“Week. Month. Year. Century.”
“The twenty-first, or the past hundred years in general? I mean, you don’t look a day past thirty, but the work people can do these days is amazing.”
“Darling, I have a confession. I am the immortal undead. It’s why I still pay taxes, and get blisters when I wear those shoes you like.”
Paul snorts his laughter, rolling his eyes as he does and toeing his shoes off. He kicks them out to the bedroom, throwing his socks after them, before turning his attention back to Astoria, lounging in his bathtub with a paperback and a glass of wine.
“Can I expect you to break into my apartment for a bath any time you have a long day?”
“Hey, you gave me a key, I texted you to say I was coming, and my apartment has a walk-in shower and no bath tub.”
His shirt comes next – and Astoria always loves this, watching him undress, watching how eager he is to get his clothes tossed aside so he can get his bare skin on hers, loves watching the mess he makes – and then his pants, and she reaches out of the bathtub to set her book on the closed toilet seat. Without waiting for instruction, Astoria shifts forward; the water rises around them, moving as he does, settling once he’s seated himself against the back of the tub, legs on either side of Astoria, her back against his chest when she leans into him.
Long fingers card through her hair, strands of blonde clinging to his wet skin, and Paul pulls her hair to one side in favor of pressing his lips against her shoulder. “Patient?”
“Yeah. A kid. We did everything we could, but sometimes it’s just – not enough.” She finishes the last of her wine before setting the glass down on the tile floor next to the bath tub, letting out a rush of breath at his arms sneaking around her waist. “I don’t know. I was shaky after that. The Chief sent me home – said I needed to get some sleep, get some time away from the hospital, and you’ve met him, you know how he is. When the Chief of Surgery tells you to do something, you do it, except that I – I couldn’t sleep, and I didn’t want to be alone, and losing kids, Paul, that never gets any easier, that never gets any less awful.”
She feels him nod, rather than sees it, but it’s a comfort all the same, even if his understanding is limited to what he knows. And how different their worlds are, how strange that when she’s lost she comes here, to him, when he’s just as lost as she is.
Someone else would push her to talk it through. Paul understands that she’s DONE. Instead, he tightens his arms around her again. “I’m glad you’re here. Do you want to stay the night? I was planning on getting takeout.”
“Yeah. Yeah, that’s fine – if you don’t mind, I’d like that.”
“Wouldn’t have offered if I hadn’t meant it.”
Astoria turns, offers the most genuine smile that she can, presses a kiss to his jaw before settling back into him. She’s comfortable, like this, she’s SAFE. She hadn’t ever imagined that this would be where she found the quiet she needed, and yet –
– her fingers lace into his, where they rest in her lap, and she closes her eyes. “Tell me about your day.”