Simon swore for the third time. He glanced back at the instruction manual that came with the new hot tub. The drivers had offered to help install it, but he waved them off, confident he’d be just fine by himself. Normally he would be, but today he couldn’t seem to make head nor tail of them, they might as well have been written in Latin.
“Everything ok Simon dear?” Laura asked as she came out to investigate the noise.
“I don’t know Laur” he grumbled, “I just can’t seem to wrap my head around this! I wanted it ready for when the kids get home” he huffed in annoyance. Laura smiled at her husband.
“Why don’t you take a break and come back to it after?” She said calmly.
“I guess” Simon replied, almost as though he was sulking. He folded his arms and glanced at his hand.
“Dammit!” He groaned, before looking around the area he’d been working.
“What is it?” Laura asked.
“My wedding ring! It keeps slipping off, like it’s too big now” Simon grumbled, “found it!” He smiled as he picked the simple silver band off the floor.
“Go an put it on the dresser in the bedroom.” Laura said, “I had to take mine off too, felt like it was getting tight. I’ll take them to get re-sized tomorrow” she smiled.
“Yeah I guess” Simon sighed, “sorry Laur, I’m just feeling so stressed about everything. I thought this would take my mind off it” he sniffed, surprised to find himself close to tears. Laura stepped over and pulled him into a tight hug.
“It’s ok sweetie” she said as he began to cry.
“Why is this happening? He wailed as she reached up and tenderly stormed his hair. She noticed he seemed slightly shorter, and his hair looked a touch lighter, but opted not to mention it.
“Look sweetie, why don’t you go for a lay down, and afterwards you can start moving things from the spare room into the basement. At least then Karyn can have her own space rather than sharing with Jon” she said, pushing him back gently and smiling, “that should give you something to do to keep you occupied” Simon nodded and wiped the tears from his eyes.
“Yeah, that might be a good idea” he sniffled. He looked back at the hot tub sitting on the decking, then sadly made his way inside. Laura watched him go, then picked up the instruction manual. She quickly leafed through it and went over to the display panel on the side. She deftly followed the directions and before long the display was matching what was on the page.
“Wasn’t too hard” she smiled as she walked over and grabbed the hose, placing one end into the tub she turned on the tap and watched it slowly fill up. Suddenly she felt her phone buzzing from her pocket. She took it out and answered.
“Hello? Oh my gosh! Hi, how are you? Well I’m the same boat actually. Yeah I know it’s weird isn’t it. How’s he taking it? Oh no really? That’s awful, how are you dealing with that. Really? Sounds a little harsh, but I guess he deserves it. I guess I could do that, Simons gone for a lay down anyway. Yeah sure, I’ve just got to wait for our new hot tub to fill, so I should be free around 12:30? An hour would be fine. Me too! See you soon” she ended the call and slipped her phone back in its pocket. She made her way quickly to the bedroom where she found Simon just laying down on the bed, he’d taken his trousers off and was just in his t-shirt and a plain pair of panties. She studied his rounder backside for a second, enjoying how the material stretched across his cheeks. She shook her head to regain her concentration.
“I’ve managed to sort the tub dear, and it’s fillling up now. Ill set it to heat up when it’s done, and then I’m meeting an old friend for lunch so you’ll have the place to yourself for a while” she said softly. Simon sighed, a little annoyed she’d managed to set the thing up so easily. He turned his head to look at her.
“Who?” He asked.
“Lucy MacMillan, she’s picking me up in about an hour” she replied.
