Page 84 of Marriage and the Midlife Crisis

That ‘just yet’ gave me hope, and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face as I headed into our bathroom for another solo session in the shower.

Saturday was much the same, except I beat her at Scrabble this time.

“What on earth is byzants? Are you sure that’s a real word?” Mel’s voiced was filled with skepticism, and I gestured to my phone laying on the table next to the game board.

“They were gold coins used during the Byzantine Empire. Feel free to look it up in the Scrabble Dictionary.”

She gave me a dubious look, then reached for my phone, typed in the date of our anniversary to unlock it, then tapped at the screen for a few seconds before tossing the phone down in disgust.

“Satisfied?”

She rolled her eyes, then chuckled. “Fine, it’s a word. A freaking weird word for you to know off the top of your head, by the way.”

I tallied up the points. “Twenty one, and I played it on a triple word score, plus my bonus for using all seven letters. I believe that’s one hundred thirteen, putting me in the lead at two ninety one. I really wish we were playing Strip Scrabble right now,” I murmured, and she shot me a grin.

“I’ll bet you do. Since my bra is hanging in the laundry room to dry, you’d have been in luck.”

My jaw dropped, as did my gaze. I stared at her chest, cursing the fact that she was dressed in layers today – a T-shirt and one of my flannel shirts – probably to hide her nipples which I was sure would be erect. They usually were, because she was so sensitive that even the tiniest bit of friction from her clothes made them hard. She always wore bras with padding over the center of the cup, so they didn’t show under her clothing.

“You aren’t wearing a bra, and you’re just now mentioning it?”

She gave a careless shrug, then went back to studying the game board. As soon as the game ended, she said she was going to call Jen and went upstairs to the guest room. They talked for almost an hour, and I couldn’t help wondering if I was one of the topics of conversation. She was still in a good mood when she finally came back downstairs, so I figured that if they had talked about me, and our marriage, then it must not have been anything too bad.

That night, our cuddle session on the couch ended with a kiss, and my hand under her shirt.

“I was right,” I murmured against her lips as she gasped. “Your nipples are rock hard, sweetness.”

We both reluctantly called a halt to the intimacy a few minutes later, which was good because I was about to come in my pants.

I had to adjust myself in order to walk her upstairs to the guest room, and I limited myself to a peck on her cheek before heading back into our bathroom for yet another shower.

As I slipped into bed fifteen minutes later, the unmistakable sound of a snowplow filled the room. I groaned and got up to look out the window. Sure enough, the cavalry had arrived – in the form of one of the city’s plows – to clear the snow from our street.

“Dammit,” I muttered, knowing this meant that Melanie would be going back to the condo tomorrow. We’d watched the news earlier this evening, and the area around her parent’s condo community was reported to have been cleared this afternoon. The side streets in our area had been left for last, a fact I’d been immensely grateful for.

I didn’t sleep well, knowing that I only had a few hours left with her under the same roof again. I wanted to beg her to stay, even if we kept to separate bedrooms. I’d loved having her here for the past few days. It had seemed like old times – the good times – and I hated that it was ending.

As much as I was dreading her leaving, my Sunday morning was made even worse when the doorbell rang just as I was getting out of bed. I grabbed a pair of sweatpants and pulled them on, then cursed as it rang again. I dashed down the stairs to answer the door before whoever it was woke my wife up.

I didn’t take the time to look out the peephole to see who it was, assuming it was Justin or one of our other neighbors. I swung the door open and immediately wanted to slam it shut again.

“What the fuck do you want?”

Chapter 29

Melanie

“What the hell do you want?”

Ryan’s voice echoed up the stairwell, and I hesitated as I stood in the doorway of the guest room. I’d been awake for a while when the doorbell rang. I’d been trying to throw some clothes on when it rang a second time, and I yanked the leggings up as I opened the bedroom door, just in time to hear Ryan.

I didn’t think I’d ever heard his voice so cold, but when our visitor spoke, I understood why. I froze, trying to figure out if I should go downstairs to intervene, or just stay up here and leave them to it. Since I never wanted to lay eyes on Mitch again, I decided to stay where I was.

“Look, man, can I come in? We need to talk, and I’ve been waiting for days for the fucking plows to get this part of the city cleared so I could make it over here. The ‘Vette almost got stuck when I turned onto Edgemont Drive.”

“I’ve already said everything I had to say to you. There’s nothing left to talk about,” Ryan snarled. Rage dripped from each word, and if I’d been Mitch, I would have turned tail and run.

He wasn’t that smart though.