Pete woke up to the sound of twittering birds. Slowly opening his eyes trying to adjust to the bright light of a beautiful summer morning peeping into the room.
In his mind sighing "of course, she's done it again" looking at the large window of their bedroom, the curtains already drawn wide open.
It had become some kind of morning ritual of his loving wife Sarah.
Pondering, "I will never understand it but if it makes her happy to start a new day I am more than fine with it."
Every morning Sarah would open the curtains to say hi to, as she likes to see them, another new day full of wonderful opportunities.
It has become part of her daily routine and way of dealing with the often harsh reality of her job as an intensive care nurse.
I would never be able to survive in her line of profession, so often having to deal with the brutality of life and being able to compartmentalize her feelings.
It never ceased to amaze me how my small perfectly shaped energetic bundle of joy was able to do this job so well.
My lovely brunette wife, able to work with so much sorrow and still stay the wonderful optimistic happy fun playful little creature I love with all my heart.
It made no sense to me, but she had found a way to be energized with the small successes bringing so much joy and at the same time accept the hardships of the other side of her work.
I was glad that the worst hardship of my most difficult 'patients' was limited to checking if a crankshaft needed replacement or could be overhauled, or for 'minor injuries' do a simple check whether there was still sufficient tread on the tires.
Very different jobs indeed, but what I had in common with my wife was that like her I also love my job as a car mechanic.
Mine was not as directly connected with life and death as Sarah's but I took my job seriously and when you do you get the reward of being recognized.
I had worked up my way over the years and now was working at one of the best dealers in town. Many customers would specifically ask for my services and that feels good.
I also liked the physical part of the job, simply being busy with my hands. I had always liked to keep fit and next to my job helping me in doing so I still frequently worked out at a gym.
Fully awake now I looked over at Sarah's empty spot next to me and as always missed her to find her gone out on an early shift.
She had learned to be like a mouse sneaking out without waking me.
Probably because on the few occasions when I did wake up we ended up making love with Sarah lovingly taking care of my morning wood and I of her needs.
But those morning activities had almost made her late for work a few times, and that was unacceptable to her.
So while I missed our morning quickies I understood why she would be very quiet and let me sleep.
Rolling over to her side of the bed I could smell her sweet scent a bit and looking down at my naked body I remembered today was no different, semi-morning wood being present.
The clock at the bedstand told me there was no time for some quick solo relief, sighing as I realized I needed to get up and get ready for work.
Reluctantly stepping out of the bed to get dressed I stopped as I passed the mirrored door of the closet.
I don't believe I was particularly vain but I will admit that I was proud of my body.
With my 28 years, I had managed to keep in decent shape if I say so myself. Just over 6 feet tall about 175 pounds and none of it fat.
Above all, I liked my muscular arms and nicely shaped abs with a small not exaggerated six-pack.
Before meeting Sarah one of my former girlfriends had even signed me up as a model once. To my own surprise I had actually received some job offers.
Mostly out of curiosity I had accepted some of them and had always kind of enjoyed the attention they came with.
I was still enlisted at the agency and also since marrying Sarah every now and again I would receive a call with a modelling offer.
As we could always use some extra money and I also liked the attention and distraction it gave from my regular job most of the time I would accept those modelling offers.
Now I found myself standing there looking at my naked body the mirror, seeing Sarah's empty spot in bed behind me and I could feel my morning pencil react.
I could see it twitch slightly and the feeling in my groins strengthened again. Seduced I let my hand travel down over my chest down to my abdomen.
Watching myself in the mirror, imagining Sarah naked behind me on the bed, legs apart playing with herself, looking at me and teasing me.
My hand dropped down further below my small six-pack and got a hold on my now almost fully erect shaft.
Thinking, 'just a quick one.' I started to stroke my cock making my crown pop out.
Looking at my own image with my hand on my cock and seeing it grow harder with that purple head popping up was so arousing that I started producing some precum making my head shine in the morning sun.
I stood there for a while looking at my hand stroking my dick with long swipes, my crown getting harder and harder.
I knew I was getting close to an orgasm when suddenly I got this funny tingling feeling in the back of my neck.
I do not know how or why but everybody knows the feeling as if being watched.
It was not my wife Sarah being imaged on the bed behind me, but I could sense somebody else watching me.
Still standing in front of the mirror stroking my cock I slowly turned my head to the left and looked outside the window.
Suddenly realizing I was standing almost right next to a window, butt-naked and playing with my goodies on full display.
I did not see anybody but was that curtain in the window on the other side of the road moving slightly? Or was that my imagination playing tricks on me?
Now mind you, I was not particularly shy nor ashamed of my body, otherwise taking modelling jobs would never have worked.
Sarah would on occasion be both embarrassed and envious of me to see how easy it was for me to be partially or even fully naked in front of others.
She was shy in that regard even if I always believed and told her that her body was every bit as good or better as anybody's and nothing to ever be ashamed of.
But now the thought of potentially being seen while wanking in front of our bedroom window was a bit too much, even for me.
"Shit." fully realizing how exposed I actually was I snatched my hand away from my genitals and took a few steps away from the window. Still peering outside seeing nobody.
The moment had passed, it sure had spoiled my wood and mood and perhaps it was for the best.
Had I continued my solo practices I would have risked being late for work which I hated almost as much as Sarah did.
I grabbed my working gear, stepped into the bathroom took a very short (and fairly cold) shower and got dressed.
Being rather late and leaving no time for breakfast I gulped down a cup of coffee and rushed out for work.
Already focusing on the first job I knew would be at hand every thought about the 'window accident' was pushed out of my mind.
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Ashley looked down at her lap, thinking how small her hand looked in Rick's hand. His hand so large but still soft and gently holding hers.
A perfect sunny summer morning, together with her husband and soulmate, doing nothing, simply enjoying each other's company.
Sitting on a park bench watching the sparrows play in the hedges and hearing the blackbirds twitter happily in a nearby tree.
Feeling happy and content she leaned into Rick and let her arm slide around his shoulder, her hand ending up in his black curly hair dreamily fiddling with it.
The world was perfect when suddenly the twittering of the birds changed, becoming more distant but closer at the same time.
When she opened her eyes for a moment she did not know where she was. She could still hear birds singing but the park and Rick were gone.
She was lying in bed, alone, staring at the ceiling slowly waking up and starting to realize she had been dreaming again.
No longer in the dream world when reality hit her again, Rick had suddenly been torn away from her in that horrific accident.
She could feel her chest tightening, it had been almost two years but still there was the pain again.
So often it had been haunting her dreams, but today was different somehow. This time the dream had left her waking up with warm feeling and a smile on her face, almost a smile at least.
Many of her dreams could be called nothing else than nightmares, more than once she had woken up sobbing.
This was the first time since he was stolen away from her life that there had been a happy dream about Rick.
Fully awake now Ashley realized it had almost made her smile. The pain over his loss was still there but maybe her best friend Sophie had been right all along.
Sophie had told her over and over again there would be a time when the happy parts of being with Rick would start to prevail over the bad thoughts.
The pain might never wholly go away but the happy memories would start to push out the bad ones.
Feeling better than she had for a long time Ashley was brought down to the reality of day-to-day normal life when a very mundane feeling rushed in.
A very full morning blatter started shouting in her mind reminding her that it really really needed to be relieved.
Being 44 years of age such a voice was so much harder to ignore than when younger.
Not really wanting to get out of bed but knowing she had to Ashley made her legs drop over the side, got up and hurried to the bathroom.
Quickly pulling down her pyjama shorts to her knees she sat down on the toilet seat, shivering slightly at its cool touch.
But soon able to relax she let go of her morning wee, feeling relieved and making her blatter her friend again for the time being.
Walking back she passed the mirror in the bathroom and looked at herself. Okay, 44 years young, not old, as Sophie would always correct her.
She smiled at the mirror thinking, "I must tell Sophie about my dream." when looking at her own smiling face she knew that was what she liked best about herself.
When smiling she could see and believe she had a pretty face, just as others always told her.
