The Safest Bet

Alexis picked up the phone for quite possibly the eighth time. Like the seven times before, she fumbled with it nervously, ran her thumb across the buttons, and ultimately set it back down in frustration.

"He'll come," she assured herself despite her looming doubt. "He has to."

The queasiness in the pit of her stomach was nagging her to the fullest extent of its abilities. Her heart was up to the same mischief; it was warning her that if her past experience with men and Ric's absence now didn't tell her something serious, then she was in for a terrible let down.

She lay down on the couch to ease her worried stomach and weary heart. She traced imaginary patterns in large sweeps across the stomach under her shirt. "Your daddy is a stubborn mule. Did you know that?" she laughed lightly. "I know that he loves you very much. And he loves your big sister too. And he..." she trailed off, subconsciously stopping with her hand, resuming only when her words did. "And he's going to come home. I don't want you to worry, because your daddy is going to be home before you know it. And you know what else? We're going to make him buy us a whole gallon of ice cream. Would you like that?" She was hoping to feel a kick of approval, but she felt nothing but a somewhat lessened uneasiness. She simply assumed it was just too soon in her pregnancy.

She closed her eyes and leaned her shoulders into the couch cushions, leaving her hand at the opposite side of her stomach. It was so quiet in the apartment that Alexis thought she could almost hear her baby's heart beating along with hers. She let her mind challenge her subconscious; they fought for triumph for a while until a knock on the door finally handed the mind its victory.

Alexis rose gingerly from the couch and eagerly made her way to the door. She considered checking her hair or outfit before opening it, but she was confident enough in her plans that she didn't need to. She bravely turned the knob.

"Hi. Come on in," she said nervously. She felt a bit absurd taking such a formal tone with her own husband, but she didn't want to be too casual.

Ric stepped over the threshold and back into her world, their world. Alexis motioned towards the couch, and they walked to it together. He sat first and she followed timidly, extremely careful about just how much space to leave between them. Too much or too little could insult him. She had to make sure this went perfectly.

"Would you like some wine?" she offered, gesturing towards the glass and the bottle that she had deliberately set out ahead of time next to her own glass of water.

"No thanks," he said politely. "I'm not much of a drinker."

"Are you sure?" she pressed harmlessly. "I mean, I have so much of it, and I can't really have any for several months anyway. You're more than welcome to have some."

"It's nothing personal, I'm just not really in the mood for any wine," Ric said, trying to keep the apprehension between them to a minimum.

"I know, but I mean, it's here. I'm just saying, you can have some if you want it. You shouldn't have to feel like you're not allowed to."

"Oh, so now you're telling me how I feel?" he snapped, feeling his anger rising slowly beyond his control. He didn't mean for it to sound as harsh as it did. Alexis wasn't expecting him to react that way. She began to feel a little dismayed, but she wasn't giving up.

"Ric, that's not what I meant. I just meant –"

"Oh, Alexis" Ric sighed, running his hand once down his face. He already instantly regretted shouting at her. "See, this is why this can't work."

"Why?" Alexis asked hesitantly and a bit unsure. "Because we disagree about the wine?"

"No. Well, yes. I mean –" Ric sighed, feeling frustrated. "Alexis, we clash, all the time. I mean, if we can't get along long enough to agree about a glass of wine, how are we going to raise a child? How are we going to decide on discipline, or who does what chores, or curfew, or even a name?"

"Ric, I think you're making more of this than there is," Alexis said.

"You can't deny that there's insurmountable tension between us," he argued stubbornly.

Alexis dared herself to move closer to him and put her hand into his. She leaned in until they were a mere breath away. "You can't deny that there's intense heat between us," she whispered seductively. She ran her hand up his arm, and they both closed their eyes simultaneously as she slipped him eager kisses between words. "You can't deny that there's passion... desire..." Her hands wandered across his broad shoulders and down his chest. "Fierce temptation..." She started to slowly work the buttons on his shirt while never letting up on her kisses. Ric delicately put his hands to hers to stop her, but his efforts were futile.

"Alexis," he protested weakly as she kissed her way from the lobe of his ear to the base of his neck. "You can't make this go away by kissing me."

"I'm doing more than just kissing you," she mumbled into his skin. "I'm proving that I still know you inside and out. I know that right now your mind and your heart are racing faster than they should be, one with ways to get me to stop and one with the anticipation of what will happen if I don't." She briefly took his bottom lip with her teeth gently and erotically, drawing a soft groan from the back of Ric's throat. "Which one is going to win?"

Ric felt his whole body go numb as she pushed him onto his back and pulled herself on top of him. It had been so long since they had been together like this that he had forgotten what being so close to her did to his body. He knew when she asked him to come over that she was going to want to work things out, but he was frightfully unprepared for a sexual ambush. She was taking his clothes off faster than he could think of a way to stop her. In the midst of her feverish kisses, he managed to gasp out a few feeble words of protest.

"Alexis, don't do this, please..."

"No, Ric," she said, pausing her kisses just long enough to answer him, "I'm going to do this, and when it's over, if you still want to go, I won't stop you. I'll even hold the door open for you. But if you enjoy it..." she trailed off, dragging her finger lazily across his lips until they parted in complete surrender, "I promise I won't say I told you so."