Love Around the World 14: Nepal

Landing in Sydney after another change of plane in Bangkok, this time just transferring without an overnight stop, I was greeted by my parents, sister and daughters. After the usual hugs and kisses, with my face covered in them from my daughters, there was only one topic of conversation.

"What's Fleur like, Daddy?" Kelly asked as I sat between them in the back of the car.

"Do you love her?" Katie wondered.

"Is she coming here?" Kelly asked.

"Or are you going to see her?" Katie followed up.

I waited until we were back home before I started answering any of their questions. I admitted that I did love her, which made my two girls smile. As for what she was like, I could only state that in addition to her obvious beauty, she was intelligent, had a sharp sense of humour, and a deep feeling of loyalty to those she loved, but what she really needed was someone to love her as much as she would love them in return.

"Girls, I'm thinking of heading to the Netherlands to see where this goes. What she's offered might surprise you. She knows I don't want to leave you here. Groningen, where she is from, is famous for its university. You won't need to know Dutch because some of the classes are in English because of all the foreign students."

"We'll start looking into it immediately," Katie exclaimed, the two girls quickly gathering around a laptop to start their research.

I took a couple of days to unwind before returning to work. Talking to my father on the first day I returned, he told me that I'd given him over twenty years of service and that if I wanted to move on to something else, he wasn't going to stop me. If I wasn't going to take over, there was a plan in place that the company would go public, or if that wasn't something achievable, the business would eventually just be sold at a rather tidy profit that the family would benefit from.

Despite the time difference between Sydney and Groningen, Fleur and I managed to talk every single day, whether it was a phone call or via a laptop using one of those online services that exploded in use during the pandemic. I knew we were missing each other terribly within a few short days, and I assured her that I was already talking about plans to fly there.

I gave it three months before I finally just bit the bullet and purchased a one-way ticket to Amsterdam. My girls knew I was going and had already started applying to universities across the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe that were reasonably close. Asking if they wanted to leave the rest of their family so far behind, all they did was cuddle and kiss me before insisting I was the most important person in their lives and that was all that mattered.

My family would help the girls with the house after I departed. The day I did, the same people who'd greeted me arriving back from Nepal would be seeing me off to the Netherlands. This time, I had no return ticket. I would return to Australia one day though I had no idea when. It would all depend on how things went with Fleur.

Getting off the plane at Schiphol Airport, I passed through immigration without a problem, picked up my large backpack, and walked out into the Arrivals Hall to be greeted by an excited blonde woman who practically leapt on me, smothering me with kisses as she could barely stop herself from crying.

"I can't believe you're here," she whispered, "I love you so much just for doing this for me."

"I wasn't going to live my life regretting not taking this chance," I said, placing her feet on the ground as I caressed her cheek, "And I love you just as much."

"You're okay living with my parents for a brief period? I've put in a few bids for places. Just need to hear back about them."

"Fleur, I don't mind what we do. The most important thing is I can stay with you."

"When I received the application you sent to the consulate in Australia for moving here permanently, Mum was wondering what had me crying at the dinner table. She saw it and said, 'Well, he must be serious to have applied for it.' Um... It did suggest that you might end up marrying someone who lives in the Netherlands."

"Does that idea concern you? Marriage, that is?"

"Never thought I'd marry an Australian man," she whispered, "I can do co-habiting to start with. When will your girls get here?"

"They're still hoping to get into the same university. They've applied here, Belgium and Germany. They're smart girls. If they need to learn a language, I think they'll be okay though I know a lot of classes are done in English because of the international flavour so many universities have nowadays. I even suggested they just try the United Kingdom as it isn't that far from where we will be."

Arriving in Groningen a few hours later, her parents greeted us at the train station. Her father shook my hand, her mother kissed me on both cheeks. They both spoke excellent English, apologising to them in return for my complete lack of Dutch. They waved any apologies away, insisting everyone spoke English and once they heard my accent, they'd usually be happy to speak it anyway.

Living with her parents was a little weird. We were both eager to make love that night, but I couldn't help laughing with her parents just down the hall. "I feel like a teenager trying to get frisky with his girlfriend..."

"I am your girlfriend," she stated, reaching down to guide my cock towards her, "And what she needs right now is her boyfriend inside her." Once I was, she sighed happily. "That's better. Now you're home again."

"First night of the rest of our lives?"

"I hope so. I really hope so."

Falling asleep before me as she had work the next morning, I couldn't help lying back and wondering what our future would bring. I guess it is a case of simply taking each day as it comes and that it would work itself out in the end.

*****

Epilogue

"Hey, Dad!" Katie exclaimed when I opened the door. I was still a little sad that neither of my daughters called me 'Daddy' any longer, though given they each had small children of their own, their husbands being called 'Daddy' by their children, I guess it prevented any confusion. Kissing Katie on the cheek, I shook her husband's hand before I leaned down and scooped up my granddaughter.

"Papa!" she giggled as I kissed her cheek, her giggle increasing as my beard tickled her, "I love you, Papa."

My god, even after a few years, it was still enough to make a grown man cry as she wrapped her little arms around my neck and cuddled me. "I love you too, sweetheart," I whispered back, hearing my voice catch. Of course, my wife seemed to have this sixth sense whenever her husband was plagued by emotion, feeling her hand on my shoulder as I turned so she could hug our granddaughter.

Our daughter, Annika, wandered out of her room. She was now six years old and still marvelled at the fact she had two older sisters who were in their mid-twenties. Katie and Kelly absolutely adored their little sister. Given that we were all now living in the suburbs of Amsterdam, my daughters absolutely loved babysitting their little sister. Gave Fleur and me a chance to spend a night together. Sometimes, we'd literally just spend all night in bed, and on occasion that just meant catching up on sleep.

Fleur and I had spent a month living with her parents before we moved out. I found a job without a problem, my lack of Dutch not proving any hindrance though I did start going to evening classes to start learning it. We rented to start as Fleur was adamant about not remaining in Groningen forever. Once my daughters had organised themselves, I was delighted to hear they were both accepted into universities in the Netherlands, Katie in Groningen, and Kelly in Amsterdam. That wasn't a major problem.

I proposed to Fleur six months after I arrived as we had no problem discussing marriage and within three months, we were both eager to be husband and wife. My parents and sister flew in from Australia as did my four best friends. A week after we were married, I took my wife to Australia for three weeks.

Six months after we married, I arrived home to see Fleur waiting for me. My stomach dropped as she kept her face blank, and I thought it was going to be bad news until she showed me the test that she'd taken which showed a positive result. We'd discussed children and I wanted at least one child with her. Finding out we were having a daughter when given the chance to learn the sex of our child was enough to almost make me bawl like a baby.

Katie and Kelly both married European men, Katie married a Swede, and Kelly married an Italian. Both of them had given birth to children of their own and I was both a proud father and grandfather. Fleur had practically adopted my daughters as her own given their complete lack of relationship with their own mother,

Our house was hosting Christmas this year. Both sets of parents would be arriving soon enough as would my sister as she'd moved to the United Kingdom, wanting to remain close to her sibling, my parents retired and now living on a Greek island after my father had sold the company for a tidy seven-figure sum.

As for my ex-wife, I have no idea what happened to her as she'd fallen off the face of the earth and as for my son, he hadn't made any attempt to contact anyone in the family since we'd moved out.

Fleur plopped onto the couch next to me as my granddaughter happily snuggled on my lap. "So what do we have to be thankful for, honey?" she asked.

Glancing around the large living room, I felt the smile slowly form. My daughters were happily married, had careers of their own, and starting their families. My parents were still fit and healthy, enjoying their retired life together. Her parents were involved in our lives and had adopted me as a son. Fleur's sister was very close to us and engaged to her girlfriend.

"You know, out of everyone to thank, I think thanking Jane should be near the top of the list. If it hadn't been for that selfish request, I wouldn't be here right now. I would probably never have gone to Nepal on that trek and met you. I had just over twenty wonderful years with Jane. I can't deny that things were good most of the time. We've now had seven wonderful years together and I hope the rest of our lives are just as happy."

"I'm thinking of what to do for your fiftieth. Maybe another item off the bucket list?"

"What are you thinking?" I had to ask.

"I'm thinking of something that would involve a lot of hiking, though this time we'd just have a tent and a couple of sleeping bags, and we could get naughty in nature from time to time."

"I had no idea my wife was quite the little exhibitionist until our first holiday in France."

Thankfully our granddaughter was asleep and probably wouldn't understand the conversation anyway. "South America?" she finally asked.

"We can look into it early next year."

"Have a party here for the family then I'm going to treat my husband to something spectacular."

"As long as we're doing it together."

Cuddling into my side, my granddaughter fast asleep against me with my arm around her as well, I could only sit there with a contented smile on my face, laughing to myself as I whispered a silent thanks to my ex-wife for everything that led me to this moment.