Always You - A Second Chance Romance

Chapter 1

I sat down on the couch and let out a large breath. I finally just finished cleaning our apartment and my back was hurting from scrubbing the floors. I heard the deadbolt to the front door unlock and the door swung open.

"Hi babe," I said, turning to look at my husband, Nick, as he walked in.

"Hey," he said as he closed the door behind him. He put his laptop bag on the floor and looked over at me. He looked me up and down, eyeing my athletic clothes and slightly disheveled appearance from my cleaning frenzy. "You know we have to leave soon, right? I made plans with David and Alexandra." I nodded.

"Nice to see you too," I said, irritation bubbling inside me. "How was work?"

"It was fine," he said. Nick sat down on the couch next to me and unlocked his phone. He scrolled aimlessly for a few minutes before looking over at me.

"You should get changed," he said. I sighed and got up from the couch and headed to our bathroom to shower. I took a quick shower, washing the sweat from my skin from all the cleaning I did after work. As I stepped out of the shower Nick entered the bathroom.

"Oh, you washed your hair?" he asked, clearly disappointed. I rolled my eyes as I towel dried my hair.

"Why is everything an issue?" I asked him. "I needed to wash my hair after cleaning our apartment."

"You knew we had plans, I don't know why you weren't ready," he said.

"We're busy all weekend," I scoffed. "The apartment needed to be cleaned."

"Okay, well, we need to leave soon," he said before turning and walking out of the bathroom. My back practically screamed at me as I bent over to get my hairdryer from the drawer under my sink. I winced as I stood up and took a deep breath, trying to remind myself that he had a long day at work too.

"Hurry up," Nick called from the bedroom, breaking me from my desire to calm down. I scowled at myself in the mirror, my frustration boiling over, before dropping my hair dryer back into its drawer. I stomped into the bedroom and Nick looked up from his phone momentarily.

"I'm not going," I said. "I don't want to go out for drinks with you or your friends after you've been rude to me since you got home."

"Emily, don't be like that," he said, rolling his eyes and lazily sitting up from the bed. "We had these plans since Tuesday."

"You made this plans without asking me and the whole weekend is booked with friends and family. I had to clean today before I go out of town next week," I said. "I'm exhausted and I don't want to go."

"I can't cancel on them, that's rude," he said. I rolled my eyes dramatically.

"You know what's rude? It's rude to come home and be a jerk to your wife after she just finished working all day, like you, and then rushed home and cleaned the entire apartment by herself. And you didn't even ask how my day was, comment on everything I did today, or even acknowledge me."

"The apartment looks nice," he said through gritted teeth, irritated.

"Thanks," I said bitterly. We stared at each other for a few moments, obviously irritated with one another and each of us wanting to say more but refusing to be the one to break the silence.

"I'm not going tonight," I said finally.

"Okay, fine," he said. "I'm going to leave then."

"Alright," I said, my tone switching from annoyed to defeated. Nick got up from the bed and headed out to the living room. As I slipped on my yoga pants and sports bra I could hear the front door open and slam shut as he left. After the door slammed shut all the anger inside me wilted and I sat back into the bed. A hollow feeling was left in my stomach from this argument, one of many from this week, and I forced myself to bite back tears - it seemed like I couldn't do anything right as the arguments from this week played in my mind.

After what felt like forever I slowly got up from the bed and warmed up some leftovers for dinner. I watched some tv to try to distract myself from the argument Nick and I had before he left. At some point I fell asleep on the couch and woke up to the front door opening and closing loudly.

"Emily?" Nick called as he came into the apartment. I slowly sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes as he entered the living room.

"Did you have fun?" I asked, forcing a smile.

"Yeah we had a good time," he said. "David and Alexandra say hi."

"That's nice," I said. I slowly got up from the couch, wincing as I stood up from the pain in my back. I glanced at the clock on the microwave and gasped at the time.

"It's 1 am?" I asked, turning to Nick. He nodded.

"Yeah, we were out late," he said with a shrug before heading into our bedroom. I sighed and followed him, getting into bed and sliding between the sheets. Nick closed the bathroom door behind him and I could hear the shower kick on. Our argument from earlier that night played in my ears as I laid in bed waiting for him to join me, but I fell asleep before he finished showering.