Baby. Love. Marriage.

est rise and fall with each breath. Warmth spread through her as their eyes met, and the intensity in his gaze erased her smile. His hair

a whine, signaling she w

.." he whispered, his mouth near her ear, and he held her tighter. She b

getting way

*******

ead, shoulders slumped in fatigue. Endlessly stretching tow

's end, there

rbs. All she had to do was climb three floors, and she would get to her cozy li

hardly noticed the summer, except as a hot distraction; a need to daily give thanks for the air-condition

en't enough Fr

ek

am. She could pick a book from the huge pile that somehow had taken up permanent residence in her laundry basket and read-if she could keep her eyes open. She could shake the dust off that swe

s for her morning cereal three days ago. Not that it had ma

rning and, after twenty seconds of torturou

id

used her ten-minute lunch break to run to the nearest store and buy a multipack of cheap underwear that would see her through the next week. Putting them on in the

nes lied. Going without underwear did not mak

y faces and writing on them. In French. She'd never learned any French, but considering the cheap price and the location in t

anyone who spoke French. She grimaced. Life was so busy right now that it was as well that M

ack leaving behind the warm scent of leather and sandalwood, and had vanishe

rench. He didn't work her hours, either. He even had the energy to sing in the shower, and he was

erlooking two major streets, but what had possessed her to rent an apartment on the third floor, in a building where the elevator was always on the fritz? Right, she'd been young