I'm yours

Part 30

8 YEARS LATER

“Good morning, Sassy.” Beth greeted and gently petted the black cat that was rubbing himself against her feet, like any other morning. Before making coffee, she put food into his eating bowl and then watched while he was approaching the given food.

His name was the exact opposite of how he really was; slow, lazy, maybe little stupid and cuddly. Plus, he was plain black with green eyes and really fluffy – the best animal ever. There was nothing that could be done about him being fat; he was like that since he was a kitten. Putting him on diet would be utterly absurd. And his stupidity… well, maybe he ran into glass door while running, but that didn’t matter anymore.

Sassy would first look at his surroundings, come few steps closer, stop, adjust himself and then jump in front of his bowl. “Pfft, weirdo.” Beth would mock him every morning after he did that on which he would give her pleading look. “Don’t be a wuss, you know I’m joking.”, “Meow.” Was his answer as he kept eating. “Why am I even talking to you?”
“And you call him a weirdo.” Beth heard a voice behind her and got up from the squatting position. “Morning, stud.” She kissed her husband with a smile and went to finish the coffee. “Hmph, I wondered where my shirt disappeared.” Sebastian said when noticed Beth was wearing his shirt. “Sorry, it was the first thing I found on the floor.” She smirked when remembered she was the one who took it off from him and threw it somewhere behind her last night.
“If you found nothing on the floor, would you wear that?”, “I don’t know. You need to find out.”, “Challenge accepted.”
“By the way,” Beth paused while putting Sebastian’s cup of coffee in front of him and smiled at the letters on it which showed ‘World’s okayest husband’,
“I’m doing groceries today. Need anything?”, “We’re out of duct tape.”, “It’s on the list. Next.”, “Light bulbs.”, “That too. And yes, LED, I know.”, “Clever girl. Oh, and-”, “You know what?” Beth jumped off the black bar stool she was sitting on and gave Sebastian a shopping list from the fridge. “Here, check it out. I’ll go get the newspapers.”, “Thank you, honey.”

While walking to the porch of their house to get the newspapers, Beth glanced at the pictures of Sebastian and her that were hanging on the wall along the staircase. In the middle was a big one of them on their wedding, while around it were also the pictures of them, taken through the 8 years they were together.

The cold morning air pinched her skin as soon as she opened the door. The newspapers weren’t on the porch, but on the lawn. Even after 5 years of living in the new house, Beth hoped she’d see them lying on the doorstep, right in front of the door, but no. The paperboy is obviously a girl who doesn’t know how to throw properly.
Beth cursed the cold weather as she quickly picked up the papers from the wet grass.
“Good morning Mrs. Michaelis!” Beth heard a boy’s voice before she managed to enter the house. “Morning Benny!” she turned on her right to greet the neighbor’s kid Benny who was standing on the balcony in his pajamas. How is he not cold? Actually, his full name was Benjamin, but he liked being called Benny since it’s shorter. She was the same.
“Why are you up so early, Benny?”, “I couldn’t sleep.” ‘One of the few.’, “Is that so?” Beth asked while moving from one leg to another. She really wanted to go inside, but didn’t want to be rude to Benny; he was a nice and cute kid and sometimes played games with her and Sebastian, although he was only 7.
“Is that your pajamas?” he asked and pointed on her/Sebastian’s shirt. Beth laughed and shook her head. “Can we play today, too?”, “Uh, sure thing, but later, okay?”, “Okay! Bye!”, “Bye, Benny!” she waved at him and rushed into the house, trembling from the cold.

“Warm me up, warm me up.” Beth said to Sebastian as soon as she entered the kitchen and sat into his lap, pressing against his chest. “Don’t tell me it’s cold outside.” He joked and embraced her with his arms. “Oh, hush. Benny kept me from going inside. He’s coming over today, just so you know.”, “Cool, we can play Twister.”, “We played that last Saturday.”, “So what? It’s better than the most of new games these days.”, “Let him choose.”, “Fine. Also, you didn’t write toothpaste on the list.”, “It’s right under the soap.”, “Damn it.”, “Sucker. Then I suppose you don’t need anything else.”, “No, you got it all.”, “Good. How’s your leg today?” she straightened up to look at his prosthetic leg.
“Great, it doesn’t hurt.”, “Then that means…” Beth said as the wide smile appeared on her face. “Yes.” Sebastian confirmed her unfinished sentence, but they knew what the thing was about.
“Nerf war Saturday!” They said simultaneously and smiled to each other. “The loser takes out garbage for a month, no excuses.”, “Deal. And the winner?”, “He… hmph. I don’t know.”, “Me neither. Should I get the jar?”, “Yeah.” Beth nodded her head and got off from Sebastian’s lap to get their ‘Winner’s jar’. It was made exclusively for their game days. Every time they thought of something, they wrote it on the paper and threw into the jar.
“Okay, you pull out the paper.” She handed him the jar since it was his turn this Saturday. “The winner…” he stopped while struggling with opening the folded paper. “The winner gets to decide what the loser is going to wear for one whole day. Anything.” Sebastian read out loud and smirked at Beth. “Deal.” She simply said and smiled at him, already creating ideas.