When Clifford met Annie

Clifford and Annie met at a dance, and started a cautious romance. He took her out to a movie and dinner, and gave her roses with a card signed with affection that she still keeps in her handbag. They started their own small marketing business, and in the running of the business discovered that they were both ‘goal setters’. One day, not having anything else to talk about, they decided to create the perfect budget.

‘We were really excited that we could agree on something so vital and fundamental to any enterprise, whether it’s a business or a marriage, ’ says Clifford.

With so much romance in the air, their relationship deepened, and as the weeks passed, they began to make lists of increasingly personal concerns. From the start, they agreed that the big marriage breakers were money, behaviour, sex, and children. ‘Nothing is going to make this marriage go wrong, ’ says Clifford. ‘Everything has already been planned.’

‘In five years, we will have moved from our present address, and we will be living in a beach house overlooking the ocean.’

When Annie met Clifford

Annie sees their arrangements slightly differently. For her, the prenuptial contract was a way of getting to know Clifford – a kind of courtship, ‘just probing and asking questions. If we don’t like and respect each other, this union won’t last.’ She liked what she found, including a mutual fondness for lists. ‘I’d made a list of what I wanted in a man, what I liked, and what was unacceptable. I had prayed to God to find a man who was my father, only 30 years younger.’

She is very keen to have children, but Clifford admits to ‘having problems’ with the prospect of more kids, more college fees. Their contract states: ‘We will not start a family for the first two years of our marriage.’ ‘So I’ll be pregnant in three years, ’ Annie says, and then pauses. ‘No, sooner than that. I’ll be pregnant in 30 months....’

Such is the wild intensity of passion in the heat of Florida.

Post-reading tasks

1. Read the text more carefully and answer the questions. Find some things that Annie and Clifford have in common, and some things that they don’t have in common.

2. Annie and Clifford say that marriages fail because of arguments about money, behaviour, sex, and children. Which of their rules refer to these four things?

3. Are the following statements true or false? Correct the false ones with the right information and discuss your answers:

a Clifford does all the cooking.

b He prepares everything very carefully.

c Their apartment looks messy but comfortable.

d Annie misunderstands why Clifford touches her.

e They want the contract to ensure an uncomplicated divorce if they split up.

f There will be no alcohol at their wedding.

g If any of the rules are broken, they will divorce immediately.

h Clifford has no doubts that both his book and his marriage will be successful.

i On their first date, Clifford took Annie out to a dance.

j Annie had no idea what her perfect man would be like until she met Clifford.

Ex. 9 Translate the words and phrases in the brackets into English.

1. The head of the family shall (утримувати) his infant children until they come of age. 2. (Піклування) is оnе of the parental duties. 3. At Соmmоn Law on the father’s death the mother (одержувала право) to the custody of her children. 4. At Common Law the father’s right to custody (здійснювати) even against the mother. 5. Our (принципи) may come from our fathers. 6. Our (забобони) certainly descend from the female branch. 7. This ring has been brought down in my (родина).