Patrick sat at his desk writing notes on a patient's file, after a few minutes his mind started to drift and he was losing focus. The thoughts of his most recent patient were lost as instead his mind wandered to the cigarettes that would normally be in his top desk drawer. He felt his fingers twitch with the urge to smoke. He was accustomed to that urge, he had been smoking for almost all of his adult life. But now things were different, now he was trying to quit.
He grabbed paper from his desk and began making another paper frog to add to the pile already strewn across his desk. Once finished with it he tossed it onto the pile. The yearning to smoke had not gone away, despite the activity that kept his hands and mind busy for a little while. He took a deep breath and thought of Timothy and Angela, he needed to stop smoking so he could see them grow up. He also thought of the cancerous and smoke damaged lungs he had seen and knew he couldn't let that happen to him or to Shelagh. He wanted to be there for them for as long as he could and any behavior that could damage his health would prevent him from that goal. He sighed at the pile of paper frogs and got up to return the file he had been writing in to the cabinet in the waiting room.
Shelagh took another biscuit off the plate at her desk and began to nibble around the edges. If she ate it slowly then it would last longer and maybe take her mind off of going into Patrick's office and sharing a cigarette with him. She hadn't smoked for over a decade when she was in nursing school and when she had joined the order but the short few years that she and Patrick had been together had changed all that. She knew she did not smoke nearly as much as he did but the time they spent together sharing a cigarette and discussing important topics were something she treasured. She realized as her mind wandered she had finished the biscuit in her hand and picked up another from the plate.
Shelagh looked up from the reception desk when Patrick opened his office door. She set down the biscuit she had been nibbling and wiped at her mouth as soon as she saw him. He smiled at her and quickly went to put the patient file away.
"Any other patient appointments this afternoon?" Patrick asked as he closed the file drawer.
"No, Mr. Jennings was the last one scheduled. I was planning on picking up Angela from the nursery while you do your evening rounds and then we will see you at home for tea." Shelagh reported on their evening schedule as she cleaned up the papers on her desk and then stood up.
Suddenly while watching his beautiful wife Patrick realized there were much better things he could be doing to keep his hands and mouth busy, things that would definitely keep his mind off smoking. He took a few quick strides across the room to meet her and he suddenly enveloped her into a kiss. She usually wouldn't kiss him at the surgery unless they were in his office with the door firmly closed, but this time she melted into him. His earlier yearning for a cigarette turned into yearning for her. He could taste the sugar on her lips from the biscuit she had been eating. His hands caressed her back and began inching lower to hold her against him firmly by the bum. She meanwhile dove her fingers into his hair, holding his face as close to hers as possible as the kiss deepened.
She knew they shouldn't be doing this. A patient, a laboring mother, or even a nun could walk in at any moment and catch them snogging like a pair of hormone filled teenagers. She also knew that they both needed a distraction, giving up smoking had been harder on her than she had thought it would be and she knew he was having trouble with it too. The pile of paper frogs on the desk in his office and the mantle at home told her how much he was struggling. She had discovered that biscuits kept her hands and mouth busy when she thought of smoking, but she was going through three packets of biscuits every day so she knew she was struggling too.
She finally broke away to get a deep breath and wound up laughing at their situation. "Oh Patrick, I don't think your tricks for keeping us busy when we think of smoking are working. You have exhausted the office paper supply with your frogs and I am eating three packets of biscuits every day." Shelagh smiled as she leaned into him, hugging her arms around him and resting her head on his chest.
He laughed at her observation before responding "I knew my frogs were becoming a problem but I hadn't noticed your new biscuit habit. Maybe this is a better solution." He said before leaning down to kiss the top of her head. He enjoyed touching her hair in any way he could, probably a side effect of falling for her when he couldn't even see it.
"What? Snogging every time one of us wants a cigarette? That would be highly inappropriate and would lead to not a lot of work getting done." Shelagh stepped back to look up at his face at what she felt was a ridiculous suggestion.
"Well maybe not the snogging part but relying on each other. Maybe a hand to hold while we are here or at the clinic and a kiss or two when we are at home. And if it leads to snogging then that is just a bonus." Patrick finished with a big grin.
Shelagh lightly slapped his chest at his cheeky comment but she smiled. She would probably keep on eating biscuits and he would probably keep on with the frogs but maybe they would both be better off if they leaned on each other more. At least for now while they were both so new to their journey of quitting smoking.