Coming Home

Paige

Even the summer sun had set by the time I trudged into the kitchen after work. Tom looked up from where he sat at the counter with a plate of lasagna, dark bags dragging under his eyes.

“Had an easy one, then?” I asked.

He laughed, and I fell into helpless laughter with him. Today had been so long, so strange, so sudden. Coming home to him felt like setting the world back on its axis, and the laughter was pure relief. I wiped tears from my eyes and went to grab a plate of lasagna.

“You know what? Fuck this.” Tom stood.

I frowned at him. “What?”

He opened a chest under the now-empty coat rack and pulled out a blanket. “It’s a beautiful summer night. We have a beautiful yard, and we both had long days. Let’s go enjoy something.”

I grinned at him. It was hard not to love him when he found life’s little pleasures amidst the nightmares like this. I piled my plate high with lasagna, grabbed the first bottle of wine I saw, and followed him outside.

We didn’t go far, just far enough tha