to summer camp as a grown up if you didn’t also hook-up like horny teenagers while you were there?
What they hadn’t done, yet, was make love in their bed at the condo. They’d gotten in just a few hours ago and this was the first time they’d been here together in six months. It had been their home once, but it didn’t feel familiar. It didn’t feel like a home.
Michael pushed both her breasts together, but paused half an inch from sucking her nipples into his mouth. “Where did you just go?”
“Nowhere. It’s not important.”
He inched back a little more. “Of course it’s important. Is something wrong? Did I do–?”
“No,” she interrupted. “You haven’t done anything wrong. I was just thinking we haven’t been here together in a long time. We haven’t made love in our bed.” In a long time .
He let go of her breasts but kept his hands on her skin. The weight of his hands grounded her, kept her in the here and now when her mind was trying to take her on a trail of “what if”.
“Do you think we should move this to the bedroom? Reclaim our marital bed? Or do you want to stay here?”
She was going to cry. Why was she going to cry? “I don’t know. I don’t even understand why I am upset.”
“It’s just a bed. It’s not us.” He wiped a tear away from her cheek with his thumb.
“It feels like some stupid symbol. I’m giving it too much power, aren’t I?”
Michael pushed her hair away from her face and cupped her cheeks. “We got lost. But we know where we are now, and we know where we are going. But we can’t expect to just magically end up on the right road. We have to backtrack a bit to get there. So, we’re going to have to look at some of the things we passed going down the wrong way.” He kissed her nose. “Also, my analogy is getting weird. It’s just a bed, baby. It doesn’t have special powers to break us up. But if you never want to sleep in it again, I’ll throw it off the balcony.”
She laughed. “Let’s just christen the damn thing again.”
“Excellent idea.” He went back to sucking her nipples and she arched into his hands like she couldn’t get close enough.
BAH-BAH-BAH BADDAH-DUM, BADDAH-DAH.
Strains of the Imperial March sounded from the coffee table, interrupting them. He raised one eyebrow and let her breast plop out of his mouth. “You changed my ringtone again, didn’t you?” he asked.
She giggled as he stretched over her to grab his phone. She’d been adjusting his ringtones since 1997. “Your mom is calling.”
Michael sent her a very serious glare as he tweaked one of her nipples and answered his phone. “Hello, Mother.”
He leaned against the couch and Heather stood up, pulling down her panties to give him a show. Let him try and carry on a conversation now.
“Any chance I can call you back tomorrow? Heather and I…yes, I’m with Heather. We’re reconciling.”
Oh, she bet that made the old battle axe happy. She’d probably been hoping for a quiet divorce so Michael could marry someone more suitable and pop out baby country-clubbers.
The color leached from his face. “Is he okay? Which hospital?”
Heather paused in mid-shimmy. “Michael?”
“I’ll be right there. It’s okay, Mom. I’m on my way.” He set the phone down and scrubbed a hand over his face. “It’s my dad.”
He was already getting up, looking for clothes.
“What happened?”
Clearly out of it, he stared at the shirt in his hand like he didn’t know it was hers and not his. “He had a stroke. He’s…Mom found him. They don’t know how long he was unconscious already. He’s…he’s not waking up.”
Heather took the shirt out of his hand. “Sit down.” He protested. “Michael, sit down and catch your breath. I’m going to gather your clothes for you. Then we’ll get dressed and I’ll drive us to the hospital. Don’t argue. Sit.”
She got them into the car, into the hospital, and into the corridor in front of his