The following morning the girls were off out early to work and college, and Chris rose early leaving Karen to sleep and he headed for the shower as soon as the girls were done in the bathroom showering, and doing their hair and make up, which Chris was still not used to: spending so much time in a house full of women, he'd never understand why they spent so much time making themselves over, just to go out to work or whatever. He sighed as he waited for the bathroom to become free and then made his way in to get himself together leaving Karen still asleep, she deserved to get as much rest as possible...When he was dressed and out the shower he returned to Karen, she was his own special sleeping beauty, he loved watching her sleep, she seemed so innocent and helpless lying there in the middle of the bed, with the duvet wrapped around her and the wintery January sunlight just starting to seep through the curtains. He knew he'd have to wake her soon to get her up, so they could head off to the rink without them being so late that Jayne gets annoyed, (this was also becoming quite a regular habit, much to Jayne's disgust, and Chris's too, he had also been extremely conscious of time, but now he was with Karen the obsession seemed to have died down a bit, she seemed to calm him down a bit and he didn't mind being a little late). "Karen, honey, wakey-wakey..." he whispered softly into her ear, as he wandered over to the bedside and slowly and gently climbed on next to her, gently so he didn't jog the bed or jolt her awake...he hated to disturb her, but after all it had to be done..."No... no not yet just a little longer... please... oh I love you sexy Christopher..." Karen replied with her eyes still shut tight, still sleeping and dreaming, but somehow aware that Chris was there in her surroundings, but wasn't fully conscious of where exactly she was... Chris laughed lightly at her response and gently shook her shoulders in a second attempt to wake her, not liking that he was breaking up her wonderful dreams."No babe, come on you've got to get up, we've got to go to work honey..." he said in a hushed voice, lying next to her now, and stroking her arm softly. "What time is it..." she murmered still reluctant to get up, not realizing how late it was. "It's half 8 honey, come on it's time you got up and sorted, or we'll be late..." he said speaking a little louder this time but still in a soft tone of voice. This woke Karen up in an instant, half 8? Normally she would have been up an hour ago if not longer, and would be dressed and showered and be doing her hair and make up, now she was sure to be late... Why hadn't he woken her earlier? And he'd be the one complaining when they were late and Jayne would be getting annoyed..."Chris!" she said quite loudly, sitting up quickly, a bit too quickly for her head's liking..."What?" he asked innocently."Why haven't you got me up before now?" she demanded, worried how they were ever going to get to the rink for 9:15. "We're going to be so late now do you realize that?!" she carried on, quickly getting out of bed in a hurry, and looking for her towel to have a quick shower, and there'd be no time to wash her hair."Well that doesn't matter too much does it?" Chris said to her, surprised at how worked up she was getting, and not realizing she would need more than an hour to get ready for work! "Jayne must be used to us being late by now anyway, and I'm not even that bothered anymore, and you know what I was like before I was with you..." Chris continued on, thinking of when he used to live with Jill and be rushing around to get to the rink about an hour before anyone else, and if they weren't there 5 minutes before they were supposed to be meeting he'd get all panicked and wonder where the hell they'd got to... "Oh come on Chris, you know how long it takes me to get ready, surely you'd have thought to get me up before now? How long have you been up? Have the girls gone?" she was firing questions at him like god knows what and still couldn't find her towel, something else that Chris had tidied up during his period of boredom the day before, and not warned Karen about it, or where he'd moved it to. "I don't suppose you've seen my towel have you..." she asked, feeling like it was a stupid question to ask, but thought she'd better ask anyway in case he did know where it was; her voice was muffled because she was looking through the cupboards at the other side of the room."Erm, yeah I do actually, it's in the wash, thought it could do with one," he replied casually."Well thanks for the heads up, here's me looking for it! I'm wasting so much time... the more I think about it the more late I'm convinced we're going to be!" Karen snapped back at him dragging another clean towel out the top of the wardrobe, pulling a small load down with it, and ordering Chris to sort it out for her and have it done by the time she was out. "Wow, what's wrong with you today?" he said as she disappeared through to the en suite bathroom and slammed the door slightly behind her. "Stressy!" Chris muttered under his breath as he got up off the bed and went to pick up all the towels that had fallen in a heap on the floor. Karen must have had the quickest shower of her life - normally she took forever in there until everything got steamed up and then she was forced to open the window to clear the place out, and normally she'd go out and forget to close it, so when she got home, the whole house would be freezing - but today she was so quick it barely got foggy at all, she hurried out quickly dried herself and picked out her grey jog bottoms with a fluffy lining, and cream long sleeved top, quickly ran a brush through her almost- perfect hair and quickly applied a bit of mascara (poking her eye with the wand in the process because she was trying to do it in such a hurry) and lippy, before running downstairs and putting four slices of toast under the grill.
"Blimey Karen, I don't think I've ever seen you get ready that bloody quick," Chris said in a bit of shock, following her downstairs, glancing at the clock which read just 8:45. "We've got half an hour!""Well we could get a lot done in half an hour," she replied seductively, impressed by her own speediness, thinking it would at the very least, be 9:00. She walked over to where Chris was sitting at the kitchen table, and leaving the toast in the grill, placed soft kisses on his lips, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Oh, could we now," Chris replied in between sweet kisses, he had one arm wrapped around Karen's waist and the other placed on her bottom, then he moved it slowly down her leg, pulled her onto his lap as the kisses got a little longer and more intense, and his fingers wandered up and down her thigh, and tickling the back of her knees which she found strangely satisfying. A few minutes of kissing passed as if it were more like a few seconds much to their disappointment, and they were alerted by the smell of burnt toast wafting around the air around them, so the kisses were abruptly ended, as Karen swiftly leaped up of Chris's lap and went to get the toast out quickly rescuing it, and grabbing the butter out the fridge, Chris getting up and standing behind her while she spread a thick layer of butter on each slice and plated Chris's, they both sat down at the kitchen table and ate away quickly, silenced for once. It was a little crunchy and they could tell if they'd left it any longer it would have been totally black all over but neither of them really minded."Right we'd better go then, are you going to get a jumper to put on over that, you'll freeze babe," Chris suggested as he attended the dishes and quickly rinsed them and placed them on the draining board."Yes I was planning to actually, but I left my favorite one down here last night when we came in," she said disappearing into the living room to find it while Chris got his jacket and boots on. Once Karen had spent 10 minutes decided what shoes and coat to wear, she followed Chris out to the car and they drove off listening to the local radio, with the digital screen in the car reading an impressive 9:10, much earlier than they'd initially thought they were going to get out... "See, it doesn't take you that long to get ready does it?" Chris said to Karen, they were both still surprised to not be running too madly were half way there and Karen had a looming thought that suddenly doomed on her. "I've forgotten my purse!""What do you need it for""I've got to go and pick Emma's dresses up! We're going to have to go back now, aw and we were doing so well!""Oh Karen, you could have thought about this earlier before we'd left, we're almost there and by the time we go all the way back, and then head off again, there's going to be loads of traffic around here and then we really will be late..." he said sighing heavily."Oh I'm sorry, you said you didn't mind being late anymore!" Karen snapped back at him, wondering why his mood had suddenly changed as they headed back, seeing the opposite side of the road begin to build up a bit of traffic. When they got back to the house Karen quickly ran in, grabbed her purse and headed out to the car, then realized that she'd been using her credit card last night to order the shoes online, so had to go back in once again, and then try and remember where she'd put it...