A Parental Proposal

His helping hand

Back home, life went back to being mechanical. Leah and Eric were fully caught up with work and the kids' school and stuff.

Exams were on now, which meant Leah was super busy. She had to care for all her class kids and her twins. Eric and Leah had the least interactions. Now and then he enquired about how the kids did in their exam and how Leah was doing amongst this tight schedule. Their conversations didn't get more personal than that.

But to Leah's surprise, Eric took care of all of the household chores. He woke up before Leah and made breakfast and lunch. He packed lunch for everyone. He took care of laundry and the vessels. He cleaned the house. He was the complete epitome of a perfect husband.

And Leah be damned if she could control her fluttering heart all along.

Leah missed the time she spent with Eric at her home. Despite her tight schedule, memories from the trip kept popping up, bringing a grin to her face every time. Now that they were back here, they no longer slept on the same bed. Leah went back to sleeping on the floor while Eric slept on the bed.

She half expected Eric to say they could sleep on the same bed given they already did back at her home. But no. He kept mum and although Leah was a little disappointed she knew this was the right thing to do. Especially when her feelings were all over. She needed a better handle on everything. But for right now she had enough to keep her distracted.

They were left with just 2 more exams and Leah sat with the kids revising for the exam. They looked tired and Leah felt sorry for them. But they had only two more to go and she motivated them saying exactly that.

When they were done, all four of them sat down for dinner prepared by Eric. After dinner, Eric took them to bed to tuck them in while Leah went to carry on with her work.

Some of her classes were already done with her subject and she sat down at her study table to evaluate their papers. She was too tired now and could get through with only a few papers before her neck pain got the best of her.

On top of it, her feet were killing her. She had been standing all day for the last three days while invigilating and back home she had to help the kids with their exams. Thank God for Eric. She couldn't even imagine how it would have been to handle household chores with all these.

She leaned back on her chair and felt a shooting pain radiate from her neck upwards. She could sense a headache coming up. Simultaneously, she rotated her ankles to ease the ache. She wanted to dip her feet in hot water but even that felt like a chore.

She'd be better after a good night's sleep, she told herself but couldn't seem to get up. So she decided to stay there a little longer. She closed her eyes and used her fingers to gently press the pressure points in her neck.

It felt better and she continued to do so for a little while until she was interrupted by another set of fingers on her neck. She immediately jumped and saw Eric standing right above her, his hands on the back of her neck.

"Let me. Please," he said as if he was asking a favour from her while in fact any help he could would be a favour for her.

She silently let her hands fall beside her as she sat upright. Eric's palms gently laid flat around the back of her neck and slowly and quite unsurely his thumb started moving up and down. Leah could feel herself being too stiff at the suddenness of his touch and slowly calmed herself down. In no time she relaxed and Eric's hands took control of the grip.

"Let me know if I'm being too hard."

He started massaging gently and properly and oh the relief that Leah felt! It was unexplainable. He pressed the right spots and put the right amount of pressure. Leah had to force herself to keep the moan from escaping her mouth. It was so good and so comforting.

And once the pain started fading, every other emotion surfaced. Her brain started focusing on the warmth of his palms along her skin and suddenly she was no longer relaxed. His hand made circular motions across her shoulder blades and Leah's heart started to race.

Maybe it was the night or the silence that surrounded, something made it all quite too intimate. His every stroke made her stomach twist and turn and a million alien feelings took over her. Her mind and body were reacting to his every touch and just as suddenly her insecurities started taking over.

One minute she was concentrating on her attraction for Eric and the next minute her brain started wondering if he was feeling even a tiny bit attracted. The act seemed intimate but he did not look like he felt anything. It was as if he was helping out a friend.

Something that felt too intimate for her was probably something that was no big deal to Eric. And once that thought entered her brain, she couldn't shoo it away.

All her life she's known nobody was attracted to her. She wasn't pretty and skinny. Nothing about her screamed attractive. And she had somehow made peace with that fact. Or at least she'd learned to ignore it.

But now, she couldn't ignore it. Eric was massaging her neck and she was feeling all queasy and excited. But she could see that it had no effect on Eric.

It broke her.

She let him massage for just a couple more minutes before finally saying it was enough. As much as she wanted the moment to stretch longer, she couldn't handle her breaking heart.

"Thank you so much," she turned to face him. "You have no idea how helpful that was," she said holding the back of her neck.

"No problem. You should rest."

She nodded. "Good night."

They both went on to lie down on their respective places and Eric turned out the night lamp.

Leah placed the pillow comfortably for her neck. Her pain really did ease out with all the massaging and she was utterly grateful for his thoughtfulness. He could as well have left her be. He clearly felt nothing for her. But he chose to help her and that shows his kindheartedness.

As she lied down and tried to sleep, Leah could only hope to not fall deeper for this man.

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Author's note: I'm so grateful for you readers, you make me wanna write more. Thank you for choosing to read this story 🫰
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