Marcie and Leo Ch. 088

(This story was inspired by the trip I took to see my friend who Marcie is based off of. We had a good time fixing things around her apartment and meeting her friends. We also shared some quality friend time catching up. The woman behind the character as always is a strong woman and I am happy she is in my life to help me with things I do not talk about here, well directly at least. I hope you enjoy this one.)

The weekend was coming up. As I was waking up two days prior to it, I felt Marcie's arm across my chest. I smiled knowing she was there with me. I looked over and kissed her forehead as she lay sleeping before I reached over and grabbed my phone prior to the alarm going off. I knew in my heart that dismissing my alarm was dangerous given that it was a workday, and I didn't want to fall back asleep. The thing was I didn't want to disturb the picture for a bit. I love seeing Marcie when she sleeps. Her hair when it gets tousled, and her dreamy smile are a fine vintage view that I don't get to enjoy too often with the hustle and bustle of our lives. It was about ten minutes later or so when her eyes opened with a dreamy look before they turned to alarm.

"Leo, the alarm didn't go off," she said, her voice betraying her sleepiness.

I started to stroke her hair lovingly.

"It's okay, Beloved. I turned off the alarm before you woke up."

She snuggled in next to me.

"You were watching me again, weren't you?"

I held her tight.

"You had your arm over my chest. It was a beautiful picture I wanted to capture in my memory."

We lay there snuggled against each other for a bit before her alarm started going off on her phone. She hurriedly grabbed her phone to dismiss the alarm before she looked over at me and smiled. We went back to holding each other for a little while before we begrudgingly rose from bed. She slipped herself into a pair of pajamas and her robe while I headed towards the shower. The morning ritual started.

A few hours later found me at the office. I was checking numbers when my assistant, Aubrey, walked in.

"Leo, I need to ask you a few questions."

"Go ahead," I answered as I was still looking at numbers.

"Did you already contact the Pool guy for the pool?"

I looked up at her.

"He usually visits while we're here. He's been visiting once a week since it started getting warm. Marcie's been making sure, why?"

She smiled.

"I am having a get-together with Wes' team and wanted to make sure it was good to go."

I smiled.

"Wes is having a get-together."

She looked at me. Then she nodded.

"Oh, I meant Wes is having a get-together. It's just too bad a certain CFO didn't make an appearance, so it doesn't seem so fishy."

I looked at her.

"Does anyone else know about Wes' team coming over?"

She looked at me and started getting bashful.

"I might have invited Janet and Matt. You were on my list for sure."

I thought for a moment. Then I looked at her.

"Can I guess that a certain 'honorary member of the board' might have already been invited?"

At that moment, my cell rang. I looked at it and saw Marcie. Aubrey's smile got a bit bigger.

"You may want to answer that one. I'll be out here," she said as she backed out of my office.

"Hello, Beloved," I said, trying to control my concern.

"We were invited to a pool party next door on Saturday," she started. "Aubrey invited us when we went swimsuit shopping."

"I just found out about it. Aubrey was asking about the pool guy coming by."

You could have heard a pin drop. Then she spoke.

"I forgot to tell you earlier. Are you mad?"

I could feel my pensiveness eroding as she spoke. It's difficult sometimes when the tactical side of me at work conflicts with my feelings for Marcie. She had seen me at my worst, so I was still protective to see her when it was about to happen. At the same time, she was also my wife, and I could never stay upset with her for very long.

"I was thinking about the consequences when she told me who else was invited."

"Wes' friends, Matt and his family and Janet."

"Yeah and...."

"Janet already said there was no conflict of interest because of the way it was done."

"Yeah, but..."

"Leo, Aubrey and I already have it covered."

I was caught by surprise. It was then Aubrey appeared at my door and was surprised to see my mouth open like it was.

"Leo, I already told her what your concerns might be. I think sometimes you forget how much I know you. We need this social time because it was difficult while your leg was healing. It's also been difficult on Matt with raising his son and Janet needs an outlet also. Did you know we haven't had any social time with her since my birthday?"

I listened and knew some make up tactics were in order. As Aubrey handed me her tablet, I saw there was a bouquet of flowers already ordered. I hit the approval button as we kept talking before I said the next words.

"I'm sorry."

Aubrey's jaw dropped. Marcie was quiet on her end.

"I love you," I said after.

There was still silence at her end before she spoke.

"I love you too, Leo. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier."

"It's okay. You're right. We need some social time. What say I bring dinner home tonight to make it up to you?"

"Sounds like a plan. Call me later?"

"Of course."

We closed out the call before Aubrey already had the standard order from Marcie's favorite Thai place on her tablet. I hit the approve button again before she started to turn.

"Wait a second."

She paused. Then she turned. I motioned towards the chair in front of my desk before she submissively sat down.

"Please put the tablet down. I want to talk about something."

She did as I asked.

"You know this has been a difficult process. Losing Missy. Recovering as best as we could. The new dynamics of our working relationship and such. I just wanted you to know that I appreciate you so much and am happy we have been able to do as much as we have."

"Me too. I know I take advantage of it sometimes."

"Not a big deal. We just need to be careful. The thing is you are still my assistant and Wes is still in the lab. We must be careful about showing favoritism. It would be very difficult to hold a pool party for the whole company at your pool."

"I understand."

"So, any time Wes wants to hang around with his team, it needs to be his thing."

"Got it."

"And if you want the Board to hang out, same thing."

"Right. It gets complicated doing both, huh?"

"Just a bit. Did you invite Deb?"

"I did. I just forgot to mention it."

"No worries."

She looked at me before she smiled.

"This is the first real pool party since we took the house. We had you two over and stuff, but this is the first time Wes invited anyone over. I just want it to be perfect."

"It will. So, is there anything else you'd like for it?"

She smiled bigger.

"I may have already sent some ideas to Marcie."

I had a feeling. Still, I was looking forward to making up that night. Especially since Marcie and I still had to discuss a bit.