Lena: If you could have one perfect day, what would it be

Lena: If you could have one perfect day, what would it be?

Cade: Just a day where I could be like everyone else.

There's warmth on my cheek that I try to ignore. I don't want to wake up just yet, the bed is too snug and my body is totally relaxed and sluggish. I could lie like this forever. Then the gentle murmur of a whispered voice penetrates my slumber, it's a sound I can't resist. I open my eyes and turn my head towards her smile. She is beside me under the comforter gazing at me, I smile in return and our lips meet. I pull out my arm and wrap it round her slender shoulders and whisper back in as sexy a voice as I can muster with cotton mouth, "You really mean that?"

Hannah grins at me and I sigh, thinking to myself, God I love this woman so much, I never ever want to be apart from her, never let her go. If anything ever happened to her I would die, I could not carry on alone. I squeeze her till she squeals then we sink further beneath the comforter to explore each other's body.

I feel my life just keeps getting better and better.

Afterwards we shower together sharing the small space of the bath in silence, content to wash each other slowly with lots of lathered sweetly smelling lavender soap. Then cleansed, refreshed and dressed we descend to our kitchen and share the task of making pancakes from a packet together. Again we talk very little, we are so accustomed to each other we don't always feel the need to fill the spaces with chatter. Seated at the round table we stare at each other over hot java and syrupy pancakes holding each other by one hand, my left resting in her right palm, secure.

Today is Saturday and we are going to the Mall to shop for house stuff. Hannah wants a cabinet for the bathroom, a towel rail to match and new faucets. We also plan to make some alterations in the living room so I want to find light fitments and a fireplace. It feels so good to drive off in the car together, a real couple, Mr. and Mrs. Normal. Sometimes I wonder what life would have been like for me if I had settled on Harley. We would not have been living a respectable life, that's for sure. But we may have gone shopping at stores in The Mall with stolen money. We'd have bought expensive clothes and gadgets for the apartment. Hayley loved gadgets. I wonder where she is now and if she managed to turn her life around like I did.

So here we are, Hannah and myself traveling downtown to look at department stores. I suggest we visit the Thomas Kincade Gallery to buy a painting for the wall. I'm not serious, of course, I just like the name and Hannah appreciates the joke, she knows I am no artist. I want to try out the massaging bed rests at Brookestones, I tell her and our laughter can be heard blocks away.

We enjoy our trip to the Mall amongst the crowds of people, many just like us. We jostle through the throng, parents with babies in strollers, couples holding hands, older people burdened with purchases, teens hanging out together showing tattoos and piercings. On a day like this I feel so grateful to Hannah for the way my life has turned out, that I can mix with people like this and feel normal, like I fit in. We go somewhere special to eat lunch, to Trader Vic's inside the Palmer House. It's Polynesian style, and we order their Chinese buffet passing through the grand lobby first to fill our eyes with opulence. Hannah's parents used to bring us here before we were married; I think to introduce me to something luxurious. They taught me to use chopsticks here. In the afternoon, we walk by the Oak Street beach, which despite the cold is still a magnificent experience. We sit there for a while discussing our purchases and making plans for tomorrow, fixing up plans.

As the sun begins to lower, we return to my treasured car, and drive slowly home where we will have a pizza delivered before watching a rented movie and going to our bed, together.

Mr. and Mrs. Foster.

A perfect day.