The Surprise
Pinks and purples blurred the sky as I walked down the street. My heartbeat was punctuated by my steps, my stride urgent. I needed to make it to the office before he did or else this plan would fail.
As I walked into the main lobby of the offices he worked in, I was greeted by the receptionist. “Hey, Georgia,” Diane said, smiling a little too happily for the early hour. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t have time to talk,” I told her as I approached the desk. “Can you let me into my husband’s office? It’s important.”
She looked at me suspiciously, then turned towards her computer, typing as she spoke. “You look like a woman on a mission.”
“I am.” My fingers tapped impatiently on the bag of items I had brought with me as Diane unlocked my husband’s office remotely. “Thank you, Diane,” I sighed gratefully. “I owe you one.”
“I’m sure I’ll find out why later, dear!” she called after me as I sped towards the elevators.
It was still very early in the workday, so no one was on the elevator with me as I pushed the button for the top floor. As the elevator made its way slowly, I began to dig into the bag I brought with me and found the silk and lace I was looking for. I stripped and put on the new lingerie I had bought for this very day, quickly adjusting and double checking my reflection in the elevator wall as the top floor approached.
Before I reached the top, I grabbed the coat I had been wearing and put it back on, wrapping the warm garment around myself as to not be seen looking too indecent. As the doors opened, I caught a glance of the clock across from the elevator doors. It was already almost 6:00!
I scurried to the last door in the hall. James A. Turner: CEO/Founder was etched into the frosted glass, my husband’s name. I opened the door and closed it as silently as possible, turning towards the room. I had made sure his meetings for the day were moved, and that his clients would be coming in later on as well. The whole morning of Valentine’s Day was going to be for us.
After having Benny, life was always too busy. A new baby is exciting, but no one talks about how drained and exhausted a baby truly leaves you. I thought that people were making up how tired they always were, how all of the excitement in the marriage would leave. As the years had gone on, I found myself losing not only my drive to be more than just a mother, but I saw the love James and I shared fizzling into a tiny little spark. The love was still there, but the heat was not.
While I became the best mother I could be to Benny, James became the best businessman he could be. We never had to want for anything, the three of us were set for life. The only thing I was missing was my husband. Work had enveloped him.
Today would change all of that. I was determined to make my husband feel special again. I could tell that he missed me, the woman he had fallen in love with all those years ago. The light for life had left me a long time ago, being replaced by the love I felt for my son. After selling my dance studio and retiring from ballet, I didn’t have much left except little Benny.
Of course, now he was old enough to be left to his own devices and I was still there, being the stay at home mom I had always wanted in my own life. Now that Benny could fend for himself, I found myself finally missing the woman I used to be.
I hurriedly set up the office, moving the couch from the wall to the middle of the room and draping the soft blankets I had brought with me onto them. Soon, the room was dimmed, the candles were lit, and the rose petals were scattered delicately around the room. I draped myself on the couch and waited for my husband to come in for his usual work day.
He would be here any second. My heart was racing as the seconds ticked by; what if I wasn’t what he wanted to see first thing in the morning? After all, he had stopped kissing me goodbye a long time ago. I was usually busy elsewhere in the house by the time it was time for him to leave, and he never bothered looking for me.
The sting of rejection began to prick at the confidence I had built up over the weeks as more time passed. Having time to think while waiting was dangerous, and after forty-five minutes had passed, I found myself beginning to tear up. I thought I covered all of the loose ends…All of the meetings and the clients and the babysitter I paid for with my own money…The plans and the clothes and the waiting…Was it all for nothing?
Suddenly, I heard the sound of the door opening slowly and I recovered as fast as I could, hitting as sexy of a pose as I could. As the door opened, I heard the sound of my husband’s voice.
“…Yeah, that deal sounds like a good one, honestly. Think we’d be able to make it happen by end of day?”
“That shouldn’t be a problem, Mr. Turner,” I heard another voice say, and my heart quickly dropped straight to the first floor of the building.
“Oh!” My husband and I made eye contact as I froze on the couch, still in just as compromising a position I had been so confident in being in before I heard the voice of his second-in-command, Harry, behind him. I knew that my face was just as red as James’s was.
“Oh my goodness,” Harry blurted, his expression registering what was happening immediately. “I’ll, uh, be going…”
“Georgia,” was all James could say as Harry left, closing the door behind him. His expression was unreadable, the tone of his voice flat. I instantly wrapped myself up in the blankets I had draped underneath me, tears blossoming in my eyes as embarrassment pounded in my chest.
“James, I’m sorry,” I blurted, voice thick with tears. “I didn’t know — I thought that — I didn’t mean to — !”
James closed the distance between us, kneeling next to me and placing a trembling hand on my covered up waist. He was shushing me gently, trying to wipe my face dry with his other hand. “Georgia,” he began. “What are you doing?”
“I’m…It’s Valentine’s Day and…I wanted to make it special for you,” I told him, unable to meet his gaze. “We don’t see each other a lot anymore, and I just…I thought I’d do something new? I’m sorry…”
I waited for him to chastise me for embarrassing him, or for him to get up and walk away. I waited for him to do anything. The seconds were long as we existed in silence. Finally, I heard him make a soft sound. A chuckle?
“Are you…laughing?” I asked as I finally looked at him. It was the first time I had heard him laugh in a long time. The smile on his face was so genuine, I couldn’t help but crack my own smile. He giggled for a good while, causing me to begin to laugh as well.
“Baby,” he started, causing my heart to skip a beat. It was the first time in years I had heard him call me that. “You are…so thoughtful.” He laughed some more, his body relaxing as he adjusted to get more comfortable as he knelt beside me. “You know, I had planned on coming home for lunch today and bringing you flowers and your favorite food.”
“You were going to bring me gyros?”
“From that little truck down the street,” he nodded, his smile bright. “I didn’t expect our Valentine’s Day to go like this at all. What are you wearing?”
He went to move the blankets, but I held them tight to me. “I’m embarrassed,” I admitted, avoiding his gaze once more.
“Let me see. I’m sure I’ll like it.” James’s voice was soft now, almost sensual. It made my embarrassment a little less awful, and as I loosened my grip on the blanket, he took the opportunity to reveal my Valentine’s Day look. I watched his expression change from comfort, to curiosity, to one I hadn’t seen in a very long time: one of lust.
I felt myself blushing again, and I moved to hide my body as best I could with no blankets. “It’s new,” I said, unable to think of anything else.
“I was right,” James said as he scanned my figure. “I do like this a lot.” He looked back up at my face as he stood, a smile on his own. “You cried off a lot of your makeup, babe.”
“Rightfully so, I’d say,” I mumbled as I sat up. “I thought my plan backfired.”
“What’s your plan?” James asked, helping me stand from the couch. I felt him pull me close, and the heat from his body was almost too much to bear.
It was so refreshing to see my husband react the way I wanted him to. The fears I had were beginning to melt away as I leaned in, kissing him deeply. We broke apart briefly. “My plan…Let’s just say your meetings have been moved to after lunch.”
“After lunch?” James was running his hands along my body now, and I felt the pride of knowing he still felt the same as we did before Benny blossoming within me. “You must have big plans for me, huh?”
“Oh yeah, big plans,” I grinned, leaning into him once more.
Hello everyone! Today we have a little Valentine’s Day inspired creative writing going on. I hope you enjoyed it! I wanted to try and write from a perspective I’ve heard a lot about but don’t know about personally: Someone who had big worries about their marriage post-child. I hope I’ll never have to go through the anxiety and depression Georgia had to go through, but at least I’ll have an idea on how to get that spark back if I do!
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Thanks for reading, as always! I’ll see you here next week with something new!
