Cold Air Hellos and Goodbyes – Chapter Six
Harry woke the next morning and turned to see that the space in bed beside him was empty. Listening carefully, he could hear Karen walking around in the kitchen, most likely preparing the kids' breakfast. He crawled out of bed and out of his pajamas, groaning as his back tightened. He'd had a hellish night, tossing and turning like crazy. To put it bluntly, he didn't know how much longer he could go without sex. It had been ten weeks, and though he understood Karen's need to take things slowly, he was pretty sure he was going insane.
"Good morning darling," Karen called out, giving him a genuine smile as she placed two plates of pancakes in front of the children. "How did you sleep?"
"Oh," he said, trying to smile, "fine, I guess." He kissed her on the cheek, not trusting himself with any more, and rubbed his stomach. "I'm starving. This looks good."
"Thanks," she said, pulling out a chair for him. "Go ahead and sit down. There's eggs benedict, too, if you want. I must say, it looks delicious. Practically melted in my mouth. Mm."
He groaned silently. "I think I'll just stick with pancakes," he said, hardly daring to look at her.
"Oh, by the way," she said slowly, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I've got a surprise for you. My long-lost brother David, finally on a vacation, has agreed to take Daisy and Bernie for the weekend so we can have it all to ourselves." He looked up at her with wide eyes. "I think it'd be good for us."
He just nodded, swallowing. Inside he was praising God. "So will David be able to handle these two maniacs?" He ruffled Bernard's hair.
"No, but Natalie's there," she answered, and grinned.
Daisy and Bernard were just packing up the last of their things and headed out to the car when the phone rang. Harry went and picked it up, calling out hello in an extremely cheerful voice.
"Wow, you sound happy," Sarah's voice sounded through the receiver. Harry grinned.
"Weekend alone with Karen," he told her. "I should."
"Ah." She laughed, and then cleared her throat. "I was just calling to let you know that Mia is your secretary again."
"What?" he asked, his voice bland. "Why?"
"Joe transferred her back up here. Apparently she knows nothing about what they do down there. He called you an 'idiot' for making her work down there and then told her to take all her stuff back to her old desk." It was quiet for a few seconds before she said, "Just thought you'd want to know."
"Right. Well, it's okay. It doesn't matter. She doesn't do anything for me anymore, Sarah, I'll be fine."
"Of course you will, of course." She didn't sound too convinced, but Harry ignored it. "Oh, and another thing, Jenny called to confirm that next week she's taking maternity leave, so we're going to have to find a new ad manager." Harry groaned, holding his head in his hands. "But Harry, have a great weekend, take Monday off if you need to. And I'm sure you'll need to." He laughed, thanked her, and hung up.
Karen walked up to him, car keys in hand. "Just going to go drop the kids off at David's. Don't get into any trouble while I'm gone." She winked at him and walked away.
Karen whistled as she walked into her brother's house, smiling at all the servants and ignoring Daisy's whiney screams for Bernard to give her knapsack back, and right now. She waved wildly at Natalie when she saw her standing by the door to David's office, and walked up to her. "Hey you, where's that brother of mine?"
"Oh, he's in his office," she answered, smiling at Karen sweetly.
"Working, on his vacation?" Karen suddenly got very worried that maybe he'd changed his mind, but Natalie put her fears to rest.
"Oh no, he's not working. He got a new video game and he's been playing it since nine this morning." She laughed and took Bernard and Daisy's bags. "All right guys, say goodbye to your mum and I'll show you your room."
The children dutifully hugged her in turn, though Karen could tell what they really wanted to do was hang out with Natalie, and after they'd left she turned to the door of David's office and went in. "Hey brother," she said, seeing David lounging in front of his computer screen, his eyes flashing with excitement and concentration.
"Oh," he looked up, grinned, and hit a key on the keyboard. "Karen, how are you?"
"I'm doing wonderfully, thanks," she answered, sitting down on a chair opposite him.
"Really-wonderfully, or fake-wonderfully?" he asked, genuinely concerned. He had abandoned the video game, which she assumed he'd paused, and was leaning back in his chair and looking at her closely.
"Really-wonderfully, actually," she told him, her eyes shining, and leaned forward. "Everything between me and Harry is just going so wonderfully. I think our marriage is back on track, David, and I couldn't be more ecstatic."
He smiled at her and reached out to rub her arm. They both got up and hugged, and she apologized for having to leave so soon, but she didn't want to keep Harry waiting. He just laughed and said he didn't mind because he was dying to finish this level. As she walked out of the house she was more happy than she'd been in months, maybe even years, and it was all she could do to keep herself from cheering out loud.
When Karen walked in the door of the house she immediately smelled something cooking. Curious, she slipped quietly into the kitchen and watched Harry stirring a large pot on the stove and humming. "What's cooking?" she asked, walking up to him and smiling.
He looked surprised for a few seconds before grinning and shrugging. "Just spaghetti."
She was overtaken at that moment, for some odd reason, by how much she loved him and how close she'd come to losing him. She moved to him and slipped her arms around his waist, resting her chin on his shoulder and sighing. "It smells good," she said softly.
He put a hand over hers and kissed her forehead. "It's your recipe." She laughed and held him tighter, watching as his spoon stirred the sauce in a slow, steady rhythm.
After Harry and Karen had been married for about three years, they stopped having romantic dinners. Harry had never been one drawn to romantic anything, and Karen was always the type to let it go with a laugh. But she guessed that that had been their downfall. They had forgotten what it was like to really hold each other, look into each other's eyes, stare at the way their faces lit up from the glow of a candle. It was all so corny, she knew, but at the same time something that needed to be done. And so, as they beside each other at the table that night, eating their spaghetti by candlelight, giggling at the other's jokes and feeding each other bites of pasta, she knew something had been repaired.
The dinner continues next chapter!
