Almost Easy

Third Person POV

Liz’s hands were wrapped tightly around a coffee mug as she sat beside her mother’s bed, it had been three weeks since the strokes and she was progressing minimally.

“So how are you feeling this morning, Mom?” Liz asked as Maria shrugged, she had already come in and introduced herself and reminded her mother who she was.

“My head hurts a little bit, but they say it’s because I’m not drinking enough water.” Maria laughed, watching Liz shake her head, “You’re such a pretty girl when you smile like that.”

Liz watched the look in her mother’s eyes change as she took her hand, “Thank you.”

“I have a son, his names Zachary… He’s a handsome-“

“Maria… I’m your daughter, Elizabeth.” Liz pushed down the lump in her throat as her mother stared back, “I’m your daughter, and… And Zack’s married.”

“Oh..” Maria took her hand back and looked at her sheets, “I didn’t know he was married.”

“It’s ok.” Liz placed her hand gently on the sheets, “That’s ok, that’s why I’m here. We’re doing this slow.”

Marie nodded and turned back to Liz, continuing to speak about how her morning went before Liz showed up.

Liz spent four hours at the hospital with her mother before leaving, she hated leaving her there, alone with no family, her dad was at work and came by every night and most nights stayed over but a few he had gone home to shower or get a comfortable night sleep. Liz fought back the wrenching feeling in her chest as she pulled her sunglasses over her eyes and walked to her car. She sat down behind the wheel and slammed her door shut, pushing against her tear ducts to force stop the tears she felt conjuring up in her body.

“Fuck!” She beat against the steering wheel, feeling her phone vibrating in her jeans pocket. She arched back and fished it out, pressing the answer button in the process, “Hello?”

“I… I didn’t expect you to answer, I was going to leave a message.”

“Oh.” Liz’s voice was low, “Brian-“

“I need to talk to you Liz, it’s really important.”

“I don’t… I don’t think I should. Matt hasn’t brought up that night and I think, as friends, we need to take a step back for a bit… Have you told Michelle?” Liz asked, silence was her response, “How am I supposed to deal with that, Brian? She’s my best friend.”

“I know and… That’s really why I need to talk to you, we both do. Michelle too.”

“I really don’t have time right now,” Liz checked her clock while starting the car engine, “I’m running home quick to let Freddie out then I’m heading off to Santa Ana to Marie’s house to jump back in to the work thing… I need something to occupy my head and Dennis has been emailing me really vague offers in his way of begging me back.”

“Well… can we get together tomorrow morning?”

“I can’t. I uhm… I have stuff to do.” Liz avoided the topic of her mother seeing as she expected Zack to have already broken that ice burg for her and she really wanted to hang up as fast as possible with Brian, “I need to go, Bri…”

“Liz.. it’s important, so soon please?”

“Sure, ok. Have a good day.”

Liz ended the call and ran her hands through her hair, she was still unsure how to feel about that night in general and she hadn’t dared bring it back up to Matt. He had just finally started going to the studio when Brian was there, again, without having to call Jimmy first to make sure Brian wasn’t there. No one else knew what happened, but for some reason no one questioned Matt’s inquiries.

A few miles down the highway towards home Liz realized she was driving in the wrong direction, she was driving towards Levi’s house. A knot in her stomach cause a wave of sweat to break over her forehead, “Wow, today’s fucked.” Liz laughed to herself and redirected towards her and Matt’s house. Upon arriving home, she noticed Matt’s car in the driveway, which was odd because he was supposed to be out playing golf today with some friends. Liz closed the car door and strutted up the front stairs and in to the house, looking around carefully before shutting the door behind her, “Hello?” She called out, “Matt, babe, you home?”

“Upstairs.” Matt called back and Liz put her bag down, remembering she was there only to pick up her laptop before heading to Marie’s but she was curious, her curiosity leading her up to their master bedroom where she burst out laughing at what was in front of her.

“What… what in the world…” She laughed, holding her hand on her mouth, “What are you doing?”

“Uhm…” Matt paused, drill in hand as he stared at the half falling down TV mount on the wall, “You always said you wanted a TV in our room… so…”

“Oh babe.” Liz laughed at the mess of power tools and parts strewn around the room, she walked over and took the instructions paper from his hand with a laugh, pecking his lips.

“I thought you were going to Marie’s after seeing mom?” Matt was obviously embarrassed at his current struggle.

“I needed my laptop… I could have easily hired someone to mount the TV if I wanted it that badly, babe… You’re too funny.”

“I figured I could do something sexy, pull of some manly thing and maybe turn you on a little.” Matt grabbed her hips as he wiggled his eyebrows, causing Liz to throw her head back in a laugh.

“Oh really? Like some sexy sweaty construction worker?” Liz asked as he nodded, “You’re my sexy tattooed musician, I can only handle one overly sexy genre of man in my life babe.” She laughed as Matt pressed his lips hard to hers, pulling back to stare in to her eyes.

“You look happy today, did it go well this morning?” Matt asked as Liz walked away to get her laptop from her bedside table, he took a seat on the edge of the bed as Liz shrugged, “You look… like before you realize marrying me was a shit idea.”

“Funny,” Liz tapped her chin, “Because I still haven’t come to that conclusion.” She laughed a little and walked back in front of Matt, shrugging, “No, it went good this morning. She was ok… Weird though, Brian called me.”

“What?” Matt looked back up at her, watching her avoid his glance, “What’d he have to say?”

“I don’t know, he wanted me to come talk to him and Michelle about something important apparently. He hasn’t even told her what happened.” Liz was definitely avoiding Matt’s eyes and he was almost thankful, “It was odd, like… I wasn’t sure how to feel, and I’m uncomfortable for the first time at the thought of hanging out with Brian and Michelle. They’re my best fucking friends and I hate that I can’t just hang out with them or talk but… I’m nervous what they both have to say to me. Does she hate me for what happened?” Liz rambled, “I didn’t mean to… I didn’t try to start anything.”

“Fuck.” Matt ran his hands over his face, “Liz, don’t worry about them. It’s fine, Michelle knows. It’s… It’s my issue right now ok? Not yours.”

“Your’s?” Liz cocked her head, “How is it your’s when they want to talk to me?”

“Just… let me handle it ok? We’ll all be back to normal soon I just haven’t sat down with them yet.”

“Ok.” Liz nodded, brushing off the gut feeling she had, “I’m going to go to Marie’s now-“

“Oh not yet, Mrs. Sanders.” Matt reached out, grabbing Liz by the hips quickly as she giggled, “Not yet.” He pulled her on to his lap, Liz carefully put her laptop bag down and straddled his lap, allowing his lips to press against her’s in a deep kiss before Matt slid his hands up the back of her shirt to unclasp her bra.