(no subject)
"Tu me manques." Alice twists the phone cord around her finger as she watches students pass her in the small dorm hall. Studying abroad in France is amazing...she loves it...but today is a bad day and all she knows is she misses her husband like never before.
She can hear him breathe into the phone, savoring her voice, translating what she's saying. There's a pause in which she can imagine him trying to decide which language to reply back in, before he sighs, having chosen Spanish, "Yo también. Alice--"
"Aujord'hui," Alice interrupts, sniffing quickly. She might not be able to cry real tears but God she misses him. She just...needs to fill his ear with her words. His voice rips her heart out with every sound he makes. "Uh, aujord'hui, j'ai parlé avec mon professeurs à propos de les oiseaux, assez curieusement. Nous sommes n'étudions pas des oiseaux...c'est loufoque."
She makes a mistake in pausing to swallow, to stop her rambling on in French about nothing (birds and professors and lessons that have nothing to do with birds) and he jumps in to stop her.
"Alice. Stop."
"Je...je ne parle pas l'anglais." She whispers. She shouldn't have called if it is going to hurt this much.
He goes silent for a long moment and she almost (almost) starts up again, unsure of what should be rambled about next, but he speaks at the very last second, his voice almost too quiet for her to hear over the buzzing the phone makes. "No dejo de extrañarte, Alice."
She lets out a tearless sob, her shoulders shaking as she cradles the phone to her ear. He shushes her softly from home and when she settles down, he whispers, "Te amaré para siempre. I love you--"
"--Always and forever." Alice finishes. "I want...I want to come home."
"Then come home." Jasper says. "No one will be disapointed. I'm sure they'll all be ecstatic. They've missed you. You can a do a year in Canada, learn to speak Québécois French instead."
Alice sighs. "I need to finish this semester though...it's almost done." She twists her fingers in the cord again, sighing. "Jasper, I hate to--"
"I'll book a flight as soon as we're done here. Find me a hotel. I'll stay until you're done."
"Thank you." Her head falls against the wall with a thunk. "I guess...I'll go. I'll see you soon."
"Very soon."
"Je t'aime."
"Te amo, Alice."