Yawning again, she grabbed a blanket draped over the back of the couch and pulled it over her legs. She had just gotten settled again when she heard the sound of the door leading in from the garage opening. She turned her attention away from the television and listened to the sounds of the door opening and Justin putting his shoes in the front closet and the sound of his keys jingling as he put them in his pocket. She heard his footsteps coming through the house and looked over when he appeared in the doorway.

“Hi.”

He smiled and came over and leaned down to kiss her. Her lips curved up as he pulled away. “Hey. What are you watching?”

She looked back at the TV. “I’m not sure. I wasn’t really watching it.”

“What have you been doing all night?”

She shrugged. “Nothing. I saved you some dinner.”

“Really? Great. I’m starving.”

She started to push herself up from the couch and he came around to help her up. His hands slid from her arms and she followed him to the kitchen.

“How was your meeting?”

“It was a meeting,” he replied. “Pretty boring.”

“How come it was at night?”

“I don’t know actually. It was the only time it worked for everyone I guess.”

She opened the fridge and pulled out the plastic covered plate she had put in there earlier that evening. She pulled off the saran wrap and put the plate in the microwave.

“What did you make?” Justin asked as he sat down at a stool at the counter.

“It’s a new recipe I found. It’s a teriyaki chicken thing.”

“Sounds good.” He rested his elbows on the table. “How was work?”

The microwave beeped and she pulled the plate out and set it down in front of him. “It was alright. I just did paperwork all day. It was kind of boring.”

He took the fork and knife she passed to him. “Well I guess those things have to be done.”

“Yeah.” She filled a glass with water and put it in front of him. “Johnny said today that he’s hiring this new person to help him with things.”

“Oh yeah? What type of things.”

“He didn’t really say any specifics. Just that me and the guy would be working together.”

“I guess that’s good. It’ll lighten your work load a bit. And then when you go on maternity leave Johnny won’t have to find a replacement.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“This is really good, Bren,” he commented after a period of silence. “You should make this more often. Where did you find the recipe?”

“On the Internet.”

“It’s good.”

“Thanks. I liked it.” She leaned her elbows on the counter. “So what was your meeting about?”

“Just some contract issues I had to go over. I practically slept through the whole thing.” He put the last bite of potatoes in his mouth and pushed the plate away. “That was great, Bren. Thanks for saving it.”

She nodded and took the empty plate to the dishwasher. Justin got up and went to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of beer.

“Feel like watching some TV?” he asked.

She shut the dishwasher and turned it on. “Sure.” She went with him back to the other room where the TV was still on. She sat down in the corner of the couch and Justin sat down on the carpet, leaning back against the couch. He picked up the remote and flipped through the channels before finding a show he wanted to watch. She watched as he took a long drink of his beer and then rubbed his neck and winced a bit.

“Are you okay?”

He looked over at her. “My neck and back have been bugging me all day. I think I slept wrong last night.”

She slid over to the cushion behind him, pulling her legs up to sit cross legged. He looked behind at her and then back at the TV. She pushed up the sleeves on her shirt and then placed her hands on his shoulders and began to massage his skin. After a minute, his head dropped forward.

“Mmm…” he groaned. “That feels amazing. When did you get good at massages?”

“I don’t know. Did I used to be bad?”

He gave a laugh. “Honestly, Bren, you’ve always been horrible at massages and you knew it. I was a little worried when you came over here.”

She smiled and worked her hands to the base of his neck. “But it’s okay now?”

“It feels great.” He sighed deeply. “Damn.”

She worked on his upper back for a few more minutes before stopping. “Move forward.”

He pushed himself away from the back of the couch and she slid down in between him and the couch. With more room, she moved her hands to his lower back and began to massage it. Once she felt like he was completely relaxed, she let her hands drop. She was about to sit back up on the couch when Justin reached behind him and found her hands. He pulled her arms around him and leaned back against her.

“Thanks,” he said. “I feel so much better.”

She rested her cheek on his shoulder. “Good.” She closed her eyes and sighed contently. She was beginning to enjoy just being with Justin. Before it had felt just a bit awkward and a third party had been welcome. Now just being with him alone was satisfying.

A tug on her arm brought her out of her drowsy state and she cracked open one eye. “Hmmm?”

“Are you falling asleep?”

She yawned. “Yeah.”

“Do you want to go upstairs? We can always watch TV up there.”

“Okay.”

He pulled away and got up and then reached down and grasped her hands to pull her off the ground. She went upstairs with him, Justin shutting off the lights on the way. In their room, she went into the bathroom and got ready and then changed. When she entered their room, Justin was laying in bed, propped up with a few pillows. She sat down on the edge of the bed and he got up to go into the bathroom to brush his teeth. She was rubbing lotion on her arms when he came back into the room. He got back into bed and motioned for her to join him. She laid down and his arm went around her and pulled her to his side. She curled up on her side and rested her head on his chest. He reached over and picked up the remote, turning on the TV across from their bed. She watched it only for a couple minutes before her eyes drifted shut. After only a few moments of laying there with Justin, she had fallen asleep.

“Brenna?”

Brenna looked up from her shoe she was trying to fix on her foot when she heard her name. Her eyes came in contact with a guy standing in the doorway to her office and she let go of her foot and straightened in her chair.

“Hello?”

“I’m Jason Carter.”

The name clicked in her head and she stood up. “Oh, hi. Come in. Sorry, I forgot you were coming in today.”

He stepped into her office. “Yeah, it’s my first day. Johnny wanted me to come and see you and get you to show me the computer systems.”

“Oh right. Um, just pull a chair over here.” She sat back down in her desk chair and Jason pulled a chair up beside her. “So this is your first day?” she asked as she stared up her computer.

“Yeah. Everyone seems really nice.”

“Yeah, they are.”

“So how long have you worked here?”

“Um…about two years.”

“Do you like it?”

“Yeah, I do.” She smiled slightly. He seemed a little nervous but she figured it was his first day and he seemed younger so this was probably his first real job out of school.

She finished showing Jason everything around four thirty and left the building soon after that. She was tired and wanted to avoid rush hour traffic.

Justin’s car was in the garage and she parked beside it and then went into the house. It was a relief to slip off her heels after wearing them all day and once in her stocking feet, she walked through the house, looking for Justin. It took her a few minutes but eventually she found him in his computer room, sitting at the desk, his chin propped up in his palm.

“Hi,” she said, coming into the room and going over to him.

He looked over at her without lifting his head. “Hey.”

She put one hand on the back of his chair to keep herself steady as she leaned down to rub one of her feet. “What are you doing?”

“I’m looking up some flight information. I want to go to Tennessee next week.”

“How come?”

“My mom called and told me my grandpa broke his leg so I wanted to go down and visit.”

“Oh no. How did he break his leg?”

“He was cleaning the gutters or something and fell off the ladder.”

“How bad is it?”

“Not horrible but he’ll have to rest for a while so I wanted to go down there and see him.”

“Oh.”

He looked over at her. “Will you come with me?”

“Next week?”

“Yeah. I’m looking at going on Monday.”

She straightened and rested her hands on her lower back. “But I have work.”

“Johnny will give you some time off if you ask. Do you have anything major in the next week?”

“No, not at all. You really think he’ll give me some time off?”

“Sure. You hardly ever take time off. I’m sure he won’t have a problem with it.” Justin looked back at the computer screen. “I was thinking of going down for a week.”

“Okay.”

“If you wanna asked Johnny tomorrow, I can book the flights then.”

“Sure.”

He shut down the Internet, pushed back his chair and stood. “How was work?”

She went with him out of the room. “It was okay. Long. Jason Carter started today.”

“Who?”

“The guy Johnny hired to help out with things.”

“Oh right. How is he?”

“He seems fine. He’s about my age I think. He said this is his first job from college.”

“Well now that he’s here it really shouldn’t be a problem for you to go for a week.”

“Yeah.” She looked around the kitchen as they entered it. “Can we order something? I don’t feel like cooking.”

“Sure.” He pulled out some take out menus from a drawer. “What do you feel like getting?”

She yawned. “I don’t care. You can get what you feel like. I’m going to go change.”

“Okay.”

She went upstairs to their room and pulled some clothes from her dresser. She changed into them and then sat down on the bed.

After sitting there for a minute, she pulled her legs up on the bed and then laid down on her side. She had been so tired lately and she couldn’t help her eyes drifting shut. She stayed in a light sleep for about half an hour before she felt a hand running down her arm. She slowly opened her eyes to see Justin by the bed by her head.

“The pizza’s here,” he said softly.

She yawned and stretched out her legs. “Okay.”

“And Trace and Kate came over for supper.”

“Okay.” She sat up and Justin stood and offered his hand to help her up.

“Are you tired?”

“I’m okay. I think I’ll go to bed early though.”

“Kate and Trace don’t have to stay long if you want to sleep.”

“No, it’s okay. I haven’t seen them for a while.” She straightened her shirt. “Did you get Hawaiian pizza?”

“Of course. It’s your favorite.”

She smiled as she followed him out of their room, glad to be spending the night with Justin and their friends.