Thank you so so much for all the lovely reviews, they made me smile so much! I think I'm definitely going to carry this story on :-) I am so sorry this has taken me ages to update, I'm annoyed at myself! But I've had exams so revision took over unfortunately, but my next exams are in just over a week, so I have a little break over half term. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!:-)x
Rita slowly woke up first, as usual, pulling her hair back from her face, turning and smiling when her eyes fell on the sleeping body beside her, his arm still draped over her waist. Watching him sleep, she relaxed back against her pillow, relieved and thankful that they both had the day off. She picked up her phone from the bedside table, deliberately not checking her emails, she briefly scanned the news headlines and replied to a few messages. Rita smiled once again at Iain, and gently ran her hand through his brown hair, kissing his forehead lightly. He stirred, groaned and turned over, face down, pulling the duvet higher. Rita laughed quietly, put a hoody on and made her way downstairs to make 2 cups of tea, the way they always started each day.
Rita put the kettle on and got 2 mugs from the cupboard, adding teabags onto the shopping list, which was getting to the length when putting off a food shop was no longer an option, they'd have to go today she decided. Iain needed a toothbrush and toiletries anyway, she was fed up of him borrowing hers, she could buy him things to leave here, she mused, and felt her heart flutter slightly, it seemed quite a step.
"Morning sunshine!" Rita laughed at Iain as she placed his tea next to him, receiving only grunts in response. "Well, it's stopped raining, I think the heavens must have run out of raindrops."
She climbed back into bed next to him, propping her pillows up and sipped her tea. "Come on, wakey wakey," she said, poking his arm, "your tea will go cold, and then you'll complain."
She pulled the duvet from his body, the shock of cold air on his skin making him gasp, "Reet that is not fair!"
"Oh good morning to you too Rita, thanks for the tea. Oh no, don't worry about it Iain, it's a pleasure." She said in mock annoyance.
"So, what do you want to do with our day off?" Iain asked once he'd sat up, and retrieved his side of the duvet.
"Hmm, not sure, not a lot, that's for certain." She sighed, "but we do need to pop to Sainsburys, we're running low on a lot, including teabags!" she said, in pretend horror.
"Well, we can't be having that!" He replied, yawning. "How about cooked brekky?" He raised his eyebrows at her, "the Iain Dean special" he said waggling them.
"I am definitely up for that!" She said, finishing her tea.
"It's still quite chilly for April innit, probably colder after that downpour last night."
"Mm," she agreed, moving closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder.
They sat like that, comfortably, for a while, the only noise being Iain slurping his tea. Rita turned her head to gently kiss his shoulder, inhaling the scent of his skin, delicately tracing patterns on his torso.
"What you thinking?" Iain asked quietly, placing his empty mug back on the bedside table.
She looked up at him, deciding carefully what to say, "I'm wondering what crap movie I can put you through later," she joked.
"Oh wonderful, can't wait!"
"And," she said, "how much I'm looking forward to breakfast! Come on!" She tugged his arm, getting out of bed. She smiled when she turned and saw Iain doing the same, shivering once, only wearing his boxer shorts from yesterday.
After opening all of the curtains in the house, Rita made her way into the kitchen, towards the noise of the late morning radio show and Iain banging about with pans and cutlery, making his speciality meal. She got the last carton of orange juice out of the fridge, placing it on the table with two glasses and a knife and fork each. She stood behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist, kissing his muscular back.
"Don't distract me when I'm cooking! You'll get burnt!" She moved to his side, her arm still around him, appreciating the smell of bacon.
Once everything was cooked, he placed her meal in front of her on the table, bacon, sausages, egg, tomato, mushrooms, the works!
"Thank you, this looks delicious!"
They ate mostly in silence until Rita decided to go upstairs to get ready. She came back down, having put on a pair of comfortable skinny jeans and a red and white stripy, three-quarter length sleeved top, brushed her teeth and sorted her hair out.
"You'll make someone a good wife one day," she joked when she saw Iain washing up in his boxers. "You go get changed, I'll finish up here." She smiled up at him, "thank you for breakfast" she said, kissing his arm.
"Right, where to?" Iain asked, coming down the stairs, wearing his clothes that had dried on various radiators over night. "We need to sort out this desperate tea situation, I seem to recall."
"Definitely, and you should get some more clothes?" She said, putting the shopping list in her bag and fetching her coat, "if you want to stay tonight." She added quickly, looking down.
He smiled at her, and rubbed her arm. "Hey, of course I'll stay tonight."
"Sainsburys then?" She asked, searching for her house keys.
"They're here, from last night" Iain said, picking them up from the floor, opening the front door and locking it behind them.
They walked to the supermarket through the park, chatting, with Rita's arm folded in Iain's.
Iain's phone beeped, the text causing him to roll his eyes and smile.
"What is it?" Rita asked.
"Oh, just my sister, wants to sort something out for my birthday." Rita faltered slightly, she didn't even know when his birthday was! Apparently, it was soon.
"When is it?" She asked, slightly embarrassed, "I didn't know it was coming up."
"It's on Wednesday, don't worry, I don't know when yours is either Reet. We don't need to make a fuss out of it." He smiled, "It's only me getting older!"
"You get older every day Mr Dean, every second in fact. Your birthday is when you get to celebrate your life." She grinned, as an idea began to formulate in her mind.
They carried on walking and Rita slowly took a big breath, in through her nose, "Do you know, that is one of my favourite smells, wet ground after it's rained."
"Mm, yeah, in Afghanistan, when it rained it was the best thing ever, after the never-ending heat, the rain was a lifesaver." He said, no longer on the pavement with Rita, but back on the scorched, sand covered earth, waving in the sunlight, in a mirage.
"Right, you get some fruit, I just need to nip and get some more toothpaste and things, I'll meet you by the tea, okay?" She instructed, once they'd arrived at the supermarket, walking to the fruit aisle, Iain pushing the trolley. She'd have to be swift if it was going to be a surprise, she thought to herself, as she left Iain studying the fruit aisle, deciding what to pick.
She got to the toiletries aisle, choosing a toothbrush, some deodorant, shower gel and shampoo, remembering what she'd seen in his bathroom at his flat. She also picked up some toothpaste, to put what she said she was getting in their trolley and made her way, quickly, to the self checkout, putting everything in her handbag, apart from the toothpaste.
"Sorry, I managed to knock the whole box of them off the shelf", she said, putting the toothpaste in the trolley.
"You twit." He said, shaking his head with amusement. "Right, I've got the tea, what else did we need? Something for tonight?"
"Yeah, tea tonight, and pretty much just filling up the cupboards, they seem to be quite empty at the moment."
They meandered around the supermarket, the trolley filling up with food to restock Rita's kitchen.
"Ooh, we need to get some snacks for later!" Rita remembered, heading for the freezer aisle.
"And what's happening tonight?" Iain asked.
"Movie night, obviously!" Rita replied, bumping into him deliberately. "Ice cream is an essential!"
"Oh of course, how could I forget!" He said, sarcastically. "Right, what's your favourite flavour?"
Rita's eyes scanned the tubs of ice cream, "why don't you guess. I challenge you." She said, winking at him.
"Oooh, okay. Are we just going for standard flavours? Or all of them?" He asked, looking at the multitude of flavours and brands. "Because I am slightly intimidated by how many tubs are looking at me here."
Rita laughed. "I'll give you a clue, its not a classic flavour, but its a very well known one, and most people love it, especially the brand." She said, putting a tub of vanilla in the trolley.
Eventually, after a quite a while of Iain's hopeless guessing, Rita gave in. "You know what, I'm going to turn to ice myself in a minute with the time you're taking. It's Ben and Jerry's Cookie Dough. Obviously." She said, picking it out of the freezer. "Now what do you want?"
"Oh, well now you're asking." He turned, "I have no idea, there's so much choice!"
"Well hurry up, I'm freezing!" She moaned. "Iain, come on, pleeeaaase." Rita whined.
"All right, fine." He sighed, choosing mint, with chocolate chips.
"Ooo a minty man are we?" She joked. "Now come on, we've been in here years." She complained. "Actually, no, we need popcorn and chocolate for a movie night too!"
"And I could do with some beer?"
"Yeah, I'm not sure what I've got, you get that, and could you get me some cider? And I'll get the snacks, meet you by the till, okay?"
After tea of tuna pasta bake, a la Iain Dean, apparently another of his specialities, Rita went up and put her pyjama's and an oversized hoody on, and came back down with a big blanket, in preparation of their viewing of Inside Out. Their selected ice cream tubs sat on the floor next to the sofa, a spoon each, and a bowl of popcorn in the middle of the coffee table, in between their drinks. Rita started the film, and settled back against Iain, wrapping them both in the blanket. Her head on his chest, and his arm around her.
Iain woke and turned to look around, immediately regretting it as his neck cricked very painfully. He reached up to rub his neck, grumbling and causing Rita to stir.
"What time is it Reet?" Iain mumbled, his voice gruff with sleep. "Reet love, we need to go up to bed, I think we fell asleep on the sofa." He said softly, having not had a response.
Having no luck at receiving any response from Rita, he got up slowly and warily, as to not knock her, piled up the empty bowls and glasses, and put the now melted ice cream back into the freezer, turned off the television and the lights. He picked Rita's delicate, sleeping body up into his arms, still wrapped in the fleecy blanket, carrying her carefully up the stairs and laid her on the bed, covering her with the duvet and kissing her forehead softly, getting into bed beside her.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I think I will carry this story on, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to update, hopefully sometime this week, but I'm sorry if I don't get round to it! Please do review, because I really do want to know what you think, especially if you think I could improve something! Lots of love and smiles xoxo