Challenge #48 - Angst
Title: Love and Other Bruises (Parts 47 - 50) Author: Foreverbm Timeline: Season 3 - Post 308 Condoms: 4 to Michael
(47)
I started the cooking classes. Two evenings a week. They began as something to fill the empty hours but I soon found myself looking forward to them. I came home with pages of recipes to try and felt an amazing amount of pride when something turned out to be not only edible but surprisingly good. I couldn’t wait till Ben came home so I could show off my new talents. Everything I did or saw I squirreled away in the back of my mind to tell Ben. He was always in my thoughts. My belief he would return never faded.
(48)
I crossed the days he had been gone off the calendar each morning. I tried not to count them, but sometimes, late at night, was unable to stop myself. 91 days. It didn’t sound much but felt like a lifetime. Images of him always filled my mind, awake or asleep. I ached when I remembered the way his body wrapped itself around mine when we made love, the smile when he saw me which always made my heart skip a beat, the way his eyes sparkled when he laughed, the look on his face when he said he loved me.
*****************************
(49)
Another grey day greeted me as I stepped onto the pavement. I was running late, my previous nights sleep disturbed by dreams which were now forgotten but at the time frighteningly real. I had woken up shivering and cold in the early hours, reaching out for Ben, only to realize I was alone. I tossed and turned for hours before sleep came again. I almost decided not to open the store today but the thought of being alone in the apartment would have done nothing to alleviate the dark mood that had taken hold of me in those fitful hours.
*****************************
(50)
Brian turned up at lunch time. My snappish answers drove him away after reassuring words and a hug. I watched the clock tick by. Customers were sparse and by 4pm I had had enough. I put up the closed sign, locked the door and trudged home through the icy wind and sprinkles of snow which had begun the moment I had walked out the door. I climbed the stairs, thoughts of a warm bath and early night the only thing on my mind. I looked up when I reached the top step and stopped dead in my tracks. “Hello Michael”