Chapter 10

Lisa wasn’t in bed when Ben woke the next morning. She wasn’t even in the house. The cars were there. Her bike was there. But no Lisa.

Thinking she had left a note and that he had somehow missed it, he was heading back to the bedroom when the front door opened. It was his wife. She had gone for a morning run.

With last night’s events and then her missing-in-action this morning, Ben had a bite in his voice, “Well aren’t you full of energy this morning. Not enough to leave a note though.”

Lisa decided to ignore his comment, concentrating instead on her post-run stretches.

Having realized he had been a bit harsh, Ben toned it down with his second attempt at communication, “So how far did you run?”

Lisa pulled out a bottle of orange juice from the fridge. She started to reach for a glass but then decided to drink direct from the bottle, “I didn’t leave a note because I thought I would be back before you got up. But I ended up going all the way to Johnson’s turnoff and back.” She took another drink before putting it back in the refrigerator. “It’s been a while, so I wasn’t planning on pushing it.”

His wife looked good in her running shorts. Trying to keep the conversation going, “You can’t possibly think you need to lose weight.”

Lisa smiled at him, “Nope. Just thought I could firm things up a bit.” She slapped her ass.

While it was brief, Ben couldn’t help but notice Lisa’s glance at his gut. While Ben wasn’t fat, a morning run couldn’t hurt. “You should have gotten me up. I would have gone with you.”

Lisa gave him a kiss on the top of his head as she walked by him towards the bathroom.

“Could you make breakfast while I shower? A ham and cheese omelet sounds good right now.”

Ben stood and watched as his wife disappeared.

By the time that Lisa came back to the kitchen, Ben had made them both omelets with toast, orange juice – in a glass, and coffee.

“I thought about making pancakes, but we’re out of blueberries.” Blueberry pancakes were his wife’s favorite.

Lisa sat down at the table, “That’s okay. I’m going to run to the store in a bit. I’ll grab some for tomorrow.”

They sat and ate in silence. Ben started to bring up last night, but Lisa interrupted him, “Jan and Freddy are coming over for lunch. I need to get going to the store. While I’m gone, would you mind cleaning up?”

Ben started to say something else but decided to save it for later, “Sure. I can do that”.

With her plate now empty, Lisa stood up and grabbed her purse and car keys. “Before you make the bed, make sure you put on clean sheets.”

Lisa gave Ben a quick kiss on his cheek before heading out the door. Ben walked over to the window and watched as she drove away. With a sigh, Ben decided to start with the dishes.