Waltz of Her Life

"Hay Hay! I've missed you so much," he said, as he rocked her back and forth. There was something extra special, extra sexy about watching her husband play with his daughter. He'd come up with that nickname for her when she was still a little baby. While Linda stood back to watch them she realized that she was seeing Stephen anew each time he hugged and held Hayley. His hair was starting to gray and thin at his temples a bit and with his years of working at a sedentary desk job, he'd sprouted love handles. But Linda loved him all the more.

He had hoisted Hayley up so that she sat on his hip and held him around his neck while he reached down to grab his briefcase. Linda rushed up to him for a kiss. "My two beautiful angels," he said.

As they walked inside Stephen kept looking her up and down. When they were in the house, he set Hayley down and she ran up to her room. Stephen said "You're wearing clothes."

Linda laughed. "It's an old habit. I picked it up in childhood." She modeled her dress.

After modeling it, she picked up a few folds of the lavender and blue fabric, showing it to him. She'd chosen the dress that morning because it was chic, felt comfortable and would help her feel good about herself despite having to walk with a waddle style.

"I mean, you can't have changed that quickly after work. Or do nurses have 'dress like regular people' days?"

"Well, if they do, no one ever told me about them. Listen, what were we going to do for dinner?" She thought that a visit to one of the nice restaurants on restaurant row would have been great. For that she would have to get dressed yet again.

Stephen took off his suit jacket, opened his collar and plopped himself down on his favorite leather recliner in the entertainment room. He shrugged. "Why don't you call out for a pizza?"

"Pizza? I thought you said you wanted to do something special?"

He laughed. "Well, you can make it everything except anchovies. And call one of the nicer places then."

"Pizza? Wouldn't you rather go out somewhere?"

Stephen waved a hand, dismissing that idea. "Out? No. I had to do programming all day. You know how I hate that."

They'd kept refrigerator magnets of all their favorite pizza places and restaurants. Before she searched for one, she thought about turning around to ask Stephen if the reason he didn't want to go out was that he didn't want to be seen with her, his tubby, waddling wife. But she knew he would say the same thing he always said "I love you just the way you are."