When she woke up to silence her first reaction was concern. But, too tired to jump into panic mode she lay in bed, tangled in her douvet, appreciating her own bed after a week out of it.
She could smell toast... breakfast. Mark must be making breakfast... God bless him! She smiled and sat up, suddenly keen to get up out of bed – a feeling she hadn't experienced since well before she'd had James.
In singlet and pyjama pants she wandered out of her room and followed her nose to the kitchen. Before she made her presence known she peeked in the door to see Mark bouncing James on his hip – clearly clean and fed – God bless him! Mark was trying to butter toast with one hand.
She stepped into the room, smelling eggs, and maybe bacon... she tried not to get her hopes up. "I got it." She smiled at him and took the knife.
"Thanks." Mark grinned. "Good sleep?"
"Oh, you have no idea." She almost moaned in appreciation.
Mark laughed and she pretended not to be affected by him.
"Do you want to take James? I can finish up the rest." He opened the oven, not letting her see past him.
"Sure. What are we having?" She took James from him, desperately ignoring the heat of his touch in all its endearing innocence.
"You'll see." He raised his eyebrows. She took the hint and left the kitchen, dancing James around in her arms as she went.
"I think we're getting spoilt munchkin. If you could eat solids your mouth would be watering right now baby." She put James in his rocker and set the table, opening the curtains as she walked past, and a couple of windows to let in the fresh air.
The table set she returned to the kitchen, "Just getting orange juice," she opened the fridge, clearly trying to get a peek at breakfast, "and some glasses." She leant past him, her body softly brushing against his, driving him crazy like she had no idea.
"Susan..." he smiled at her, trying to look annoyed and failing.
"Sorry." She grinned and turned to leave.
"It's all ready – I'll just serve up – so take a seat and relax."
"Yeah, yeah." She pretended to gripe as she left the room.
Mark laughed, which made her smile, which made James laugh and started the cycle all over again.
He was still laughing when he brought out there plates.
Susan was lounging, her feet up on another chair, yesterday's newspaper folded over to the weather page, in her hands. But she was up in a flash, eyes wide at the feast he'd prepared. Poached eggs, fresh tomato quarters, strawberries, yoghurt and the toast she'd buttered in triangles on the edge of each plate.
"Damn..."
Mark laughed and put the plates down. "I got hungry at about five o'clock this morning. Then I thought about food for an hour or so and got inspired."
"He woke you up at five?" Susan cringed, picking up a strawberry with her fork
Mark nodded, mouth full of toast and egg. "Yeah, but the really horrible thing is that I actually missed that."
"Oh gosh. You have got problems."
"You have no idea."
Susan laughed, "This is incredible."
"Mmm," he agreed, but he was looking at her rather than his plate. She met his eyes and he quickly looked at James.
"So, when do you start your job?" she changed the subject afraid of where this could lead and yet desperately wanting to find out.
"Um, next week. Yeah, but I haven't fixed any timetable yet and they said it would be flexible so... how bout you? When do you have to go back?"
"Couple of weeks now." She took a deep breath. "I'm looking forward to it but it's going to be weird."
"You'll do great – I mean you coped so well when you had Suzie."
Susan laughed, clearly in disagreement.
"I'm not saying it was a piece of cake but you did really well then and hopefully I can take some of the heat off this time around."
She smiled. And slowly nodded. "Thank you."
He smiled almost shyly.
"I guess we've both done the single parenting thing at one point or another. But it's strange to rely on someone else when you've been doing things on your own for so long."
He nodded understandingly. "I won't let you down."
"No, I know you won't." she smiled, "but it's still scary to... I guess to trust someone. I mean, especially with a kid and all."
"I don't think it comes natural to either of us to have someone else look after us."
"Exactly – we're doctors – we're the ones supposed to be doing the looking after." She smiled.
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
They ate in silence for a while, then Mark brought up the elephant in the room. "Are you sure it's okay for me to stay here for a while?"
"Oh, absolutely. Of course. Yeah. I don't mind. Plus, you're a better cook than me."
"This was hardly complicated."
"Well I that case we'll have to do it more often."
Mark smiled, "Cause I'll start looking for an apartment today but these things can take a while and I don't want to be in the way."
She cocked her head to one side, her eyes in earnest, "You're not in the way."
"Well no, not now, but I'm bribing you with gourmet food and I've only been here a short while – you have no idea how frustrating I am to live with."
"I think I've known you long enough to know how frustrating you are – and if you really piss me off it'll take more than eggs on toast."
He grinned, "What happened to gourmet breakfast?"
"I'm trying not to inflate your ego because then you'll really be unbearable."
He loved how she teased him, and how it gave him an excuse to kick her lightly under the table.
"Hey!" she pulled her chair back. "Very gentleman like."
"I thought so." He grinned, getting caught in a staring contest, sinking into her eyes like he vowed not to do.
She laughed to get out of it and took their dishes out, using all her willpower not to flirt back.