"Morning Charlie." I grinned at Nick when he flopped into the seat beside me on Monday morning at the weekly staff meeting.
"Hey. How was your weekend?"
"Relaxing. Imogen had some time off too for once so we were able to spend some time with Abby."
"That sounds nice. I wish we were back a few years when Ben and I could just choose to relax with the kids. But unfortunately Nathaniel plays football on Saturdays and Alexis has a dance recital on Saturday this weekend."
"Ew. But you do whatever you have to for your kids, right?" He laughed and I nodded.
"Yeah. You do."
"How's Nathaniel going with the transfer from Oak Park?"
"He's enjoying it so much. I don't think I've ever seen him so happy. He's made friends and has even been invited to a party on the weekend."
"That's so good. I'm glad to hear he's doing well."
"I'm proud of him for being able to bounce back so quickly." I hadn't given Nick details of what Nathaniel had gone through last week but I guessed he'd figured out something had happened.
"Kids can bounce back easily from a lot of things." He whispered as the headmistress stood up at the front of the room. We fell into silence to listen to the notes for the week and anything we needed to know.
Half an hour later, Nick and I walked across the school yard towards the Arts building to get prepared for our classes.
"Oh, hey I was going to ask you before; would you and your family be interested in coming over to my place for dinner on Friday?"
"Dinner? I thought you said your wife doesn't like me?"
"She wants to make up to me the fight we had when I hurt my arm. She thinks that by inviting you over I'll forgive her."
"You haven't forgiven her?" I was surprised. From what I'd learned about Nick so far, he was a very forgiving person and didn't hold grudges.
"Oh no. I have. I forgave her that night. But she seems to think she has to keep apologising."
"You've told her she doesn't have to?"
"Many Times. But I've decided I don't mind. Not if she keeps trying to make it up to me in the ways she is." I saw the blush creeping up his cheeks and nodded knowingly, understanding what he was getting at.
"I think that's something our significant others have in common; Ben always goes over the top to make things up to me when he wants to apologise."
"Maybe they'll be good friends. They can plot new ways to apologise to us." Nick laughed and I joined in.
"Yeah, maybe."
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After school, I dropped Nathaniel at the library so he could do some research for a project before heading home to find I had the house to myself for a little while. I busied myself cleaning up the kitchen since we'd left it in a mess the night before, music blasting from the intercom speakers Ben and I had installed years ago.
"Charlie?" I jumped when Ben's voice sounded from behind me.
"Oh. Hey. I didn't hear you come in." I turned around to face him, holding my arms open for a hug which he oddly ignored.
"What're you doing?"
"Waiting for you." I replied, taking it upon myself to take a step closer to hug him. Almost instantly, my nose was assaulted with an unfamiliar, nasty smell. "Ew, what have you been doing today?"
