Cal tapped at Gillian's office door and pushed it open. She looked up and gave him an expectant smile. "Got somthin' for you," Cal told her, striding across the room quickly to her desk. He had waited a little impatiently for her to arrive this morning before he could deliver his little trinket.
"Oh?" Gillian raised her eyebrows, amiable, unsuspecting. She sat at her desk and pulled the folder on top of it closer towards her, preparing to make a start.
Cal held out his hand, "Here." And Gillian opened her hands to take whatever it was that he was about to drop. Small and white. Cal grinned, pleased with himself, as Gillian picked it up from her palm and looked up at him, her cheeks actually red and her face a little mortified; so much more amusing!
"My button?" She whispered, her eyes darting to the door.
"Said I'd find them all," Cal grinned to himself, rocking back and forth from heel to toe, enjoying her embarrassment. He wondered if she was thinking about how she'd lost the button in the first place, yesterday evening, on the coffee table. It had actually been relatively easy. To find all the buttons he'd popped off her shirt. They were either in the couch or on the floor. But one had eluded Cal at the time and even when Gillian had looked for it she couldn't find it.
Gillian curled her hand around the white plastic and reached for her purse. "Where did you find it?" She asked in a low voice.
"Was in the cuff of my trousers," Cal responded watching her put the button into a small side compartment of her handbag. She was serious about wanting all the buttons back, but he doubted she would actually sew them back on her shirt. "That's all of them now right?"
She nodded, her eyes sliding to the door again. "Ok, you had your laugh, now go away."
Cal chuckled and turned on his heel to face his body away towards the door but his head was still to the side to face her. "Can I come ova tonight?"
"Maybe," Gillian muttered her head down, focussing back on her work.
That was a yes.
PJ
Cal shut off the bathroom light and found Gillian already in bed. Her knees were propped up and her body hunched over them. He watched her as he walked around the bed, wondering what she was doing. And then he could see she had material in her hands and a needle and thread. She was sewing. How cute!
How very domesticated.
"What are you doin'?" Cal asked as he slid into bed.
She waited for him to settle before attempting to thread the needle through the button hole again. "Sewing the buttons back on my shirt."
Cal smirked. So she had been serious then. "Thought you would have just ditched it."
"Well now that I have all the buttons back... This is my favourite shirt," Gillian informed him with a breezy smile. She focussed again and Cal could see that it was, indeed, the last button to go back, the one by her chest. He grinned to himself, remembering last night, remembering popping the buttons off her shirt in the first place. He was surprised there wasn't more damaged to be honest. He hadn't been careful. Cal leaned over and started to kiss her shoulder. "What are you doing?"
"Tempting you."
"Mmm," she hummed. "Wait. Just a second. I've almost finished."
"So this doesn't count as twenty-four hours apart? Or was it twenty-four hours no sex?"
"Well seeing as you're here anyway, maybe we should just go for no sex," she turned to face him. He pressed a kiss against her lips and then sighed.
"Yeah maybe. My back is killin' me afta yestaday."
Gillian giggled, actually giggled. Cal shot her a glare as he eased away again. "That's not helpin'." She grinned at him, her eyes bright and he found himself returning it.
"Did I show you the bruises on my back?"
"What bruises?" Cal was surprised and concerned.
Gillian let her knees drop to the mattress and turned her shoulders towards him. Cal lifted her shirt up, showing the smooth expanse of her back and the little lochness ridges that was her spine. On the edges of her shoulders, at the bottom of the curve of her shoulder blade, were dark blue smudges of bruising, where her shoulders had pressed against the solid surface of her coffee table. "Geeze," Cal brushed a hand over her back and she shivered, turning away again. "Sorry."
Gillian gave him a slight smile. "Was worth it."
Cal lay back against his pillow, letting the scent of her on the sheets wash over him in a comforting way. Just a few months and already he came to crave this. "What will we do with our evenin' then?"
"Hmm," Gillian mused turning back to her sewing. She threaded the needle through the hole and pulled it taught, then formed a loop and tucked the needle beneath it to tie off the knot. "How are you at cards?"