“I don’t think we should pop the champagne just yet,” said Marcella.
A soft smile crept over Leo’s lips and he shook his head gently.
“Relax, no-one’s celebrating anything yet,” he said.
Her husband’s shining eyes told a different story. She crossed her arms. The furrow in her brow deepened as she stared at the box of gold eggs on their coffee table.
“Alex Hooper and his wife came by asking if we’d seen a goose a couple of days ago. He offered a thousand dollars to get it back.”
Alex had done the talking while his colorless wife had stared sharply around Marcella’s yard. She’d stayed outside to talk to them, resisting the guilt she felt for not inviting them in for coffee, as she would have done with any of her other neighbors. Something about their seriousness had unnerved her even more than usual.
“Okay?” Leo said. His eyebrows drew down but the excitement radiating from him remained unchanged.
“I…I think there might be a connection. Those gold things, they’re eggs.”
Leo’s eyebrows shot back up and a puff of laughter escaped him.
“Well… They’re egg-shaped, I’ll give you that.”
“They had to come from somewhere,” Marcella insisted. “And what are we even going to do with them? Walk into the bank with a box of gold? There’ll be questions, probably regulations–”
“Hey, hey, calm down. We’re not doing anything with them yet. We’ll put the box up in the attic and do some research.”
He moved closer and slid an arm around her waist, pulling her into a quick squeeze. She automatically relaxed some into the familiar warmth, though she kept her arms crossed.
“Wouldn’t it be nice,” he said, “to not have to worry when the kids start looking at colleges? What if they could start off life without student loans?”
Marcella laid her head on his shoulder and sighed. He knew how to get to her.
“I just think we should be careful. I have a bad feeling about this,” she said quietly.
“Of course, sweetheart, of course.”
This was inspired by the #freewrite prompt champagne.
Image by rawpixel.