Re: Zero Level: Additional Adventures

[Herr D]

This Island’s YOUR Land: Chapter 3

LATER ON THAT MONDAY . . .
Diana hummed to herself contentedly, walking down the steps to the galley. She heard Tom grumbling to himself. She allowed herself a single secret smile, then furrowed her brow and entered the galley. Tom was alternately stirring a kettle of stew with the slotted spoon in his left hand and scratching inside the cast on his right arm with the slotted spoon’s handle. He turned, hearing her, and stopped grumbling. “You get some good shots?”
Diana nodded and hung her camera in a padded bag against a cabinet. “We’re really lucky, you know that? For a middle-aged couple?”
Tom looked down at his arm. “Yeah, this could’ve been a lot worse. I could be back on duty in less than six weeks.”
Diana smiled a weak smile that matched her tensed forehead, “And?”
Tom frowned slightly, “and you got this freelance photography assignment right when I got injured during that weird prison break? Pretty good timing. We won’t have to cut back on much to get through this.”
Diana’s attention flicked for just a moment to the odd nature of the assignment. “Study the island through a telescope?” she thought, “Special project through my editor by an anonymous client? Verify eye color of anyone you see and log it with the photographs you take?” She considered for a moment bringing it up and shook her head. Out loud she said, “And?”
Tom stuffed the spoon handle in his cast and waved his hand around at the galley. “Your editor loaning us his old fishing boat for the assignment? Having these attachments on the stove so I can cook for you while we’re here without spilling?” He pointed at the bracket holding the pot on the stove.
Diana gave Tom a mischievous half smile. “And?”
Tom blinked, “We’re happily married? Despite the divorce rate being kind of high?”
“And?”
Tom frowned and shrugged.
Diana counted on her fingers, “I may have finished my three-day assignment in two hours of good light on the first day, that stew won’t actually be ready for at least two MORE hours, and we have chilled wine, a double bed, COMPLETE privacy, and that odd headache I’ve had since we left my office?”
“Yes?”
“It’s completely gone! This sea air must be really good for me.”
Tom very slowly smiled, turned the stove down low, and followed her into the master bedroom, forgetting to pull the spoon out of his cast.
[pics]