The alarm clock, making an infernal buzzing noise, woke Dexter. He opened one eye and reached out to turn it off. His hand found the switch. He breathed a sigh of relief when quiet returned to the room.
"Good morning, honey."
She ran a hand across his back in a tender caress before snuggling in closer to him. She gave a contented sigh.
"Good morning, Janet."
He rolled over and kissed her cheek. He always felt a little uneasy about kissing with a bad case of morning breath.
"I don't want to get up," Janet said.
"Let's just stay here," Dexter suggested.
Janet said, "I would love to, but I've got to get Sarah off to school."
Dexter sighed. "I suppose we should get up. 'Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.'"
Janet kissed him and then got out of bed. She took a moment to stretch. Dexter took a moment to appreciate her naked body. That was one of the changes that Dexter had come to enjoy tremendously. Janet was much more open to walking around without any clothes when the kids were out of the house.
Seeing that he was watching her, she said, "We can come back here after Sarah has left."
"How about we go in the backyard and get a little sun?"
"We should probably take advantage of the warm temperatures. The weather will be too cool to do that before long," Janet said.
"We can always warm each other," Dexter said.
Janet smiled at him. "It'll take a lot of warming when it is forty degrees outside."
"That's true," Dexter admitted.
She went into the bathroom while he slowly sat on the edge of the bed. He looked over at the clock wondering how six minutes had already passed. He went to the door, grabbing a robe on the way. The kids were still at home and there would be no walking around naked until they left.
He went into the kitchen and started the coffeemaker. It was one of their ten-cup machines.
Janet came out and said, "The bathroom is all yours."
"Thanks. The coffee will be ready in a minute or two," Dexter said.
Dexter returned to the bedroom knocking on the doors to wake Will and Sarah along the way. He did his normal morning routine. His memories of performing that routine in this house were not pleasant. This time, there were no calls, emails, or text messages interrupting him.
After finishing his routine, he put on his robe and returned to the kitchen. There was a cup of coffee waiting for him on the table. He took a sip of it and turned to watch Janet preparing breakfast.
"Do you want any help?"
"I'm almost done making the fruit salad. You can toast some bread for everyone," Janet answered.
Dexter slipped two slices of bread into the toaster. He glanced over at the clock on the wall thinking that at one time, he would have already been on his way to work at this time of the morning. Today, he didn't need to be at work until eleven.
Will shambled into the kitchen walking like a zombie. He had worked the evening shift the previous day. They had a late delivery that had required him to work late.
Will yawned. "Good morning."
"Good morning," Dexter said. "How's the produce business?"
He fished the two slices of toast out of the toaster. He put in two more, and started to butter the toast.
"I had to work late last night, because the delivery truck had a flat tire on the way to the store."
Janet said, "The fruit you brought home so looked good that I decided to make fruit salad for breakfast."
She had found it rather convenient to have Will working in a grocery store. She would text him if she needed anything from the store before he got off work. It saved her or Dexter from having to go.
They were also saving a lot of money. Will would bring home items that were on special. Some of the sales on meat were so good that they had bought a freezer to store it. He also brought home a lot of fruits and vegetables.
In the old days, she hadn't bought fresh produce since their schedules often kept her from using it before it spoiled. Now, they were eating a lot healthier. Gone were the instant breakfast foods and microwave meals. The reduction in salt and high calorie foods, coupled with a moderate exercise program, made keeping in shape a lot easier.
"We got in some pretty good looking stuff last night," Will said.
He had discovered that he enjoyed his job although he didn't want to do it forever. His boss was a fitness nut and often gave his opinion on the nutritional value of a lot of the food carried in the store. Will had to admit that he was learning a lot by working there.
He had started taking two classes at the local community college: a literature class and a history class. He still hadn't made up his mind if he liked college, but it was early in the semester yet. He had class that morning and would have to leave shortly after breakfast. It was amazing to him how few students had signed up for early morning classes.
Sarah entered the kitchen.
"Morning," she said.
"Good morning," chorused Dexter and Janet (Will had his mouth full with a bite of toast he had liberated from Dexter).
"I hate mornings," Sarah grumbled before taking her seat.
Janet put a large bowl of fruit salad on the table. It contained slices of two kinds of melons, apples, oranges, bananas, kiwis, and passion fruits. Janet had mixed a little orange juice with honey, and poured it over the fruit.
Dexter brought over the plate of toast.
"Hey, fruit salad," Sarah said looking into the bowl.
"Compliments of your brother," Janet said.
"My acne really has cleared up since we started eating healthier," Sarah said while loading her bowl.
"That's good," Janet said.
"I'm riding my bike to school," Sarah said.
"That's good," Dexter said. He wiggled his eyebrows at Janet.
Sarah made a face and said, "Don't start with the lovey-dovey stuff. At least, not until I've gone, please!"
"You should be happy your father and I are back together," Janet said.
"I am, but still ... you aren't married," Sarah said.
"So what?" Dexter asked.
"It's just kind of weird," Sarah said. "My friend Ann doesn't know anyone else whose parents are living together after being divorced."
"We're thinking about taking up swinging. What does Ann say about that?" Dexter said.
"Oh, gross!" Sarah exclaimed.
Janet said, "No, we're not."
"I'm just teasing," Dexter said with a grin.
Will chuckled. He kind of liked the new versions of his parents. They joked and laughed, unlike before, when they were stressed and tired all of the time.
The family continued chatting while they ate breakfast. Plans for the day were discussed. It was actually a very pleasant morning.
After Sarah and Will had gone off to their respective schools, Dexter and Janet went out to the backyard. It was a little cool, but the sun was out. Dexter slipped off his robe and settled onto one of the two lounge chairs. Janet, as always, took a moment to look around before removing her robe. She sat down on the lounge chair next to him.
"The kids are growing up," Dexter said.
"They're good kids," Janet said.
Dexter nodded his head in agreement. He said, "I wouldn't have said that two years ago. Of course, I couldn't have said too much about them one way or the other, then."
"I'm glad you've gotten to know them a little better," Janet said.
Dexter said, "It took getting them disconnected from the internet and the cellular network to do it."
"To tell the truth, I think that is a good thing," Janet said.
Dexter sighed.
"What?" Janet asked.
"I was just thinking that I used to be at work for an hour by this time of the morning. Now, I've gotten enough sleep, eaten a great breakfast, and still have time to sunbathe before heading into work."
"There's been a lot of changes since those days."
"Isn't that the truth? The whole world was out of control. We were running headlong into disaster."
"There are still problems," Janet said.
"Unemployment is still high. Executives are still mismanaging companies. Politicians are still incompetent."
"Still, things are a whole lot better."
Dexter said, "I'm still going to keep pounding away that we should care more about people, than we do about things."
"I think getting rid of some of that disposable society garbage will help that along."
"Looking back at those times, it was like we were swimming against a raging torrent. The harder we swam the faster the current flowed. We weren't making any headway," Dexter said.
"I know what you mean. We were swimming so hard that we couldn't pay attention to each other."
"We used to call it the rat race when I was younger, but those days were actually pretty sedate compared to how bad things got. We weren't being controlled by electronic leashes. Bosses might have been demanding, but their demands stopped once you got out of the workplace."
His father used to complain about the rat race, all the time. It was that they were being driven to produce more and to work harder. Still, his father had evenings and weekends free, not to mention real vacations. He wondered what his father would have thought of how the workplace had changed.
Janet said, "I haven't heard the term, rat race, in ages. I wonder why."
"I don't know. Maybe we were so busy that we didn't even have time to complain," Dexter said.
"I'd almost say that we didn't have anyone to complain to," Janet said.
"That's a very good point, too," Dexter said.
The sun beating down on his body felt wonderful. The warmth just managed to offset the cool breeze. They wouldn't be able to do this after the next week or two.
"I never thought I would be doing this."
"Doing what?"
"Laying out in our backyard without a stitch of clothing on," Janet said.
"It feels good, doesn't it?"
"Yes, but I'd die of embarrassment if anyone else saw me," Janet answered.
Dexter chuckled. "I take it you aren't ready to go to a nudist club."
"Never," Janet said firmly. "How did you discover that you liked to walk around naked?"
"It was when I was hiding out at the cabin in the woods. I was really depressed. One morning, I got up and just didn't have the energy or inclination to get dressed. There were no neighbors around to see me, so I decided not to get dressed. About the middle of the afternoon, I realized that I enjoyed walking around naked. I didn't get dressed for a week."
Janet understood the part about being too depressed to get dressed. She had spent a lot of weekends at home wearing her old bathrobe. It had just seemed to be too much work to put on clothes.
"A whole week?" Janet asked.
"Yep. I stayed outside getting sun and trying to get my act together. I think I pissed on every tree and bush around the cabin."
She turned to look at Dexter. She couldn't imagine him doing something like that. She knew that she'd probably break out laughing if she saw him pissing on a tree.
"You didn't?"
"Yes, I did. I was thinking about buying it and started marking my territory. Then I realized that I would have been buying a fantasy and the reality would have been disappointing."
"Why don't you buy it now?"
"I don't know. I hadn't really thought about it."
"I wouldn't mind trying out being naked for a whole week."
She had never thought of herself as the kind of woman who could walk around outdoors like that. That was for jungle women or models out of a magazine for men. She wouldn't want to ever explain that kind of behavior to her parent or even her kids. Nice middle class women didn't do that.
"I'll think about it," Dexter said.
"You could buy some land in a wooded area. You don't really need a cabin since you have the camper. You wouldn't have to worry about maintaining another house."
"That's not a bad idea."
Dexter could see that he would enjoy having a private camping area. All it would take was a concrete slab, electric connection, and a septic system. Clear off a little land around the concrete slab and he could have a very nice little getaway spot.
"Let's do it," Janet said.
"Would you like to go to Hawaii?" Dexter asked thinking that Janet would enjoy a more traditional vacation than camping.
"Actually, I wouldn't. I have bad memories of our last vacation there."
"I can understand that. It was a pretty bad trip," Dexter said.
"When we got back from that vacation, someone asked me what sights I had seen. I answered, 'the hotel room telephone.' It was meant to be a joke, but it wasn't all that funny."
"I had the same kind of thoughts about that vacation," Dexter said.
"If it is all right with you, I think camping is a perfect way to spend a vacation."
"That's fine with me," Dexter said.
"I never thought of myself as the kind of person who would enjoy camping. I always thought of camping as roughing it like our caveman ancestors. It wasn't at all like I thought it would be. It's strange to discover, at my age, that I like it."
She had very good memories of time when they'd had the board meeting in the woods. She had rented a hotel room, but spent all of her days at camper returning only late at night to sleep. There was something rewarding in sitting around a campfire watching the flames. It wasn't romantic in the same way that sitting in front of a fireplace was. It had a more primitive feel to it than that. Maybe it was the fact that there stars overhead; she didn't know. All she did know was that it had resonated with something deep inside her.
That afternoon spent in the camper had marked a major turning point in her relationship with Dexter. That was the day when she was pretty sure that they would become a real couple again. They still weren't married and for all she knew they might never be. That wasn't important to her. It was more important that they were together.
Dexter said, "As horrible as our separation was, I think we both are better people because of it. I mean ... I learned a lot about myself, both good and bad. I think you learned a little about yourself."
Dexter had learned a lot about himself. His intelligence in solving engineering problems didn't translate too well into solving matters of the heart. It had taken others to point out to him what should have been obvious.
He was sure that there were some men who would scoff at him for returning to Janet. Their opinion meant nothing to Dexter. He was the one left sleeping alone at night. His memories of long lazy Sunday's spent in bed with Janet kept reminding him of what he had lost.
"I agree, but it was a painful lesson. I never want to go through that again," Janet said.
"I agree that it was too painful," Dexter said.
Janet said, "In a way, things are better now than they were after we just got married. We've got more time to spend with each other and enough money that we aren't stressed out over paying the bills."
Was her life perfect? No, but it was better than it had ever been. Was his life perfect? No, but it was better than ever. Their relationship was much more honest. She had come to appreciate that. In fact, she had been surprised at the consequences of being more open and honest.
Honesty wasn't always easy. The first time that Dexter had told her that there were times when he just wanted to have sex without worrying about pleasing her, she had nearly exploded. Amber had set her straight by suggesting that Dexter visit prostitutes for that kind of sex, if Janet wasn't willing to do as he had asked. That suggestion had gone over like the proverbial lead balloon.
Giving Dexter his desire had not been quite the ordeal that she had imagined. She had thought it would be degrading, but it wasn't. It was rather rewarding to see him enjoying himself. A few randy suggestions of what he could do to her and he was off to the races with a grin a mile wide. Sometimes, she even initiated those kinds of sessions.
Amber also suggested that Janet would be in a good position to ask for a whole lot of pampering at times. She did appreciate long luxurious bubble baths complete with champagne, soft music, and an attentive attendant. Sometimes it ended with Dexter making tender love to her. Other times it ended with her wrapped up in a comfy bathrobe, drifting off to sleep feeling warm and pampered. In the end, Janet decided that she had gotten the better deal.
"It's more than just time and money," Dexter said. "In a way, that was our mistake. We thought that time and money would solve all of our problems. Our pursuit of financial security just made our life more miserable. We ended up isolated and alone."
Softly, Janet said, "We have to remember that."
"I know. Do you know what the best thing is?"
"What?"
Dexter said, "Having someone to share my life with."
Edited By TeNderLoin