Almost Easy

Third Person POV

Upstairs Liz had taken a shower, removed her makeup, tied her damp hair up on top of her head, changed in to a tank top and shorts, all without knowing Zack was still even in her kitchen. She had assumed he left sometime during her shower. Liz grabbed her phone from the side table as she sunk herself below the covers of her and Matt’s king sized bed. Tears snuck out the corners of her eyes as she cleared the notifications from all of Matt’s missed calls last night, her phone was finally charged enough to turn on. She used the back of her hand to wipe at her now red eyes.

She sniffled, reading the texts from Matt. Not a single one had been worded angrily, but concerned for her whereabouts. The last one hit her heart hard.

”Will you just let me know you’re safe? I love you Elizabeth”

Liz looked up at the closed bedroom door as she heard the front door shut and a car leaving the driveway. Her head sunk in a more sad way this time, her eyes closed tight as tears fell harder and more frequently now. She set her phone back down on the table on her side of the bed, clicking her light off as she turned the device on silent. In the dark room she shuffled below the covers until she had them tucked up to her ears, letting her tears cover her pillow case as she did most every night.

She hadn’t even had the time to start falling asleep when a noise made her eyes pop open. The handle to the door was turning and Liz’s blood all but stopped moving in her body. She sniffled quietly and in one swift quick motion she sat up and turned the light on beside her.

“Jesus, fuck… Liz, sorry, I thought you were asleep.” Matt stumbled over his own feet as the light turned on.

“I… Wait… I thought you left?” She looked around, wiping at her face to remove all traces of tears but the redness in her eyes and face were a telltale sign for Matt.

He stepped out of his pants and crawled across the bed to his wife, wrapping his arms around her shoulders as she sighed, “No, I just put dinner away before coming up I didn’t want to eat or leave it out before talking to you.”

“Well… You should go eat, Matt. I’m exhausted.” Liz tried shrugging away but Matt stayed beside her, “I’m serious-“

“And so am I, Liz. We don’t have to talk, but I’m coming to bed with you. I’m not even hungry.”

“So… who left?” Liz looked in to Matt’s eyes as his phone vibrated from his pants, “Matt?”

“Zack? Your brother who was giving me the talking option other than beating me up tonight? You know that guy who gave you a ride home from Jim’s?” Matt laughed as Liz’s stomach finally stopped churning in her body, “Babe… I love you so much. Let’s get some sleep tonight and we can talk tomorrow morning?” Matt’s hand caressed Liz’s arm as she nodded softly, her eyes still locked with the soft brown ones in front of her.

Her body slid down under the covers easily as Matt reached over Liz to turn her light off. He laid his head on the pillow beside his wife, taking in the scent of helper freshly washed hair, Matt let his fingers trace the curves of Liz’s arm, caressing her skin as her breathing steadied out. Liz could feel Matt’s eyes on her, watching her as he probably assumed she had fallen asleep now. His hands felt rough against her skin, she hadn’t remembered the last time she actually tuned in to the feeling of his touch or even the last time he had touched her body without clothing covering it.

Liz couldn’t pin point the day or event that had lead to their lack of communication and contact. She was soaking in this moment though, Matt sleeping beside her for the first time in Lord knows how long. A smile was sleepily tugging at her lips the entire time until her eyes fell shut for the final time to the feeling of Matt’s breathing on her back and his hands lulling her senses to sleep.

… … …

Momentarily forgetting that Matt has come to bed last night, Liz woke with a sped up heart rate at the sound of a small snore beside her. But quickly after turning over the smile she fell asleep with repositioned on her lips as she stared at the side of Matt’s face. Her eyes traveled down to his bare chest, he must have shed his shirt in the middle of the night. Liz slept without the air on and just a fan by the open window so it got relatively warm. Each tattoo on his skin she picked up on and the small amounts of non-inked skin looked out of place.

“I miss feeling you next to me at night.” Matt spoke without opening his eyes, Liz sighed deeply, “I know, I have no one to blame but myself. I’m sorry for how I’ve been lately, babe. I know I need to reign myself in.”

“It’s not even that… all I ask is a night or two a week to be able to have you to myself, Matthew. A date night, a night in watching movies and eating Chinese food. That’s all I want.”

“I’ll do more but we can start there, tonight, does tonight work for you?” Matt turned over now, propping his head on his elbow to look at Liz, she nodded, blonde hair now mostly dry falling every which way from her bun, Matt chuckled, “God you’re beautiful, Liz. Why’d you marry an asshole like me?”

Liz rolled her eyes and slapped Matt’s chest, “Assholes are my type apparently,” She scooted to a sitting position and stretched upwards, “I slept like a goddamn rock, I didn’t even remember you came to bed.”

“Oh thanks.” Matt mumbled and stared at the exposed skin on Liz’s stomach as she reached above her head, “Let’s have a baby, Lizzy…”

Liz choked as she yawned, eyes widening just enough for Matt to scowl at the reaction, “I’m sorry, what? You haven’t slept in the same bed as me in months upon months, and the first idea you have is to… is to bring another life in to this fuckery?” Liz cocked her head and chuckled under her breath while exiting the bed, “I think we should wait for that. I think we should wait until we can survive a long period of time without a monumental crisis.”

“This isn’t a monumental crisis, Elizabeth, this was me making a dumb choice and not being around, me not taking marriage seriously for what it was-“

“And you think I want to chance that happening with a child? You can’t even take a marriage to me seriously, Matt, and you’ve known me forever and apparently always wanted this. If you can’t take that seriously I can’t trust you to take raising a child seriously and I’m not getting pegged with doing that alone too.”

Liz sharply spat her words while pulling on jeans as Matt sat up in bed, taking the hit with force as he watched his wife suddenly fill with a rage he’d never noticed before, “You think you’ve been doing this marriage alone, Liz? Really? You can’t have a marriage without two people so, sorry to break it to you, you can’t pretend like a marriage has been working with just one person putting in to it.”

Liz smiled and pointed at Matt, “Exactly my point, darling. I’m going to go get my hair done, you can call Zack and explain how well this conversation went.” Liz finished pulling in a shirt over her head before snatching her phone from the bed and leaving the room. Matt groaned and flopped back on the mattress, hearing his phone buzzing from his jeans on the floor.