Playing House

“Now what?” Ben asked me. He had talked to Patrick Sharp a while ago, and it was confirmed that basically the whole team was coming over.

“Now you peel more potatoes,” I told him, chopping the potatoes he had already peeled and placing them into the pot of water.

“But…I just peeled like, a whole ten pound bag,” he noted.

“Yeah, and you yourself could eat about ten pounds of mashed potatoes. And you have how many of your teammates coming over?” I asked pointedly.

“…All of them,” he mumbled sheepishly.

“So now you peel more potatoes,” I said, placing a raw potato in his hand. He scrunched up his nose and grunted, but did what I asked. I walked around him to the oven, where I had some of the roast beef cooking. They came packaged individually, obviously, so since one would have fed Ben and the twins and me, I had to buy a shit ton. About half were in the oven now, and I would have to cook the other half later.

After deciding the roasts were doing okay so far, I turned around to go to the refrigerator. The moment I turned around, however, Ben was right in front of me. His proximity and stillness told me he had been right behind me for a little while, and I had no idea.

“What are you doing?” I asked, glancing over at the sink that still had unpeeled potatoes in it. I looked back at Ben, who had gotten closer, if that was even possible. I could feel his breath on my face, and I glared at him. “If you’re trying to get out of peeling potatoes, it’s not going to work-”

God, that man knew how to kiss me. He made it seem like it was all he wanted to do, too, which made it that much harder to get my thoughts straight. His tongue coaxed it’s way into my mouth at about the same time he pushed me against the counter, and I knew I’d have a bruise on my back the next day. His hand slipped under my shirt and I sighed at the contact.

“I’m supposed to be angry at you,” I mumbled against his lips. I felt him smile and kiss me harder, eliciting a small moan from me. “You’re supposed to be peeling potatoes,” I tried again.

His response was to put his hands under my thighs and lift me to sit on the counter before sucking on my lower lip.

“Ben,” I whispered. Ben’s kisses continued along my jaw as he made his way to my neck. “Ben,” I said again, trying to get him to stop. He didn’t stop though, but I didn’t blame him. I did sort of, moan his name out and everything. Finally, just when I thought I couldn’t get anymore lightheaded, I pushed him off me and hopped off the counter. I began to walk away, not even sparing a glance at him, but he caught my wrist and spun me around.

“What’s wrong?” He asked.

“I’m supposed to be mad at you!” I repeated. Ben ran a hand over his face and sighed before pulling me closer. “Listen, it’s just, I still need time to think, you know?”

“No, I don’t know,” Ben shook his head. “I can’t even kiss you?”

“A few hours ago I didn’t think you’d ever want to kiss me again, the way you were acting,” I muttered. “And no, you can’t kiss me while I’m angry.”

“Of course I want to kiss you,” Ben countered. “I told you, I was just tired and acting like an idiot. And I’d like to see you try and stop me.” He leaned in and pressed his lips against mine, pulling my waist in to touch his. I gave in for a moment until I snapped to my senses and tried pulling away. His arms wrapped around my waist, molding our lower halves together.

“Ben!” I whined after I forced my face away. The rest of me, however, was still pressed against Ben since he hadn’t let me go. He just laughed and leaned in again, kissing all over my face. He was moving around rapidly, placing butterfly kisses on my face before moving to my neck.

I had kept a straight face at first, but the more he kissed me, the harder it became for me to keep myself composed. I finally let out a girlish squeal when he bit my neck lightly before kissing me all over again.

“Ben,” I laughed. “Ben, come on.”

“No,” Ben chuckled. “I’ve missed your laugh too much.”

“Maybe you should make me laugh more often then,” I pointed out. He pulled his face away and frowned dramatically. “Don’t act like I don’t have a point.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he mumbled, kissing me lightly.

“You need to peel potatoes.”

“Damn,” he muttered. “I thought I got away with it.”

“Hey, you agreed to help me,” I said, shoving him lightly.

“Yeah, but I thought you’d have me just do dinky shit,” Ben confessed.

“…You’re peeling potatoes. That is dinky shit,” I told him. He glared at me as he picked up a potato and began to peel it. I just laughed and shook my head, continuing to do everything else.

Leah returned a little while later, and we kicked Ben out of the kitchen so he could go shower and get ready. I glanced over at Leah, who had made herself look absolutely adorable.

“I like your skirt,” I said slyly. She looked over at me and mock glared.

“Please don’t make it any more obvious to him that I like him or anything, I just thought that this looked-”

“It looks fine, Leah. I was just teasing you,” I chuckled as she smoothed out the flowing material.

“You and Ben seemed to be getting along nicely,” she noted.

“Yeah, I guess,” I shrugged. She raised an eyebrow at me and I stopped what I was doing so I could turn fully towards her. “He just…I’m a little…it’s confusing.”

“You and Ben confusing?” Leah remarked. “Never.”

“Shut up, smartass.”

Leah just laughed, continuing to chop vegetables for the salad.

“Tell me what happened after you went outside with him to get groceries. You know, just before you told me to go home and change,” she prompted.

“He asked me if the guys could come over, like I knew he would,” I recalled. “And then he suffocated me in his arms and told me he was sorry.”

“Aw!” Leah cooed.

“It was too little to late at that point, Leah,” I told her. “As if those two little words made up for everything, you know? And I understand it was a start, but he needs to do more.”

“And then what happened?”

“He told me about some stupid dreams he had. One where I had died in labor, which caused him to wake up and sit in bed and stare at me and the babies, apparently, and another where I cheat on him with Patrick,” I snorted.

“Kane?!”

“No, Sharp. He’s worried because that one is still possible,” I said. “And you know, just to spite him, I might start something with Kaner too.”

Leah laughed again, and I had to stop what I was doing for the twelfth time.

“I can’t concentrate,” I muttered. “I’m too frazzled.”

“What did you say to him about the second dream?”

“I didn’t even let him finish. I told him to shut up and I walked away.”

Leah burst out laughing yet again, and although I was angry I couldn’t stop the smile from tugging at my mouth.

“It’s not funny,” I tried saying with a straight face. After Leah calmed herself down she looked over at me.

“Okay, well when I came back you guys seemed fine, so what else happened?”

“He did a bit of groveling and made himself seem a bit pathetic, so I felt bad and asked him if he wanted to help me in the kitchen,” I told her.

“Made himself seem pathetic?” She questioned.

“Did you see the bruise above his right eye?”

“Yeah actually, I did,” she nodded.

“He was sitting at the table over there,” I motioned. “He was calling himself the worst dad and boyfriend ever, and he had his head on the table. He lifted it up to ask if I had forgiven him yet. I said no, and he let it drop back down. I don’t know what made the man think his head wasn’t heavy enough to gain speed as it went down, and I don’t know why he didn’t try and slow down before it hit, but in any event he ate tabletop hard.”

“Amalia,” Leah giggled. “Sometimes I wonder…” She couldn’t continue as her laughter took over.

“About how many concussions he’s had? Yeah me too,” I mumbled, tossing the salad. “Anyways, he helped me in here a bit before totally turning the charm on and making me turn into putty in his hands.”

“Putty?”

“Yes, putty. He was all, seductive, and he was kissing me, and I couldn’t make him stop, and then I wasn’t sure I even wanted him to stop, but I’m supposed to be mad at him, right?”

“Mal-”

“Do you know what scares me, Leah?”

Leah looked over at me seriously, motioning for me to continue.

“I don’t even know him,” I whispered. “I was his maid for like, a week and we already had our tongues down each other’s throats.”

“Oh come on, I’m sure that’s not true,” she offered. I racked my brain hard, trying to remember all the details of my first meeting with Ben.

“I found out the hotel and restaurant were closing on a Tuesday,” I recalled. “I remember that because I always cleaned the Penthouse suites on Tuesdays. I met Ben the day after, which was a Wednesday. He came to my apartment the next day, Thursday to convince me to be his maid, and by Saturday I was already moved in here. Sunday was the day Sharpie brought the dogs back since he had them at his house while they moved me in, and….oh my God.”

“What?” Leah asked, frantically. “What?!”

“He kissed me Sunday night. You’re right, it wasn’t true that I knew him for a week before we threw ourselves at each other. I knew him for like, three days.”

“Amalia, it’s not as bad at you’re making it sound,” Leah reasoned.

“Three days!” I repeated. “And technically, it started before then. He was all touchy feely here when I first came over, and then I had fucking straddled him in my apartment when he came over. Leah, we were saying ‘I love you’ within a month or two. Who does that?”

“People who are in love,” she shrugged.

“Or people who are idiots and have no idea what they’re getting themselves into,” I countered. “Leah, I don’t know him.”

“Sure you do,” she said, coming over to me and placing comforting hands on my shoulders. “It’s almost been a whole year since you’ve met, hasn’t it?” I nodded as she continued. “You know plenty about him. So what if you don’t know his favorite color or what his favorite TV show was as a kid. You know that he’s a good man, he loves you, he loves the little ones, and he’d do anything for any of you. Isn’t that enough?”

I looked up at her, my eyes watering a bit as I nodded. She smiled softly at me and grabbed a paper towel, handing it to me so I could wipe my eyes.

“Hello ladies,” Ben greeted as he walked back in. I quickly turned away and tried to dry my eyes completely without him noticing. He came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, kissing my neck. “If you want to go upstairs and get ready, I can help Leah with setting up down here,” he said softly into my ear.

I nodded and began to walk away, but before I could he grabbed my wrist and spun me around to face him.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, searching my face. “Have you been crying?”

I just bit my lip and shrugged, causing him to look over at Leah. She looked away quickly, taking some plates into the dining room.

“I’m sorry,” he said, wiping my cheeks with the pads of this thumb.

“Why are you apologizing?” I chuckled.

“It seems like I’m always the one who makes you cry,” he frowned, as if just realizing it was true as he spoke the words.

“No,” I shook my head. “It’s not you. It’s just me, being insecure.”

“How many times have I had to tell you to stop that?” He smiled, touching his forehead to mine.

“A lot,” I nodded.

“Go upstairs and get ready and I’ll finish helping Leah down here,” he said, kissing my temple. I nodded again and pulled away, but he grabbed my wrist once more and pulled me into him, kissing me softly on the lips. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” I smiled, feeling much more at ease than I did before.