Marcie and Leo Ch. 026

(Hello, Reader. This will not be a sexy read this time. This is an illustration about the days when they don't feel sexy. You've been warned. But if you read it, thank you.)

There are many times that I have a bad day at work and Marcie is there for me. There are also the times that it has gone vice-versa. It is a rare time when these moments coincide. It started when we were having one of those long days at work. It seemed like we were having meeting after meeting. By the time Matt and I were on the elevator to our cars, he had that look on his face like he went twelve rounds with a professional. I looked at him and smiled.

"I hope my godson takes it easy on you tonight," I said.

He gave me the look of death to start with. It was then changed to a smile when he realized that I referred to his son as my godson. I rarely did that only because I wanted him to get used to the fun of fatherhood. We high-fived each other before we parted ways. The drive home was long and convoluted. All my texts to Marcie went unanswered which started to worry me.

As a precaution, I stopped at a Mediterranean place for dinner for both of us. It was a hunch. When I reached the house, I saw the lights were on. I breathed a sigh of relief before I grabbed the food and my briefcase and started towards the door. It was then my phone went off. I fished the phone out of my suit pocket and saw what I feared.

She was in her bubble.

Marcie has had plenty of times since we were together where she had to pull back some to deal with things. It's her coping mechanism. We discussed it in a previous episode when she was about to go to the cemetery to visit Mitchell. I approached the house carefully before I checked to make sure the door was unlocked. I slipped into the door and saw her on the couch on her tablet.

Quietly, I went into the kitchen and set the food on the table. I poured myself a rum and coke before I sat down and started to unpackage the food. I looked up and saw her looking at me and smiling before she walked over. She sniffed the air.

"Mediterranean, that's different. Did you get this before or after the text?"

I recognized it as a test.

"Before. I had a hunch."

She smiled at me.

"You're getting better at this, Leo. I remember in the old days when you'd try to swoop in with a basket of chocolate and stuff to try to get me out of it. It was a cute gesture."

I looked at her.

"I figured you'd need food with whatever you're handing. That's all I was thinking."

She sat down next to me and started to undo her bowl as I walked into the kitchen. I grabbed a wine glass and started walking back towards the table when she looked at me.

"Water pitcher, please Leo?"

I put the wine glass back and grabbed a water glass instead before grabbing the water pitcher out of the refrigerator. It was when we started to eat that she started asking me about my day.

"Too many meetings. I swear sometimes retirement sounds like such a good option."

She looked at me with a startled look on her face. I looked back and smiled.

"Sometimes," I assured her.

She smiled.

"I'm not against it. I mean you have done extremely well for yourself."

"Still, Matt is going to need all the help he can get. The truth is with one kid, he's not all the way there lately. We haven't discussed a gameplan yet."

She looked at me before she started to rub my arm. I smiled at her before I leaned in for a tender kiss.

"I don't know how you put up with me sometimes, Leo. It's just there's so many ideas in my head sometimes."

"Because you put up with me."

She looked at me with her soft eyes and smiled.

"You're amazing, Leo."

"You're the amazing one. I'm just being me."

We finished dinner and headed to the living room where we just chilled out for a while. She let me hold her while she was playing one of her games on her tablet. My world started getting a bit more centered when we were able to be near each other. As the different concerns of the day seemed to be washed away, I was just thankful. It's not every day that the Good Lord puts an angel on earth to keep an eye on you. I'm just glad I had the sense to recognize mine.