WORK IN PROGRESS: Dinner Disasters: Sebastian and Layana

Chapter 5 (Layana): Relax

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

Since I'd gotten home first, I began dinner. I whipped up a simple casserole, and while that was baking, I put together a salad, heavy on the veggies, light on the lettuce, the way Sebastian and I preferred them.

My husband had just walked in through the garage from work and came right over to me for a kiss. When he pulled back, I noticed something by his ear.

A smudge that shouldn't have been there.

The smudge by his ear appeared to be a pink-nude shade of lipstick, barely noticeable, but there all the same. When you know your husband as well as I knew mine, you can immediately see when something is off. Not the usual. Different. And this smudge was definitely different and definitely shouldn't have been there because one, I didn't wear lipstick, and two, no woman, whether she was wearing lipstick or not, should have gotten that close to him.

Don't throw the salad bowl at him. It's one of your favorite pieces. Don't throw the salad bowl at him and ruin the set.

I stepped away from him so fast he looked startled. "Did you see Renee today?" I shot my question at him.

"Yeah," he said. "She came by with her assistant for a meeting at the end of the day. Why?"

"Did you hug her?"

"No," he said. "I never do. When she walks in, I shake her hand."

"Did she kiss you hello?"

"No, Layana, I don't hug or kiss my business associates, and I sure as hell don't let them hug or kiss me. What's with this line of questioning?"

"Did you hug or kiss any women today?"

"The fuck, Layana? The answer to that is hell no. You going to tell me what this is about?"

I crossed my arms over my chest and glared. However, since I wasn't throwing the salad bowl at him, I considered that a win. "You have a smudge of lipstick by your ear."

"Where? Let me see," he said, heading toward the bathroom, with me hot on his trail.

He looked in the mirror, and I stabbed a finger at the guilty spot right by his ear as he turned his head slightly to see it.

"That is lipstick," I pointed out, somewhat triumphantly because it was even more obviously lipstick in the light of the bathroom. "By your ear. Unless there's some new disease where people start spontaneously breaking out in lipstick smudges, you have lipstick by your ear. And you shouldn't have!"

He took the hand towel and rubbed at the smudge until his skin was clean. "I have no idea why that's --"

When he broke off, his face told me that he had realized why the lipstick was there.

"Oh, don't leave me in suspense," I invited him to share because, quite frankly, I needed an explanation more than I needed air at this point.

"I told you Renee came by for a meeting near the end of the day, right?"

"Yes."

"She was sitting next to me in the conference room so we could go over some notes on her laptop. Renee asked her assistant to go to the break room to get some coffee for her. While she was gone, Renee reached out and wiped her thumb by my ear and told me I had some dried shaving cream there."

"Why does she feel secure enough to touch you and wipe it off, Sebastian? I would have told a colleague or business associate that they needed to go clean up their own damn face. I wouldn't have done it myself!"