Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Calm Before the Storm

Things at work have been puttering along. The staff has been under a lot of pressure for deadlines because the news lately has almost been non-stop since January and now with the earthquake in Japan and the stuff happening in Libya….I feel bad for the staff. So to boost morale I had a brunch catered for everyone in the big conference room.

Stormy walked in and started spreading cream cheese on a bagel and he looked ragged. Veronica has successfully pushed back meeting with him at least three times and every week he just looks more and more overwhelmed. It’s starting to show on the news broadcasts, as well. The make-up team can only do so many things for the bags under Stormy’s eyes and I’m starting to think I might have to step in on behalf of the well-being of our employee. I don’t even know if he’s being paid overtime like he should be because that’s technically the responsibility of the station’s head of HR, not me. The paper is supposed to be a side job for Stormy to add a sense of familiarity to the readers that also watch the broadcasts but it’s pretty obvious it’s started taking up more and more of his time.

“Here,” I said handing him a cup of coffee, “You look really tired.”

“Thanks, I know I look like hell.” He gulped the coffee down and shoved the bagel in his mouth, “Gotta get back to work.”

I decided to go back to work and not bother him. He was already stressed out and me butting in and asking him about how he was feeling wasn’t going to help him, really. I ended up catching up on some work I’d put off until the very last minute and ended up staying at work until almost 8. I put my coat on and grabbed my bag in my office and headed out. I got in the hallway to my office and noticed someone’s light was still on. When I turned the corner Stormy was sitting at his desk looking tortured. I smiled sadly before walking up to him and throwing his jacket on his lap.

“Come on,” I said, “I’m going to take you out for a beer. You need food, too. Let’s go.”

“I can’t, I’ve got to finish this by the end of the day.” He sighed.

“The end of the day was three hours ago, dude, let’s go. I’m not taking no for an answer.”

“Fine but I’ve got to come back here right after.” He said grabbing his jacket and following me to the elevators.

“Deal.” I said.

We went to the bar across from our building and I bought us both two beers and cheeseburgers with fries.

“When was the last time you slept?” I asked.

“I’ve been up for 36 hours and counting.” He sounded miserable.

“Why don’t you ask for some time off?” I suggested.

“Because Veronica can fire me from being a writer but she can’t fire me as a newscaster. I’m still on contract. The one job I want out of would need to be negotiated with her and if I take time off she’ll fire me from the job she knows I want and keep me as a newscaster.”

“You can’t be fired for taking two days off from work, Stormy.”

“It’ll still look bad or when the time comes to actually talk about this with Veronica. Come on Faith, she’s cancelled this meeting constantly, she knows what I’m going to ask for and she doesn’t want to deal with it so she’s just stringing me along by rescheduling it. You know it, I know it, and she definitely knows it.”

“Is waiting until your contract expires and then not renewing it an option?” I asked.

“It doesn’t expire for another two years. I can’t do this for much longer let alone two more years.”

“Okay, look. I’ll talk to Veronica to see if we can get your deadlines reduced, at least for now so you don’t die from some sort of stress-induced ulcer. That will buy you some time before spiraling into a breakdown until she talks with you. I will also ask her to meet with you soon.”

“Thanks Faith.” Stormy said.

“It’s what friends are for.” I said smiling at him.

We ate in silence for a little while before Stormy spoke again.

“So it’s true, huh? The rock is huge.”

I looked down at my engagement ring and laughed.

“Yeah, it’s true.”

“So he’s your guy?”

“He’s my guy.”

“Damn.”

I laughed at Stormy.

“You’ll find someone, it’s just not me. It never was.” I touched his arm to comfort him.

“A guy can hope, right? Don’t kick me while I’m down, Faith.”

“Fine you can hope but it’s never going to happen so you should move on.”

“Ouch.”

We joked around and laughed some more before we finished eating and Stormy looked like he had at least a little more energy than before. I said good-bye to him outside of our building before he left to go work some more. I feel bad for the guy and avoiding difficult subjects just doesn’t seem like Veronica to me. I’ll have to figure out what the problem is when I talk to her about him soon.

Monday, March 21, 2011

The Exact Date

Anna, Zoey, and Molly were all crowded around my left hand and staring at the ring on it.

“How did he do it?” Zoey asked looking up at me.

“In our hotel, right when we were leaving for check out.”

“Oh, that’s…romantic.” Molly said.

“Well…I sort of almost found the ring box and kept asking questions about it.” I said. We were seated at a table just then and I continued my story once the waiter left, “He didn’t wanted to do it right then, although he told me he had planned on asking me while we were there. He changed his mind about it though because we were both in a state of shock after watching the earthquake footage. And he probably wouldn’t have asked if I hadn’t seen him drop the ring box by accident. It took me another hour to say yes.”

“What?” Anna asked.

“I was taken aback at his proposal. I didn’t understand why he was asking me NOW of all times. I thought he was just doing it because he was leaving for the tour and thought that if he didn’t make some grand gesture of commitment I’d be mad or something. But that wasn’t the case, he’s had the ring since November.”

“Oh, wow.” Molly said while perusing the menu.

“Didn’t you guys start dating in July?” Anna asked.

“I…not exactly…” I said with confusion and a hint of embarrassment.

“When did you guys start dating, then?” Molly asked.

“Uh…I don’t really know.”

“How can you not know?” Molly asked.

“Because she was with Sean for two months before he convinced her to be his girlfriend.” Zoey said with a smirk.

Molly looked at me.

“Yes, I had a filthy sex-based relationship with my boyfriend for two months before we officially started dating.” I said exasperated.

“FiancĂ©.” Anna said.

“What?” I said putting my menu down a little annoyed.

“He’s your fiancĂ© now, Faith.” She smiled at me, “Not your boyfriend.”

The four of us smiled at each other before taking some time to look over the menu. After a few moments I said, “May 22nd.”

“What about it?” Zoey asked, “That’s kind of soon for a wedding isn’t it?”

“No, that’s the day we met. So we’ve been together since May 22nd.” I said before going back to the menu.

“It’s kind of disgustingly cute how you know the exact date.” Molly said.

“Shut up.” I said hiding my smile

“Have you picked a date yet?” Anna said looking over at me.

“No, we plan to have a really long engagement. I don’t really think I’m going to start planning anything until after we tell my parents.”

“Which will be when?” Anna asked.

“Probably a few months after they first meet him, which could be next Christmas at the latest.”

Just then the waiter came and we ordered brunch. Molly I both got a cheese omelet, Zoey got stuffed French toast, and Anna got a fruit salad and an English muffin.

“How are the twins Anna?” I asked.

“They’re doing really great. It’s already really obvious that they have two different personalities.”

“And how are you?” Zoey asked.

“I’m tired. I’ve never done drugs, but I think I’m so tired I feel like I’m high sometimes. I feel worse for Theo. He’s still a resident and already sleep-deprived from work and then he comes home and can barely sleep there. I told him that if he needs to sleep at the hospital or even go to a hotel for a night, I would be okay with it. With my mom helping out for so long, we’re definitely lucky. Having twins is really stressful. My mother helping out has been a real blessing.”

Anna wooed us all with pictures on her phone of the twins during their first bath until our food came and then the conversation turned to me again.

“So how are you Faith, with Sean being gone, I mean?” Molly asked while she started cutting up her omelet.

“I’m fine, we Skype every other day and he calls and sends me texts. We’re fine. He’s coming back for a few days in two weeks so we have that to look forward to. Meanwhile we just talk as much as possible.”

“Nice.” Zoey said.

“We’re at one of the best places we’ve ever been since we started dating. I just feel comfortable with Sean and it’s hard for me to imagine having a relationship with anyone else right now.”

“So…you really aren’t worried about groupies?” Molly asked.

I laughed.

“I told you, I trust Sean completely. He would never hurt me like that.”

Zoey started talking about Wesley after that and then the four of us went shopping for about an hour after brunch. I miss spending time with my friends and I think with Sean gone, I’ll be able to do it more often since he’s not taking up as much of my time with dates and stuff. I’m really looking forward to him coming home for a bit, though. I do miss him.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Agreements

I stared at Sean kneeling in front of me with complete shock on my face. A few seconds passed and slowly turned into an uncomfortable silence. Sean’s face showed surprise, recognition, and then sadness at my silence and terrified expression.

“Oh,” he said quietly, lowering the ring box, “I see. Uh. Forget I ever asked.”

He stood up and continued packing his suitcase in silence while I just sat there not knowing what to say. After a few more, extremely awkward moments, Sean announced that we needed to go to check-out and pack the car. I quickly zipped up my suitcase and followed him out of the room to the lobby. While he checked us out I loaded the car, got in the passenger seat, and waited for him to get in the car.

“Sean, listen, I-”

“We don’t need to talk about it.”

“You didn’t even let me answer you.”

“Your silence was enough, Faith.”

“I don’t know what to say. You took me off guard, Sean. Like REALLY off guard. Don’t I get some leeway here?”

“Are you really surprised?” He asked while starting the car, “We’ve been together for almost a year.”

“Yeah, and we’ve been going through a lot of rough stuff for months! You never gave any hints; we’ve hardly talked about this subject in detail. Am I supposed to read your mind? Was I supposed to see this coming? Are you doing this because you’re worried about leaving for the tour?”

“What? No!”

“Are you sure? I know that you’re really unsure of how things will go with the distance, Sean, but we will get through this. You don’t need to do something like this just to get a commitment from me. I’ve had loved ones gone for months my whole life.”

“That’s really not what this is about, Faith.”

“How long have you had that ring?”

Sean wearily sighed and pulled the car to the side of the road before he turned to me.

“Since early November. I’ve been waiting for the right time.”

“November?” I asked wide-eyed.

“Yeah, I was planning on asking you around your birthday but then your apartment got broken into and the Kevin thing happened so I decided I would ask you over Christmas with your parents. But then we got into that huge fight and I didn’t end up going so I wanted to do it on Valentine’s Day but I thought that would be too cheesy and you would have hated it.”

“You’re right, I would have hated it.” I said smiling to myself.

After awhile Sean said, “It’ not about the tour, Faith. It’s just…you’re The One. You give me things that I’ve never gotten from anyone else…I’m a better person when I’m with you and I’m ready to make it permanent.”

“Okay. Well…in that case I’m going to have to say yes.”

At first Sean didn’t really comprehend what I said but when he did the smile that broke out on his face made me swell inside. He reached into his coat pocket and whipped out the ring box before sliding the ring on to my finger. It was gorgeous. The diamond was an oval on a simple, silver band. It was very “me”. He certainly did a good job picking out a ring.

“But…we’re going to have to have a really, really long engagement period and my mother will have a conniption fit if she finds out we’re engaged before she’s even met you.”

“Fair enough.”

Sean kissed me over the console between us before getting back on the road. I haven’t told Zoey, Molly, or Anna yet because I’ve been swamped with work and sad because Sean left on Tuesday after we got back. I’ll tell them this weekend.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Popped

Sean and I got back from our trip yesterday and I’m about to leave for work but something interesting happened and I thought I’d tell you all about it. We kept our promise about not watching the news for the rest of our stay and spent the majority of our time bonding, having sex, and playing in the hot spring. Sean still seemed pretty bummed that the weekend he had planned had been marred by the horrible events from the weekend. We were packing before checking out when I realized just how sad he was.

“Sean, it’s okay. It’s not like you knew something like that would happen. We still made the most of this lovely weekend.” I said throwing a pair of jeans in my suitcase.

“I know…I just had really high hopes and big plans for this weekend.”

“Because it’s our first weekend together?

“That and I’m leaving for tour. We’re not going to get to spend as much time together as we have been and I just wanted to spend as much time as I could with you before I only get to see you maybe once a month.”

“Sean we had a blast, were there other plans you had?”

“No, I just didn’t want this trip to be remembered as the one where we watched thousands of people die.”

“Oh. Well…if it makes you feel any better I can remember it as the one where you fainted. Would that help?” I joked meekly.

Sean gave me a half smile and started rearranging his suitcase. Something fell out and I went to bend down to get it for him.

“NO!” Sean practically pushed me out of the way as he dived for it.

“Sean what the hell?” I said when he stood back up and shoved it back into his suitcase.

“I’m sorry, I just didn’t want to lose it…”

“What exactly is it?” I asked a little peeved and turning back to pick up my suitcase which had fallen off the bed in the flurry of movement.

“Uh…” Sean lightly touched my hands to stop me from packing and sat me on the bed before dropping to one knee, popping open a ring case, and saying, “Faith, will you marry me?”

Holy crap I’m late for work, gotta go guys! I’ll update you next time!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Faint

Sean woke me up the next morning from the sound of him showering. We’d had a lovely dinner at the restaurant and then Sean finally got to see the lingerie I bought just for this occasion. We had slept in fairly late but we were up fairly late, too, and travelling sort of took a lot out of us. I got up and started making coffee with the coffee machine in our room. I ran a brush through my hair before slumping on the bed and turning on the television. After channel surfing for about five minutes I stopped at a news channel and froze. Sean came out of the bathroom about a minute later with a towel wrapped around his waist.

“Hey, what movie are you watching?” He asked pouring us the fresh brewed coffee and coming over to sit next to me.

“I-it’s not a movie.”

Sean gave me a perplexed look before focusing his attention on the newscaster. We probably sat there for an hour watching burning houses getting swept away in the water, cars running into buildings, and interviews with nuclear experts. Neither of us spoke or drank our coffee. It wasn’t until Sean stood up and tried to take my cup that I realized how hard I was clutching it.

“Come on.” He said puling me up and turning the television off, “We’re going to go help.”

“W-what?” I said snapping back to where we were.

“Get your clothes on, we’re going to go do something to help.”

He already had a pair of jeans on and tossed me a pair from my suitcase. When we were both dressed he grabbed the car keys from the dresser and we were gone.

“Sean where are we going?” I asked.

“On the way here I noticed a sign at some school. They’re having a Red Cross blood drive. We’re going to go donate blood.”

“But that won’t help the people in Japan…”

“It might, the Red Cross is has groups all over the world, they can share their blood from their storage if it gets bad. And even if that is true…people can always use blood Faith. I just need to feel like I did SOMETHING to help, even if it’s indirect.”

I looked at Sean and was suddenly reminded at just how much I loved him.

We got to the school’s gymnasium about 20 minutes after leaving the hotel and were met with a large line. It took about an hour for us to fill out the paperwork, give blood, and finally end up eating cookies and drinking orange juice in the recovery area.

“This was a great idea, Sean.” I said looking over at him while I ate a sugar cookie, “I really do feel like I helped in some way.”

“I’m glad.” He said. He sounded a little out of breath.

“Sean, are you okay?”

“Oh, yeah, I’ll be fiiiiii-” Before he could finish his sentence Sean had fainted.

I ran to the front desk to get help and they got Sean to wake up with smelling salts. They tested his blood sugar and it was really low so they made him eat two more cookies and almost a gallon of juice. Once it was obvious that Sean would be fine I started giggling.

“It could happen to anyone!” He said.

“Of course it could, honey,” I said patting his knee, “Would you like another cookie?”

“…yes.” He fake-pouted.

Sean wasn’t really supposed to drive so I drove us back to hotel and we ended up taking the scenic route down a forest road. It was relaxing and it helped take our minds off of the horrible events happening across the Pacific Ocean. We talked about it while driving.

“Faith, I’m sorry. This weekend has taken a bad turn. We can leave if you want to. This isn’t exactly what I planned.”

“You mean you didn’t plan on fainting in a gymnasium?” I joked.

“Uh, no. I think it’s safe to say that wasn’t part of my plan at all.”

We laughed but then he turned serious again.

“I’m serious; we can leave if you don’t think it can be salvaged. I don’t want to spend the rest of our time here sitting in our room watching the news.”

I reached for Sean’s hand and smiled.

“I appreciate the offer, but let’s just agree not to turn on the television for the rest of the weekend, okay?”

And so we agreed. We had a picnic when we got back to our hotel. We stopped and got sandwiches from a little shop before getting back and then ate them on our private patio next to the hot spring. We relaxed in the hot spring for the rest of the day before taking a walk in the garden the hotel has surrounding it.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Holy Hot Spring

Sean picked me up when I left for work early. He had rented a car and our bags were in the trunk so we were going to leave the city, stop for lunch on our way to the hotel, and then check-in when we finally got there. I’ve been looking forward to this trip since Sean asked me to go on it so when I saw him leaning against the car door as I left my building I practically jumped into his arms.

“Someone is ready for a vacation.” He said hugging me.

“Oh, you have NO idea.”

We kissed for awhile before finally hopping into the car and heading out of the city. I felt so refreshed being in a car with the windows rolled down and open sky in front of us without the skyscrapers cutting into it or being surrounded by sirens and honking. Feeling the wind against my face and in my hair and smelling how clean the breeze was was a really freeing experience and a great way to start off our weekend trip. I love the city but sometimes I forget how nice it is to leave it. The city can be claustrophobic if you end up staying inside it for too long. After about an hour of driving and listening to an awesome playlist Sean made for the trip (it was full of one-hit wonders from the 80’s and 90’s and was very nostalgic) we stopped at an outdoor burger joint that had some of the best food I’ve ever had in terms of burgers. I got a cheese burger and curly fries while Sean got a bacon cheeseburger and fried pickles (which sounds disgusting but they were DELICIOUS and I would eat them for the rest of my life if it wouldn’t give me a heart attack). We shared a giant cherry limeade and junior ice cream sundae.

After lunch we were sort of giddy so Sean pulled over in a rest stop and we ended up having sex in the back seat of the car which is always a better sounding idea than actually doing it but it was still fun and we were back on the road in no time, giggling about what we just did.

In another hour we were at the hotel and the brochure didn’t do it justice. I was in awe with how beautiful it was. There were flowering vines growing on the side of it and it was at the end of a long, private drive that was surrounded by oak trees and cherry trees to give added privacy. There was a koi pond in front of the entrance with a bridge over it and the doors to the foyer looked like they were inlaid with crystal rather than glass.

Sean checked us in and when we got to our room (more like a private cabana, actually) I had to keep myself from swooning. The biggest feature of having a room in this hotel is that each one has its own private outdoor area where a hot spring is, so each room, essentially, has its own hot spring right next to it. The patio that our hot spring was in was decorated with twinkling lights and was surrounded by hibiscus plants for privacy and “added aromatherapy” according to the brochure. The room itself had bouquets of fresh flowers all over and had a neutral color palette. It was a really relaxing place to be in and when I walked into the bathroom it was huge! There was a glass shower that had the shower head in the center of it rather than on a wall and a giant hot tub-like bathtub (I’m pretty sure a child could have swam in it) with a see-through bottom so you could see decorative seashells underneath it.

“Sean, I’m speechless. It’s gorgeous.”

He gave me a kiss, “I’m glad you like it. What do you want to do first?”

We both sort of stared at each other for a second before ripping our clothes off, forgoing swimsuits, and jumping into the hot spring. I’ve never had sex in a hot spring before but it didn’t disappoint in the slightest. If things keep going in this direction Sean won’t even see the new lingerie I bought just for the trip. We’re going to the hotel restaurant in a few minutes so I thought I’d update all of you on the first day of our trip while Sean is in the shower. Gotta go!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Planning

Things at work have been really hectic for our writing staff, lately. I feel bad for Stormy because he’s basically been working two full-time jobs what with all the news he’s got to write about and then report on at night for the program and Veronica has always been a hard worker but I’m starting to wonder if she ever leaves her office. For the past month she’s been here before everyone else and always seems to stay late.

Stormy walked into my office this morning with dark circles under his eyes and wearing disheveled clothes.

“Long week?” I asked as he plopped down in my office.

“That’s an understatement. I talked to Rose about the Veronica thing.”

“And what did she recommend?” I asked.

“Well, after some awkward exchanges, she basically told me not to do it until things calm down news-wise.”

“Well, that’s not really unexpected advice.”

“Yeah but I can’t keep up with my work, Faith. I don’t know how much longer I can work these hours.”

“What do you need me to do?” I asked.

“I don’t know, I just need to suck it up and talk to Veronica. Do you think you could be involved in that meeting since it sort of involves you?”

“I suppose, but the HR person for the news station would be more appropriate since you’re interested in getting out from under that.”

“You’re so much nicer, though. The people at the station hate me.”

I smirked a little at this. It’s no secret that Stormy had a serious ego before getting it shrunken down when he revisited being a serious journalist. From what I’ve heard, he doesn’t have a lot of fans at the station. He’s dated practically every woman in our office as well as the station and it makes for some very uncomfortable moments between him and his co-host that the crew is pretty fed up with. Stormy brings in a lot of viewers, though, so the behavior is put up with. It was refreshing to know that Stormy at least knew he was not very well-liked. I told him I would sit in as long as the other HR rep did and that he would need to let me know when he planned to do it. He begrudgingly left my office when I had two more visitors.

“Faith? We need to fill out some paperwork with you…” Steve walked into my office with Tom, one of our gossip columnists, ad closed the door behind him.

“Which kind?”

“The kind that shares our relationship status and bars us from filing a sexual harassment suit should things go south.” Steve replied as he sat down across from me. Tom sat in the chair next to him.

“Oh, okay.” I smiled and gave them the forms.

In about two minutes they were all set. Tom got up to leave and Steve closed the door behind him before quickly turning around and looking at me.

“Oh my God, how cute is he, right?” Steve came and sat back down in the chair across from me.

“He is pretty cute, Steve.”

“We’ve been thinking about officially getting together for awhile and it finally happened!”

Steve was beaming. I felt really happy for him (and relieved that he wasn’t breaking the rules he helped create). He gushed for awhile in my office before I got back to work. I’m really excited for this trip Sean and I are going on. My bag has been packed since yesterday and I can’t wait to leave early tomorrow from work to head tot his awesome hotel. Sean showed me the brochure and it is going to be AWESOME.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Hot, Hot, Hot

(Author's Note: Make sure you read the post before this and check back often!)


The sex between Sean and I has been getting better, but it’s still not as good as before the Kevin thing. I thought that if I bought some sexy underwear it might make things a little better for me and it helped a little but I think it’s just one of those things that comes with time and Dr. Sheehan agrees with me. Sean has basically been living in my apartment right now because his apartment is constantly being shown to subletters and when the landlord decided to show it to someone while Sean was in the shower he decided it was time he come and live with me where his naked ass stumbling out of the shower was only visible to me and Murphy. He’ll pretty much be living with me until he leaves for the tour and then he’ll stay with me when he comes back to visit sporadically until the tour ends when he’ll move back into his apartment.

I was making us dinner (pot roast, over white rice, dinner rolls, and green beans) when Sean got home from a tour meeting. He looked exhausted.

“Do you want some sweet tea?” I asked when he came in to kiss me on the cheek as a greeting.

“That would be awesome, Martha Stewart.” I giggled and poured him a glass as he fell on the couch.

“Long day?” I asked sitting on his lap and handing him the tea.

“Yeah. This tour is going to be awesome, but it’s a huge undertaking. We met with a pyrotechnics guy today.”

“Really?”

“Yeah none of us knew they were going to include pyrotechnics in the show, the lighting design alone is more than we had imagined. They’re really shoveling money into it. It’s flattering and terrifying at the same time.”

“They know what they’re doing Sean. I’m sure you guys will do great. Besides, the last tour was pretty successful…I mean you met me while you were touring last time, I’d say that was a pretty awesome tour just from that.” I joked.

“You’re right.”

I got up and set the table and gave Sean a few quiet minutes to himself after a long day. Once Murphy was fed, dinner was served and boy was Sean hungry! There were no leftovers (I don’t blame him though, it really was one of my best dinners). After dinner I went to clean up the dishes but Sean stopped me.

“Oh no you don’t. You made this wonderful dinner so I’m going to clean up. You go relax. After I do the dishes I’m going to take you out for some gelato.

I gave him a kiss, thanked him, and then curled up in a chair with a magazine while he washed all of the dishes (I used A TON). After about an hour the dishes were done and we headed out. I got some strachiatella gelato while Sean settled for a chocolate strawberry flavor. It was so good. We took a walk in a nearby park with our gelato and eventually found a beach to walk near the lake. It was just before sunset and the water was gorgeous. There were some benches shaped like seashells that we sat on and it was such a relaxing evening stroll. I snuggled into Sean’s side while we sat and looked at the water.

“I’m going to miss you.” I said into his neck.

“I want to take you on a trip before a leave. A weekend trip.” He said out of the blue.

“Oh?” I was caught off guard.

“I was thinking we could go to a hot spring hotel place about two hours outside of the city.”

“How long have you been thinking about this?” I asked.

“Awhile. So, do you want to go?”

“Yeah.” I blurted out, “When?”

“I was thinking next weekend. We could leave Friday afternoon and be back by Sunday evening.”

“Are you sure you have time for that, Sean? You’ve been having so many meetings and I’m sure you’ll have a ton of last minute errands before you leave. Don’t you want to rest so you can start the tour off on a good foot?”

“The meetings can happen without me and it’s not like I’m going to be working super hard at a hot springs hotel.”

“I wouldn’t exactly assume that. You haven’t even seen the new underwear I bought today. I’m sure it will be put to good use on a trip like this one.”

Sean raised an eyebrow and smiled at me.

“Can I see it now?”

“Nope. Wait for our trip.”

“Can’t you just buy new ones before the trip?”

“I guess,” I said, “But I wanted the lacy black teddy I bought to be a surprise.”

“Okay, we have to go home.” Sean picked me up fireman style and started running back to the park. He put me down and we were laughing really hard. I grabbed his hand as we walked back to my place.

“I love you, Faith.”

“I love you, too, Sean. We’ll get through this.”

Sean nodded, “I just wish it didn’t have to be like this.”

“It’s for your career Sean.”

He nodded again.

“You’re right.”