Meet Me on Thames Street?

Its seven thirty on Monday morning and Jack wakes up to his alarm clock beeping arrogantly, echoing off the walls of the bedroom he shares with his wife, indicating he really should get up and get ready for work. He groans and turns on his side to swipe the offending object to snooze and tries to get five more minutes sleep. But when that fails he just lays on his side, watching his wife sleep. She really is beautiful he thinks, and he wipes a brown strand of hair that’s fallen over her closed eyes off her face. They met two years ago at Jack’s office party, and she was won over by his childish attitude and eye-catching smile. He was determined to get over the boy that broke his heart and she was the perfect way to do it. At his touch she stirred in her sleep, eyes fluttering open, looking flawless even as she woke up, she always had a certain glow about her in the morning. She’s definitely a morning person, Jack thinks. She smiles at him and her chocolate eyes meet his own brown orbs, Jack had a thing for brown eyes, they just look so big and innocent. They hide the true qualities of the person behind them. No one is ever as innocent as they seem. He knew that.

He leans down and brushes his nose against hers, whispering a quiet, ‘Morning.’ And getting a mumble of what sounds like a reply of the same word. He captures her lips in his briefly before swinging his legs over the side of the bed and getting up, stretching his arms up into the air, while his bones let up a satisfying pop. He sighs as he wonders over to his wardrobe and picks out a clean white shirt and blazer with matching suit pants. He has an internal debate with himself over whether or not to wear a tie? And if he does, what colour? God Jack, your gay is showing. He settles for the baby blue one his wife likes so much. He turns to look at her sleeping frame where she’s rolled over to face the other side of the room. Jack thinks it’s best to let her sleep in, what with the kids still asleep she barely gets any time alone and even less time to sleep. He smiles at his gorgeous wife, and starts to quietly make his way into their bathroom. He looks in the mirror, trying out different smiles and ‘strong’ looking positions. He has a big meeting today and it needs to go well, he needs this job. Laughing at his reflection he wipes the sleep from the corner of his eyes and tries to tame his messy raven coloured hair into some form of acceptable style for work. Giving up with the strands that won’t sit right he sets to work on brushing his teeth. When he finally finishes he returns into his bedroom and goes to the chest of drawers and grabs a fresh pair of boxers and replaces the ones he’s currently been sporting since Saturday. Hey, it’s okay, it’s the weekend and I was with my friends at least I’m changing them for work! My friend Rian does that sometimes and we have contests to see who can get away with it the longest. When he’s replenished with his clean underwear and thrown the offending pair into the washing basket the other side of the room he changes into his suit and has just got his tie, socks and shoes left to put on. After the fourth time of trying to tie his tie he gets it right. He looks into his sock drawer and peruses the options and decides that today is an odd socks kind of day and picks up a spotty black, blue and green sock left abandoned in the back and grabs a normal black one with a bright pink heel.

When his feet are all covered and toasty Jack heads downstairs to make some coffee that he so desperately craves. Once the kettle’s boiled he pours the nuclear liquid into a thermistor that he had previously put coffee granules in and stirred it with a tea spoon he found lying around on the counter. He replaces the cap and tentatively takes a sip, the burning hot liquid scorching his throat but tasting too damn good to care. He grabs his keys from the bowl on the counter by the door. He bends over to retrieve his shoes from the shoe-rack and after struggling with trying to put his work shoes on while standing up he eventually gets them on, grabs his phone and wallet from the table as well. Looking in the mirror briefly to confirm his appearance with a slight nod and wait, could that be a wink?

He swings open the door, careful not to hit the wall with it, and puts his wallet and phone in his pocket and steps out into the cold morning air gripping his keys tightly between his fingers. Shutting the door quietly behind him, jack slowly paces his way to his car, getting in and placing his thermistor in the cup holder he put the keys in the ignition and started the car. Thus starting another boring trip to work. As usual.