Patient [s.m]

1.

The bed next to me is empty, and it contained only the imprint of the body that lied previously in it. Lines and marks are made in the sheets and I run my hand over the spot - it's not warm anymore. I look at the time on my watch from my nightstand, 9:47 in the morning.

I hear the shower down the hall run on and the television downstairs turns on. My phone buzzes on the nightstand and I reach over to get it and check all of my notifications before going to my text messages.

From: Amor Eterno
     Took Bella to Ally's this morning, her mom is gonna take them both to their comp and bring her to Tino's graduation. She has her spare clothes already

I get up from the bed and sharply inhale, placing my hand at my abdomen before slowly exhaling and walking gently to the bathroom, where I checked at my slow fading surgical scars.

"You're enjoying this." I say to Shawn. He gently set me down on the bed, having carried me up the stairs and into our bedroom. "Does my pain amuse you?"

"No." He says with a smug smile. Shawn removed his sweater and handed it to me and I carefully put it on with his help. He untucks my hair from the neckline and kisses my forehead. "It's funny seeing the tables turned for a change."

I raise my eyebrow at him and he tucks me in the covers comfortably.

"You always help me up those stairs while I'm bruised, sore and drunk from a winning fight. And then you heal me better than any doctor can. And here I am, carrying you up the stairs and tending to you." Shawn says. "It's...nice, in a way."

"You're returning the favor." I muse.

Shawn laughs and he clasps his hands together. "Do you remember when you felt like you had to return the favor of sucking my ...?"

"That's enough!"

The scars were supposed to have faded by now, but late nights at the office and working from home distracted me from applying the cream directed for its use. I reach for the mirror and open it up and take out cocoa butter, toner, and face serum before closing up the mirror once more.

The reflection of a happily married mother of three stares back at me. Her skin shines with delight and her collarbone length hair sways with every move of her head.

"What would you do if I cut it too short?" Shawn asks me as we sit in bed talking with one another.

"Probably stop putting in product. Let me natural hair do its thing." I shrug.

Shawn smiles, wiggling his brows, then gets up and heads to the bathroom before entering back into the room. He holds a pair of hair scissors and comes back onto the bed.

"You're not gonna divorce me?" Shawn asks.

I let out a laugh at his odd concern. "No!"

"Good." And with that, he begins to snip my hair.

The walk down the hall is easy and simple than before. It's the stairs that are still uneasy.

"Babe," I call down to Sebastian. "Come help me down the stairs, please."

"Coming!" Sebastian, almost 21, says as he comes into view at the bottom of the large wooden staircase. He looks so much like Shawn, sometimes it freaks me out.

"You know you're looking more and more like your father every day." I say.

Sebastian stands in front of the mirror as he adjusts his tuxedo before he went to go pick up his prom date. He looks at me from the mirror reflection and does a playful eye roll. "Really?"