The mornings without her and that I didn’t have to work were the worst ones to pass by. There simply weren’t enough chores around our tiny apartment to keep me busy for long enough to not start to miss having her around. Fortunately, today, we had made plans for me to go to her campus so we could have lunch together. We’d have about an hour and a half to be together before she had to go to her next class. It was a shame how that would be the most couple-ly thing we’d do in the past two weeks.

“Haah, no point in complaining about that,” I said to the potato I was peeling.

We knew things would be like this. We knew that University would be a lot more demanding in time, now more than ever since it was the end of the semester. Abby had completed all of her exams, but there were still assignments to deliver hogging up her time to spend with me, her wife. I had to give her teachers some credit, it was kinda genius in a way. The assignments were given at the start of the semester and were long and demanding, forcing the students to keep up with their studies while also providing the students with a parachute in case they messed up their exams. That’s as far as I'm willing to compliment them because thanks to that, Abby and I haven’t...

“Haah, come on Violet! It’s just for another week! Then, you and Abby can go out... stay in bed in the morning for a bit longer... more than just snuggle together and kiss goodnight...”

Spiritlessly, I tossed the chopped bits of potato into the pan. Hopefully, my bitter mood wouldn’t give the stew a bad taste. It was, after all, Abby’s favourite.

I sighed again and looked at the time to know when to check back on the food.

That was when I’d typically sit on the couch and watch some telly, but... between that and pulling teeth, I’d shrug. I already had it on to make some background noise, but even if I stared at it, I wouldn’t retain a single thing going on. What I wanted was to take a shower. A hot shower. A type of shower that had been impossible the past week.

“Stupid old gas heater!” I hissed at the damned source of my current frustration as I moved to the front door to see who had rung the bell.

“Good morning!” the distorted man's voice said through the old intercom. “Is this the address of a lady called Violet Evergreen?”

Despite the static, I still heard it clear enough to know it wasn’t somebody I knew. That, and the fact he didn’t know for sure it was my address. My friends and family had a text with it that Abby and I sent when we moved here for Abby’s studies.

“Indeed, it is. Is it a delivery?” I asked.

“No ma’am, I’m here because you have a problem with the heater, if memory serves me.”

Just the person I wanted to see if we don’t count with Abby.

I buzzed him in and opened the door to wait for him outside.

Up the stairs, all the way to the fifth floor—this building had the elevator out of order again, apparently—came a middle-aged man, slightly rotund and clean-shaven. His cap had the logo of his company and under the overalls he wore a lumberjack’s shirt with the sleeves rolled up over his elbows. He also carried a heavy-looking toolbox in his hand that rattled with its contents.

“Nothing like a bit of exercise to keep in shape,” he joked with a wide smile as he offered his empty hand for a shake. “The overalls say Carl, but I’m actually Jack. Carl is my dad.”

I thanked him for coming and he apologised for only now being able to answer our call. To make some chit-chat as I guided him through the six steps it took to walk from the front door to the kitchen where the heater was, I asked him if they were seeing a lot of work.

“Oh yes! My dad and I run a small business, so we never get to sit on our hands this time of the year! I don’t think I’ll even have time for lunch today! You live alone here?”

I was going to tell him that I shared the apartment with my wife but stopped when I heard him whistle. The heater we had at the apartment we rented apparently was old and, by his account, built like a tank.

“You said it doesn’t heat the water? I bet my good overalls in how it’s just soot build-up.”

I wondered if that was how he ended up wearing his dad’s overalls.

“Do you think it’ll take long?”

“Not at all!” he told me with a cheer that was starting to feel slightly off-putting to me. I was aware that I was particularly cranky, so I didn’t pay much mind to that feeling. “Ah! Just like I thought!”

“...”

Now was a good time to leave, right? Question was, to where?

There was no wall separating the kitchen from the entrance or living room, and going to the bedroom or bathroom would also be a bit rude. Why did I even think about leaving in the first place?

Still bad at dealing with people, huh?

Being a housewife while also working part-time as a librarian also didn’t help much. Silence there, silence at home, the only interaction I had with people was the odd person asking if we had a book in inventory and where it was, plus, the cashiers at the supermarket. I enjoyed the piece that brought, but it could sometimes feel a bit lonely, and when I had to entertain people for some reason or another, well, you can see how it’d go.

“Sorry, I think I interrupted you back there. You were saying?”

“Yes, erm, I live here with my wife.”

“Already married? You look no older than my daughter.”

Unsure how to respond, I staggered a “we had our plans for the future kinda figured out” that probably didn’t sound too convincing.

“Is your wife at work?”

“In class. At the university.”

He looked at me very excited, asking in what year and class she was, adding that Abby and his daughter might be classmates. Turns out, they weren’t, but I knew someone who might be.

The talk then shifted to be about us. What I did, where we came from, how we were adapting to living in a new town.

“I sometimes worry, and I’m sure your parents do too. I don’t think I’d be able to sleep for a whole month if my daughter moved away to another town.”

Yeah, my poor dad probably suffered the same, although the house wasn’t left empty when I left. That silly worrywart would call me twice each week despite me calling him once every week, mostly on the weekends. He got better though, it used to be almost every day. I think Sophie told him to stop with so many phone calls, and I was yet to confirm that and thank her if that were the case.

“All right miss, all done!” he told me after we adjusted the strength of the flame. Now that it was clean, as it was previously set, you’d easily scald yourself.

“How much do I owe you?”

“Oh no! I couldn’t possibly charge a young couple that don’t have full-time jobs and one being a student for something so measly as just a bit of spraying and scrubbing!”

And while I was grateful for his kindness, I also couldn’t let him go without giving him some sort of compensation for his time, so, after some negotiating, I managed to convince him to take some leftovers. The nice scent coming from what I was cooking was what convinced him. His words, not mine.

“Haah, finally!” I said after he left, and I checked if I could go for a shower before turning off the stove. To be clear, I wasn’t saying this because he left, not fully anyway, but because I could finally treat myself to a hot shower.

The winter wind had a way of getting under the skirt of my dress, not lifting it to a point that I’d be showing anything meant only for Abby, but enough to give me a chill. Choosing to come dressed cutely over being warm wasn’t the wisest idea, I'll admit, but I was still committed to it. Still, maybe I could have put on an extra pair of tights.

Getting to her campus was a hassle, mostly because of how chaotic this town was compared to our hometown. People were always in a rush, and some barely made any effort not to bump into me. If I tried to be positive, then I could say that at least the air quality was a bit better now than when Abby made the same commute.

I hoped Abby would get a job in a small town. Big towns are nice because they have pretty much everything and in such amounts that everything was available at a stone’s throw away, but I found it a bit exhausting.

“I thought it was you,” a familiar voice came from the side as I wandered around campus, trying to find my way based on the directions Abby had given me.

“Hi, Vanessa.”

“Hi. Looking for Abby?”

“Yeah. Can you point me to where classroom A334 is?”

“I have to attend a class now, but I can lead you to a map so you can check it.”

That was just as good for me.

I thought about asking her if she knew the daughter of the man who repaired my heater but gave up on that. Although we talked... normally, we still were just acquaintances. Barely. On good terms, but not friends. Polite to each other.

...I give up.

Trying to describe our relationship is too much of a bother. The map she led me to on the other hand...

“Why couldn’t they have made it like this back in our high school?” I thought out loud as I looked at it.

“Anyway, I have to go. Erm, see ya around, I guess.”

“Ah! Yeah, erm, thanks for the help.”

Like I said, we were weird with one another. Abby says that we could all have been friends if we had a better start, but... I’m not so sure.

So... the letter indicates the side of the building and the first number the floor...

If I were pettier, I’d snap a photo and send it to my old school with the message “See? This is how it’s done!”

Jokes aside, I now knew where to go. Up two sets of stairs and to the front side of the building.

...They are looking...

Two, erm... boys... men... guys, I’ll go with guys, were staring at me up and down as they walked past me. I clearly saw them in the reflexion of the glass pane that protected the map. Maybe I put too much effort into my looks before leaving. Thankfully, they looked and nodded to each other in approval, but didn’t follow through with some pick-up line. That already happened once or twice while at the supermarket, one of those with me and Abby holding hands. I don’t think that’d ever happen back in our old place.

Before making my way to her classroom, I used the reflexion to fix the damage the wind cause, tidying up my hair. I didn’t want her classmates thinking that she was married to some a slob.

“Is this it?” I thought as I made the mistake of peeking inside the amphitheatre-style classroom I had been looking for.

Abby was there, sitting on the third row. She looked bored out of her gourd, but that was only until she noticed me, which was a split second after I leaned in. Once she did, she lightened up like a Christmas tree and started waving without a single thought about where she was.

“S-sorry to disturb your class,” I said to the confused teacher that stared at me as I waved back to Abby. He assured me it was fine while starting to smile and then asked if I was a friend of hers.

“Hehe, that’s my wife!” Abby said as she clapped her hands on the table and bobbed side to side on the bench. “We are having lunch together after this!”

“Oh! So, you two are married?” the teacher asked, now smiling in amusement.

“Y-yeah,” I confirmed while showing him the ring. “For over two years and three months now...”

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“Hehe, oh dear, you could have just said that we’ve been married for two years,” Abby giggled.

The teacher nicely invited me in, and Abby gave me no choice of refusal by scooting over and telling me to go sit with her with handwaves and a wide, radiant smile.

Once I sat on the unpadded wooden seat, she pushed her notes out of habit to the middle of us so that I too could read them if I wanted.

The teacher carried on with his class and, before ending it and sending everybody for lunch, he’d like to see if anyone could answer the question he was writing on the whiteboard.

Oh! I know that! Abby was studying this last night!”

Frustratingly, nobody was raising their hands, and it was driving me crazy.

“Honey,” I hushed to Abby.

“Fine, since you asked,” she snickered before raising her hand. That smile was giving me a bad feeling. “Can my wife answer?”

“A-Abby!?” I gasped at the betrayal.

“Sure! If she wants to, I’m willing to hear her answer.”

With everyone’s attention and Abby’s expectations resting on my shoulders, I had to answer. For months I had been happy about being free from school with just the occasional school nightmare, but there I was, back in a classroom and having to answer a quiz.

Differently from some of the dreams, my answer was correct, earning some scrutiny from the teacher as to whether I had studied his subject before.

It was something we always did after dinner. We’d sit on the couch, Abby either leaning against me, lying across with her stomach on my legs, lying on the couch with her head on my lap while I rubbed her full stomach, or sitting between my legs while I hugged her, and she’d study her notes and the PDFs her teachers provided as material. Most of the time, I’d be watching over her shoulder, curious to see what she was being taught. It also made it so that I didn’t have to ask her about it at the end of a long day of classes.

Some girls at the back went “aww” when hearing Abby talk about that small part of our routine. Not sharing our embarrassing seating bits, of course. She knew I’d be very embarrassed and would sulk for a long while if she did.

“I can’t exactly slack off if my wife is also studying despite not needing to, right?”

“You hear that class? Get yourself a wife like this,” the teacher joked right as the bell rang, marking the end of that class.

Some of Abby’s classmates asked if I was going to join them at the cafeteria as we made our way out of the room, but she explained that we’d be eating together somewhere else, me nodding in the background.

Before leaving us, they said it was nice having met me. Without knowing how to properly answer, I thanked them for their words and for hanging out with Abby while on campus.

Some more people came, some to say that we made a cute couple, others to offer their congratulations on our almost two-year marriage. It was a solid ten minutes before we could finally talk with each other without interruptions.

“As popular as always,” I tell her once we reach outside, the cold air feeling refreshing on my flushed face.

“Hehe, jelly?” she asked as she hugged my arm. ”Also, look who’s talking! You’ve just been here for little more than ten minutes, and everyone is already all lovestruck by you.”

“Oh, you’re exaggerating!”

“Am not!” she whined. “Boys having been looking at you as we walk and my heart went all squealy and melty when I saw you at the door!” she tells me while rubbing her face on me, like a cat marking its territory.

“Well... that sounds like a ‘you’ problem to me,” I bashfully joked as I pinched her cheek. “Anyway, where are we eating?”

She excitedly said she knew just the spot as she pulled my arm.

She led me across the campus, all the way to the huge multi-store sports hall her university had. And when I say huge, I mean it!

By what Abby told me, and I was about to confirm with my eyes, the place had two Olympic-sized pools and a multipurpose room on the ground floor, courts for tennis and badminton on the covered roof, a soccer field at the second, three basketball fields on the third and a track on the fourth.

“Abby, are we supposed to be here?” I asked when I saw her unlock a door to the roof.

“Do not worry, my dear! As this week’s field manager, I’m allowed to walk freely around the place. On a more serious note, as long as we don’t break anything nor leave trash behind, it’ll be fine.”

“...Are you sure?”

She pushed the door open with her rear while goading me to follow her with a smile filled to the brim with mischief that I couldn’t resist following.

Despite being on the roof, the place was well guarded against the wind by a wall of glass or transparent plastic that connected to the tarp cover that shielded the roof from rain while also letting in the sun. Now that it was winter, it worked as some sort of greenhouse, keeping the air reasonably warm and pleasant, at least when compared to the outside.

“Violet, here!” she urged me, ignoring the fact that she was again hugging my arm as she led me around.

She guided us to sit under the benches, facing the campus grounds while our backs were turned to where we came from.

As I prepared our food and utensils, I felt her small hand caress my thighs.

Laughing, I told her she could do that once we had eaten. I brought enough food for her to gorge herself and be rendered completely dormant until it was time for her to go to another class, a lap pillow being in order as she recovered.

“You really dolled yourself up today,” she told me as she leaned to kiss my face as I handed her share. “I think I fell in love all over again when I saw you.”

“Fufu, thanks, honey. What juice will you have?”

“What? No wine?” she whined.

“We are at school and you’re a lightweight.”

“And so are you,” she grumbled with a pout.

True, but while she only needed a glass of wine to get all giggly and flushed, I needed two. It still wasn’t all that much, but it was still double than her amount.

Her pout only lasted until she stuffed her mouth with a large portion of her favourite dish, meat stew, letting out a squealy moan as she bobbed side to side with gleeful satisfaction.

“It gets better every time!” she cheered after swallowing and preparing an equally large mouthful.

“Fufu, glad to hear that!”

It had been a while since we last ate lunch together on a weekday. It had been a bit longer since we had a date like this during the week too. Becoming an adult had some downsides, this being undeniably one.

“All done!”

“Already?”

“Yup! It was that good!” she cheered. “Can I play with your legs now?”

As long as she kept that acceptable for all ages. Before that though, I had to wipe her mouth with a napkin because she missed a spot. Then, a kiss, because she lingered while angled towards me with half-closed eyes and a naughty smile. And another longer one because I felt like it.

“Mmh, hehe! I know what I’ll be having for dessert.”

She’d have to wait a bit because I wasn’t done eating yet. Not a problem at all because that allowed her to use my lap as a pillow, rubbing her face and running her hands about, solely lamenting that I was wearing tights instead of having my legs bare. She even asked if she could take them out, but I gave her a resounding no. I knew very well how things went when one of us started taking off articles of clothing of the other.

“I know a nice closet,” she said, rolling on her back.

“I’m not making love in a broom closet,” I huffed as I placed my empty food box back in my bag.

“It’s not a broom closet, it’s a big storage one! Come on! It'll be fun!”

“Don’t be... promiscuous.”

“Humph. Says the girl who took my virginity in her backyard without confessing first. And who made love with me in the woods on a full moon. And that—”

“Ok! Ok! Stop bringing up embarrassing stuff.”

She laughed and raised her body to start pecking my lips, telling me not to get mad at her because she was only joking.

I knew that, and she knew it too, so I hugged her and pulled her down and to the side so we could at least make out for a bit.

When our hearts felt fulfilled, I got on my back while Abby snuggled against me, and I pulled one of her legs over and between mine to help me stay a bit warmer.

“I’m so full,” she moaned after letting out a muffled burp.

That was my cue to move a hand to her tummy and start rubbing, Abby adjusting her position for me to hit the right spot. Some time later, she appeared to be soundly asleep, and so, I shut my eyes to join her in her nap.

“Seriously now,” she said with a low sigh, not having been as asleep as I thought she was. “I do know a nice storage closet if you’re in the mood. It’s got mattresses we use for gym activities that are whipped clean and disinfected after each use.”

“I already told you, I’m not making love in a closet, no matter how nice it is. Still... sounds more comfortable than staying on this floor, so let’s go there anyway.”

Abby got up snickering while poking jokes at my tendency for going after comfort whenever I could and offered her hand to help me get up.

We made it all the way back to the ground floor to the multipurpose space that was there, and she unlocked the door of the storage closet. The air was surprisingly dust-free and warm while the space itself was filled to its maximum capacity. It was very likely that they had to take some stuff out to be able to grab what they needed from the back on some days.

“Come here, sexy lady!” Abby called, slapping the piled mattresses she sat on.

“It really is nice, as far as storage closets go,” I told her half-absentmindedly as I sat by her.

“...In the mood now?” she asked, moving the farthest leg over mine and tugging at my collar.

It was hard not to after a meal, making out with her and now being alone in a relatively comfortable room with her. And as I realised that, I also realised something.

“Are you?” I asked her to confirm my suspicions.

“I mean... it’s been a week, hasn’t it?”

“Two, actually.”

“Two already? I’m sorry Violet. I didn’t mean to neglect you like that.”

“No, don’t say sorry. I understand that—huh!? Abby, what are you doing!?”

Without any sort of warning, she hopped on my lap, straddling me and pulling my coat all the way down to my wrists, effectively locking my hands behind my back. I tried telling her to stop, but with how forceful she was being as she kissed and nibbled my neck and collarbone, I only managed to let out a moany whimper.

“Won’t you please make love to me?” she asked with a pleading voice and eyes, making me bite my lip as I found it impossible to say no.

“We really need to learn self-retrain,” I said as I stared towards the ceiling at the hanging shorts I had stripped away from Abby, now that some clarity of mind possessed me.

“I refuse,” Abby protested while nibbling and kissing the hand of the arm I had around her shoulders. “Spontaneous moments like these are some of the best moments we ever have.”

I found it hard to argue with her, but also, there were her shorts hanging above my head on a ceiling lamp.

I told her that, for starters, we should put the clothes we took off back on. Abby disagreed with that too, moving to sit on top of me and whining that she wanted to do it again. Seeing me grow reticent, she even bobbed up and down to try and persuade me.

I sat up and placed an arm around her waist, my beloved wife assuming that was me relenting. Abby got to work, kissing and fondling my chest while I reached into my bag and pulled out my phone. After checking the time, I told her she’d be late if we went for a second round, but she wasn’t persuaded to stop, saying it’d be fine since she only had to deliver the next class's assignment by email at the end of the week and attendance wasn’t part of the overall evaluation.

It was fine then, that part of my issue with going for seconds. It was the smaller part of my issue though, the biggest one being that what we did and were doing was illegal and grounds for her to be expelled and us, at the very least, fined.

“Babe, I locked the door and checked the schedule. Nobody will be coming here until next week when everyone is free from school stuff.”

“I knew it! You’ve planned all this,” I hummed, finally setting my other arm around her neck.

She stuck her tongue out with an impish look about her. She let her tongue linger too long out and I managed to grab it between my index and thumb, giving Abby a chew toy until I kissed her french style since it was still out when our lips met, and I had decided to go ahead with her—and my—urges.

“Can I be topsies?” she asked in a low, sweet tone.

I kissed her again and tumbled back while pulling her along, Abby letting out a low “yay” with a huge smile.

For all my talk of being adults now, we were still showing no signs of growing up regarding that side of us. But honestly, I think that was for the better. Well, maybe not when it resulted in us breaking the law, but it’s been only this time and the rest of the time was comfortably within the legality of things, so yeah, I think so.

After another two rounds and a twenty-minute nap, we finally felt ready to leave. As she put my tights back on, kissing my legs as she moved up, I told her about our heater having been fixed and how I ended up paying for it.

“Let’s have a warm bath together tonight then,” Abby told me as she got up and wrapped her arms around my waist. “Maybe continue what we’ve been doing here?”

I asked if she’d be ok doing a break like that when she was still so busy, but she was adamant that it’d be fine and that she needed to relax a bit so she could better survive the rest of the week.

“Plus, I need to compensate for having neglected my dear wifey for so long,” she said as a finish before giving me a sweet kiss.

I tried telling her she didn’t need to do any of that, but every time I opened my mouth, she’d tip-toe and silence me with a kiss.

“Thanks, honey,” I sighed in defeat, getting a big kiss as a reward.

To spare her from stretching so much, I lowered my head and pulled her up by her bum, the latter reminding me of the exchange we did as another of her requests when we started dressing.

“What?” she asked, her eyes glistening with love and curiosity as hearts practically hovered over her head.

I told her that it was nothing and hurried her to get to class,.

She called me a party-pooper and combed her hair, something on her now exposed neck catching my eye.

“Honey, wait! Don’t leave with your hair like that,” I told her as I pulled her hair back to the original position.

“...A hickey?” she asked, a wry smile forming on her face.

“...Yeah.”

“Hmm... You really were pent up, huh? Being careless like that,” she teased, taking a cruel pleasure in my shame. “Sit down, will you?”

I had a guess about what her plan was, that being confirmed when she straddled me again and combed my hair out of the way. Right under my ear was where she bit and suck.

“Hehe, now we are even. Erm, babe?”

Don’t push her down! Don’t push her down! Don’t push her down!

Seeing what was going on my mind, she got up and backed away without breaking eye contact, like I was some sort of animal about to attack her. I mean... I was, but still...

“I’ll go grab the disinfectant for the mattress, you can stay there and cool down in the meantime,” she said, peeking through the door.

“...Thanks.”

When I got back home, I went to the bathroom to remove my make-up and have a talk with my reflexion.

“Honestly, what are you, some sort of rabbits?” I asked.

I swore to myself that it’d never happen again. It wasn’t likely anyway. It happened because Abby was put in charge of filed management that week. How likely would it be that it’d happen again? Still... it had been... fun.

Humph... naughty little imp... planning that kind of stunt knowing I can’t resist her cuteness...

A big part of the reason why I fell, and still was, completely and utterly in love with her, but boy, was she a handful.

I tossed the dress into the washer because of me having lied down on a floor and might have also caught some dust from the floor of the storage closet when Abby took it out and tossed it over her shoulder. Then, out of the bathroom and into the bedroom I went to change into something homier. As I pulled down my tights to change into my PJ, I saw that mascot chick and was struck with another wave of loneliness and there were no house chores for me to keep myself busy until I had to prepare our dinner. The apartment was so quiet that an unsettling buzz was heard in my ears as I stared down. Looking up wasn’t any better because in front of the bed was our full-body mirror, and I was seeing the mismatched bra and bottoms through it. I got so lonely that the pitiful image of seeing me with my thighs still around my knees because I simply lost the energy to completely remove them as I limply stared to my knickers wasn’t enough for me snap out of the slump and get moving again.

That started two summers ago because Abby would get lonely when alone at home after we had a moment of passion and I had to go to work. Funny how the roles reversed. She once explained to me that wearing mine after me made her feel less lonely when we were apart, even more than a simple shirt or something else. I kinda agreed with that, but not when I saw them. Then, I’d really miss her. I really loved my wife too much.

“Come to think of it... I don’t think I told Abby that I love her today...”

Not in a verbal manner anyway, and that was easily remedied. It was also just what my heart was needed as a fix for my Abby-lackness. A text would also let her know that I made it back home safe, so it was a no-brainer before I slumped in our bed and tried to nap the time away.

Later that day, after she came back, while we soaked in the bathtub and we had almost completely drunk the bottle of wine Abby got on her way back, I was told by a rowdy, chirpy and undoubtedly loveable creature that I had texted her in the middle of class. Seeing my unexpected text telling her that I had made home safe, had enjoyed our lunch together and that I loved her and couldn’t wait for her to get home to my arms gave Abby a giggling fit in front of everyone that she then had a hard time explaining.

That certainly explained why she only answered back a while later and with “Gee, you xp”.