Her Normal

Chapter 31

"Obviously you wouldn't have anyone to cook for you," I said. He rolled his eyes at me.

"Obviously I wouldn't have anyone to make snarky comments back to my rhetorical questions."

"Exactly."

We went on through the evening, chatting and laughing together. Occasionally, I'd sneak up behind him and tickle his sides while he was washing dishes. He decided he'd had enough and splashed me with soapy water in retaliation. I stood there with soap running down my face, glaring at him.

"Oh really?" I asked. He looked strained trying to hold back his laughter. I went ahead and took one of the cups from the sink and filled it with the warm water, pouring it over his head. His hair flopped down into his eyes and he turned to me, fake pouting.

"That wasn't very nice," he whined. I laughed and almost felt bad before he decided I needed a hug and squeezed the life out of me while transferring some of the water from him to me. He laughed at me before it became an all-out war.

I took the dish soap and squirted it all over him, making him smell like fresh meadow tree and he threw a soaking wet sponge at me from across the room. I took the sink hose and sprayed him with cold water, earning a girly shriek of surprise. While I was busy laughing, he filled a bucket with even colder water, evening adding ice without catching my attention. He poured it over my head and I screamed before laughing and tackling him onto the floor and putting ice down his shirt. By the time we were finished being children, the floor was covered in water, as were we. I looked over at Spencer who just sat there, looking like a cat who had just gotten an involuntary bath from its owner. This made me burst into hysterical laughter, which in turn made him laugh.

We sat together, laughing like a bunch of lunatics. After a few minutes, I calmed down. I looked over, watching him giggle like a 5 year old. Something about his face made me feel a genuine happiness that I hadn't felt since before the miscarriage. I took in his watery eyes, the apples of his rosy cheeks and the dimples below them. My gaze soon dropped to his smile; the smile that gave me mine. If I had a dime for every time his smile caused me to smile, neither of us would be working. I looked up to his eyes that were now wide open, taking in my features as I had done to him. Once he realized we were both on the same page, he focused back in on my eyes and I grinned at him.

"Hi," I said, trying to fill the silence.

"Hey," he chuckled.

"You know we have to clean this up, right?" I asked. He rolled his eyes.

"I know. We should probably dry off and get changed first though," he suggested. I agreed and we both trudged up the stairs, trying our best not to drip water everywhere.

We changed and walked back downstairs, mopping up our mess and drying up all the counters. By the time we were finished, it was like 11 o'clock and we were both exhausted. I let him carry me to bed again that night, happy to feel so close to him. It felt like we had broken through the barrier that separated us due to the tragedies of the past few months. When we crawled in bed together, he laid his head on my chest and I fingered through his now dry and poofy hair. I hummed You Are My Sunshine to him until I heard his light snoring that I listened to almost every night.

"Maddie," I heard Spencer whisper. "Hey, wake up."

I opened my eyes slightly and frowned at him. It was 4:34 in the morning. "What?"