"Tony," Michelle whispered playfully in his ear, stroking his hair softly, "Tony". Tony half-opened his eyes, groaned and shut them again. Michelle grinned; he was so cute when he was tired in a morning. She lifted her hand and flicked his ear.
Tony rolled over to face her, reached out, and grabbed her wrists. "Tony! We've gotta get up and go!" she giggled, loving the way he had to struggle to hold his eyes open. Tony smiled mischievously, raising his left eyebrow and moving towards her. "We're not going anywhere yet" he muttered sexily, and kissed her.
Several hours later they finally left the house. The journey to the coast took just under an hour. Tony and Michelle passed the time by playing silly, childhood games, and spent most of the journey in fits of laughter. They arrived at midday, and began to walk along the pier. There were hundreds of tourist shops and arcades as they wandered down the pier, and they spent the afternoon browsing the shops, gambling on the arcades and eating snacks from various outlets.
After spending a large amount of money in the arcades, and coming away only with a small green cuddly dinosaur and several cheap, tacky keyrings, Michelle and Tony made their way to the beach. The tide was out, and they started to walk across the sand hand-in-hand. Tony felt so safe and secure with Michelle; she cared for him, as he did for her. They waked for just over an hour, only stopping when they reached a band of rocks that barred the way.
"Come on!" Tony said enthusiastically, pulling Michelle along with him as he walked up to the cliff edge. "I reckon we could get up here, look, there's an easy route!" He pointed excitedly, and Michelle recognised the familiar glint in his eye. She wouldn't be able to dissuade him from climbing across the rocks, and the route he had pointed out to her did look fairly simple. She sighed and rolled her eyes at Tony with a grin.
"Alright, but be careful Tony!" she told him.
"Me? Hey, we're both going!" Tony replied, turning back from the rocks to face her. "Come on, it'll be fun!"
Michelle glanced at the cliff nervously, about to protest, when she saw Tony's expression. He was happy, happier than she had seen in a long time. Did she want to ruin it? She was worried that if she protested, Tony's good mood might disappear, and he would revert back to being moody and depressive as he had been when she had been working late. She sighed again, before agreeing to follow him up the cliff face, so long as he went slowly, and didn't try anything too difficult.
They began to make their way up and across the rocks. Michelle was relieved – Tony was climbing slowly so that she could keep up with him, and their route was easy going. She peered upwards. Tony had disappeared! Trying to control the rising waves of panic, she took a deep breath, and turned to look downwards.
She screamed.
"Hey!" came a voice from above. Trying desperately to hold on after the shock of seeing such a long drop beneath her, Michelle gazed upwards, straight into Tony's eyes. He was lying on a ledge just above her head, with his head poking out over the end. He offered his hand to her, and pulled her up to join him on the ledge.
They sat in the mid-afternoon sun, watching the boats sail past and the children play in the sand and sea. Michelle snuggled up to Tony, resting her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes. "This is so… nice" she murmured to him.
Michelle woke with a start, feeling the cold, hard rock beneath her. She sat up sharply, and looked around. The sea was empty of swimmers and the beach was empty of… Oh God!
"Tony!" she yelled. He opened his eyes and sat up next to her.
"What?" he muttered groggily with a scowl on his face.
"The beach! Quick!" Michelle answered hysterically, scrambling to her feet. Tony stood up, and turned to face the beach, quickly understanding what Michelle was worried about. The tide had come in nearly all the way, and, unless they could get down the cliff and back onto the beach quickly, they would be stranded on the cliff for hours. He rushed over to the edge of the ledge, and began to follow Michelle down. They hurried over the rocks, and had nearly reached the bottom of the cliff, when, "Damn!" Michelle shouted. Tony stumbled over to her, looking down. The water was washing around the rocks at the bottom of the cliff.
"It's not very deep" he told Michelle calmly. "If we go now, we'll get a bit wet, but we'll be okay".
Michelle looked at him, hoping he was right. She had no desire to stay on the cliff for the rest of the evening, so jumped down after him into the water. It was only knee deep, and they waded round the cliff towards the beach.
"It's not far now" Tony called back, a few steps ahead of Michelle. She looked up to gauge how far the beach was, and tripped over a rock. Tony heard the splash and rushed to her side immediately. He helped her up and checked she was ok, before taking in her appearance. She was covered in water and sand; it was everywhere! Tony burst out into laughter. "What?" Michelle asked indignantly, before looking down at her clothes and realising. She grinned, knowing how stupid she must look. They made their way back to the beach and began the walk back to the car. Tony was striding ahead, but Michelle was in no hurry.
"Tony, what's the rush?" she called.
"Ah, nothing" Tony called back, not wanting to tell Michelle about their dinner booking just yet. "I'm just hungry."
After an hour of plodding along the beach, they finally arrived back at the car and began the journey home. Michelle shivered, still soaked through from falling into the sea and now feeling very cold. Tony glanced across at her concerned. He pulled into a lay-by and pulled off his shirt, placing it carefully around her shoulders. "Thanks" Michelle said, grateful of the extra layer to keep her warm. She leaned across and kissed him, resisting the temptation to go any further. Tony re-started the car and pulled out back into the road.
On their arrival home, Michelle jumped into a hot shower, and Tony collapsed onto the sofa, wondering how to persuade Michelle to get dressed for going out, without letting on where they were going. "Ah, do you want a Chinese or something for tea?" Michelle asked, suddenly appearing in the lounge with her curls dripping wet.
Tony tried to fight the amused look off his face. "Don't you want to cook?"
Michelle felt her heart drop. In a minute he was going to discover that, despite his absence for the last six months, the only things she could cook that turned out edible were bacon sandwiches, pasta and pizza. Tony watched Michelle's face darken. Unable to control his amusement any more, he burst out into laughter.
"I take it you still aren't too keen on cooking?" he taunted.
"Hey!" Michelle said indignantly, "I worked hard to cook two meals for you this week!"
"I know honey, and they were delicious. Don't worry, I'm not in the mood for pasta tonight, so you don't need to cook!"
Michelle grinned sheepishly, and sat down beside Tony. She had missed being with him so much, especially in the evenings. He checked his watch. They needed to leave in less than fifteen minutes. "Don't ask why, but you need to get changed into something nice for going out" he told her, hoping that she wouldn't ask too many questions. Michelle's heart leapt. He was taking her out! She had spent the week worrying that she wasn't spending enough time with him, and even today, amidst all the fun, she couldn't help but wonder whether, when she was back at work next week, he would lose his cheerfulness. Since Thursday, he had become far happier, and Michelle was ecstatic to have the old Tony back, who she felt content and relaxed with. She knew that he must have booked somewhere for the meal, which showed that he had thought about her. She smiled at Tony, then, without a word, went upstairs wondering where they were going, and what to wear.