Well, here we go,
Mark thought as he heard the bathroom door open.
Tessa slowly made her way to the bed on feet sore from a long day at work. She gave her long blonde hair a shake, dislodging a few strands that were caught under the thin straps of her top. Five years married, the sight of her in pajamas still made his heart race. When he smiled at her, she responded with a weary grin of her own.
"Thanks for doing the dishes tonight," she said as she sat down on the bed.
He climbed in next to her and responded, "You're welcome."
The couple leaned in to share a kiss, and then Mark scooted toward the foot of the bed.
"I'm really tired," Tessa said with a note of apology in her voice, misreading his intentions.
"I know — and your feet are sore. That's why I'm going to give you a foot rub."
He didn't miss the glint of suspicion in her eyes, and knew that he might have overdone it by taking her turn with the dishes. There was no helping it now, so he sat down and lifted her right foot into his hand.
She moaned as his practiced fingers went to work. Over the years, he'd learned through trial and error, and knew exactly how to soothe away the pains of her being on her feet all day. He massaged her feet and calves, resisting the urge to let his fingers creep higher as the sexy sounds she made sent blood rushing between his legs.
After a few minutes, he thought,
Now or never.
He'd taken a big risk, and this was the one place where it could all fall apart.
"I was thinking maybe we could hold off on Valentine's Day dinner."
Tessa's half-lidded eyes snapped open and she asked, "What?"
"Hear me out," he quickly answered while keeping his hands hard at work. "We're both going to get off pretty late that day. You'd have to come straight home from work and start getting ready. I was thinking that maybe we could have dinner on the weekend instead."
Her expression softened and she said, "Well, I guess you're right about that. We barely made it last year. I doubt you could get reservations on such short notice, though."
"Already taken care of. I figured the worst that could happen is you would say no, and I could cancel the reservation. The table will be waiting for us."
She shrugged and said, "Okay. I was looking forward to not having to cook, but I guess it's just a little later."
"I'll take care of dinner that night."
"Mark," she chuckled. "You can't cook anything that doesn't involve a grill, and it's hardly the weather for that."
"I didn't say I was going to cook. I said I'd
take care
of it."
"I really don't want take-out on Valentine's Day."
"No take-out. Just dinner with no cooking, and I'll do the dishes again. Trust me?"
She sighed. "Okay. What brought all this on?"
"Just want us to have a perfect day. Really
two
now."
"I still think you're up to something, but I may as well enjoy it in the process."
He laughed and turned his attention back to her feet. The hard part was over. She would never guess in a million years what he was up to, and when she found out, he knew she wasn't going to mind in the slightest.
****
"You know, at first, I really didn't believe there was any chance you would eventually pick this up," the jeweler said as he emerged from the back room.
"There were times when I wasn't so sure myself," Mark said. "Thanks for holding it for me on such small payments." He picked up the box and opened it.
"You have my wife to thank for that. You won her over."
Mark looked down at the ring and couldn't help but smile. He'd asked Tessa's sister to come with him when he was shopping for an engagement ring. She'd pointed out the one he held in his hand now as one she'd fallen in love with while window shopping. It was far beyond his budget at the time, but he'd found something similar that did the trick.
Now, he could finally give her the real thing.
He snapped the box shut and said, "Thanks again," as he headed out the door.
With the ring safely locked in his briefcase, he glanced at his watch and nodded in approval. With plenty of time left on his lunch break, he headed for the store.
There was snow in the forecast, so the grocery store was packed and the shelves were emptying fast. Tessa had been working there since she was a teenager and climbed the ladder to assistant manager. It was where they had met, and she was happy there, so he'd never tried to push her to try something else.
"Tessa's in the break room," one of the cashiers said as he walked past the registers.
He nodded to her and turned toward the break room stairs. He heard Tessa and another woman laughing as he neared the top.
"Hello, honey. What are you doing here?" she asked when he emerged into the room.
"Thought I'd see if you wanted to go have lunch."
"Oh... You should have called. It's a zoo in here today, so I took an early lunch."
"You're right. Wasn't thinking." He shrugged. "Ah well." It was a bit of a disappointment, but he had nobody to blame but himself.
Tessa pointed at the pretty young blonde sitting next to her. "This is Lisa Diamond, the new girl in floral. I told you about her the other night."
"Hello," he and Lisa both said at the same time.
"My husband, Mark," Tessa finished the introduction.
"Tessa says you're a genius with floral arrangements."
Lisa blushed. "I wouldn't say that."
"I would, and I did," Tessa disagreed. "I'm not the only one, either."
Mark chuckled at the deepening color in the young woman's cheeks and said, "Well, if you've already had lunch, I guess I should grab something and get back to the office."
"I'll be late. Call-ins. Leftover meatloaf okay tonight?"
"That's fine."
She kissed two fingers and then gestured toward him. He made a catching motion, smiled, and headed back down the stairs. Lunch may have been a bust, but finding out she was going to be late would at least give him plenty of time to hide the ring in his man-cave.
He really needed to get back to the grindstone, anyway. There was a lot to do if he didn't want piled-up work standing in the way of his plan.
****
