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It was getting late. The dinner and dessert you'd spent half the afternoon making were getting cold as they sat on the counter. You'd gone through several glasses of wine as you sat at the kitchen table, waiting for him to walk through the door. Any time a notification popped up on your phone, your heart flipped in anticipation that it would be him. There had been nothing but radio silence from him.
As the sun had set, slowly painting the kitchen in hues of pastel oranges and pinks, eventually settling into the darkness of the evening, you grew increasingly worried. There had been times before when he'd be late or even disappeared for a day or two longer than anticipated but it never seemed to get to you as much as it did now. You knew what went on with him, you knew what he did - who he was - but you still worried about him. You knew you wouldn't feel relieved until the moment he came home. Any time you heard any bits of noise from the other side of the door, you perked up, hoping it would be him. But he hadn't come.
You hadn't been able to muster up the appetite to eat anything and eventually ended up putting everything away and dragging yourself to bed. It was no use staying up and worrying about when he'd come home. You might as well try and get some sleep and hope that you'd either wake up next to him or he'd be back in the morning.
Once you dragged yourself into your bedroom, you didn't even have the energy to change and instead just flopped onto the bed. You were out like a light within minutes.
But you were awake just as quickly as you had fallen asleep, you were startled awake by the sound of the front door opening and closing. You sat up and looked at the alarm clock, the bright red letters screaming at you that it was the very early hours of the morning.
"Marc," his name fell from your lips as you scrambled to get up, almost tripping over your own feet as you ran to the door. You spotted him then, hanging his head and using one of the chairs to hold himself up. You were sure he had heard you but he didn't move, letting you go to him, "honey."
