Marcie and Leo Ch. 083

Contrary to popular belief, Marcie and I do not always wake up at the same time every morning. There are times she beats me to waking up. Then it's the smell of breakfast that welcomes me when that happens. Marcie has a habit of making sure I am well taken care of when this happens. It's usually morning kisses in the kitchen, the smell of the coffee brewing and the feeling of knowing she's taking care of me that sends me out with a smile on my face on a workday.

However, it was a weekend day. I awoke and looked over at my beautiful bride. She was sleeping soundly. As much as I wanted to wake her up, I thought about trying to surprise her instead. The first thing I did was slip out of bed and put on a pair of shorts. I then carefully padded to the kitchen. I started looking for different things to put together. I started a pot of coffee to begin with. My wife can't function without her coffee.

My next move was looking in the refrigerator for different ideas. There were the eggs of course. There was also some cheese, some guacamole and salsa from a recent taco night. I had my idea. Before I cooked, I went into the living room to draw the blinds. Once the sunshine was shining through, I went back into the kitchen and started to mix the eggs. The pan was already preheating on the stove when this happened. A pat of butter swirled in the pan, and I started working on the omelets. I plated the cheese omelet before setting out the guacamole and salsa as well as the cup of coffee in her spot. It was as I was plating mine that I heard her pad out into the kitchen.

"Someone's been busy," she murmured before walking up to me and kissing me on the cheek.

"Good morning, Amor."

It was a quiet breakfast. It was as we were eating when Marcie mentioned that there was a cabinet to put together. She had it hiding in the garage. I looked at her before she smiled.

"I'm sure we can figure it out together. It's for Aubrey."

I didn't remember us building things for Aubrey being part of her design plan. Thing is I couldn't be mad at her. After all, she was helping a friend. We dressed in grubs to start with. We went into the garage to grab it as well as Mitchell's old tool bag. As we walked over to her place, all I could think of is what they did to the house my late wife and I put together. When we were working at our house, I worked on the basic design while Missy worked on the interior design. I had a feeling that I would be surprised at what my wife and assistant put together.

The first surprise was Aubrey was repainting the living room. All the furniture was moved to one side and covered up while she and Wesley were dressed in grubs and painting. Wes looked at me and smiled.

"I guess you were drafted also, Leo," he said before Aubrey playfully punched him in the arm.

As we started to take the package apart, we looked at how complicated the cabinet was. It was one of those kinds you get from an online store designed for do-it-yourselfers. As we looked at the different parts and started piecing it together, we heard the newlyweds behind us laughing. I looked behind me and saw Wes with a little paint on his nose. Aubrey had a matching spot before they saw me looking at them and went back to painting. Marcie looked at me smiling.

"You never did that, Leo?" she asked.

I shook my head.

"The walls were painted when I moved in," Aubrey answered.

'We had professionals do it," I answered.

Both ladies looked at me stunned before Wes responded.

"That makes sense. So, you and the late wife designed this from the get-go?"

"The Mrs. did all the design work," I answered. "I just had the bankroll and the contacts to design everything. She did the rest."

I could feel the mood of the room change to melancholy before I apologized. Then I was encircled by the arms of my wife, my assistant, and her husband before we went back to our collective tasks. It wasn't long before we were baffled by the cabinet instructions. I so wish they would have put it into words with the pictures sometimes. As we started reasoning our way through it, I saw Aubrey grabbing her phone.

"Anyone want pizza?" she asked.

It was a great weekend project day. We finally got the cabinet put together and the living room was painted. As we started cleaning up our mess, Aubrey came over to hug us both for helping her out. I saw Wes smiling as he was cleaning off his nose. It felt good helping the newlyweds put their vision together. As we headed back to our house, Marcie was holding my hand and leaning against me.

"You ought to see what I have in store for you at home," she whispered.