All of this past

Patience pays off

"Fuuuuuuuck!" I shouted as I ran through my living room. I was cooking me some late night dinner when I heard my phone ring in the living room. I was desperate to get to it before it switched to voice mail, because I had been waiting for this call all day. Exactly like every other day in the last week. I jumped over the couch and managed not to fall face first on the carpet before grabbing my phone and pressing the green button.

"Hey babe!" The fact that I was slightly out of breath didn't keep me from grinning widely at nothing but my empty living room.

"Hey Haz." He sounded as if he was smiling himself, which made my grin even bigger. We had called every night since Friday, a week ago now and I loved every second of it. Both of our lives were rather busy so we didn't really find a moment to meet up this week, which I didn't really like, but calling each other daily was the next best thing. "How was your day?"

"Hmmmm good, I suppose. The interview turned out better than expected. Oh, and she hit on me. It was fun." I teased him, knowing how bad he was at handling jealousy.

"Fun huh?" I stifled a laugh at his annoyed tone but decided to stop his suffering anyway.

"Yeah, especially when I told her I was already dating the most handsome man in history. You should've seen her face, Li, best thing ever. And yes, I made her promise not to mention that in her article, don't worry." We had agreed on staying low profile, at least until we figured out ourselves where we were headed, and definitely until our families knew about us dating again. There had been a few rumours about me dating people before, and I hated that my family would find out those things from a magazine instead of from me. Not that those rumours were true before, but now they would be.

"Good. Jude and Kate say hi, by the way. And Sam asked if you were still coming to his football match on Sunday."

"Say hi back, and of course I'll be there. I promised him, and you. How was your day Li? You sound tired."

"Ugh. I am knackered to be honest. I'm just glad the week is over. Work has been hell and my boss just dropped another pile of papers on my desk this morning. Asking me to get it all done by Monday evening. Well, whatever, I'm going to enjoy the weekend first."

"Hmmm and what are you planning to enjoy?"

"Oh stop fishing for compliments cheesy man. You know I'm looking forward to tomorrow night." he chuckled, trying to sound disapproving of my pitiful attempt to be complimented. 

"So we're still on?"

"Yes, of course we are. The kids will be home for dinner but Jude has a sleep over with a friend and Kate asked to stay at Kendra's for the night, her niece has a pyjama party with some of her friends. Sam is staying at home but he goes to bed early anyway."

"Are you trying to get me all to yourself now, mister Payne?"

"I can't believe you're even asking. Yes. Yes. Yes I am. And I'm not even ashamed." I chuckled at his eagerness. This was surely a change in his behaviour. He seemed so carefree these last few days. 

"Have you told the kids yet? That we are... you know, dating?"

"No, I didn't know how, and I don't know if I should even tell them. Not yet anyway. Is that bad?"

"No Li, it's fine, I understand. Let's just figure this out for ourselves first, yeah?"

"Yeah. Thanks for understanding Haz."

"Of course I do. As long as I get to kiss you every now and then, I'm perfectly happy."

He chuckled before I heard him shouting something at one of his kids. "I'm afraid I have to go Haz, Sam needs my help washing his hair and Jude wants the phone to call Ethan. I shouldn't have told her that phone calls were free to any national number after 8 at night." he sighed.