A Parental Proposal

Something's cooking!

This new version of Eric was so addictive. Leah found herself drawn more and more to his laughter, and she did everything she could to make him laugh.

She tried to spend as much time as possible with him. And as it was the holidays for Leah and the kids, Eric had taken a couple of days off too. This made them spend every hour of every day together that week.

"Good morning," a voice came through the door as she slowly drifted out of sleep. "We've got something for you!"

Leah pulled herself up to sit straight and saw her beautiful kids and her husband standing with a tray at the doorway. The kids giggled and jogged to her as Eric carefully brought the tray to their bedside table.

"What time is it? Are you guys up too early or did I oversleep?" Leah asked.

"You overslept, duh!" Eric said and the kids laughed.

"It's almost 9:30 Miss Leah," Haley said laughing.

"Ugh, why didn't you wake me?"

"You were sound asleep and I didn't want to miss the opportunity to call a teacher out on waking up late."

Leah laughed. "You're evil!"

"And you are indiscipline."

"And I'm rewarded with coffee from my darlings," she ruffled through Haley and Sally's hair. "Lemme quickly brush and we'll have coffee together."

"Oh, today you get to be completely indiscipline. You can have your coffee without brushing."

"Ew, no."

"Then consider it a punishment. You gotta drink it up now! Cause we've been waiting to have ours for you to wake up! You owe us at least that much, right kids?"

The girls nodded grinning and Leah could just swipe them all into a bear hug. It was the best gesture anybody had ever done for her and her heart grew a size bigger with love.

"Fine, fine."

They all say together on the bed, Eric by her side and the kids opposite to her. Eric leaned in to pour coffee into their cups and his arm slightly brushed against hers. She expected him to move, but her didn't and continued pouring the coffee.

"Haley and Sally get coffee too today, for being such disciplined kids."

"Wow," Leah said laughing. She had a feeling he was going to hang on to that the whole day, teasing her.

They sat together, drinking coffee as a family, teasing and laughing and playing. Leah had once dreamed of having a beautiful family of her own. But this, right here, surpassed every dream she'd ever dreamed.

*******

Since they were both home, Eric and Leah cooked together. Eric had offered to cook along and Leah who'd been looking for chances to spend time with him, didn't want to let the opportunity slide.

Today Eric was making biriyani. Leah could do so many dishes so well but biriyani was not one of those. She'd tried many times and failed until she decided to let it go. But after marriage Eric had made it once and Leah loved it. Just thinking about it made her mouth water. So today Eric would cook while Leah would do the choppings and other chores.

"You know, biriyani is the easiest dish to make," Eric said as she chopped onions.

"I get it. You don't have to run it in my face," she hissed smiling.

"No, seriously. It's just all about timing. It's pretty easy. I can teach you."

"I've seen so many YouTube videos and my mom has shown me too. Didn't help. I do something or the other wrong. It's...just...I don't know. Guess it's fixed in my head that I can't."