From This Moment On

He kept asking me what happened. And I just told him that I knew what I saw, because he knew exactly what he'd done.

But when he threw his hands in the air and didn't even try to explain, my heart sank when I realized that it was over. Because there was no way I was going to sleep beside him every night, knowing that he was thinking of someone else and probably counting down the hours till they could be together again.

We didn't talk much after that and when I tested the waters and suggested, "Maybe we should split up." I really hoped he'd say that he wanted to work on our marriage and that he was sorry for straying.

But when he just shook his head, shrugged and said, "If that's what you want. Fine. Then we're done."

I just felt so numb, it was like my whole world had dropped out from under me when he agreed to end it. And he didn't take long to move out.

We decided to put the house up for sale, because our kids were off at college and they were hardly ever home anymore. Plus, I didn't want the reminder of the life we once had, being alone in that empty house by myself where we'd always lived as a happy family. At least until he'd walked out and left me for someone else.

**

As I enjoyed another spoonful of soup, I thought at least we'd have this one last day together before it all came to an end.

When the news came on, we laughed at the way the weather man was scrambling, trying to explain how sometimes storms could just sneak up out of nowhere and surprise us.

I looked over at Michael and it occurred to me that the same thing had happened to us. I thought we were happy and had the perfect marriage, and suddenly out of nowhere, we were done, and talking divorce.

Once we'd finished our soup, he nodded at the kitchen. "There's lots more if you want another cup."

"No. That was really good. But those two thick slices of bread filled me up."

When he got up, he grabbed a blanket off the end of the couch and tucked it around me. Then he surprised me when he kissed the end of my nose. My mouth must have dropped open, because he tipped up my chin to close it, winked and said with a chuckle, "Keep warm, while I go pour us some more tea and grab some muffins."

"Thanks," I mumbled, watching him walk away and wondering again, where we went wrong.

It seemed like nothing had changed, and he was just as thoughtful as I remembered. And just as affectionate, too. But I guess since we were basically stuck together till the roads were passible, he didn't have much choice but to try and be hospitable.

"Oh, these muffins are so good," I told him, savoring my first bite.

"It's your mom's recipe from that hand written cook book she gave us with all your family recipes, when we first got married," he said, waiting to see if I remembered.

"Now that you mention it, they do taste like the ones my mom used to bake." I grinned at him. "But I think yours are even better."

He laughed. "Don't worry, I'll never tell."

I knew my mom still kept in touch with him. The two of them had always got along so well, I guess they couldn't see any reason to stop talking to each other just because the two of us had broken up.

Once the weather report was over, Michael put on Love Actually. Which was our favorite movie, that we'd watched too many times to count, though we always laughed all the way through it. Especially at the antics of Bill Nighy, the eccentric rock star.

Without even noticing we were doing it, gradually we kind of snuggled up on the couch together, and even shared the blanket. Though I started feeling a little warm when the sexy bits came on in the movie. Till our eyes met, and we both laughed.

We'd gotten so comfortable, I didn't even notice that Michael had slipped his arm around me, like he always did.

Though I was enjoying the movie, it had been a long day. When I started to feel my eyelids growing heavy, I dozed off for a bit, and I snuggled into his side, enjoying the feeling of being close. Until I felt him lifting me into arms and carrying me into his bedroom.

I blinked, feeling a little disoriented watching him throw back the covers, while holding me tight against him. Once he got me comfy in his bed, he nodded at the door. "I'll be on the couch. If you need anything, just holler."

"You can sleep in here with me," I said without even thinking. I mean, we'd just been sleeping on the couch, so I didn't see why we couldn't sleep together in his bed. It's not like we were going to lose our minds and have sex, or anything. At least I didn't think we would.

His expression softened and he brushed the hair back from my eyes. "Are you sure?"

I nodded. "As long as we just sleep, I don't see why not. I don't like the idea of taking your bed and making you sleep on the couch."

It felt a little awkward when he first got in beside me. It was a normal sized bed, I'm guessing a queen size, but suddenly it felt like we could barely fit without touching each other.

When he reached for my hand and gave it a squeeze, I so glad now that we'd been lucky enough to call a truce and have this one last day together.

When I woke up in the morning, with his arms wrapped me, and him spooned up against me, for a moment I had to try and remember where I was. Though, I remembered pretty quick when I realized what was pressing up against my backside, fully erect.

I gave my tooshie a little wiggle, and Michael opened his eyes. Eyebrows raised, I looked over my shoulder at him, and he chuckled.

"Sorry," he said, pulling back and letting his arms slip away. "Happens every time we get close. I think he's got a mind of his own."

With his eyes on mine, he stroked the back of his hand over my cheek, and I felt a little tingle as he murmured, "Why don't you stay here in bed, and I'll get us some tea."

Snuggling into the blankets, I took a look out the window, and I could feel my shoulders slump when I saw the snow was coming down just as hard as yesterday. I listened, but I couldn't hear any snowplows clearing the roads outside. Which meant I wouldn't be leaving any time soon.

Michael came back with a bed tray, laden with a tea pot, milk, cups, toast, jams and more muffins.

He set the tray on the bed between us and clicked on the wall-mounted TV. "Hey, look at that, the weather man's calling for snow today."

I laughed as I reached for my tea. "Then I guess you're going to be stuck with me for at least a few more hours."

It felt pretty awkward when Divorce Court came on right after the news. You could have cut the tension between us with a knife when they showed the couple glaring at each other while the announcer explained their situation. "She caught him red handed with her best friend, and now she wants a divorce. But he claims she's got it all wrong, and nothing happened."

We gave each other the side eye, as Michael reached for the remote and turned off the TV.

"I guess now is as good a time as any to clear the air. Because we've never really discussed what happened." He nodded at me. "Why don't you go ahead, and tell me what you think you saw."

I put down my tea, and turned to face him. "Okay, I'll tell you what happened. I was looking for some towels at the mall, near our old house. I couldn't see anything I liked, because everything was picked over, since they were on sale. So, I decided to head downstairs to the food court and grab a coffee before I headed home. I was on the escalator and I saw you standing and smiling at some woman who was running up to you. I couldn't believe my eyes when she threw her arms around your neck and you grabbed her and lifted her off her feet. And she kissed you. Right on the lips," I said for emphasis, so he couldn't claim that she was just a friend.

He seemed to be thinking back, till he shook his head, still looking confused. "Are you sure it was me? Because I've been racking my brain for the last six months, and I can't remember any of that happening. Since the first night we met, I've never kissed anyone but you. So, there's no way I would have done anything like that, and locked lips with some woman who ran up to me at the mall."

"Oh, it was you, alright. You were wearing the leather jacket I got you for Christmas. But I have no idea who the woman was. She was tiny and on the curvy side with long, dark curly hair."

He held up a finger, and it looked a like a lightbulb went off and he reached for his phone. I watched him scroll through his pictures, till he found one from his aunt's seventy-fifth birthday party. There were so many people there that night, I didn't know half of them.

"Is that her?" he asked, pointing at a pretty, young dark-haired woman, smiling and posing with the family.

I took his phone, so I could get a closer look. "You know that does look like her. Though I didn't get a good look at her because I got on the escalator and turned around and went back upstairs. Once I realized what was happening, I didn't want to watch you two making out."

He blew out a breath and shook his head. "You probably don't remember, but I introduced you two at the party. That's my cousin Joe's daughter Marissa. And she kisses everybody on the mouth, just like her mother. I always thought it was kind of weird, but that's just how they are. I never even thought it could be someone like her, but it had to be. Because now that I think back, I remember she was excited because she'd just gotten engaged. She showed me her ring and nearly bent my ear off gushing about her wedding plans."

I felt awful, when I realized it was all a misunderstanding. But we were both so stubborn, neither of us would sit down and talk it out. When I'd confronted him about what I saw, he was so hurt that I'd accused him of cheating, that he'd stormed off. And I was so upset, I thought he must have been feeling guilty, because I'd caught him red-handed. Or at least I thought I had. But now that I'd seen the picture, what he said made sense.

"I'm sorry," I said, stroking his cheek.

"So am I. If we would have sat down and talked, none of this would have happened. But at the time, I was going through some things, and I didn't want to worry you. Then when you blind-sided me and asked for a divorce, I just assumed that you were seeing someone else, and you made up the whole story about me cheating, when you were the one who'd already moved on. I just felt so hurt, I thought if you didn't want to be with me, there wasn't much I could do. Though I gotta say, it nearly killed me to walk away."

He covered my hands with his, and looked into my eyes. "Laurie, I swear I've never so much as looked at another woman since the night we first met."

"And I've never gone out with anyone else, because we're still married."

Then he let out a breath and shared some of what was going on. "I got to be honest, Laurie, when you suggested we sell the house, I didn't argue, because I needed the money. Though I really didn't want to get rid of the house."

"Why? Is there something going on, I should know about?" Now he had me worried.

He heaved a sigh, and nodded. "My partner Lou, wanted to buy me out. He kept talking about wanting to retire and move to Florida. But I didn't know that he had already decided that he wanted to leave the business to his son. And he told me that if I wanted to buy him out, he wanted cash, so I couldn't take out a loan. And with the expense of having both our kids in college, I had to come some up with some extra money pretty fast, so I could keep the family afloat. At my age, I hated the idea of having to start over. I helped build that business from the ground up. And I've got a lot of steady clients. So, I took the money I got from my half of the house and I bought him out. And now I own the whole thing."

"I'm so glad that worked out for you."

"We'd always talked about finding a piece of land somewhere out of the city to build our dream home. And now we can afford to do it."

"So, we're good?"

He chuckled, and pulled me into his lap. "We're more than good. Because we're back together."

I don't think I'd ever felt as relieved. I wrapped my arms around his neck and I kissed him with everything I had, overjoyed to be back in his arms.

He pulled back, wearing a saucy grin. "Happy Anniversary, baby."

"You remembered!"

"How could I forget our 25^th. Our silver anniversary. We've been together for a quarter of a century, and hopefully we'll be together for at least another twenty-five."

He reached into the side table and pulled out a ring box. When he opened it and showed me the gorgeous ring inside, I started tearing up. "Oh, Michael, it's beautiful."

"It's an eternity ring. A symbol of never-ending love. Because I really do love you."

When he slipped the ring on my finger, I asked, "But why would you buy this for me, if we were split up?"

"Because our daughter told me that you were as miserable as I was. And she also mentioned that you weren't seeing anyone, though all your friends had been trying to coax you to meet someone new. So, I was planning on calling you today to wish you a happy anniversary, hoping we could finally talk things out." He gestured at the window. "But it looks like Mother Nature had her own plans for us. And she decided to drop you off in the snow, right where I'd find you."

Though I was laughed, I still wiped away a tear, because I was just so happy that everything happened the way it did. Although I wished we never had to go through what we had, being apart for the last six months. I was just glad that we'd finally sorted everything out.

"It doesn't look like we'll be going out to celebrate tonight, with the way that snow's coming down" he said, sliding his hands down over my backside and giving me a squeeze as he nuzzled his way up my neck, nipping at my earlobe, making me shiver. "So, I'm thinking we can stay in and celebrate the same way we did on our honeymoon."

I rolled my eyes and laughed, when he pulled the thigh-length t-shirt he'd given me to wear, over my head and started dropping hot open-mouthed kisses across my breasts, making my nipples tingle, as heat began to pool between my legs.

He got me on my back, and I tugged off his t-shirt, and relished the feel of running my fingers through his chest hair, and gently twisted his nipples, knowing it always made his cock jump. Already, I could feel him pressed against me, rock hard. So, I could tell that he had been missing me, every bit as much as I'd been missing him.

"You have any idea how much I've been looking forward to this," he whispered, brushing his lips against mine. "I've been aching for you since the day I walked out. And I don't ever want to sleep without you again."

Winding my fingers into his hair, I tugged his head down and nearly kissed his face off.

We were both pretty breathless when he took a second to apologize, as he kneed my legs apart. "Sorry, baby, but I'm so close, this time is going to be fast."

I didn't care, I just needed to feel him inside me. Reaching between us, I took hold of him, gave him a few strokes, and spread my legs. Both of us were moaning as I carefully eased him into my needy pussy.

"Oh man, you feel good," he murmured as he started to thrust, while I squeezed my inner muscles, clenching him as tight as I could, drawing him in as deep as I could.

I smirked, digging my hands into his shoulders. "Tell me about it."

"God, I've missed this with you," he said, plucking at my lips.

I looked into his eyes and told him the truth. "And I've really missed you."

We clung to each other so tightly as we made love, like we never wanted to let go. Probably because we had come so close to losing each other.

He made me shiver, he had such a determined look in his stormy brown eyes when he got up on his hands, gritted his teeth and groaned when he nearly pounded me into the mattress. I threw back my head, every inch of me shuddering as I came, and I was still shivering really hard as I watched him fall apart. His eyes on mine, he growled as he flexed his hips and thrust. Then I felt it, the instant he found his release. I could feel him coming inside me for what felt like forever.

His whole-body trembling, he collapsed beside me on the bed, and as he reached for my hand, we both laughed as we stared up at the ceiling. Because we were back together, and judging by we'd just shared, better than ever.

He gave my hand a squeeze. "So, I'm thinking we should try and look for a piece of land, maybe near that beach we always liked."

I nodded. "And it's not a bad commute to the city."

"As soon as it starts to warm up, we should head up there, and have a look around."

I was so elated, I cupped his face in my hands and kissed him, because I could hardly believe we were making plans for our future, when I'd thought we were done.

I heard Michael in the shower, when I went into the kitchen, to make a pot of tea. I was at the kitchen counter, clad in just his t-shirt, when I felt him come up behind me and start nuzzling my neck. The most delicious little shiver went through me when he slid his hands under the shirt, pushing it up, as he cupped my breasts in his hands, and started sliding his erection against my backside.

He still felt a little damp. And I couldn't believe that he'd walked out of the shower, deciding to have a little fun in the kitchen, without even getting dressed.

I pushed everything out of the way, so I could clutch the counter as he breathed against my ear, "How 'bout you bend over just a bit." As he smoothed his hands down over my bare backside and squeezed.

I smirked at him over my shoulder. "So, I'm guessing the tea's is going to have to wait."

He nodded his head, and gave me the naughtiest smile as he slipped a finger inside me, while tugging at my left nipple and making me gasp.

"Is it getting hot in here, or is it just me?" I asked, when he added a second finger, and worked me over till I was not only seeing stars but I was dripping wet.

"I was thinking in the shower, how hot you'd look walking around the kitchen, wearing nothing but my t-shirt. And I just had to see for myself."

Then he bent his knees and started thrusting. I could feel him stretching me, as he pushed his way inside me, nibbling at my ear and tugging my earlobe with his teeth, almost making me climax.

"You feel so tight this way."

I looked back and smirked. "And you feel huge."

He dug his hand into my hip, and reached around and worked my clit with the other, while pumping into me nice and steady. I was getting so close, I had to try to remember how to breathe.

"Oooh, I'm coming really hard," I cried out, pushing back, and meeting him thrust for thrust.

"I'm right here with you, baby." He let out a long, deep groan and I felt him flex his hips and push into me really deep.

I had a death grip on the counter, and I could feel every pulse of his cock as he climaxed, till he had me dripping onto the floor.

He wrapped me in his arms and held me against his chest, as we both shook, gasping for air. "I don't know how I even survived these last few months without you," he whispered against my ear.

"I know," was all I could get out. I was so breathless, after being taken that hard, I was afraid my legs were about to give out.

He chuckled at the way I gasped, when he lifted me off my feet, tossed me over his shoulder, and gave my backside a little swat. "I think we'd better go wash up before we have breakfast."

We had always loved showering together, mostly because we did more fooling around and laughing than washing.

With the warm water pelting down on us, he cupped my face in his hands and kissed me under the spray, while I enjoyed the feeling of running my soapy hands over his chest, and down over his abs, till I smiled when I found what I was looking for, giving his balls a little massage.