The Good Life

Chapter 105

Later that night, after the kids had fallen asleep Marla flopped down on the couch next to Bruno who had his laptop next to him. She leaned over seeing what he was looking at. "Serious?" she asked him as he scrolled through pictures of houses.

"We need to, Mar. Like look at the mess. It's like the Himalayas in here. We have to climb mountains to get things." She smiled at him knowing he was right. "See! I was right! You want to move too!"

"I know. We need to. But we have to stay in this area. I don't want Rosie changing schools. With all things she has been through changing schools is one thing we can control."

"Okay..." he said clicking a few buttons narrowing down the search to keep his oldest daughter in the same school. They looked through pages and pages of houses even finding one right down the street. It needs paint, it's on a narrow street, it's not our style, the kitchen is too small, the pool is gross, it's too far from the studio...were all excuses the two came up with. They sat next to each other going through the houses for hours finally landing on one that made Marla gasp the same way she did when she laid her eyes on the first photo of their current home.

"I just don't see anything I like. We should just stay here." Marla sighed standing up to stretch.

"Wait..." Bruno said pulling her back down showing her another traditional home.

"Oh...I like that..." she said moving his hand to click the pictures. "I really like it..."

"It would be hard to leave here, Mar. It's like a first love. I know you love this house. It has so many memories in it. But we'll create new ones...." He said squeezing her tightly.

"God, you are so cheesy." Marla said laying her head on his shoulder.

"You do that to me." He laughed sending an e-mail to their realtor. "We'll go look at it tomorrow. Umpphh..come on mama. Let's go to bed." He said lifting her up pretending to struggle.

"Hey! I'm not that fat!" she exclaimed as she stood up with him.

He smiled at her leaning into kiss her. "Marley...I don't know what I would do without you." She smiled against his lips returning the kiss. "I like it when you do that." He said pulling her closer to him. She held onto the embrace laying her head on her shoulder yawning.

"I'm tired." She told him pulling away taking his hand leading him to the bedroom.

"God, Mar. You are the biggest cock blocker ever." He said laying down next to her dramatically.

"Blame your kids." She said as she turned to turn off the light. As she turned around she felt his hands wander down her waist making her squirm. "Buutttt....." she whined moving on top of him to kiss him. She looked into his eyes lighting up more than Angelo when he saw his favorite toy moving toward him. "I think I can suck it up just this once." She said laying her head into his kissing him feeling him roll on top of her.

"Just let me do it." He told her moving his head to her neck kissing her feeling her close her eyes.

"Ohhh....Bruno..." she let out as he touched her all over her body.

"Mar?" he moved up to her face seeing her eyes still closed and her arms tense.

"What?" she asked looking down at him.

"Ohhh...ohhh....Owwww...." she let out watching everything turn blue in her head. He jumped off of her quickly lifting her up placing her on the floor. He held onto her hand watching her whole body shake beneath the clothes he had put on her before he moved her. He counted endlessly waiting for her to wake up. He watched her breathing slow down as she let out a slight scream that reminded him of Rosie's post-ictal state. He held onto her tightly the same way that she held onto Rosie when she seized. As he felt her body release its tension he felt her pull away frantically.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! Who are you? What the hell?" she jumped up seeing she was only wearing one of his shirts. "What? What is this? Oh my god..." she started almost running toward the door after grabbing his shorts that were laying on the ground. She slipped on some flip-flops laying on the bed. He watched her run toward the door. What do I do? He thought to himself. He grabbed the last letter had written to her clutching it in his hand as she neared the door with the wrong set of keys.

"Marla!" he gasped handing her the letter.

"Who are you? Why were you near me? Oh my god.. I...ewww... oh my god..." she let out holding the letter in her hand. She looked down at it not sure what to think. "And you're Bruno?" she asked studying his face trying to connect the dots. "And we're...." she walked to the wall of pictures that they had come to love. "Married? And three kids?" she touched the pictures again trying to connect the dots. "I don't get it..." she said looking over the pictures again. "This says 2015..it's only January 2010...." She said to herself turning to look at Bruno's shocked face.

"Stay right there." He said pointing to the couch. As she sat down he kissed the top of her head. "I'm not going to hurt you."

She nodded her head looking around the house. "I don't get any of this..." She watched Bruno come back into the room holding two and a half years' worth of letters he had written to her. He handed her the very bottom letter watching her read over it. "I'm so, so, so, sorry. I don't remember." She told him.

"It's okay." He told her watching her read over the letters one by one. Nearly an hour later they heard one of the twins start to cry making her jump.

"Keep reading. I'll get them." He told her. She watched him walk to get to the babies. A few minutes later she heard him start to sing to Hope. She laid her head back closing her eyes with the letters in her hands. After getting Hope to fall asleep he walked back into the living room to see his wife asleep still clutching the letters. He picked her up careful not to wake her up or to drop the stack in her hand laying her on their bed. He covered her up kissing her gently turning off the light walking to the small couch at the other end of their room. He pulled out a piece of paper starting to write.

Dear Marla,

I don't think you remember me anymore. I'm your husband. We met in February of 2010. We fell in love and had a baby in February of 2012. We didn't get married right away though. We waited a little while to have the perfect wedding. Our baby is almost 6 years old now. But that's not the only baby we have. We have 9 month old twins too. All three of them are amazing. After all this time, almost 8 years, I still love you as much, if not more than I did the day I met you. I need you to come back to me Marla. Before all this happened I told you I didn't know what I would do without you. I still don't know the answer. Marla, I love you.

Bruno