Despite neither having to be up early, they were woken at 6 by Robyn banging around in the bathroom. Giving a moan, Max pulled the covers over his head.
A moment later, as Zoe began to wake, Lofty poked his head through the door, "Are you awake, Max? I need to borrow some socks."
"I haven't got any socks. Leave me alone."
"They're in the second draw down, Lofty." Zoe supplied.
"Thanks. Sorry to wake you. Would you-"
"Go away, Lofty!" Max exclaimed.
As Zoe went to stand, Max wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back, kissing the back of her neck. "I'll go. I don't want you to see the mess they've probably made of the kitchen." Kissing her again, Max left the room.
Resting back in bed, Zoe sighed and shut her eyes.
...
"Who ate the last of the bread?" Max asked as he picked up the empty packet.
"Sorry," Lofty offered with a mouth full of toast.
Max sighed and opened the cupboard, glad to find Zoe's coffee was untouched, at least. "Write down a list of what you want and I'll go shopping before I start work."
"Look at you being all domesticated!" Robyn grinned as she entered the room.
"There's domesticated, and then there's being scared of his wife." Lofty added with a grin.
"At least I'm not so scared of her that I can actually hold a proper conversation." Max hit back, laughing. "Anyway, she's not that scary but I'm sure she could be if she wasn't fed and watered regularly."
"She's not a dog Max." Robyn pointed out.
"No, a dog would be easier to live with." He told the giggling pair as he scrawled things on to the shopping list. "Is there anything else you need?"
"A multi-bag of crisps." Robyn answered and then handed over a £10 note for her and Lofty's shopping.
"Okay, now I'm going back to bed to have a lazy few hours with my wife." He said as the kettle finally boiled, while Robyn and Lofty pulled on their coats that now didn't smell of smoke.
...
Zoe pulled the duvet a bit closer to keep warm now that she'd lost the heat from Max.
A few minutes later Max entered the bedroom with 2 mugs and a plate of all that he could find in the fridge, which wasn't much. Setting them down beside the bed gently, he looked down at Zoe who looked fast asleep again.
"Well, I guess I will have the last croissant."
The ghost of a smile pulled at Zoe's lips. "You wouldn't dare."
Lifting the duvet which let the cold air hit Zoe again, Max climbed back into the bed.
Immediately she shifted slightly and sat upright. "Max put the duvet down! I'm cold."
"I could fix that for you." He said dropping the duvet and moving closer to her, placing small and gentle kisses down her neck.
"You did the moment you dropped the duvet, coffee would make sure I was warm though." She pointed out, laughing at Max's mock wounded look. Without any more words he reached back around for one of the mugs and passed her it to her. "I knew there was a reason I kept you around, you make the best coffee."
"We both know there's more reasons than just that, anyway if I wasn't here coffee wouldn't be the first thing you missed." He whispered suggestively.
"That's what you think." She took a few more sips of her drink before she turned her head to look at him,
"What?"
Zoe moved closer to Max and his eyes closed, his lips readying for a kiss, but instead she reached past him to get the remote he'd taken the night before. "Look at that, up early enough to watch the news on my day off.
Max gave a groan and covered his head with the duvet once more.
Zoe flicked through channels, but they all had children on the screen, something she was trying to avoid thinking about until her coffee had kicked in at least. With a sigh, she turned the TV off and looked down at Max's form under the duvet. "Max?"
"Mmm?"
"Do you have a photo of her?"
"Of who?" He asked, his sleep fogged brain not quite up to playing Zoe's guessing games.
"Who do you think?" She asked and watched as an arm popped out from under the duvet to grab his phone and then handed it to Zoe.
"There are some in my photo album on there, just scroll and you'll find some." He remained under the duvet, not quite sure that he wanted to be able to see this.
"God Max, I could get you done for stalking with the amount of pictures you have on here of me." She laughed, scrolling through numerous photos of herself.
"I need something to get me through when you're not with me and I need something to prove that my wife is as gorgeous as I say she is." The response that Max was expecting never came, she was too distracted to hear what he'd said once her eyes had fallen upon the photo of Maddie. The little girl was no older than a year, her bright blue eyes stood out in the photo as she stared at the toy in front of her. The little bit of thin blonde hair that she did have had a purple bow in it, a bow that matched the outfit that she had on.