Love Is Full Of Surprises

Chapter 1

It was the beginning of November in 1978. Meryl and Don had been married for almost two months and they were happier than ever. After a short stay in Mason's Island after the wedding they headed back to New York. They were working on remodeling Don's loft, he wanted it to be their apartment, and not just his. They spent weekends shopping for furniture and new dishes. Most people did not know what to give them when they got married, so they received case which was extremely helpful as they were putting together their new home. Meryl and Don and her brother Harry had moved what stuff she had at her parent's house in Jersey into Don's loft. They made the room that used to be hers into a guest bedroom. What stuff she didn't want from her parent's house they sold for extra money to help in the redecoration. They first redecorated their bedroom to fit both of their styles. Now, they were working on the living room. They just took it one room at a time. Don was finally able to return to work after recovering from his injuries from the mugging and Meryl was beginning work on her new movie, Kramer vs. Kramer.

***

Meryl was on her way home on the subway from her first day of shooting her new movie Kramer vs. Kramer. She was very excited about this new movie. She and Don would laugh about how ironic it was that she was playing an unhappily married woman leaving her husband and son, when she was an extremely happy and in-love newlywed. The read throughs had gone great. She immediately hit it off with Dustin Hoffman, the man who played her husband. She didn't expect her day of shooting to end like this. She knew her husband would not be happy when he saw her, but she didn't know how to hide it. She tried to cover her face up with make-up but it still didn't work. You could still see a bright red hand mark on the left side of her face.

Dustin and Meryl were shooting the scene where Joanna was leaving. Meryl was acting at her best, as always, she always gave every role 200%. In between takes Dustin went up to her.

"You're not getting into it." He said.

"What? Yes, I am." She said.

"You have to hate me, hate our life. You can't stand me." He said as he raised his hand back and slapped her hard across the face.

She looked around to see if anyone had seen, they hadn't. "What the FUCK did you do that for?" She hissed holding her face.

"Good, use that." He said.

"You fucking slapped me because you didn't think I was upset enough?" She couldn't believe it.

"Okay, let's try this again." The director, Robert Benton, said coming back over.

Meryl was furious! It did help set her up for the right feeling about him, but she knew she could have done the acting for herself.

***

Meryl reached the door to their loft and took a deep breath, she was afraid to see her husband's reaction. She knew he would be home because it was 7pm and Don was usually home by 6 or 7. She unlocked the door and walked in, her bad day immediately melted away when she saw the table set for 2 with candles and the nice new dishes they had just bought. She slipped out of her heels, and hung her jacket and purse by the door. She walked into the kitchen and saw that he was preparing her favorite meal-spaghetti. She lifted the lid off the pot and stuck the spoon in the sauce then up to her mouth to taste it. She put the lid on as she felt two arms wrapped around her waist.

"Hi." She smiled leaning back into his embrace.

"Hey, beautiful." He smiled as he turned her around in his arms and leaned in to kiss her, stopping suddenly.

"What?" She asked when he pulled away, actually forgetting about the mark on her face.

"What happened?" He asked cupping the left side of her face.