TWELVE (part one)

The rest of the day flew by. Playing cards with Joy, who seemed to be making up the rules as she played along was entertaining enough to set my mind off of things. Lexie played as well and with all of us three enjoying a night together, I couldn't help but feel that bubbly feeling of happiness that I always had back in Brighton return.

"This game is called memory game. I'll put all the cards on the floor and you have to match them with other cards." I listened as Joy explained another game to us, hating how I was going to spoil the fun any second.

"It's bedtime soon." I reminded Joy, glancing up at the clock over her head. It was past eight, past her bedtime but I had decided before to give her an extra hour.

She turned her small head over her shoulder, looking at the clock before turning her face back to me sporting a pout. "Aunty Lexie promised a pyjama movie night."

I looked over my friend who was looking anywhere but at me. "Did she now?"

Joy nodded her head, her brown hair bouncing at her sides. "We can stop playing cards now and watch a movie. She said we would watch Tinker Bell."

"Oh really?"

Lexie decided to speak up now. "With a cup of milk and in our pyjamas."

I was a kid at heart myself and I always enjoyed myself fully when watching a good Disney movie with a cup of tea with Joy. And to top it all off, Lexie would be watching with us and — "There is cake and tea, " I added with delight and saw my little girls' eye brighten up. She let out a quick shriek of excitement before jumping to her feet and darting out the room.

Before we knew it, we were all cuddled together on the sofa watching Tinker Bell with cake from Palmers and cups of hot tea and milk. Joy was camped in the middle, her small feet laying cross my knees and was resting against Lexie. 

I didn't comment on how many times we've actually watched this movie and instead just watched it for the billionth time and enjoyed it all over again. There were a lot of movies Joy fell in and out of love with but Tinker Bell always stood the test of time.

Once the movie ended, I looked down at Joy to see her fully knocked out. "When did she knock out?" I asked Lexie. She replied with a shrug. 

I looked at the time and saw that it was nearly ten. He would come anytime soon. And I had already made the decision as to what I was going to do when Link appeared tonight.

"Could she sleep with you tonight?" I asked Lexie ever so casually, lifting the throw we had over all of us. There was nothing new with Lexie and Joy sleeping together and hopefully, Lexie wouldn't see my asking as anything odd because usually Joy would be the one asking.

Thankfully, Lexie didn't see anything odd with it. "Sure. I kind of think the bed in my room is bigger than yours anyway."

I let out a nervous giggle. "Yeah."

I slowly got off the sofa, making sure to lift Joy's feet off me carefully. I really didn't have the time to deal with Joy waking up and dealing with her grumpy side that appeared whenever her sleep was interrupted. I had to prepare myself for tonight. 

Since I was so used to carrying Jot to her bed, I lifted her off the sofa with ease and started making me way upstairs. Lexie stayed down to turn off the lights and she walked in the spare bedroom just as I had Joy tugged in bed.

"I'll see you in the morning," I whispered to my best friend, leaving her to do her own night time routine.

"Goodnight!" Lexie smiled and walked into her own bathroom.

I closed their door behind me and high tailed it to my room.

Standing in front of the mirror, I started my own hour-long debate as to what to wear. I certainly wasn't going to wait in bed fully naked and legs spread from him. 

He wouldn't believe me if I opted for my usual night time attire either which truthfully consisted of nothing but my underwear. I fished through my suitcase, looking for the best pair of lace underwear I could find. Ever since I had Joy, I had revamped my whole wardrobe including my under garments and swore to myself to wear nothing but lace. But still, I struggled to find my most flattering lace underwear.

After a long time of changing my mind, I decided to grab a handful and throw them in the air. Whichever landed on my hand, would be the one.

"One, two... three."

I smiled as the black lace pair fell in my hands first. "Had you in my heart." I told it, giving it my own secret smile. Black was always my favourite.

Link wouldn't believe I slept topless so I decided to grab a tank top and put it on. I couldn't imagine waiting for Link all decked out. The thought alone sent a furious blush across my face. But still, I was making as much effort as I could in the most discreet way possible. I spritzed my favourite perfume over my skin, brushed through my hair and quickly gave my teeth a good brushing.

He could walk inside any minute!

I quickly put away the mess I made around my clothes and jumped into the bed. And then I waited.

I glanced at my phone and saw it was surprisingly half past eleven. Knowing how busy he would be, he should be getting around to coming to the house now. And with that thought,  my heart starts speeding up and images raced through my head of what was going to happen. I was not going to do anything to stop it from happening. In fact, I was nothing but prepared for this.

We were consenting adults and I could honestly say, doing this with Link gave me a form of serenity. He would always do it for me since all worries and fears flew over my head when I was with him. And right now, I needed him as my own form of a drug.

But of course, the never ending fatigue that came with Motherhood hit me hard and soon took me over into a restless sleep.

****

I heard him come in. And sure enough, my heart sprang back to its wild hammering. I felt the bed next to me sink and then followed by this warm heat at my back. All my cells starts zapping inside off me as though I was electrocuted and that was before he even touched me.

I hadn't opened my eyes yet but I couldn't hold it in any longer. I opened them slowly and turned to face Link. I could make out his face slightly in the dark and I was grateful that he didn't turn on any lights. I wasn't so sure how long I was asleep and my neat hair was surely messed up now.

"Have you been here long?" I asked, my voice coming out soft and groggy. 

"No."

I reached for my phone that was behind me on the nightstand. It was only eleven fifty. He literally came in the second I had fallen asleep! "Have you been waiting long? " he asked me.

I shook my head at him. "I'm just surprised I fell asleep so quickly."

I could make out a smile on Link's face in the dark. "So you were up waiting for me? Something tells me you don't usually stay up until midnight."

He was getting the wrong idea all together. "Mind you, I was watching a movie with the girls and by the time it was done, it was eleven. I got Joy in bed, chatted for Lexie for a whole and then got in my own bed." 

I had to add a few fibs in there because the movie ended before ten and I didn't chat to Lexie at all. I couldn't possibly tell him I spent most of my time debating on what pair of lace underwear to wear.

Link decided to laugh at that, and not take his usual route of catching me out. I wasn't so sure what he would do now and I certainly was not going to take the lead here. I was still a bag of nerves and acting now would only lead to some embarrassing choices. So, Link had to take the first steps.

When I did nothing but continued to look at him, Link slowly pushed himself off the bed. My eyes adjusted to the dark room now so I could see what he was doing. He started stripping until he stood in nothing but his white boxers that just fitted perfectly.

He slowly walked over the other side of the bed and got in, all the while keeping his eyes on me. And when he was settled, he lifted himself up so his head was resting on his hand and was looking at me with dancing eyes.

I wanted to scream at him because it looked like he wasn't going to do anything else now. In fact, it looked like he would go to sleep any minute.

"What you doing?" I managed to ask, my voice dropping so low I hoped he actually heard me. Because the next words I would say if he didn't speak would be along the lines of "get yourself on me now."

"I think I like resting like this for a bit." Link spoke, a hint of amusement trickling in his voice. He knew damn right what was happening and he was just prolonging the inevitable. "Tell me what you got up to in the past six years."

I frowned at him. Was he serious?

"Nothing much, just getting by." I said casually and at the same time, trying to end this conversation. If he wasn't going to see to his promise then I surely wouldn't succumb to this petty chit chat that he had no business of knowing.

"Tell me about your getting by life."

I had to roll my eyes at him. He wasn't going to stop pressing for this and just because I knew he wouldn't move on to the real stage of the night, I started talking.

"So I got by, by doing things that kept me grounded and busy."

"Like what?"

"Looking after Joy, keeping up with bills... you know, doing all the other adult stuff."

Link nodded. "Have you done anything for yourself?"

"Well, you know I haven't been to university so whilst I was pregnant with Joy, I took this online class in marketing and got myself a qualification. It's nothing big but it did open a few more doors and now I work from home as a marketing advisor."

"And how you finding that?"

I shrugged in a way that lying down allowed me to. "It's actually really boring but convenient right now. Although Joy is now fully integrated in school, I can look at other things and actually do something I enjoy."

I don't know how it happened but the ease of answering all his questions without fiddling around with the truth felt like a relief. As if everything I was holding inside was finally coming together after its crazy mess. I never knew what I was doing and now finally, I could piece together the jumble that was my thoughts. 

I didn't have my life sorted. It may seem like it but I had it sorted to a degree where I fell in this safety net. And I wasn't so happy with it but kept going for the sake of it. For Joy, I had to have this solid routine in place, solid pay check and a stable home life. For myself, there was simply no time to experiment.

"What do you enjoy?"

"I just really want to get into interior design. It's been my obsessions for a long time and I know all the hardship that comes along with it but I'm willing to put the effort into it."

Link smiled softly in the dark. "I think you should go for it."

I smiled back at him. "I think so too."

His finger reached out to my face and ran down my cheek leisurely. I couldn't help but have my head lean into his touch ever so slightly, to maximise the contact. 

"Now tell me what you've been doing." I asked Link, who dropped his hand as soon as I finished speaking those words.

"I think we should save that for another night."

"Oh no, you don't just get me to open up and not do the same. Tit for tat, Link."

Link laughed. "It's too long and I don't want to miss any of it out."

I raised my eyebrow at him even though he couldn't see it fully in the dark. "Is that you telling me that you want every detail to be known by me?"

His hand came out to touch me again, this time reaching for my hair and playing with a strand. "Exactly, yes. Even though the thought alone doesn't sit well with me, I just really want to tell you everything. Sounds stupid when I say it out loud doesn't it."

I was thrown back by his surprising revelation that he wanted to tell me everything. I wasn't sure if I warranted such thing since there was no set relationship status between us but nonetheless, I was pleased. Pleased that he felt such a way.

"You got to tell me something then. A starting point of some sort." I pushed for him to speak.

Link dropped his hand from my hair and turned onto his back. He stared up at the ceiling, thinking hard as to where to start. "You're not going to stop asking if I don't start, right?"

I don't know what made me do it, but there was something pulling me into dropping right next to him and placing my head on his shoulder. Was this too much? I don't know, probably but Link didn't seem to mind. In fact, he moved his arm so he could tuck me in closer and went back to playing with my hair. "No, " I said softly. "I won't stop."

END OF PART ONE

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> PART TWO is coming soon because I just had to stop writing.

> Guys, honestly this is probably the most lamest chapter I've ever written. I've hit the idk how to write anymore  wall and I tried for weeks to get past it but it's just not happening. Especially towards the end, I just cringed whilst writing it and I really didn't want to post anything until I got this sorted. But that's the great thing about Wattpad, this doesn't have to be great. It's my first draft of Ending Link and when I'm ready to go over it, I know for sure that this chapter isn't going to be how it is right now. If I didn't have so many of you reading this and waiting and messaging me for updates I honestly wouldn't have bothered with an update and would have left it as it is. I probably would have come back to this story months later but I'm pushing through this wall.

I just hope you guys understand and know that yes, I'm just writing this chapter for you lot because your support literally keeps me going. But just bare with me, and I hope you don't say "oh we'll just wait longer for better content" because then you'll just be waiting for months for an update.

> lol hope this pathetic rambling didn't put you off from commenting and voting and looking forward to the rest of the book xx