"Remind me why you turned down a day in bed with me?" Max asked sleepily as Zoe finally managed to crawl out of bed, once she's finally managed to free herself from Max's arms.
"Because we occasionally have to socialise with friends, don't forget you're coming too and you're starting to smell so get in the shower." Zoe teased as she looked through her wardrobe for a suitable outfit.
"Charming." Max retorted but remained in bed, where he threw the duvet over his head. "You don't even like Connie." He offered as an excuse to get out of going out, his voice was muffled by the duvet but Zoe still was able to decipher what he was saying to her.
"That's not true!" Zoe tried but they both knew that she was lying, they were civil professionally but outside of work they steered well clear of each other. Max threw back the duvet in order to raise his eyebrows at her. "Fine, she's got better since she's been with Rita though." Zoe sighed as she pulled up her dress and smiled slightly to herself as Max pulled up her zip before he began to softly kiss her neck.
"Come back to bed Mrs Walker, we could have so much more fun here." Max tried as he whispered seductively in her ear. Zoe could feel her resolve weakening, she tried to think of reasons why they had to go out, but struggled to think of anything but Max as his lips brushed softly across her neck. As his teeth scrapped across her ear lobe, she was lost and fell back into Max's arms on the bed.
It wasn't long before they were disturbed by the ringing of Zoe's phone.
"Ignore it."
"We can't, it's Rita." Zoe sighed as Max pulled back away from her, allowing her the room to answer her phone. "Hi Rita." Zoe greeted, trying not to sound annoyed about the disruption to Max and her activities.
"Hi Zoe, could you and Max come for half 1 now instead of 11? I overslept and am behind on my cooking." Rita asked before apologising for the slight change in plan.
"Of course you just overslept." She teased knowingly. "But yeah we were running late ourselves." Zoe explained, not willing to go into any detail.
"Okay, see you later then."
.........................
"Are you going to tell me what we're doing today then?" Connie asked as she walked back into their bedroom with two mugs of coffee in her hands.
"I don't think I am." Rita teased in response, but still got up to take a mug from Connie.
"Aww come on, you know I hate surprises." Connie whined.
"No you don't, you hate not being in control. I promise you'll have a good day, now trust me darling."
"See that's where I'm having trouble." The clinical lead played.
"You weren't having trouble last night." The smaller blonde lent in for a kiss but pulled away just as Connie moved in to join their lips. Pulling on her dressing gown, Rita grabbed her coffee and then exited their bedroom and made her way down the stairs, leaving Connie wondering what her partner had planned.
"You're cooking?" Connie asked, he voice thick with surprise as she wrapped her arms around Rita's waist, as Rita stood over the hob.
"I can cook, you just insist usually." Was all the came in the way of a response.
"Why are you cooking?" Connie asked as she rested her head on Rita's shoulder, limiting the movement of her cooking girlfriend.
"Because like I told you, we have plans today." She explained and yet Connie just sighed again, so Rita placed a gentle kiss on Connie's cheek as the clinical lead pulled completely away.
"Why are there four plates out?" Connie asked suspiciously as she caught sight of the dining table that was laid ready for some sort of dinner party.
"We'll have company." Was all Rita was willing to tell Connie, for fear that she's walk out and go to work.
...........
"Remind me what it is we're doing today again?" Max asked as he sat flicking through the music channels on the TV, occasionally settling on a channel and singing quietly along. This was Zoe's favourite start to her day, the start when they could stay close and then when she could hear Max doing something that he enjoyed.
"It's a dinner party at Connie and Rita's, like a double date I suppose."
"You have Rita and I'll have Connie." Max played as Zoe appeared back in the room with a plate of toast for him.
"You really do have a thing for women in positions of power don't you?"
"Yeah, Margaret Thatcher really did it for me." Max joked, causing both to burst out laughing. "My toast isn't burnt, are you feeling okay?" He asked, earning himself a gentle slap on the arm from his wife.
"I'll have you know that I have now mastered the art of cooking toast."
"Only 33 years later than a normal person."
"Whatever." She sulked as she sat down beside Max and immediately found her way into his arms, as he continued to flick through music, singing in between bites of his toast to songs that Zoe had never heard. She often wondered how Max had such a good knowledge of modern music when he spent all of his time with her and she'd never heard the tracks.
..........
"They'll be here any moment, I need you to answer the door because I'm still cooking." Rita explained, she was starting to feel a little panicky as her starter was taking longer to cook than the recipe had specified.
"Are you going to tell me who I'm looking out for?" Connie asked, having been kept in the dark since they'd woken up. For a second Rita wondered whether she should just end the torture that she knew Connie was feeling but immediately thought better of it.
"No, it isn't hard just to open the door when it goes, you don't need to know who's on the other side of the door to open it."
Connie whined as she sat back down on the sofa, a pile of paperwork on her lap that she'd been trawling through for the past few hours. The radio had been turned off hours ago, after Connie had claimed it an unnecessary distraction. Silence echoed through the house and was becoming unbearable for the nurse manager, who then began humming songs to herself.
"Reets, come on, I'm nearly finished and now all I want to do is kiss you." She sighed.
Rita ignored her comments and settled on her own line of conversation now that Connie had started talking again. "I need you to promise that you'll be nice this afternoon, for me?"
"Why does this sound like something that I'm not going to enjoy?"
"You will, but you need to give it a chance and try and be sociable." The sound of the doorbell disturbed their conversation. "Go on." Rita urged an unhappy looking Connie.
