stomach.

“Are you having a nice time?”

“Sure… You? Are you having a nice time?”

“Yep”

“Good. Glad to hear it”, each taking a slow sip of wine. She daydreams, he scrolls.

As the breeze begins to cool, she puts her jacket on, “I could eat more now.” His phone drops on to the grass, “same”, and they continue feasting.

Not knowing what else to talk about, they both kept eating quietly, every now and then looking over at each other and taking in each other’s features. Her hair, his eyes, the fine lines on each of their faces, locking it away into their memory.

Looking down at the picnic, all the food is gone and they both become a little on edge. She checks the time on her watch, “Well, I best be…”

“Yeah, me too”.

They stand and begin packing things away into the basket and rolling up the blanket. As she finishes packing, he looks up and picks a large pear from the tree, takes a knife, cuts it in half right down the middle and hands her a piece, “for the road.” She nods in acceptance, wraps it up and packs it in her bag.

They each take another moment to look over one another, give each other a saddened smile and a nod. They turn back to back and walk away.