Last Love | Book 3

Chapter 5

(Jennifer)

I wake up in an empty bed and the house is silent. That's unusual. What time is it? I reach out to the nightstand and grab my phone. It's almost noon. I haven't slept in this late in a long time. Usually Ava and Cole wake me up early in the morning. I'm starting to think I'm the only one here when Josh appears in the door way. "Good morning." He says, sitting down on the edge of the bed. I sit up and stretch. "Where are the kids?" I ask, trying to listen for any sign that they're here, but it's totally quiet except for us. "At Ben's staying the night. Meredith came and got them when you were asleep." I haven't talked to Meredith since we had dinner at my parents house and that was weeks ago. Josh must've called her. "Oh. Okay." I have all day to do anything I want. That's rare. "There's breakfast downstairs whenever you're hungry. Or lunch I guess. It's kinda late for breakfast. Anyway, I have to go take care of some things but I'll be back later." He says. "Okay." I want to ask what he's going to do, but I don't want to start another fight with him. If he wanted me to know he would've told me. He gets up and starts to walk out. "And don't make dinner tonight. It's my turn." He smiles and turns to leave. I don't know why he's being so nice to me. He has no reason to. Usually if we had a fight like we did last night we wouldn't even talk to each other in the morning, and we definitely wouldn't be making breakfast for each other. Last night was the worst fight we've ever had. We fought for hours, screaming, throwing things, breaking things, I even told him I hated him. I've never said that to him before. Thinking about last night reminds me of something I need to say to him, something I've wanted to say since I went to bed alone last night. "Josh, wait!" He stops at the doorway and looks at me. "Yeah?" I hesitate for a second. What if he doesn't say it back? "I love you." I say. I watch his face for a second, waiting for some kind of hint as to how he'll respond. His expression doesn't change, he just looks at me for a second, then back to the floor, then back at me. "I love you too." He says, then he walks out. I take a deep breath, trying to rationalize what's happening. Josh had the kids leave without asking me, he's not mad about our fight or if he is he hasn't shown it, and he's making dinner. He's planning to do something tonight, but what? Maybe he's finally decided he wants a divorce. That would make sense. He would want the kids out of the house so they don't have to be here when we talk about it or fight about it, as we usually do about things. That would explain why he's not upset about our fight anymore. Because none of that matters anymore if he's leaving me, right? Or maybe he's really forgiven me for our fight last night. Either way I know that whatever he's planning to do tonight is either going to be really good or really bad.

(Josh)

I park the car outside of the store and get out. I only have to walk a few steps to get to the door. I open it and walk in. There's almost no one else here other than the workers. I walk around, trying to act like I know what I'm doing, even though I've never been in here before, until I find what I was looking for. They have an extensive collection of lingerie here, more than I've ever seen in one place before. I go right past the stuff that doesn't even look like clothing, I know she won't like that. I want her to be comfortable. Just when I'm about to give up, I find what I was looking for. It's light pink with lace edges. The top part looks like any normal bra, but the rest goes down to about thigh length like a dress. It looks tight around the chest, but loose around the waist. I think she'll like that. I look until I find one that's her size and I grab that one. Now for the easy part, I walk to the back in search of a pair of handcuffs. I find some simple silver handcuffs and get them, along with a black blindfold. I take everything to the counter and pay for it. Then I walk back to the car. I throw the bag in the back seat and start the car. On the way home I stop at the grocery store and pick up everything I need to make dinner.

When I get inside Jennifer's in the shower. I set the grocery bags on the counter and sneak up stairs. I put the bag with the handcuffs, lingerie, and blindfold under the bed so Jen won't find it. Then I walk back downstairs just as the shower's turning off. I cook dinner and set the table without any interruption from Jen. I made fettuccine Alfredo, one of Jen's favorites. I put some on both of our plates and set some garlic bread out on the table. I hear the stairs creak and I know Jen will be down here within minutes. I pour us both a glass of wine and set the bottle on the table. She appears at the bottom of the staircase and walks towards me. "Hey." I say, looking her over. She's wearing a plain t-shirt and a pair of my sweatpants. Her hair's still wet from the shower. "Hey.... This looks fancy. What's the occasion?" She asks as she sits down, trying to sound casual but I can hear the anxiety in her voice. "I just thought you might like it." I say, sitting down across from her. "I do like it." I take a sip of my wine and wait to see if she'll say anything else. She doesn't. We start eating without another word, but I can still feel tension radiating off of her. I wish there was something I could do to convince her that nothing's wrong so she could relax. "So, the weather's nice." She laughs. "Is that really all you want to talk about?" She asks, smiling. "Yeah. I think that just about covers everything." I smirk at her. After a long pause she finally speaks up. "Why are you being so nice to me?" She looks at me cautiously, like she's scared of my answer. "Because I love you." She keeps staring at me like she's waiting for me to say more. "Is it really that unusual for me to do something nice for you?" I ask. "No." She takes a drink of her wine. "I just thought after last night you'd still be mad. I mean I said some pretty hurtful things to you." She says. "No. I'm not still mad. We both said some pretty bad things. I just had a lot of time to think about it last night and now I'm over it." She looks at me for a while, thinking about what I said. "Are you sure?" I nod. "Okay." She goes back to eating and I do too. After that were both more relaxed. We talk about all kind of things while we eat and by the time that were done we've finished the whole bottle of wine. "I think it's safe to say I'm pretty buzzed." I say as I'm getting up. "Yeah, me too." She laughs, getting up with me. We stand by the table for a while just staring at each other. She's so pretty. I barely looked away from her the whole time we were eating. I know I've been staring for way too long now, but I can't look away. All I can think about is the way her eyes sparkle when she smiles and how her shirt is clinging to her chest, and how much I want to run my hands up the entire length of her legs under her pants to feel how soft her skin is. I look into her eyes and I can see she's looking at me too. Before I can think about it I grab her face and kiss her.