Keeping the Spark Alive

In truth, he was beginning to feel a little silly.

He looked around. Flower petals were scattered everywhere, apparently not content to stay where he had left them for long with the fan blowing, even at its lowest setting. He was wearing his best for her, but his best had turned out to be a polo shirt and khakis because they had never bothered to buy more formal wear since his resizing. Silly indeed, but there was no point trying to pack it up now. Amy said she would be home soon.

Soon. That one word seemed to work its way into practically every conversation they had these days. Sure, she would say, we’ve had a few setbacks, but things will be better soon. We need to watch our power bill this month, but we’ll have enough money saved soon. My boss overlooked me for another raise, but I’ll be quitting anyway soon. And this has been hard for both of us, and for our marriage, but it will all be worth it soon and I’ll get the procedure soon and then we’ll be happy again. Soon.

Justin exhaled, collected himself. It wasn’t her fault. Amy had only planned to delay her own shrinking process a couple months, at most. Just enough time to wrap things up at her firm, train a replacement, and get settled with a new job in the small persons community they had picked out together. It had all made so much sense: resizing meant a luxury lifestyle on middle-class means and was environmentally conscious to boot. So, he had gone first. No different than making a traditional move a month or so before your spouse. Working couples did that all the time.

But it hadn’t turned out that way. First, Amy had had her car accident. Nothing serious, just a fender bender in a parking lot, but it cut into their savings. Then the roof had a leak, so that was more to spend, more money down the drain. One setback after another. Justin looked around at their bedroom, at all the access ramps and walkways they had set up to help him navigate the apartment, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that they could be stuck like this for the long haul.

Carefully, he made his way across the bed and across the narrow ramp that connected their nightstand to the windowsill. A large cardboard package waited by the welcome mat at the base of the stairs. It wouldn’t fix everything, but it was something. They needed this.

He looked over. Her parking space was still empty. With a fluttery, half-anxious, half-excited feeling in his chest, he made his way back to the bed, gathering up a few stray rose petals on his return.

She’d be home soon.

Justin wasn’t sure how much time passed between then and the sound of the door opening. He had drifted off to sleep waiting, or at least was on the verge of it. He could hear footsteps, keys jingling, the sound of bags and coats unloaded.

“Welcome home!” he called. He never had gotten a proper sense for how loud he was at his new size despite having had over half a year to adapt, but he knew she could usually hear him well enough from the bottom of the stairs, provided the bedroom door was open.

“You would not believe the day I had,” Amy groaned as she entered the room. Her blonde hair, still tied into a ponytail, looked tangled and the shadows under her eyes seemed to have deepened since he had last seen her that morning. She set the package at the foot of the bed next to him. “This came for you, by the way. Did you order something?”

In her defense, it had been weeks since they had agreed to buy it together and she always had so much on her mind, but still… Justin brushed that aside. They had all night. It could wait until she was in a better mood. “Later,” he said, patting the spot next to him. “Tell me about work.”

Amy sat down gingerly, careful not to settle her weight in too quickly, though he still only barely caught himself before he fell toward her in the indent of her body on the mattress. She either didn’t notice or pretended not to out of politeness. “Where do I even start?’ she asked, hooking one leg off to ease off her heel. “You remember that new contract we’re negotiating for the investors at CJW?”

In all honesty, he didn’t, and he was confident that this was the first time she had mentioned that particular name. He nodded anyway.

“Well, I’ve been telling my boss I’d have them sorted by next week, but guess what’s waiting for me when I get to the office today? They’re asking for a rework! Didn’t even have the courtesy to tell me in person.” she said, tossing her other heel to the corner, where it landed in front of their closet. She rubbed her forehead, as if to dispel a lingering headache. “My boss won’t even extend my timeline…”

Quit, Justin thought, they don’t deserve you. Rather than say that, though, he carefully made his way the last few inches to her, laying a hand on her thigh in a way that he hoped came off as sympathetic. He wished he could hold her, comfort her properly, be there for her the way he was supposed to be. But this would have to do.

Amy brought her hand down slowly to cup him behind his back, holding him against her leg for a moment. “Soon,” she whispered, just a bit of the weariness lifted from her voice.

“Soon,” he echoed.

She stood, taking the warmth of her palm with her, and made her way over to the dressing table to stand before the mirror. Though he had long gotten over most of the indignity of being carried, Amy had never quite learned to be comfortable with the idea of picking him up. Instead, he followed, taking the long route from the bed, along the pathway built against the wall, and over to the counter to join her.

“So,” he said cautiously, “how’s that going to affect your schedule for the week?”

His wife grimaced. “Who knows?” She turned the handle on the sink, hot water pouring out to steam up the mirror behind him. “Winston already asked me to come in Saturday, so that’s half my weekend burned. Beyond that…” Amy trailed off, staring into empty air as if picturing a calendar in front of her. A moment later, she shook her head and bent over to wash her makeup away.

Justin sat, leaning against the nearest object, which happened to be a tube of toothpaste. It squished, though only slightly, under his weight. He waited until she turned the water off. “Can’t you get someone else to help? I mean, isn’t that what interns are for?”

She toweled her face off, using a tissue to wipe away the last smudges of lipstick. “Maybe,” she said, “but then I’d be liable for reviewing their work afterwards. God knows the last thing I need is to have to redo this a third time.”

He tried again. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“You could start by letting me brush my teeth.” Amy laughed.

“Sorry, sorry.” He stepped away, opting instead for an unopened prescription box, which turned out to be just the right height to make a good chair. “But seriously, Amy, let me know what I can do.”

She glanced skeptically his way, still occupied with brushing her teeth.

“Fine,” he said, “what about around the house? It’ll take longer, but I have time in the breaks between meetings and it’s all online anyway. Let me do something useful for once.”

She spat. He watched as the toothpaste and water swirled down the drain. She looked at him, keeping eye contact for the first time and resting, hand against her chin, elbow on the soapstone countertop. “I know,” she started, softly. “I feel the same way, okay?”

“Yeah, I know,” he shrugged, suddenly in her spotlight. “Soon.”

Amy leaned in, lips pursed. Her breath smelled of fresh mint. Kisses were always awkward, given the size difference, but it he didn’t mind. He placed his lips against her bottom lip where she held herself, palms to the corners of her mouth so she could feel him.

She sighed and he felt a finger at the back of his head, pushing him closer. In the first weeks, things like this had unnerved him, despite his trust in her. Even now, with so long to get used to it, the thought still crossed his mind from time to time how precarious his situation really was. How huge she was.

She pulled back, straightening up. “Don’t worry, love. We just have to get through a few more weeks of this.” She started to undo the buttons on her dress shirt as she paced away from the mirror.

Justin looked to his wife, pulling her arm loose from her sleeve, shrugging it off to reveal her bare shoulder underneath. He looked to the box, still lying where she had left it on the bed. He cleared his throat. “So, do you think you’ll have any free time?”

“Doubt it,” she said, resignedly. “I should probably have started going through files ten minutes ago. Why?”

“Ah,” he tried not to react outwardly, “no reason in particular. Forget I mentioned it.”

Amy raised an eyebrow. “No, why? Is there something-” She stopped and looked down, noticing the red petals on the floor for the first time. “Oh! Did I, uh, forget something? I’m sorry if I did, I’ve just-”

“You didn’t,” he reassured her. “Don’t worry about it.”

She followed his gaze to the package. “This? Did you buy me something?” She paused a second before he saw the flash of recognition in her eyes. “Oh, is this what I think it is?”

He nodded. It had been something of an impulse buy nearly a month ago, though they had been talking around the possibility long before that. The idea had been almost too much to bring up in waiting, though it had entered his mind frequently in the long nights he spent watching Amy sleep from his own bed atop the headboard. This had come up in all the message boards and support groups for couples like them. It was almost absurd to think, but he had found himself missing her in a funny way. And now, he felt, he might just have her back.

But now she really did look deflated. “Justin,” she said, still staring at the box, “I want this, but I really meant it when I said I’m swamped with work.”

“It’s okay, love. What if we open it now and the rest can come later?”

Amy smiled, softly. Without another word, she returned to the counter where he stood, her chest covered in only a practical white bra. His gaze lingered as she offered him her palm, which he graciously climbed onto, not particularly self-conscious this time as she ferried him to the bed.

She set him down on her knee, working at the packing tape with her other hand before he could even balance himself. It came away easily when she pulled. She opened the box.

From his vantage point on her lap, he could see the color rise to her cheeks as she looked inside and pulled out the first thing she saw. It was a transparent, plastic rod – a dildo – which was clearly hollowed out on the inside. The cavity, though it looked cramped, was definitely big enough to fit someone of his stature. As she rotated the toy in her hands, Justin could see the base appeared to screw on, with air holes poked into the bottom.

He looked back into the box. There was a lot left, more than he remembered being included in the order. Among other things, he saw a small bottle of lube, a glass plug, a vibrator (with what looked to be a small-sized remote control), a pair of lacy panties, and, coiled around the other objects, a string of anal beads. Atop it all was a card with the company’s name: Into You.

“Amy,” he broke the silence, “are you sure you don’t have any free time?”

She bit her lip. “Well…”

“Just to try it. Nothing more.”

Amy held the see-through dildo up in the air, closing one eye so that it overlaid his form. “Maybe it would help to destress a little?” She shivered. “One condition.”

“What is it?”

“I really do have to work afterwards.” The blonde paused, mulling it over. “And I get to choose what toy we use first.”

“That’s two things, but sure,” Justin laughed, really getting into it now. “What’ll it be, darling?”

She blushed and reached back into the box to pull out the long string of anal beads, dangling from a ring between her fingers. There were six in total, each maybe a little over two inches in diameter. Enough room for him to fit inside one, if he curled up a bit. And then they’d go inside her.

Justin looked up to meet Amy’s gentle blue eyes. She met his gaze, bemused and, though she tried to hide it, already aroused. “Assuming that’s okay with you, hmm?”

He had expected he’d have to coax her into it, but now that they were finally doing it she seemed more than ready to dive straight into the deep end. “Amy,” he breathed, “you have no idea how much I’ve been looking forward to this.”

“Oh, don’t I?” She scooped him up in one massive hand and brought him close to her face, cupping her other hand behind his back to keep him from falling backwards. “It seems pretty obvious to me.” She eyed the visible bulge at the front of his pants.

It was his turn to blush. Intimacy since his procedure had been strained, to say the least. Foreplay was no challenge, but the size difference had always kept them from following through, not least of all for fear that he might get hurt. But now…

Justin worked quickly to unbutton his pants, letting his erection spring forward from his boxers. Though the effect on her couldn’t have been the same as it once had been, Amy still looked at him admiringly, which was more than enough to help him through any lingering doubts he might have had about this. From behind, her long fingernails pinched at his collar, pulling his shirt up and over his head as if unwrapping a gift.

He stood naked on his wife’s palm, clothes discarded carelessly onto the bed below. The room seemed quiet and peaceful, with only the sound of the two of them breathing. She looked pointedly at him and he nodded, neither of them needing to say a word.

Her lips parted, slightly, and she leaned in. Her breath was warm, and the pleasant minty scent from brushing her teeth lingered. Amy’s nose met his face as the tip of her tongue met his midsection. He looked up to see her eyes closed, lashes fluttering as she tasted him, finding his thighs, erection, and abdomen in the same probing motion. He tried to kiss her back, though whether she could feel his lips against her soft skin or not wasn’t apparent. One hand fell away, leaving only the one which pressed him closer to her eager mouth.

The kiss grew deeper, and Justin found himself being actively pressed against the flat of her tongue, which had more than soaked most of the front half of his body by now, save for his head and feet. It caught him off-guard; she was never usually this comfortable handing him. Then again, perhaps he was usually more resistant to it. Mentally embracing the weirdness of the situation, he leaned down, bringing his head below the awning of her upper lip to kiss her tongue.

She froze for a second, then resumed with a shaky breath, curling her tongue up to meet his face. Before he could react, Amy pursed her lips around his head, enveloping his chest and shoulders in a ring of warmth. Blinking and opening his eyes, Justin found his head fully inside her mouth, with only the faintest of light trickling in from the edges of her mouth. She moaned, the sound echoing up to meet him from deep inside the throat before him.

Amy loosened her lips, allowing him to slip back out of her mouth, but he held himself in place, leg braced against her palm. She hummed around his body in reaction before the shape of her lips shifted subtly again to a tight o-shape. The air shifted inside her mouth and her tongue retreated a moment before it happened.

Her mouth opened slightly, and she pursed her lips over his head, then again until his ears were pressed on either side by her increasingly deep “kiss.” The next moment, he found his entire well-lubricated body sucked into his wife’s mouth in a single drawn-out, enthusiastic slurp. Her tongue lowered to admit first his head, then his chest, his stomach, his waist, and his legs as he turned and curled to allow her to finish taking him in. Only his calves remained between her lips, though even then he could barely feel the outside air on his toes. He simply lay there, half-way into the fetal position, not really sure what had just happened and not caring too much either.

Amy suckled over him, her tongue curling upwards to taste him.

He felt the tip of her finger gently nudge against his feet and, with only a second of hesitation, willingly pulled them inside too.

Amy gagged, slightly, over the undoubtedly large mouthful, but she closed her lips anyway.

He felt her teeth close a moment later, slowly and carefully sealing him in.

But then, just as abruptly, he was back out in the comparatively cool air of the bedroom, slick with saliva on her open palm, while she lounged against her pillows, chest heaving up and down. “Sorry,” she panted, “I think I got a little carried away there.”

“Something like that…” he agreed, trying to wrap his head around what had just happened. Flustered, he looked over his shoulder to the anal beads where they had been left by her feet. She followed his gaze.

“What, you still have energy for these?” she asked, playfully, swinging them in front of him like a pendulum.

“Assuming you aren’t worried about all that work I’m keeping you from,” he teased back, quickly regaining his conviction after the trip between her lips.

She made a show of looking to the clock on the nightstand, then back at him. “Yeesh. Well, it might be tight…” She lowered the chain of plastic beads to her flat stomach, arranging them to roughly where she imagined they might end up once they were inside of her. She laughed. “I think I might just be able to squeeze you in.”

“Whenever you’re ready.”

“Give me, say… five minutes?” She set him down. “I won’t keep you waiting too long, love.”

Amy stood, legs shaking almost imperceptibly, then moved quickly to the washroom. Then, with one last longing look after him, she shut the door behind her. He could hear water running.

It was everything Justin could do to resist the urge to rub one out right here, the way she had left him. Instead, though, he walked unsteadily to the anal beads, resting on the pillow where she had been moments ago. They had played with similar toys back when they were the same size, but it had been a long time since they had been able to be that adventurous.

Now that he was looking at them up close for the first time, he could see that each bead had at least a dozen air holes, poked into all sides. A thin but durable looking cord connected each, with a pull ring on one end. There were small, smooth indents on the surface of each sphere, with a circular ring that seemed possible to unscrew.

Experimentally, he pressed in on one with his palm and turned. The latch rotated easily, coming loose to give access to the hollow chamber inside. Ah heck, might as well get myself ready for her.

Careful not to let the ball roll, Justin stepped inside, ducking his head and bending his knees to fit inside the enclosed space. It wasn’t particularly spacious, but he supposed any larger might get in the way of its real purpose.

Its purpose. Was he absolutely sure about this? The ‘kiss’ they had shared was already further than they had gone in months, but this would be completely uncharted territory. Based on how the inside of her mouth had been even briefly, what was he in for now? He looked down to see he was as hard as ever and shrugged. He didn’t know, but he sure as hell wanted to find out.

As it turned out closing himself inside the bead was even easier than opening it, thanks to the convenient handle on the inside. It was good to know he’d be able to get out on his own if he absolutely needed to.

He was about to climb back out when the door opened and Amy reemerged, this time wrapped in a towel and apparently nothing else. “Justin!” she called, then noticed him, already inside her new toy.

“My, my,” she hummed, “someone’s eager.”

Whatever he was going to say in response was cut off as she picked up the string of beads, knocking him off balance as he dangled high above the ground, swinging on their way back to the washroom. Untangled, he could see now he was in the third bead, starting with the one that would be… well, first into her ass.

Amy stopped in front of the mirror, holding the pull ring high in the air so Justin swayed gently before her at eye level. “Hey you,” she said.

“Hey,” he whispered back.

“Ready?”

“Please.”

She started to lower him almost immediately, but then brought him back up. “Wait, I almost forgot!” She picked something up from the sink with her free hand and brought it up.

“My phone?”

“So you can talk to me, silly.” She gestured for him to open, which he did obligingly. “It is waterproof, isn’t it?”

He nodded and took it from her, though he didn’t exactly have a pocket handy to keep it.

Amy tightened the hatch back into place and smiled at him earnestly. “Thank you for this,” she sighed, “I’ve really needed it.” With that, she let her towel drop away, revealing her naked body in all its fullness.

She lowered him slowly as he drank her in, silently guiding him past her chest and firmly erect nipples, her smooth, slender belly, and finally to her waist, where he noticed for the first time that she had shaved recently. Her sex was plainly slick with her arousal, though he could only see a hint of it between her closed legs.

Amy repositioned herself, bringing him behind her as she lent forward over the sink, taking the first bead between her thumb and forefinger. The other hand – her left – she used to spread herself open, giving him a proper view of his destination: a tight, puckered hole nestled squarely at the center of her ass, only slightly darker than the surrounding skin.

Justin could already feel the heat coming off her body as the first bead was brought to the cleft between her cheeks, though he didn’t have a direct view of it from where his own was hanging below her body. Instead, he watched from an angle as the plastic sphere, instantly lubricated from contact alone, gradually disappeared from view behind her insistent fingers. With a gasp, she pulled away and it was gone, leaving the remaining five beads swinging between her thighs.

But she didn’t stop. It was obvious his bead was the real prize. This time, her hand cradled both the second bead and Justin’s, bringing them up to her rear entrance together. The small man inside could only stroke himself lazily and watch as Amy took the bead in front of him. This time, he was close enough to get a glimpse of where he was going through the transparent plastic shell as it was engulfed. What light there was illuminated dark pink flesh and the outline of the other bead already inside, pushed deeper as the second one displaced it.

And then the bead was suddenly gone as Amy pushed past the midpoint, pulling Justin along with it. She now dominated his field of vision, the protective barrier between his body and his wife pressed firmly against her ass, though the sphincter in front of him appeared to be tightly shut again with only the thin cord that connected the beads sticking out.

She turned around, taking him with her, and he was once again facing the mirror. He could see his own nude form, huddled in curve of the little plastic sphere, framed to either side and dwarfed by her substantial ass. Amy had her head turned over her shoulder, bending over slightly, trying to get a good view of him.

The couple made eye contact in the mirror and she paused, looking for a signal to go ahead. His own thoughts a bit fuzzy, the best Justin could think to do given that she probably wouldn’t hear him was to mime blowing her a kiss.

She giggled, almost girlishly, and kissed the air. When she brought her hand down, it mostly obscured his view, though he could still see their reflection in the gaps between her fingers. His bead pressed inward, forcing her open. The tight ring of muscle crept steadily over him, until it reached the halfway point where the other two had quickly disappeared.

Amy held him in place, halfway in and halfway out. He turned back to look at her face in the mirror. Despite the slight strain in her expression, she looked to be in absolute bliss. He wasn’t sure if she noticed him looking or just guessing, but she took away all but one finger, leaving him a perfect view of both of them in the mirror. With her other hand, she cheekily waved goodbye.

He waved back.

And then she flexed her finger, clenched down, and he was swallowed up. Her asshole winked shut behind him like the aperture of a camera, trapping him completely inside his wife’s rectum. It was pitch black and hot as a sauna, though not in a particularly uncomfortable way. He could hear her pulse, alongside other shifting and gurgling sounds above him. And, from inside her and outside simultaneously, he could hear Amy’s unrestrained groans of pleasure.

God, I’ve missed her, Justin realized, increasing the speed of his own masturbation to the rhythm of her movements, which he could feel distinctly through the narrow wall that separated him from her vaginal passage. It was pure luck that he finished at the same time she did, reaching one of the most intense climaxes of his life as his wife cried out from all around him. It made a mess of the inside of the plastic bead, but it mattered little next to slippery lube that had already made its way in through the air holes. He lay there, panting, in the dark, while Amy shifted around him.

At some point a minute or two later, after her movements had slowed, the remaining three balls were shoved in after him in rapid succession, each briefly shedding a thin line of light into the fleshy chamber and jostling the toys already inside a little deeper as they entered. By the sixth and last bead, the light flashed three or four of his body lengths away and, as far as Justin could tell, went out because he rounded a corner and not simply because the sphincter had closed again. Position was hard to discern from perceived movement alone, but it felt as if he continued to go deeper even after the entire chain was inside. Had Amy lost the pull ring? Or else, had she intentionally kept going?

He might have used his phone to find out – it had turned out waterproof as advertised – but the thought didn’t worry him much. After all, there was only really one way things could ultimately go from here. Plus, he could always use the hatch to get himself out if it were truly urgent. Rather than overthink it, he tried his best to lie down in the limited space available to him and relax, listening to the ambient sounds of Amy’s body.

Her heartbeat slowed to a resting rate as she began to move around normally, doing whatever it was she was doing now that she had finished pleasing herself. At one point, he could hear a faint drumming sound from in front of him, through her skin, and eventually realized that she must be taking a shower. Sometimes, the walls would push in and jostle him slightly, which he guessed was the result of her pressing on her stomach or, perhaps, merely flexing her abdominal muscles as she moved. For the most part, however, her movements were ambiguous from his perspective inside a spherical container where the only meaningful direction was gravity, which often shifted whenever Amy bent over or lay down. Ha gave up his guessing game after a while.

In time, those ambiguous movements ceased as well, when he assumed she settled down to work. There were only occasional little shifts or quiet, distant noises to remind him that he was still inside his wife and not just floating in a darkened void. He wondered if she was still conscious of him. Not that she could have completely forgotten of course, but it wasn’t out of the question that her body had simply adjusted to the chain of plastic beads lodged deep inside her. A vague sensation of fullness, nothing more. He doubted there was a visible bulge through her skin.

Just as he was mulling over the idea, the wall above and in front of him curved inwards, squeezing the little plastic bead he sat in. It wasn’t jostled, like what he would feel if she were repositioning herself to get comfortable, but a deliberate touch, which rolled over him in the dark, coming for a moment, leaving for several more, and then coming back again just as strongly. Justin doubted she knew precisely where he was, but the slow massage of her abdomen came with an unmistakable message. She was still thinking about him.

Justin smiled to himself.

And then, under the slow tide of her hand and the ever-present warmth of her body, he felt himself becoming drowsy.

An indeterminate amount of time later – maybe thirty minutes, maybe an hour – he woke from his half-asleep state to find his phone buzzing. It was a video call. From Amy, as promised. Justin rubbed his eyes, then hurriedly answered the call.

“Hey sweetie,” Amy said, looking noticeably freshened up since the last time he had seen her. Her long, blonde hair was nearly dry from the shower, and she had changed into a simple black t-shirt. He was pretty sure that was one of his old shirts, actually, from back when he was full size. On the screen, she was reclined in bed, the laptop she was calling from presumably resting on her stomach.

“How ya holding up?” he asked, keeping the casual tone she had established.

Amy raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you think I should be asking you that?”

“Oh, it’s fine in here, don’t worry. Nearly dozed off, myself.” He waved in mock dismissal, hoping she could see his gestures in the limited lighting. “Get any work done without me?”

“Ugh. I mean, it’s just boring legal stuff, but I’m getting through it. Maybe if someone hadn’t spent all evening distracting me?” she said, teasingly.

“Sounds like an excuse,” Justin replied.

She rolled her eyes, and he saw his point-of-view from her webcam lifted up and placed down on the bed. Then, without warning, she bucked her hips and turned over onto her stomach, sending him tumbling inside. “Hey!”

“My bad,” she covered her mouth to stop herself from laughing, “I had to know if that would work.”

“Now you know,” he said, rubbing the top of his head where he had hit it. “How is, well, everything else?”

Amy sat up, disorienting him once more in the process, and straightened the laptop in front of her so she was fully in view. “I assume you mean our new toy?” She straightened up, pawing at her stomach through the fabric of her shirt. “If I’m being honest, I can barely feel you, but… it’s really nice knowing you’re so close.”

“Not so bad here either, you know,” he agreed. “Not that I really have a sense of where exactly I ended up.”

“Ooh, good question.” Amy looked down at herself thoughtfully. She lifted her t-shirt halfway. There was no bulge after all. Nothing to give his location away. “I want to say, mmmmmm, here maybe?” She picked a spot to the side of her belly button and pushed in with four fingers.

“I didn’t feel anything,” Justin said, amused.

“Damn. I think I pushed you way too deep.” She dropped her shirt back down. Then, in a quieter voice: “I can’t believe you’re in there. I mean, I know you’re in there, but you’re in there.” Amy wrapped her arms protectively over her now-covered midsection.

“It’s a little easier for me to believe,” he said, looking around at the barely illuminated walls around him. “I don’t suppose I’m making it out anytime soon, then?”

“Well, I certainly wouldn’t mind if you decided to stay a little while longer,” she said, as she reclined back into her pillows, still absentmindedly rubbing her belly, “and I would definitely owe you one.”

“Fine, fine, you win,” he conceded. Of course, it was barely a loss for him at all, but he could always play it up for pity points. Then, with real regret, he added: “I suppose I should be letting you get back to work then?”

She bit her lip. “Probably. I hate to do that to you, but those were the terms of our agreement.” The camera was drawn closer, as she lifted her laptop up to place it back onto her stomach. “I could always leave the call on in the background while I work if you want to keep me company.”

“I’d like that,” he said, settling in for what he expected to be a long night. “Oh, and Amy?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

He felt her stroke her hand slowly across the outside of her body.

“I love you too, Justin.”