The Reunion (Brody): Summer

"Liv?" I called, shifting my briefcase into my other hand so I could pull the door shut behind me.

"Hi!" she said, emerging from the kitchen with a grin.  "You're home early!"

I returned her smile, putting my stuff down so I could hug her.  "I missed my wife," I replied, wrapping my arms around her and kissing the top of her head.  Even though we'd been married for almost 9 months, I still never got tired of calling Liv my wife.  "Are you cooking again?"

She blushed guiltily.  "I'm so bored," she said.  "This not working thing is not all it's cracked up to be."  Liv's new position gave her most of the summers off.  She was three weeks in and already bored.  "The first week was great," she continued as she led me into the kitchen.  "Last week wasn't so bad.  But I have no idea what to do with myself this week.  I've read 12 books.  I go to the gym for two hours a day.  What am I supposed to be doing with my life?"

I couldn't help it, I laughed.  "Well, there goes my dream of eventually talking you into being a trophy wife after all."   She wrinkled her nose.  "You know I'm kidding.  And as much as I love your cooking, I'm not sure any more leftovers are going to fit in the fridge.  Should I go buy a second one, or...?"

"Maybe get a third while you're at it?" she suggested, cocking an eyebrow sassily.  Then she shook her head.  "I need a hobby or something.  I thought being off for the summer would be fun."

"You've never been good at not doing much," I pointed out. I thought for a second while I got plates and silverware out.  "What's today?  Wednesday?"

"All day," she replied, turning off the oven and looking over her shoulder at me.  "Why?"

I walked up to her and wrapped my arms around her from behind.  "What if we went to the cabin this weekend?"

"This weekend?" she asked, sounding surprised.  She turned to face me.  "But you're so busy."

I brushed a piece of hair away from her forehead and rested my hand against her jaw.  "I need a break.  And I told you, I miss my wife.  Let's get out of town for the weekend."

Liv's face lit up.  "That would be great!" she said excitedly.  "I miss you, too."

Liv had been great for the last 7 months while I worked on restructuring my company, hiring, and getting things the way I wanted them.  I could tell it was wearing on her, and the long hours and few days off were wearing on me too.  "We're almost there," I told her softly.  "You've been amazing and so patient, and I promise it will be worth it."

She nodded.  "Okay," she said softly.  Then she grinned.  "But this weekend.  It's going to be great!"

"You said that already," I teased her.  I kissed her forehead, then said, "It is going to be great."  Liv pushed up onto her toes to kiss me, and I couldn't remember the last time I had kissed her.  I mean, actually kissed her.  I kissed her every morning before I left for work, though she was usually half asleep and probably didn't even remember it by the time she woke up.  And I kissed her every night when I got home and before bed.  But they'd become rehearsed, like we were going through the motions.  And I knew that was my fault.  I was so exhausted from work that I felt like a zombie the rest of the time.  The end really was in sight, but the final push had been the worst of all so far.

I kissed her again.  She looked disappointed when I pulled away, but grinned when I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, turned it off, and tossed it on the counter.  "Let's eat," I suggested.

"It can wait," Liv said, raising her eyebrows suggestively and reaching for me.

I caught her hands and said, "It could, and there are very few things I want more than to go upstairs with you right now.  But it's been a really long time since I've gotten to sit down and eat with you when the food is still hot, and that sounds really nice right now."

"I can hardly argue with that," she said, smiling.

Dinner was amazing.  The food was good, of course, but it felt so good to sit and eat with Liv.  We spent an hour at the table talking and catching up on the week.  "I'll take care of these dishes--" I started, when we were finally done.

"Don't you dare," Liv said, grinning mischievously.  "I mean, I won't stop you from doing them later, but for now, I demand that you continue to pay attention to me."

I pushed my chair back from the table as my beautiful wife approached me.  She stood between my knees and ran a finger down my tie before taking a step closer and pushing her fingers into my hair.  "You don't have to tell me twice," I told her, looking up at her hungrily.  I stood and pulled her close to me, wrapping my arms tightly around her waist.  "Let's go upstairs."

My eyes wandered as I followed Liv upstairs.  She spun around to face me and grinned as I walked into our bedroom behind her.  I slid a hand around her waist but she shoved me hard onto the bed.  I raised my eyebrows as she climbed onto the bed and straddled me.  "All that time at the gym has clearly paid off," I teased her.  "You've never been able to push me around quite so easily."

Liv responded by grabbing my hands from her waist and pinning them on the bed near my head.  She leaned down and kissed along my jaw and down my neck.  "Well then, you'd better be careful, hmmm?"

She may have been stronger than she was, but she was still tiny.  With one movement, I swung my legs up and to the right, easily moving us sideways and tipping her off me.  Two more seconds and I had her on her back, her legs pinned wide by my knees and her wrists caught in my left hand.  "Now who's in a compromising position?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her from above.

"Actually," she said casually, "you're right where I want you."

I laughed and leaned down to kiss her.  She kissed me back hungrily.  It felt so good to kiss her like this.  It made me wish I was finished with my restructuring now so we could do this every night.  "Hey," Liv said, sliding her hands up my chest to rest on either side of my face.  "What's on your mind?"

"Just realizing how much I miss this," I replied, dropping my face to her neck.  "And counting down the days until I don't have to miss it anymore."  I kissed down her throat and worked my way up one collarbone.  She moaned softly and I grinned against her shoulder.  I missed that sound.  I dragged my tongue along the hollow where her collarbone met her shoulder, drawing another soft moan.

"I miss it too," she said, pressing her hips up towards mine.  "I--ohhh."  Her sentence was cut off by my fingers playing against one breast.

"You what?" I asked, my fingers stilling.  "You were saying something?"

"Shut up," she replied using one hand to pull my face towards hers.  I did as she wanted, happily.

*

"Pete!" I called, seeing him walk past my office on Thursday morning.  He stepped inside my office and motioned to the door.  "Open is fine," I replied.  "Come on in."

"What's up?" he asked, crossing the threshold and sitting down in a chair next to my desk.  I didn't like sitting across from people, whether staff or client.  It created a power differential that I didn't care for.  I preferred to run my business with respect, not power and fear.  I had worked for someone who used power and fear to run his business long enough to know it wasn't for me.  The only time I sat across the desk from someone was when I was firing them.  Which I hadn't had to do for quite some time, thankfully.

"How was your vacation?" I asked, getting up and pouring myself some more coffee.  "Do you want some?"

"Sure," he replied.  I brought him a cup.  "It was great.  Serena and I had a really nice time.  Thanks again for covering my clients while I was gone.  I was glad to hear there were no issues."

I nodded.  "Glad to do it, vacations are important.  Keeps you sharp."

"I didn't think you would know," he quipped, raising his eyebrows at me.  I laughed.  Only Pete or Neil could get away with that.

"That's why I've got you here, actually," I said.  "I'd like to take my wife to the cabin this weekend.  Can I leave you in charge?"

Pete considered this.  "Only on one condition," he said.

I cocked an eyebrow.  "I'll hear your condition, but I beg you to remember who's in charge here.  At least  until I leave for the weekend."

Pete laughed and I cracked a smile.  "I will never forget who's in charge here.  My condition is that you take tomorrow off for your weekend away."

My second eyebrow joined the first.  "Are you staging a coup?"

"If I was, I wouldn't tell you," he pointed out.  "But I'm not.  With all due respect, boss, I can tell you're fried.  Take the day.  I mean, I'll cover you either way.  But things are coming along nicely.  Everyone is moved into their new offices, the teams are formed, we only have a few openings left to fill.  You've been working 80 hours a week.  I'm offering to cover you so you can take a day off.  Or, three days, actually."

"Can I let you know?" I asked him.

"Sure can," Pete replied.  "Anything else?"  I shook my head and he left.

I glanced at my computer, my email open on the screen.  During the course of the 4 minute conversation I'd just had with Pete, I'd collected 15 new emails.  With a sigh, I stabbed at the button on the bottom right corner of the screen and turned the monitor off.  I stood and stretched, then took a walk.  In offices all down the hallway, my employees--both old and new--were working hard.  Some were on the phone, some were typing away, and some doors were closed, surely concealing a client meeting.  I paused and turned in a full circle, admiring the sounds of my successful business.

"Kira?" I said, sticking my head in my assistant's office.  I'd gone through 3 before finding Kira, who not only could keep up but also didn't allow me to work her to death.  She looked up, solemn and expectant.  "I'm heading over to the other site.  I'll be back in a bit, and you can stay here.  Can you just take messages for my calls?  And can you log into my emails and handle any that don't actually need me?"

"You've got it," she said.

"And can you send an email out to all the staff at both locations, letting them know that I'm bringing in lunch for everyone?"

Her eyes were already on her computer and seconds later she looked up.  "Done.  Anything else?"

"Yeah," I said, nodding.  "Go home early today.  Thank you for your hard work."

She cracked a rare smile.  "Thank you," she said.  "Is 4 okay?"

"How about 2?" I called over my shoulder as I walked back to my office to grab my keys.

The drive to my new office took 20 minutes, not bad.  I parked in my reserved spot, which I hadn't really wanted but had to admit was convenient.  We had the entire building here, a three story structure with plenty of conference rooms, which the other space was seriously lacking.  I bypassed the employee entrance and walked in the front door.  This site was going to be where most of the client interaction would happen, and I wanted to feel the full effect.  I walked into a warmly appointed lobby that held comfortable chairs and couches, plenty of plants, and some art that wasn't quite my taste but everyone else seemed to like.

"Welcome to--oh!  Mr. Adler, hello!"  Anna, one of two of our front desk staff here greeted me.  Nate, the other, was on the phone.  "Did you forget your key?  Do you need one for the day?"

"Hi, Anna," I said, nodding to Nate, who returned the silent greeting without missing a beat of his conversation.  "No, I didn't forget my key, I just wanted to make sure to stop by and say hi on my way in.  Everything good here?"

"It's been a bit hectic today, to be honest," she said.  "But no issues, just busy."

"Glad to hear it," I said.  "You're both doing a great job, thank you.  I appreciate it."  Nate and Anna were both relatively new, and they were good.  I wanted to make sure they knew that I knew it.

"Thank you, Mr. Adler," Anna replied.

"Could you do me a favor?  I'm ordering lunch for everyone."  I handed her the takeout menu I'd grabbed from my desk on the way out.  "Could you or Nate get everyone's orders for me, please?  I'll place the order and pick everything up, I just need some help with collecting the orders."

"Of course," she said.

Nate, who was off the phone now, nodded.  "Good to see you," he said.  I grinned and headed to the elevator.  At the last second I veered off and hit the stairs instead.  I walked up to the second floor and wandered down the halls, stopping to check in with my employees that weren't on the phone or otherwise occupied.

As I made my way up to the third floor, I realized that Pete was right.  Everything was falling into place.  Seeing the results helped ease the toll of my 80 hour work weeks and missing Liv.  It also made me even more grateful for her support.  She didn't ask to spend the first year of marriage only seeing her husband for an hour before bedtime and a few hours on the weekend.  Of course, it hadn't always been as bad as it had been for the past couple months.  There had been weeks at a time when we had dinner together every night.  It just had been awhile.

After taking a walk around the third floor, which was mostly conference rooms and my office, I took the employee elevator down to the other side of the first floor.  I nodded to the construction crew.  Hidden safely away from the lobby, I was putting in a fitness center for my employees.  We were expanding, but we were still a small business, and as such, I had fewer options to offer them for health insurance and retirement plans.  I focused on offering the best benefits I was able to and getting creative where I needed to.  I wanted to be a company that people wanted to work for.  As successful as I'd been so far, we were still young and new and every single person in either of these buildings was taking a chance on me.

I looked around one more time, and I knew that I also needed to put the same care into my relationship.  Just like everyone here, Liv had also taken a chance on me, and I had no intention of letting her down.  I ignored the 3 missed calls on my cell phone and called Pete.  "I'm going to take you up on tomorrow.  What are your thoughts on Monday too?"