Interlude Eight

Liz

Present day – Late October 2006

My eyes flutter open as I slowly awaken from a restful sleep. My eyes begin to adjust to the darkness and I frown as I try to work out where I am, how I got here and why I'm still dressed in yesterday's clothes. The first thing I see is the large illuminated numbers of my alarm clock, informing me that it is just after two in the morning and only then do I remember the depressing events of the last couple of days. The haziness of my slumber gradually fades away and my heart sinks just thinking about the strained atmosphere that has been present between Max and I lately. I feel a remorseful tear escape the corner of my eye as I become aware of Max's warm body pressed against my back, his arm resting on my waist. Obviously, his contact with my body is only present because he's asleep and has no control over it. After all, I'm pretty certain that if he were aware of it, he wouldn't even be facing me right now.

Taking advantage of his brief vulnerability, I relax and snuggle closer to him. Lying together like this allows me to pretend for a moment that everything is normal between us; that we haven't been fighting or rather, not speaking, for almost two days now. I close my eyes and let a small smile play on my lips as I attempt to fall back to sleep again. However, barely two seconds later, my husband shifts behind me, his fingers flexing on my stomach and his nose burying into my neck as he lets out a small groan.

"Liz?" he murmurs sleepily against my ear.

I stiffen involuntarily, embarrassed that he's waking up to find us in this intimate position when we're supposed to be mad at each other. As he moves again and becomes more fully awake, I turn slightly to face him, opening my mouth to defend myself against the inevitable scathing comments that I've become familiar with recently. However, the words get caught in my throat at his expression. His eyes are open and gazing right into mine. Before I can do anything, he leans forward, gently pressing his lips to mine for a moment.

"I love you, Lizzie," he whispers roughly, holding me close as his eyes close once more and he drifts off to sleep again.

I remain in that position, facing Max, his arm wrapped around me tightly, as I close my own eyes and allow the small smile on my lips to become a full-fledged grin. Max doesn't hate me and the moment we wake up in the morning, I'm going to show him exactly how sorry I am and how much I love him too.

When I wake again almost six hours later, I find myself no longer in Max's arms. In fact, it's just the opposite: now he's in my arms. My body is spooned against his back, my left arm threaded beneath his and hand splayed across his bare stomach. My other arm rests above my head, my fingers tangled in his soft hair.

My stomach clenches painfully as I recall the details of our argument on Friday evening; I remember how Max accused me of spending all our money, how he laid into me about spending time with my friends and how I accused him of always inviting Alex over, when I know that she's not here that often anyway. But what's been hurting the most was the fact that, because of all of that, I still haven't been able to share my excitement over my new job with him. God, he doesn't even know what the job is yet, or even which company I'll be working for.

I place a soft kiss to Max's shoulder blade, before carefully extracting my arms from around him and shifting onto my back. I stare up at the ceiling as I contemplate exactly how I'm going to apologise. I become so involved in my feelings that I don't notice when Max stirs and turns over to face me. It's only when his fingers brush my arm, startling me from my intense thoughts that I realise he's awake and watching me.

"Hi," he murmurs, a small smile gracing his masculine features.

"Hi," I return softly, turning onto my side. We stare at each other for several seconds, just savouring the moment. But I can't stay silent for long. "Max…"

"Don't," he silences me with a finger to my lips.

I find myself drawn to his intense gaze, unable to tear my eyes away. I watch as, almost in slow motion, he moves towards me and captures my lips with his own. At first, the sudden contact surprises me, but only a second later, I find myself sighing at the feel of his warm lips caressing mine.

The tenderness of his kiss lasts barely a second before the anticipation becomes too much and passion takes over. It's like, suddenly we can't get enough of each other as Max slides his arm around my waist, roughly pulling me to him, our warm bodies colliding in the centre of the bed.

Before I have time to fully register what's happening, I find myself on my back, Max's large, strong body pressing me against the mattress as his tongue delves inside my mouth and his hands slide beneath my flimsy pyjama top.

I suck in a shaky breath as his fingers graze my sides and then move up to cup my breasts, his thumbs brushing my rapidly hardening nipples. A low moan escapes my mouth and I let my hands drift up over his back. As his hands work their magic, Max's lips move to the sensitive spot on my neck and I arch up off the mattress at the wonderful sensations he's causing inside me.

Without warning, he moves his hands back down to my waist and pulls the top over my head, dropping it to the floor. We both hiss with pleasure as our chests meet, bare skin against bare skin. I slide my hands down to his lower back, briefly letting my fingers dip beneath the waistband of his boxers as his attention turns to pulling my pants down over my hips. Seconds later, we're both naked and I find myself letting out a contented sigh at the feel of being so close with him again.

No more words are spoken as we lose ourselves in each other, making up for two whole days of not touching and barely speaking to one another, and afterwards as we lie together with Max's arms around me, both of us sated and content, I feel more relaxed than I have in days.

After a few moments of comfortable silence, I turn slightly to face my husband.

"Max?"

"Yeah?"

"I owe you an apology," I admit quietly. "I'm so sorry. I never wanted us to fight like that."

"I'm sorry, too," he tells me, but I can tell that he's waiting for more from me.

"Look, I've had some time to think," I say carefully, not wanting to spoil the calm mood. "And I want you to know that I didn't do it intentionally – the money thing, I mean. I honestly didn't realise how much I was spending and how much it was bothering you. I never wanted you to feel like I was a burden to you or anything."

"Lizzie," Max smiles, reaching over to touch my cheek with the back of his fingers. "I should have said something to you before this. Instead, I just let it build up until I got so worked up that I got mad at you and that was stupid of me."

I manage a small smile, "God, we really need to start talking more, don't we? Let's not have any secrets anymore, okay?"

"Sounds good to me," he replies softly. "How about we sit down together later and sort everything out properly? That way we'll know exactly where we both stand on things."

"Okay," I agree happily, leaning up for a kiss. "I can do that."

"Great," murmurs Max, as his lips find mine once more. "But right now, I'd much rather be doing this–"

He deepens the kiss and pulls me on top of him. I straddle his hips and run my hands over his chest, savouring the feel of the muscles flexing beneath his smooth skin. Not breaking our embrace, I lift my hips in preparation, eagerly anticipating the feel of him inside me once again… and suddenly the sound of the phone interrupts us.

"Crap," I mutter as I tear my lips from Max's and reach for the phone on his bedside table. "Hello?"

"Oh my God, Liz; you're never gonna believe this!" comes the excited voice of my best friend.

"Maria?" I question. "What's wrong?"

"I'm getting married, that's what!" she practically screams down the line.

"You're… what?" I exclaim, sitting up fully on Max's chest as he looks up at me with curiosity.

"I'm getting married, Liz! Michael finally proposed!" she cries.

"Oh my God," I murmur. "Congratulations!"

"Thank you," she says happily. "Sorry for calling so early…" I glance at the clock. It's eight forty-five. "But I just couldn't wait to tell you!"

"That's great news," I grin down the phone. "I'm so happy for you."

I glance down at my husband, whose expression has changed to one of understanding. As I finish up the call with Maria, promising to call her later to catch up with all the gory details, I watch him suspiciously. He looks like he knows exactly what Maria's big news is.

"Okay, what do you know?" I question as soon as I hang up.

"Me? Nothing," he says quickly. Too quickly.

"You already knew he was gonna propose, didn't you?" I accuse.

He shifts, "Well, I didn't know exactly…" I pin him with a stare and he sighs. "Michael mentioned it when they came to visit the other week, but I didn't know when he was actually going to pop the question," he admits.

"Oh," I say, his reply satisfactory.

"But, as happy I am for them," he continues with a sly grin. "I think we have more pressing issues to attend to right now."

He emphasises his point with a thrust of his hips beneath me and a similar grin spreads across my own face.

"Yeah, I guess we do," I murmur, running my hands down his chest. "We'd better get right on that, hadn't we?"

TBC…