Boring

Brody went into work on Saturday, and Ken was gone for most of the day as well.  I went into town and went to the gym, then had lunch with Lauren.  "Why do you have to ruin my Labor Day weekend with camping?" she grumbled.

"It'll be fun!" I said cheerfully.  "You always had fun when you came with my family."

She rolled her eyes.  "That's because we were camping in Wisconsin where the scariest thing that exists are the mosquitos."  Despite her general "no fear" attitude, Lauren was actually quite scared of a variety of wildlife.

I laughed.  "Lauren, we're going to a state park that's practically in the city.  I don't think you need to worry too much about terrifying creatures."

"Well now you jinxed it! Damn you," she replied.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to," I pointed out.

"Well I'm certainly not going to sit home by myself while my boyfriend and all my friends go camping all weekend!" she responded indignantly.  I threw up my hands in mock frustration and laughed.

"So, your boyfriend, huh?  Things are better?"

"Things are better," she confirmed.  "We talked.  It didn't start out very well, and I put my foot in my mouth a couple times, but we talked and it's better.  For now."

"What do you mean?"

She shrugged.  "I don't know.  All relationships get a routine eventually, right?  They all get boring?  What if I never outgrow my need for chasing and doing new things?"

I considered this.  "I think if you're with the right person, it doesn't have to get boring.  At least not forever.  Everyone will have boring stretches, I think.  But if you're with the right person, and you both like to keep things interesting, that makes a difference."

"Easy for you to say," she muttered.  "You like boring."

"I do not!" I protested.  "I just have a different concept of what's exciting than you do."

In true Lauren style, she abruptly changed the subject and the rest of our lunch conversation was much more pleasant.  I filled her in on wedding stuff and we talked about that for awhile, then she told me some stories about work.  We took our time and enjoyed our lunch, and then I headed home.

The house was still quiet and empty when I got there, so I took advantage of that and did some wedding stuff for awhile, then turned on my music and cleaned the house.  I cleaned the entire second floor and most of the main floor.  I was still happily cleaning away with terrible music blasting when Ken came in.  "Sorry," I said, quickly turning down my music.

"No problem, I won't be here long anyway," he said.  He went into the kitchen and pulled a few things out of the fridge.

"You're almost as busy as Brody," I joked.

"Not even close," he said.  He smiled at me briefly, then returned his attention to the sandwich he was making.  I put away my cleaning supplies and headed upstairs to get out of his way.

I decided to tackle organizing my closet, which had become rather disastrous in the last few weeks, and was still knee deep in clothes and shoes when Brody came in.  "I am so glad I don't have to share a closet with you," he said, watching me toss clothes into two separate piles.

"I have too many clothes," I grumbled.

"Well, it didn't look like quite so many when they were all hanging up where they belong," he pointed out, laughing.  He sat on the bed and continued to watch me.  I picked up a random shirt from my donate pile and chucked it at him.  He caught it easily and threw it back.  It hit me in the arm and I laughed.   "What did you do today, besides clean?  Please tell me you haven't been cleaning all day, or I'll feel bad."

"If I tell you I was cleaning all day, will you feel bad enough to finish the rest of it up?" I asked.

"No, I won't feel that bad!"

"Jerk," I said, laughing.  "No, I wasn't cleaning all day.  I went to the gym and had lunch with Lauren too.  And did some wedding stuff."

"What wedding stuff?" he asked, getting more comfortable laying on the bed on his stomach.

"Just some emailing with Leigh about annoying detail stuff--linen colors and table configurations and such."  Brody made a face.  "That's what I thought.  We do need to figure out food, though."

"Tomorrow?" he asked.  "I'm beat."

"Tomorrow is fine," I replied.  "I didn't mean we had to do it now."

I separated the last few items of clothing, then shoved the "keep" pile into my closet and closed the door.  I'd deal with that tomorrow.  I tossed the "donate" pile into the bag I'd brought up, then leaned it against my closet door.  Brody was still laying face down on the bed, and now he had his arms crossed in front of him and his head down on his arms with his eyes closed.  I climbed onto the bed and straddled his legs so I could give him a back massage.  He shifted, then sighed happily.

"Mmm, you're going to put me to sleep," he mumbled, as I worked on the tight muscles in his shoulders.  "Ohh, or maybe not," he said, as I dug my fingers into a tight knot just below his neck.

When I finished the massage, I flopped onto the bed next to him and we hung out there for almost 45 minutes, just talking and relaxing and enjoying each other's company.  We headed downstairs and made dinner together, then went and sat on the deck.  I considered this a pretty excellent Saturday, and I laughed to myself, remembering Lauren's words earlier. Brody looked at me and raised an eyebrow.  "Lauren told me I was boring today," I explained.  "But if this is boring, then I'm totally okay with it."

He laughed.  "I am too, I guess," he said.  "Honestly, I'm too busy and tired to not be boring most of the time.  Sometimes I do wish we did more exciting things, like traveled more or even went on more weekend trips, but I know we'll do those things someday when I slow down at work a little."

We continued our boring Saturday night in, then went to bed early.  Brody was exhausted from his week, and since it was always hit or miss if I slept or spent most of the night tossing and turning, I would rarely turn down the opportunity to go to bed early.

When I woke up on Sunday, Brody was already up and out of bed, which I was used to at this point.  He was not much for sleeping in most of the time, and he liked to get up and get some work done so we could have our Sunday afternoon/evening together.

When I walked downstairs, I was surprised to find that Brody had finished the cleaning I hadn't gotten to when I stopped to get out of Ken's way.  The living room was dusted and the hardwood was swept and clean and shiny.  The dishes from the night before were washed and put away and the counters and floor were clean.  I smiled and walked down the hall to Brody's office, knocking lightly on the frame of the half open door.  "Yeah?" he called from inside.

I pushed the door open and grinned at him.  "Thought you weren't going to finish the rest of the cleaning?" I teased him.

He laughed.  "No, I said I wouldn't feel that bad.  I didn't say anything about not finishing the rest."

I shook my head, smiling.  "Well, thank you.  Do you need anything?"

"More coffee?" he asked hopefully, holding out his empty coffee mug.  I grabbed the mug, went back to the kitchen, and filled it up and delivered it, then returned to the kitchen to find my own breakfast.  After I ate, I laid on the couch reading for awhile and then made myself go upstairs and finish up my closet project.

Brody came up while I was finishing in my closet and he said, "Let's be not boring today."

"Okay," I agreed.  "What would you like to do?"

"I have no idea.  Let's start by going out to lunch, and go from there?"

I laughed.  "No wonder we're boring.  But that sounds good to me."

We both showered and got ready to go, then headed into town.  We couldn't decide what we wanted to do after lunch, and neither of us was interested in doing something active like hiking--which would have normally been our go-to.  Eventually, we decided to drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park and drive through the park and maybe wander around a little.  Probably would have still qualified as "boring" in Lauren's book, but it was nice to have the uninterrupted time to talk.  We talked through a few wedding things and then talked about a bunch of really random things as we enjoyed the scenic drive.

We didn't get back home until it was dark, and Ken's car was in the driveway but the main floor of the house was dark.  He came up shortly after we came in though, and said, "I'm having dinner with some friends on Tuesday, and Dave suggested I invite you guys."

"I haven't seen Dave in ages," Brody said immediately.  "I'd love to go."  He looked at me.

"Yeah, I'll go," I agreed.

Ken nodded.  "He's bringing a couple other people I don't know too, so it will probably be a decent sized group."  He told us the details, then disappeared back downstairs.

Brody went to return a work call he'd gotten while we were out, and I headed upstairs to take a bath.  I had been relaxing in the tub for about 15 minutes when Brody came in.  "I'm glad that tub is finally being used," he said, smiling.  "Can I join you?"

"Of course," I replied.  I sat up and drained some of the water, replacing some of what I drained with fresh hot water and leaving the water level lower so we didn't flood the bathroom.  Brody quickly pulled his clothes off and carefully stepped into the tub behind me.  Once he was settled, I leaned back, getting comfortable against him.

He traced his fingers lightly up my arms, from my wrists to my shoulders, then back down.  He wove his fingers between mine and wrapped his arms around me, and I sighed and shut my eyes, enjoying just laying in the tub with him.

He made it about 30 more seconds before he dropped his lips down to my shoulder and kissed his way up my neck.  "What do you do in here by yourself for hours?" he asked.  "I'd get bored."

"Well, I don't spend hours in here," I said, laughing.  "And I relax.  Sometimes I read.  Sometimes I just lay here.  When I get bored, I get out."

"I'm bored already," he informed me.  He pulled his fingers out from between mine and slid both hands down my stomach to my hips.

"Which explains why you never used this tub before I moved in," I said, laughing.

"Mmmhmm," he replied, pressing his lips back to my neck.  "The tub is way more interesting with you in it."  He moved his hands back up my stomach and cupped my breasts, sliding his thumbs across my nipples while he nipped at my neck.  I let him have his fun (and my fun too!) for awhile, then carefully turned around and climbed into his lap, sliding down onto him.

I moved slowly and carefully, trying not to displace any of the water in the tub.  Brody's fingers dug into my slippery back and he kissed and bit along my collarbone as I swiveled my hips against his.  His hands moved down to my hips to urge me to move faster, but I continued my torturously slow pace.  "Revenge?" he asked, smirking up at me.  In response, I moved just slightly faster, pushing my hands into his hair and tugging lightly on it.  He groaned and dropped his forehead onto my shoulder and slid one hand between us, moving his thumb in circles against me.  I gripped his arms to keep my balance as I came and he followed shortly after, growling my name against my neck.

I rested my head on his shoulder, catching my breath.  He ran his fingers lightly up and down my spine and said, "I changed my mind, I love baths."  I laughed.



On Monday, Josh and I made a plan to transition our clients.  He was still being perfectly polite and pleasant, but it would take awhile before I trusted him.  Later in the afternoon I got a really bad headache.  I made it through the rest of my workday, but I canceled on Lauren and went home right after work.  When Brody got home around 8, he found me curled up in bed where I'd been since I got home, asleep.

I felt fine the next day and ended up staying at work a little later to do some paperwork.  I left in time to get to the restaurant where we were meeting Ken and his friends.  I met Brody outside and we walked in together.  "Ken texted me that they have a table near the back," he said, so we told the hostess we were meeting someone and walked into the dining area.

We wove through tables towards the back of the restaurant, looking for Ken and his friends.  I caught Ken's eye and he waved, and we headed in that direction.  Then I saw who else was sitting at the table and stopped dead.