Written and edited by Mahima Rathod

( Don't kill me. I decided to change the pattern in which the story was being posted because I didn't like it much. If you have read this episode already, please skip to the episode number 4)  

Lead characters-

Joel Fernandez, Brenna Fernandez

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An insecure Wife, A clueless Husband and world's cutest baby

Two days after Armaan's wedding-

It had been six days since Brenna had seen Joel, and she was getting upset by his absence. He was going to return home today and it made Brenna excited. She had made a plan for whole day, considering her husband was going to arrive in the evening. Starting from the morning she completed her schedule with their baby boy and got herself cleaned up. When the nanny arrived in the late morning, Brenna left for the supermarket, to buy all the ingredients she needed to make the special dish for her husband. Three hours later, on her way to home, she bought some quality wine which she would share with Joel.

When she arrived home in the afternoon she had picked up takeaway lunch. She wanted to receive Joel from the airport, so she had only four hours to get everything ready. According to her priority list, she first fed her baby boy-which took almost an hour, and then put him to sleep. Then she cleaned and re-decorated the house, except for the kid's room - since it was bound to get messy again when he would wake up, until she was satisfied. She was left with an hour and half to get ready and cook the dinner.

Being a mother always makes a woman multitasker. So, she managed to make herself look presentable, and prepare the food in time. Once she was done with her work, she woke up Bryan, their one-year old son, and started dressing him up. Within next twenty minutes, they were on their way to airport, with Bryan strapped in the baby-seat. He constantly kept cheering that he was going to see his dad again, and kept asking Brenna in his baby voice, which only the mother can understand, whether they had reached or not. Normally, Bryan was a quiet kid, but at the peak times he would become bouncing ball, just like now.

Although Brenna missed Joel, she didn't have so much time to dwell on his absence, since Bryan was always there to fill up her time.

It was almost ten minutes for Joel's plane to arrive so, Brenna and Bryan waited for him patiently outside the airport. Bryan had gone quite as his mother picked him up on her waist, so he could look in every direction for his father. While Brenna had waited for six days to see her husband, waiting ten more minutes seemed to make her impatient enough to fill in for last six days.

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"So, what if Olivia isn't coming to receive you at the airport, I bet she is getting ready for you at your house", Joel smirked wiggling his eyebrows at Brandon who grunted and pulled his bag out of the luggage line.

"She better be. She already denied my offer to take her to dinner, I hope I get my 'dinner' when I get home", Brandon said making Joel gag once he understood the innuendo and they started making their way towards the exit, "What?! As if you are not going to have your 'dinner', once you get home. Staying away from your wife did not do well to you and your friend down there, did it? I saw how much you were missing Brenna when you saw Manny revolving around the fire-"

"it's called Phere", Joel piped in.

"-yeah that, you were probably drooling by thinking about your own wedding", Brandon completed, desperately trying to prove that Joel was missing his wife more than he was missing his own girlfriend.

Both were trying to prove their 'manliness' by proving that they were immune to those girly emotions, as they called it, but both of them knew that they missed their loved ones.

Joel would have said something in counter, but he spotted Brenna and Bryan waiting for him outside the airport. He smiled widely as he saw Brenna, looking as beautiful as ever, wearing the dark-blue knee-length dress that he had gifted her on her birthday. Bryan was on her waist, wearing the strappy jeans over his t-shirt.

Joel said his goodbye to Brandon, just as he was calling his Chauffeur, and they both parted ways. While Joel walked towards his family, he saw Bryan's eyes found him among the crowd of people, he started jumping in his mother's arms and leaned down so that she could put him on the ground. As soon as Brenna put him down, he bumbled in Joel's direction, as fast as his tiny legs could take him.

Joel laughed and bent down to scoop his son in his hands. Bryan hugged him and grinned widely. It was evident from both of their faces, how much they missed each other. Bryan excitedly started telling him-or rather showing him- that he had a tongue. Yeah, Bryan had recently realised that he had a tongue, and found it very new and amusing. So, who ever talked to him after that, the first thing he told them was that he had a tongue. Joel chest rumbled with laughter as he let his eyes rest on his wife, who was smiling at the father-son interaction.

Joel walked couple of steps and hugged Brenna tightly with Bryan still in his arms. He didn't pull away any soon and allowed himself to feel the familiar affection and love. Bryan, who was still holding his tongue, suddenly realised that his mother and father were hugging, so he put his tiny arms around both of their necks, but instead of hugging them he accidentally head-butted Joel who was facing towards Bryan. Everyone jerked back and Joel rubbed the side of his head, playfully telling Bryan that he had become so strong, while his mother scolded him that it was wrong, and daddy had got hurt. But little Bryan was in extremely jolly mood, react anything else but laugh.

Joel joined him too, and kissed his head, before handing him over to Brenna. Clearly, he was tired because of travelling, and those seats with cheap prices did not help his back to relax a bit in whole journey. Brenna suggested that they should get home, so they started walking to their car.

While Brenna strapped Bryan in his seat rather easily-since it was extremely difficult to keep him still while doing so, because of the lollipop candy Brenna gave him, Joel put his luggage in the trunk of the car and stood himself on the driver's side. Brenna got confused, she had thought Joel wouldn't want to drive after long journey.

She closed the door on Bryan's side, and turned to her husband just a second before he pulled her to him by her waist and kissed her. Not the sweet, innocent and slow one, but a passionate one. His hands wandered to her hips which were moulded beautifully into the tight dress she was wearing, while his other hand pulled her head closer so that he could kiss her deeper. Brenna could feel the tingling sensations travelling down her abdomen to her toes, and she clutched his collar tighter. He did not want to pull away, he just wanted to kiss he endlessly, even though they were coming short for air, and even though she smelled like strawberry to which he was allergic to-

Wait-

"Strawberry? Really?", Joel said breathlessly as he pulled away. He smacked his lips couple of times before saying, "really, strawberry lipstick too?!", Joel exclaimed as he wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt, "why would put strawberry lipstick when you know that I am allergic to it? Brenn...seriously?", Joel said while rubbing his lips harder.

Brenna frowned, and said, "I didn't think you would realise it was strawberry", the frown on her face turned into a pout showing her disappointment, which was clearly fake. She withdrew her hand from his shirt and crossed her arms on her chest. "And you don't have allergy of them, you just don't like them", Brenna said and turned around dramatically pausing to give him the sideways look and saying, "It made my lips look good, I wanted to look good for you...but I guess, I am sorry", she sighed and entered the car on driver's seat.

While Brenna was trying to control her laughter, Joel felt as if he dug his own grave. The first thought that came to his mind was that he won't be able to get his 'dinner' tonight, now that he had upset his wife. He smacked himself and walked to the passenger side thinking what he could say that would make up for the situation.

As soon as he closed the door of car and turned towards Brenna, she started laughing and saying in between that she was just kidding. Looking at Joel's now relieved face, Brenna leaned over and kissed his cheek, and then strapped herself ready for the ride. Car ride to be specific.

Joel tilted his head up and silently thanked god, for turning this situation into something funny, and not emotional. Then he glanced down towards his lap and mentally told his friend down there, 'we got lucky this time'.

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"Is Bryan happyyy to see daddyyy......and daddy likes when Bryan behaves like a good boy......Bryan is a good boy, isn't he?!......and Bryan likes yummy food mommy gives him...", this time Bryan said no making Joel laugh.

After returning home, Joel had immediately barged into his bathroom, and stepped inside the shower. The bathroom was in the hallway outside the living room and bedroom, so, when Brenna started feeding Bryan after few minutes, he could hear how Brenna was tricking Bryan into eating food. Each time when she said something, Bryan's muffled 'yes' was heard inside the bathroom, and when Bryan said 'no' on the last statement, Joel couldn't help but laugh.

After few minutes, when he stepped out of the shower in just a towel around his waist, he heard nothing from outside, he assumed that Brenna was probably just putting Bryan to bed. Joel went to their bedroom and changed into a pair of track pants and white full-sleeves t-shirt. While he was dressing, he got a phone call from his colleague, to confirm whether he was going to come to office on Monday. After affirmation he ended the call but he remembered that he had to give Bryan his gift before he went to sleep, so he hurriedly took out his wrapped gift from the suitcase and went over to Bryan's room. When he entered Bryan's room, he saw that Brenna was already making her way outside, so that meant that Bryan had gone to sleep already.

He felt disappointed, Bryan would have loved his gift. He immediately felt like a stupid person, what would Bryan think now, that his dad didn't bring anything for him from his trip. He didn't want him to think that his dad didn't care enough for him. He looked at Brenna and twisted his lips into a sad smile before shrugging his shoulder in disappointment.

Brenna realised that he wanted to give Bryan the gift now, and that he would be thinking something negative about himself since he couldn't, so, she took the gift from him to placed it on the table beside Bryan's crib. While she had walked over and put the box silently on it, she glanced at Bryan's sleeping form in pyjamas, and a smile flitted her lips. Not a second later she felt Joel's arm creeping on her waist, as he came to stand beside her and gazed down adoringly to his son. He was the most precious being on the Earth for them. Having brown hairs and green eyes like his father made him more lovable in Brenna's eyes. And having Brenna's nose, and a mole on his chin just like his mother has, caused Joel to fall in love with his beautiful face every time.

"He would be very excited to see his gift first in the morning...", Brenna whispered, leaning her side on Joel and tilting her head upwards so she could see his face.

Joel nodded his head, and said, still gazing his son's small form, "I wanted to give him this gift before he went to sleep, but that stupid phone call...", Joel trailed off in middle, but continued again while this time looking at Brenna, "But he will be happy when he opens the gift in morning".

Brenna nodded and pushed herself up to kiss him lightly. When she settled herself back again on the ground, she saw that his eyes weren't sad now, instead they were looking mischievous.

"Now time for your gift...", Joel said and lifted her up, putting his hands under her butt.

Brenna shrieked in surprise but stifled it quickly because they were still in Bryan's room. They both looked at Bryan, who didn't even stir, and then silently walked out of the room with Brenna still in his arms.

Brenna realised he was taking them both to their bedroom, so she hurriedly said, "Joel, not now... we need to eat first...I have made special dinner for you".

Joel stopped in the hallway and put her down, while his arms still encircled her waist, his stomach now started rumbling. He put a hand on his stomach and said, "now that you reminded me of dinner, my stomach feels deserted. I swear, that plane food was disgusting, I didn't even eat half of it", he said sticking his tongue out in disgust.

Brenna laughed and hit him lightly on his stomach so that she could free herself and start walking towards the kitchen, "I told you to book some another, nice airways, but you just had to save few dollars. It did cost you your food", she said as Joel followed her to the kitchen. Before he could enter the kitchen, Brenna turned around and told him to close his eyes. After protesting few times, she managed to put her palm on his eyes and walked them both to the kitchen.

Once they came to halt in centre of the Kitchen, Brenna removed her hand and allowed Joel to look at the effort she had made.

Joel blinked in surprise and looked around the kitchen that was decorated with rose petals, and scented candles. The dining table for four in the kitchen was elegantly draped with silk cloth, and exotic looking lava lamp was placed in the centre.

Joel walked towards the table and held the back of the chair, he noticed a bottle of wine, and two glasses kept neatly on one side. The light in kitchen was dimmed and gave away the exact aura of romance. Which secretly intrigued Joel more than anything. He turned to Brenna with an amused smile on his face, and she seemed nervous but still smiled and asked, "Do you...do you like it?".

Joel nodded and motioned for her to come to him, which she did. He held her hand affectionately, and kissed the back of her palms, before murmuring, "how do you manage to make me fall in love with you again and again?".

Brenna started blushing as she looked into her husband's eyes. Somewhere around the bottom of her heart, she felt relief. Relief that her husband still loved her, still wanted her, just like he did before marriage. After three years of living together, and a year of marriage and then one year with their baby boy, an uncertainty had started creeping into her chest. She had faced some moments, in past couple of years that made her think about the possibility of Joel one day falling out of love with her. And she feared, whether that time was arriving soon, but now when she saw Joel watching her with pure love and affection, her heart settled down the doubts.

Out of overwhelming emotions, she kissed Joel lightly on his lips and settled back before he could respond. Looking at Joel's surprised face, Brenna laughed and said, "Come on, time for nice dinner now". She walked around Joel and pulled out a chair for him to sit, to which Joel laughed and said, "why, thank you my lady...".

She settled all the food on table carefully. She glanced at Joel and saw him sitting with his arms crossed and fist under his chin, smiling at her.

She started pouring wine into the flute, and her hands shivered ever so slightly. She was hoping Joel wouldn't notice, but then he stood up and put his hand over her which was holding the flute. She couldn't look at him when he took the glass and the bottle from her and put it down on the table. She looked up only when his fingers tilted her head up by her chin.

"I love you, so much...hmmm....I missed you", Joel said and hugged her, making her release a breath.

Brenna nodded against his chest as his palms curled around her shoulder, "Babe, you are alright?"

"No...Yes...", Brenna couldn't help but laugh. Pulling away she said, "I mean, I am alright. I just...you know... it feels nice hearing from your mouth, that you love me...I can't remember the last time you said that. I-I thought that maybe ...... I just kept thinking... that you didn't-".

"-that I didn't love you anymore?", Joel completed her words as soon as he understood her feelings. His heart started beating faster as he waited her to react and affirm what he was thinking.

Brenna couldn't say it aloud, but she did nod, and broke the connection of their eyes.

Joel released a breath, and his heart sunk horribly on the confirmation. He couldn't have felt more bad and disgusted about himself. He asked himself, why couldn't he realise this any earlier? why couldn't he see that his wife was trying very hard to please him and maintain the love they had? Why couldn't he understand her insecurities earlier than this? He realised now that he had not been paying enough attention to love of his life, he had thought that they were living like a normal couple. He remembered he flashes of past two years, when she would make his favourite food on every weekend, she would always open the door for him even before he could ring the doorbell, she always has his outfit ready for the day when he would come out of the bathroom, and she was just always there, waiting for him to join in her every decision and talk.

He realised that he never had thought about it before, it always seemed like his wife was doing all that for him because she thinks that it is her job. Now when he saw that she has been putting more effort in making him happy, it occurred to him that she just wanted an assurance that he still loved him. And he did, he does, he will always love her. Only that his thick male brain couldn't comprehend that his wife needed some assurance to rely on.

"I-I am so sorry Brenny...sh*t, I am such a d*ck. I didn't realise that you, you always wanted me to say that...and I always just thought you knew..., I am sorry, so sorry...Brenn", Joel said and the urgency in his tone poked Brenna to smile since she had not expected it, Joel's hand clutched her palms tightly, and he murmured against her palms before kissing it, "I love you, and I will always love you Brenny".

Brenna couldn't keep her tears from falling down, but she just laughed and hastily pulled her hand from his to wipe them. She looked at Joel's guilty face with a lingering smile on her face, the reason was only one, that he admitted that he still loves her. He understood what was bothering his wife, and that was enough for her to feel relieved.

"Brenna, babe, you don't have to prove anything to me or even do anything for me. I will always love you. You don't have to please me just to make me say it back...I feel so bad.."

She hugged him, her arms looped his neck and her face rested against his neck, and she was glad that he had showered with his scented soap immediately otherwise it would have been difficult to keep up with the romantic hug. His hands crept on her waist and back, and he pulled her on him.

She heard him laugh lightly against her ear, and say, "I am such a dumb*ss", and murmured an apology again. Her smile was hidden in his neck while she whispered in his ear, "yes you are. And you are going to be punished for it".

"Punished? Hmm...", Joel whispered and let his hand trace the curve of her waist and halt on her butt, "Okay, what punishment are you going to give me master...", Joel huskily whispered on purpose and squeezed her clothed flesh.

Brenna knew what he was doing, and she played along. She bit his earlobe, and smirked when she felt him inhaling sharply against her chest, "your punishment is to, give me my special 'dinner'", and just like that she pulled away smiling smugly since his face was now flushed more than hers, and hastily walked to her chair and sat down.

Joel couldn't understand what happened suddenly, one moment she was seducing him and other she was already on the chair, pulling the napkin over her lap. He was still staring at Brenna when she suddenly asked, "What? Not now!".

"What?", Joel repeated without coordination of his mind and mouth, since his brain was focusing on his friend down there who was trying to break free. All because of his wife who was currently laughing at his mental clumsiness.

Joel finally sat down on the chair groaning, "You are teasing me?! that's not a fair punishment".

Brenna poured the wine -now calmly- and set it down, before serving the food.

"Who said I was teasing?", Brenna said again, while sipping her wine. She decided to tease him more and let her bare toes caress his clothed leg. She controlled herself from laughing out loud when Joel started coughing on his wine. Instead she consoled him back to normal.

"by the end of this punishment, I will not be able to do anything again babe", Joel's eyes started to look annoyed and frustrated.

"Okay...", Brenna couldn't hold her laughter back this time, "I will stop, only because I need my special 'dinner' after this", she purred.

Joel let his head bang on the empty side of table, and heard Brenna laughing, so he kicked her lightly under the table.

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