Marina woke up with another body in the bed. She opened her eyes – still somehow expecting it all to have been a dream – to see Philip lying on his back, staring at the ceiling. She reached out and traced a hand lazily down his neck to his shoulder, savoring the feel of him, and the memory of last night.
"Ah, you're awake," he noted, turning on his side to look at her.
She grinned at him, running her hand down his side to rest on his hip, but his face remained serious. She stopped, worried about this new turn. Nothing ever went right in her life without soon going wrong.
"I think we should sleep in different beds," he said.
Marina drew her hand back. "What do you mean? Was last night…?"
"I'm not sure how to say this without upsetting you… I couldn't sleep at all last night."
"What?"
"I am unused to sharing a bed with someone else, and you… breathe rather loudly. I think it would be better if we continued to sleep separately."
Marina smiled sweetly at him, and lifted her foot up to his chest and pushed him off the side of the bed. He fell over the side with a loud thump that she first relished, and then worried had actually hurt him. She crawled to his side of the bed to look down at him, and blinked up at her, confused.
"Is that not alright?"
"No it's not alright!" Marina snapped. "We've spent all of one night together and I just woke up to hear my husband doesn't want to share a bed with me because I snore! What am I supposed to feel?"
"I didn't say you snored!" Philip protested, "and you told me to tell you what I am thinking! I was going to leave last night, but I didn't want you to wake up alone and wondering where I had gone… Did I choose badly?"
Marina groaned and buried her face in the mattress. Never a dull moment, with this man! She lifted her head and looked at him again. "Did you… enjoy last night?" she asked. "Before I started snoring, I mean."
His face turned very red, and he nodded. "First of all, I did not say you were snoring. And… yes, I did enjoy last night. Did you?"
Marina looked him up and down. His skin looked so pale in the morning light, and she remembered touching every inch of him, and having him touch her in return. What he lacked in experience he made up for in enthusiasm, and willingness to learn, and in his desire to please her he had given her more than she had expected…
He lifted a hand to his shoulder, as though to shield his modesty from her leering gaze, and she broke out in a grin. "Yes, I enjoyed last night."
He gave a little nod of satisfaction. "Good."
"So why wouldn't you want to do it again?" she asked, getting up on her knees.
He looked confused again. "I never said that."
She stared at him for a moment. "Ohhhhh, so you want to have sex with me, and then make me leave your bed."
He blushed furiously again, to hear her speaking so plainly. "Well, when you put it that way!"
She smiled at him and tried to explain her feelings. "Philip, I would like to sleep with you. I want to touch you – hold you – while we are asleep. If you really don't want to though, I won't force you." He nodded and started to get to his feet. "But couldn't you just try to sleep together for a little while? We've only spent one night together. Maybe it's just that you aren't accustomed to it yet – maybe with time you will grow to enjoy sleeping together."
He pulled on trousers and then turned to look at her and sighed. "Fine. Let's try sleeping together – for a week – and see how it goes."
She clapped her hands and jumped up to hug him. "Thank you!" He was stiff and awkward, holding his hands to the side as if to avoid touching her naked body and she laughed. "Are you shy now – after everything you did to me last night?"
He laughed, and relaxed a little, letting his hands fall to the small of her back. She purred and pushed closer to him, enjoying the feel of her naked chest against his. "See, isn't it nice to wake up together?"
He smiled. "Yes, I suppose so…"
Marina was considering pulling him back onto the bed when she heard Celeste waking up in her room next door. "We'll continue this later," she threatened him, pulling on her shift and going to her daughter.
Celeste was standing in her crib, waiting for Marina. The sun shone in on her brown curls, showing her off as the most beautiful little girl that she was. "Good morning my darling!" Marina cooed, squeezing her close.
"Moning Mama!" Celeste cooed back, wrapping her little arms around Marina's neck.
Marina smiled, feeling contented and vindicative. It felt good to know that she could fight back and win against a man like Mr. Abernathy. She felt content – almost like everything was right in her life finally.
Philip walked into her room, buttoning his collar up. Well, almost everything was right – this man would never make her life easy.
"You're not going to work today, are you? After yesterday?"
Philip looked at her like he hadn't even considered taking the day off.
"Let's spend the day together," Marina said. "The three of us – let's have a picnic, shall we?"
"Yes picnic!" Celeste enthused, clapping her hands.
Marina smirked at Philip. There was no way he could refuse his daughter. "Just for today – I'm sure everyone in town will understand, given they all know what we went through yesterday."
Celeste kept chanting "Picnic!" and clapping until finally Philip sighed, relenting. "Very well. It is rather a special day today."
Had Marina ever had such a perfect day in her life? Not in her memory. It was so wonderful to spend the day with Celeste and Philip, even if they didn't do anything particularly exciting. Because they didn't do anything exciting. It felt safe.
Normally, when things were good like this, she started to feel anxious, waiting for something horrible to come along and ruin it, but not this day. Today, she just let herself enjoy the present. She let herself believe everything would be alright.
Maybe things really could be alright.
"Marry me," she murmured to Philip that evening in his bed again.
He smiled and pushed a curl away from her forehead, tucking it behind her ear with a kiss. "I seem to remember doing so already…"
"I want to mean it."
He stared into her eyes, and she felt a pleasant shiver down her spine. "I meant it then," he said solemnly, "and I mean it now."
Marina draped a bare leg over his hip and smirked at him. "Is that what you were thinking of, when you first married me?"
He blushed and shook his head, and she settled herself closer against him, enjoying his reaction.
"I take you, Philip Crane, to be my husband," she said, putting her hands on his cheeks and looking deep into his eyes. "To cherish and hold, in sickness and health, until death do us part." And she kissed him slowly, languorously, to make up for their dismal wedding day. A kiss to seal her promise, to show her love.
He turned her onto her back, pinning her beneath him. "I take you, Marina Thompson, to be my wife," he breathed. "To cherish and hold, in sickness and health, until death do us part." He grinned at her then. "Or until you divorce me," he added, and Marina laughed.
"You never know," she said, kissing his face to soften her teasing. "You really never know what the future holds."