Page 58 of With Love

My eyes go wide, embarrassment covering my face.

“It’s okay, I gave you everything you needed that night,” he winked.

“Ohhh, my. Okay. Moving on.” I almost couldn’t talk I was laughing and so flustered. “I was also sitting at my desk over there. I don’t know if I was doing research or what. I had a text book and I was typing something on the computer.”

“Did you have a pencil between your teeth?” He asks me, laughing.

“Yeah, how did you know? Another habit of mine?” The look he gives me tells me that I’m right.

“But the last thing that I saw was what really made me weak in the knees. You and I were standing there, deep in conversation about something. Then, you took me in your arms and lifted me up. We were kissing and then you walked us back to the bedroom,” I give him a little side-eye, still a little embarrassed over what happened yesterday morning.

“That was an incredible night. One of the best of my entire life,” he says. “And, no, not just because of the sex. Also because we got to talk about our pasts a little. Get to know each other a little. These pictures here, they were the pictures that we were looking at when you told me you wanted to live in a treehouse like in Swiss Family Robinson. They’re the reason I built our “treehouse” in the woods.”

“Our treehouse is on steroids,” I say. “Not that I mind. It’s gorgeous. You did a fantastic job.”

I stand and look at the photos on the wall over the sofa. Each picture has a different forest scene. None more beautiful than the rest.

“Wait a minute…” Something just occurred to me. “How did you do this? How did you get my apartment back and did we really keep all of my things after we got married? We didn’t live here did we? Has it been like this the whole time?”

“No, we bought our own apartment once we got married. I asked you to move in with me shortly after we met but, being the strong willed person you are, you said that you didn’t want to rely on someone else supporting you,” he rolls his eyes playfully.

“But you didn’t know if you wanted to keep your things, donate them, or what. So we put everything in storage. Luckily, we never ended up doing anything with them. After I was released from the hospital, I talked to the landlord here and told him that I wanted to rent the apartment. We came to an agreement and he didn’t renew the lease of the last tenants who were here. I’ve had it ever since.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re kind of ‘extra’?” I laugh.

“Yeah, you used to all the time.”

I stand up and move around the apartment. Examining everything. Picking things up and feeling them between my fingers. Opening the drawers and cabinets in the kitchen.

Walking down the hallway, I creep through the opening of the doorway into the bedroom and look around. The smell of freesia hangs in the air and another wave of emotion comes crashing down on me. I don’t experience any visions like I did out in the living area, but the emotions that hit me are just as strong; heartache, excitement, passion, lust, love. I sit down on the bed--my bed--with my arms wrapped around my middle, trying to brace myself from the sobs starting to wrack my body. The smell swirling in the air around me, in what was once my sacred, personal space throws my emotions into a tailspin. I fall to the side and let the mattress hold me as I let it all out.

Either I was crying louder than I intended to or Marshall’s intuition tipped him off, because not before long, I smell his aftershave and feel his hand on my shoulder. The bed dips behind me and I roll over, cocooning my body with his. He wraps me in his arms and lets me cry. He doesn’t try to stop me. He says nothing to try and soothe me. It’s exactly what I need.

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