Shaun And Lea: Made for each other

Part 7: Small surprises

San Jose
October 2020.

"I have a surprise waiting for you here at home."

"I don't like surprises."

"I know, but this one you'll love, especially what we can do with it."

"But why don't you just say so?"

"Because it's a surprise and there's no fun in revealing it beforehand."

Shaun was clearly curious and starting to get restless.

" I'm coming in early today, my shift ends before at 7 p.m."

"Great. I missed you last night."

"Because of the sex?"

"Not just that, you know. I didn't even see you at the hospital today, I'm worried, you get so tired after a shift like this and that's what I'm noticing now looking at you."

"Yeah, it wasn't easy. We took care of some patients who were involved in a fan fight after a soccer game. One of them had a compound fracture and will need to wear pins for a few months."

"Wow, what a burden for him."

"But how about you, did you eat? Do you want to eat anything specific for dinner?"

"I think I'd like to have pizza."

"Okay. A warm four cheese pizza with no olives will be waiting for you, with me and a surprise."

"Hum..." __ A mumbling from a reflective Shaun.

"Okay, I gotta go. See you in home."

"Okay. I'll be waiting. Love you."
I turned off the screen.

>>>

Just before eight Shaun was home, the sound of the key turning in the door took my attention away from the game on the tablet.
He slowly put his backpack and coat on the hanger, came over and sat next to me on the couch, and let out a sigh of relief.

"Are you okay?" I asked as I touched his hand.

"Yes, just pretty tired and very hungry."

"The pizza hasn't arrived yet, I just called the pizza place and they told me the delivery guy had a problem on the way, but he's coming."

"Okay. So where's the surprise you mentioned?"

"Come with me!"

Shaun followed me into the room where he stood in the doorway and checked the space around him.

"You won't find the surprise if you look up and around because it's here."__ I launched myself into a backwards leap toward the comforter that covered the new soft, extra-comfortable spring mattress.

"A new mattress. But our bed already had a mattress."

Shaun let out, looking at the novelty.

"I know, but it wasn't new and it wasn't extra comfortable. Besides that we needed to change mattresses, we're starting a new stage together now and a lot of things have changed, so why not change the furniture too?

"I like our furniture and I also liked the mattress, it's much better than my old one."

"You'll like this one too, especially when we both break it down with what we're going to do on it, and I'm not talking about  sleeping."__ I winked.

Shaun a little reticent, grumbled, but a second later relaxed his expression.

"Okay, I think I might like him yes."