The Last Time

The Morning After

Morning came and for the first time in a long time, you had woken up before Mark. Taking advantage of the opportunity that you had been presented, you slowly rubbed the sleep away from your eyes, careful not to wake his sleeping form across from you.

With light fingers, you brushed his hair away from his face and took in his features. Your eyes trailed from his eyelids down the length of his nose that was sitting between full cheeks. They wandered further south toward his cupid's bow, taking in the sight of his soft parted lips. With a sigh, you gently cupped his cheek, using your thumb to relax his furrowed brows.

Grunting, Mark extended his arm to wrap around your waist, bringing you closer to him. "Morning," he greeted in a deep, gravelly voice filled with sleep, his eyes remaining closed.

"Morning," you whispered back, withdrawing your hand. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"It's okay," he answered as he rubbed his hand on his face to wake himself. Once he was fully awake, it finally registered to him how close your faces were to each other.

Gulping, he let his eyes roam around your beautiful face. From your long lashes to the blush that tinted your cheeks. To the soft, plump lips that were caught between your teeth.

"Hi," he said breathlessly, completely enamoured by you.

"Hi, yourself," you giggled, with Mark joining soon after. After spending a few more moments just soaking in each other's presence, you were forced to finally make a move by the incessant grumbling of your stomach. "Come on, let's get up and make breakfast."

"Do we have to?" Mark whined like a baby, tightening his hold on you, leaving you with nowhere to go.

A brilliant idea then came to mind — something you knew Mark wouldn't be able to resist. "If we get up now, I promise to make you some blueberry pancakes," you offered.

This definitely caught Mark's attention. "The fluffy ones that you always made?"

"The one and only."

In a blink of an eye, Mark was up and off the bed, quickly grabbing himself a shirt before heading to the en suite. "Hurry up, woman," he called out, knowing you would be stuck in bed, in complete awe of his movements — and he was right. "Those pancakes aren't going to cook themselves."

Shaking your head as you laughed, you quickly threw away the covers from your body before joining him in washing up.

As soon as you both reached the kitchen, you had delegated the tasks equally between yourselves; with you in charge of the pancakes and cutting up the fruit, whilst Mark was in charge of frying up some bacon and brewing some coffee. As you both went through the motions, your bodies couldn't help but gravitate towards each other.

Every time Mark needed to grab something from your end of the kitchen bench, he made it a point to brush up against you. Whether he was reaching for the cooking oil, some mugs or stealing some fruit that you had already cut up, one part of his body was always touching yours. He was doing it on purpose — you were sure of it — and it was slowly driving you insane.

Well, as they always said, 'if you can't beat them, join them'.

So, you purposely brushed up against him as well, every time you reached over to his end. Whether you were grabbing a plate, asking him to pass the sugar, or popping a piece of bacon in your mouth, you made sure to graze your fingers against his skin. You weren't sure whether you were affecting him at all until you heard him groan behind you.

Try as he might, Mark couldn't hold back any longer, reaching the end of his patience. With hesitant hands, he reached for you, wrapping his arms around your waist and holding you flush against his chest as he settled his chin on your shoulder.

Surprisingly, you melted into his arms instead of stiffening and Mark let out the breath that he didn't know he was holding. Tired of fighting him and of fighting what you had always wanted, you let him hold you as you cooked, placing your free hand atop his.

Reluctantly, Mark had to let go as soon as you finished the pancakes, so that you could both settle by the breakfast table. Even at the table you were inseparable — with barely any space between you as you took pieces of pancake and fruit to feed each other. Just like old times.

"God, I've missed this," Mark confessed, after taking the strawberry that you offered him. "And I'm not just talking about the pancakes."

With a tilt of your head, you smiled at him. "I've missed it, too. And I'm just talking about the pancakes."

"Ha, fucking ha," he lightly shoved you as you laughed at him.

"Okay, you big baby," you relented. "I missed the other stuff, too."

Wanting to stay in the happy bubble that you had both created, Mark accepted what you had said and decided to move on. So far, all the risks he had taken had paid off so he decided to take another one, by asking you a question that could detonate a ticking time bomb in your relationship. "So how is everything going?" he asked with a nervous scratch to the back of his neck. "What have you been up to?"

Just as he predicted, you were taken aback by his question. This was obvious as your eyes widened and your body straightened up. Luckily, just like him, you didn't want to burst the bubble either. So, you answered his question.

"It's been pretty good," you smiled. "Busy, but good. I've been putting in some extra work, hoping that they would finally let me put out my photos at the next exhibition."

Grabbing your hand, Mark squeezed it gently in reassurance. "I'm sure it won't be long now," he told you honestly. "I know I haven't seen your work in awhile, but you were always very talented. I'd be surprised if they don't put you in the next one."

"Stop it," you shook your head but couldn't hide the smile on your face.

"What? I'm only telling the truth!"

"Okay, okay," you bit your lip to try and suppress your grin. "I believe you. But, enough about me. How's the company going, Mr. CEO?"

Mark took a deep breath before allowing his body to sag. "It's been pretty stressful lately actually," he answered with a sigh, feeling grateful when you brought your still joined hands to your lap as you rubbed soothing circles on the back of his hand.

"Has something happened?" you tilted your head in confusion.

"Nah, nothing like that," Mark assured you. "There's just a lot of work to be done at the moment. The biggest publishing house in the country is looking for someone to design their new head office. The competition is so fierce, so we're just trying to be as prepared as we can be."

"Mark, how badly do you want this contract?"

"It's highly sought after, so of course I want it really bad."

"Then you'll get it," you answered in earnest. "Your determination knows no bounds. You haven't not gotten what you wanted. This contract won't be the first."

With eyes closed, Mark allowed your words to take root in his heart. Laughing in disbelief, he couldn't believe that your words would comfort him in more ways than one. You were right about one thing, Mark was nothing but determined and always got what he wanted. That gave him the hope he needed with the contract but most of all, with your marriage.

"What? Why are you laughing?"

Shaking his head, Mark brought your hand that he was still holding close to his lips so that he could kiss the back of it. "Nothing," he smiled. "You just always knew how to make me feel better."

"I got that from you," you admitted before reluctantly relinquishing your hold on him and standing up. "Come on, let's clean up. Maybe we can just veg out on the couch or something afterwards?"

"Sounds perfect to me."