All familiar characters belong to Janet. The mistakes are solely mine.
"Do you remember what we talked about?" I asked Steph, as she was trying to get her curls to behave for our late dinner out.
I almost didn't get the words out, seeing the way that blue/black dress clung to her. Calling it a dress is overstating it. It's really just a small scrap of fabric being secured lovingly to her body with razor-thin straps crisscrossing her otherwise bare back in two places. I made a note to grab an extra weapon before leaving the room in case someone who isn't me decides to appreciate it as much as I do.
"We talk to each other everyday about everything," she said to me, unaware of where my thoughts had strayed, "you'll have to be a bit more specific or at least give me a hint so I have a starting point."
"Our discussion about gifts."
"When I told you that you really need to stop buying me stuff?"
"Yes."
She sighed. "Let me take a shot in the dark here, you bought me something else?"
"Give the woman a prize," I said to tease her, holding out the box containing the earrings I bought her in Miami. "If it'll save my ass, Julie helped me pick them out while we were there getting her bracelet and the charm for Olive's. Julie agreed that they're perfect for you."
"So you weren't just spoiling our girls in Miami. I was expecting you to ignore what I said about me not needing presents, you spoil me enough without them, but you went sneaky on me and waited long enough that I actually stopped worrying about it."
"You honestly thought I wouldn't treat my girl at the same time as my two others?"
"You can't help it, I know, but honestly ... you taking care of Olive and Julie is enough for me. I actually love you more for getting me through my pregnancy than I did whenever you saved me from a homicidal maniac. I should come after what our girls need."
"Correction, Babe, you are what our girls need ... and that should be acknowledged and appreciated."
"Which you do everyday."
"I do, but there's always room to do more. Now quit stalling and open the box."
She did and her eyes flew to me. "How the heck did you hear what I said to Harper at that dinner we had together in the Caribbean? I purposely said it out of earshot and when you were looking away so you couldn't read my lips."
"My hearing and vision are more advanced than most."
"No freaking kidding."
"Do you like them?" I asked her.
"You know I do. Harp's are pretty amazing and these are similar to hers, yet different."
"That was by design. You are one of a kind ... and in kind, you shouldn't have what others are wearing."
"Stop flirting ... or we might not make it out of the apartment."
"Would that bother you?" I asked, pulling her close.
"No," she admitted, curling her arms around me.
We had given Olivia her bath, put her in a new diaper and her aqua 'Caution: Cuteness Ahead' pjs, and then soothed her to sleep. All that's needed to leave is placing a call to Ella once we're ready to head out. Steph doesn't take long to become even more beautiful than she woke up, so we technically now have a twenty-minute window from the timeline we originally gave Ella.
Apparently Steph agreed that we could put that time to good use. I lowered my head and took her mouth. She sighed and melted into me, leaving getting us to the bed to me. I'm always up for holding my wife in my arms, so I scooped her up and didn't let her go until we hit mattress. The dress I was admiring earlier was a challenge to remove, but I managed as Steph tugged, unbuttoned, and tossed, the clothes I had on that five minutes ago had been pressed into submission by Ella's iron.
I was more careful with her dress and shoes, but more importantly ... her. Only when her body was hot to the touch, damp, and pliant beneath my hands, did I lower myself onto and into her. She was back in control after that, on a mission to purposely make me lose mine.
Five minutes beyond the twenty I'd planned on, we were cleaned up, redressed, and Steph had switched out her standard stud earrings for the dangling diamond and sapphire ones I had just given her. I had to get a new dress shirt out of the closet to put on, due to Steph having wrinkled my other one so thoroughly in her haste to get to my skin, we both deemed it unwearable.
Even if the restaurant turned out to be less impressive than word-of-a-client's-mouth advertised, and the food totally inedible, I felt confident we'd both say our date night is one of the best we've had. Although Olivia is sound asleep in her crib, we went to say a quiet goodbye to her. We listened to the soft sound of her breathing and waited to see a minimum of five rises and falls of her little chest before pressing light goodbye kisses to her forehead and temple. We called Ella when we got to the front hall.
I drove Steph and I to Ewing and to the Mediterranean restaurant that I was assured was the best in the area. We had just placed our orders when a telltale twinge in my gut got my back snapping straight and my head swiveling in order to re-scan the room. The building was rocked by the force of the explosion a beat later.
