I closed the screen in front of me, content with my progress. I'd thankfully been quick to realize that staying in the bed brooding would do me no good, and used my time to work out a bit instead, a far more productive endeavor. My increased Endurance was already showing its worth, despite not having increased by a full point yet, and I'd managed to do almost 50 push-ups, even more sit-ups and a few squats without really breaking a sweat.

Okay, maybe I had broken a bit of a sweat. It might not have been a brilliant idea to focus so much on reaching round numbers on all three exercises when I still hadn't completely recovered from the previous session.

In any case, I might have kept going even after reaching my initial goal, but the rather enticing scent wafting up from downstairs made me change my mind. I knew a mouth-watering breakfast when I smelled it, and it seemed like Alice had finished preparing one.

I didn't hurry down the stairs, leaving my wife plenty of time to prepare for my arrival by making my steps loud enough to be audible from the kitchen, but it still seemed like I got there in but a moment. What awaited me was an luxurious array of delicious-looking goodies, though they differed quite a bit from the previous day's selection.

Alice sat at the opposite end of the table, blowing on a steaming cup of pitch-black coffee, not having touched the food at all.

None of us said a word as I sat on my seat and took my own mug of molten, caffeinated goodness, taking a long sip of it before putting it down on the table with a soft thunk.

Alice practically jumped at the sound, her gaze pointedly boring into the slightly stained tablecloth as if she attempting to strip it of its deepest secrets.

Then I spoke.

"Alice... honestly, I'm a bit angry at you. And disappointed. But, most of all, I'm hurt. Hurt that you trusted me so little that you hired someone to see if I was cheated on you, despite all we've been through. Despite having sworn to remain loyal to each other, time and time again... I'm hurt that you even considered me breaking that promise." I paused for a moment, looking up from the hot cup warming my hands. Alice's eyes still refused to meet mine, her gaze firmly set on the table.

She did at least speak up, though.

"R–Ryan, I– words can't express how sorry I am. Really. I know it doesn't cut it, but I'm s–sorry. I'm really sorry. Back then, I was–"

"I know," I interjected, cutting her off—quite rudely in retrospect, "I can't say I understand how much you were suffering back then, in how dark a place you were, but if it was anything like how I felt, I can understand you not making the most sensible decisions. And I assume what you went through was many times worse than what I experienced." As I said these words, I moved my hand forth until it found hers, resting on the table, and cupped it.

She startled and shot her head up, looking straight at me at me, her eyes widening adorably.

I smiled gently, reassuringly.

"So... I forgive you, Alice. I haven't lost my trust in you, not at all. And... thank you for telling me, when you could've simply kept it to yourself. It must've taken a lot of courage."

"R–Ryan..." She whispered, her eyes brimming with tears. "You have no idea how much that– I... thank you... thank you so much...!"

I took a napkin and used it to dab at her face, saying her tears, careful not to irritate her pale skin. She gave me a shaky smile as I pulled back.

A silence settled between us as we just held hands and enjoyed the other's presence. Slowly, Alice began to calm down, regaining her usual cheer, at least on the surface.

"O–oh man…You really are a smooth, charming bastard, you know that? You just keep making me fall more and more for you. I’m glad that you're so careful on who you use those charms, and that you are such a faithful husband. Otherwise… I’d long have been left on the sidelines, haha.”

I smirked at the obvious attempt to change the subject, but didn't point it out.

Though, if what she's saying is true... I guess the System might have really been right with the Naturally Charming Trait. Oh, that reminds me...

"Actually, Alice..." I said, biting into a buttered toast, "since you told me that, I'll be honest. There's... also something I haven't told you. But... well, I'm truthfully not sure whether you're ready to hear it yet."

There was a pregnant silence for a moment as Alice's hand twitched in my grasp. Then I heard her tentative voice.

"Is it... bad? For you? Or us?" she asked, probing words meant to test the waters without upsetting what lurked inside.

I mulled over her question for a moment, my thumb absently rubbing the back of her hand.

"First of all, it's not what you're thinking, so don't worry. And as for your question, it... should be good? In the long run, for me at least. Maybe for us, too. If I act responsibly, that is. But if I don't... it could be dangerous. Not for me, not really, but for our relationship." I looked my wife straight in the eye. She looked back, eyes set in a look of conviction. "If you want me to, I will tell you. Everything. All you have to do is ask."

She opened her mouth as if to speak, but instead shook her head, then, with a small smile, said "No. I trust you, Ryan. So I'll trust that you will tell me when you feel I'm ready."

At the same time, she grasped my hand, our fingers intertwining with familiar ease, and gave it a small squeeze.

I squeezed back gently. "Thank you, Alice. I promise not to betray that trust."

And so, we let our hands move apart and focused on our breakfast.

It tasted wonderful.

 

---

 

Bzzzzt! Bzzzzt!

I heard a buzzing just beside me, most likely Alice's phone in her pocket. She gave me a quizzical look, and I shrugged, conveying that she could check it out if she wanted to.

She did. After using the watering can to wash the dirt off her hands and drying them with a cloth she'd had the foresight to bring along, she took the phone out from her pocket.

I looked away as she typed in her password, then heard her surprised voice moments letter.

"Oh, it's from our college friends' group. Apparently, there's going to be a meetup tomorrow." She paused for a beat, scrolling upwards. "They... seem to have been discussing the date for a while now, but I had this group muted until yesterday so I didn't know."

I nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I have it muted too, along with a bunch of other groups. I should really follow your example. Well, at least for most of them..." I trailed off, shrugging my shoulders. I didn't have my phone with me at the moment anyway, and there was something far more important to talk about.

"So, we're... not going, are we? You told me you still aren't comfortable with going out of the house, after all. And I'm completely okay with that, just to be clear. There's no need to rush things."

I got no immediate response, but didn't push for one, giving Alice all the time she needed.

Eventually, she spoke up.

"You see, I... I hate being so weak-willed. I hate not being able to overcome my trauma, hate having to hide inside our house, afraid of going outside. It's true that the world has hurt me... hurt us, but I can't keep being afraid of it forever. I have to stop cowering. I've already put this off for too long; at this point, I'm just making excuses. So... if you come with me, I'll go. As long as I have you by my side, everything will be alright." 

Her words kind of sounded as if she was trying to convince herself that she was ready, which filled me with apprehension. I didn't want her to force herself only to have her trauma come back in full force.

However, smile she gave me afterwards was small but filled with endless devotion and resolution. I felt my chest tighten as her words struck something deep inside me, my heartbeat racing, and couldn't help but tear up slightly. It took me a moment to realize why I had been affected so deeply.

Ah. That's right. Back then... even though I was right beside her, I couldn't do anything. I stood there like an idiot as she screamed in agony, as... no, don't dwell on it.

I sniffed, feeling the snot building up in my nose.

Still, for her to have regained so much trust in me after I failed to protect her... she truly is too wonderful to be real.

A soft sensation jolted me out of my thoughts, and it took me a moment to realize that Alice was gently drying my tears with the cloth she'd brought, in an ironic role reversal from the breakfast a couple hours earlier.

As she pulled back, I shot her a smile, trying to make it similar to the one she'd shown me. "You really are a gorgeous, wonderful bastardette, you know that?" I said, changing my smile to a cheeky grin. "You keep making me fall more and more in love with you. Not that I'm complaining."

She snorted, then huffed in fake exasperation.

"What an idiot. That's not funny; 'bastardette' isn't even a real word!"

I snickered. "Yeah, yeah. Anyway, let's finish this up, shall we? The flower's gonna die on us at this rate."

"Yeah! Let's get to it!" She replied enthusiastically, having made a 180 degree turn in her mood.

I nodded and turned my gaze back to what we'd been doing before being derailed by Alice's phone. Ahead of us was a small hole in our lawn's grass, filled with high-quality soil and little blue balls of fertilizer, and next to it a glass vase, half-filled with water, holding an orange chrysanthemum within, the bottom of its cut stem having begun to sprout little roots.

Delicately, I took it out and moved it to the small hole, inserting it, then held it as Alice packed the earth around it a little bit, enough to keep it upright but not so much that the earth lost its sponginess. Then, we watered it, and celebrated our success with a kiss.

It tasted wonderful.