Upside Down by Liz Gavin

attacked it.
    “Hmm, Carol this is divine. I had forgotten how well you can cook.”
    “Oh, I’m more than a pretty face, you know.”
    “I do know that,” he replied as his hand traveled slowly up my arm. “You are a gorgeous face, a hot body, a sharp mind and shrewd business instincts - all wrapped up in one glorious woman.”
    When he finishe d his sentence, his hand had closed behind my nape so he pulled me towards him for a kiss. It started as a gentle exchange but I knew it could easily get as hot as an open fire. That was always the case with us. So, I pulled back, smiled at him, returned my attention to my plate and made a joke to cool down the temperature in the room which had escalated to boiling hot.
    “Flattery won’t get you anywhere, young man.”
    He chuckle d at my feigned outraged tone, winked and sat back straight on his chair.
    “You can’t blame me for trying. Maybe you give me a promotion or a position as your personal assistant or something. No, wait. I already have that! Silly me! I take all that back.”
    “Too late. I’m already walking on air with all your compliments.”
    We laugh ed and the friendly exchanges continued throughout our meal. I enjoyed Mark’s company more than I was ready to admit to myself. I was having a great time until the phone rang and an ominous feeling made me answer it without checking the caller ID thinking it might be my mother with more bad news.
    “Hello ?”
    “Hello, there, beautiful ,” a very familiar voice greeted me causing a huge smile to light up my face and a sigh of relief to escape me before I answered his heartfelt greeting.
    “Oh, gosh, sweetie, I missed you so much. I have so many things to tell you! When did you get back, Dave?”
    I ha dn’t seen Dave since he had moved to India, two years before. After a while, he had moved to London. I got so excited to hear from him that I forgot all about Mark and our dinner.
    “I haven’t gone back, silly, I’m still in London.”
    “But it’s three o’clock in the morning there. How come you’re calling me?”
    “Do I need a reason to call you , now?”
    “ No, you don’t, honey. Besides your reasons aren’t usually very good.”
    “ If you must know, smarty-pants, I couldn’t sleep and I missed you.”
    “Oh, Dave, I’m so happy to hear your voice right now, anyway,” my voice broke off as I remembered my father’s health problems and everything else I was facing. “I wish you were here with me. There’s so much going on, so much I need to talk about.”
    “ Be a good girl and tell me all about it.”
    “ I can’t right now.” I sighed then changed back to a lighter tone. “And you know I’m not a good girl.”
    “That is true. You are a naughty, naughty girl but I love you.”
    I laugh ed at that but the sound was so hoarse I drank some wine to soothe my dry throat. I did it so fast, though, that my head got dizzy and I felt my cheeks burning. I had to fan myself to cool my face down a little.
    “You can count on that, hon. What have you been up to?”
    “Not much. Jerry has been working his ass off at the hospital and I stay home, bored to death,” I heard a deep, exaggerated sigh on the other side of the phone line and smiled. “I should be writing my next best-seller novel but I spend the day stuffing my face with chocolate, instead.”
    “Oh, that sounds sexy ,” I chuckled at his usual drama queen tone.
    “I never thought married life would be this boring for us. We had so much more fun when we were just dating. ”
    “Oh, so that’s why you called ! You miss our crazy nights, huh? I miss them too, honey.”
    It was his turn to laugh. All of a sudden, I remembered Mark and looked up to apologize to him for having been on the phone for so long but I found out he was no longer sitting across from me. He had taken our half-empty plates away, judging from the clattering sounds I could hear coming from the kitchen. I frowned but kept talking to Dave as I stood up