Life Over Love by Cheryl Seagraves Page B

walk.
    Brianna was thankful that she only had to go one more block with the tree, after a full day’s work and the walk home, she was about ready to forego the hot bath in favor of just dropping into bed for the rest of the night.
    Brianna propped the tree against the railing by her front door. She continued looking at the Christmas tree until she unlocked the door and actually stepped inside. It definitely was a Charlie brown Christmas tree, but it was the first one in their home.
    She leaned against the door, she was way too tired to cook dinne r, but thinking about having the next day off gave her enough strength to change her mind about that hot bath.
    Her tub was her most favoritest thing about the apartment.  The landlord had just renovated before renting to her. The deep claw foot tub was calling her name. Brianna ran the water and lit fragrant candles. She was giddy with the anticipation of soaking her exhausted body in an uninterrupted bath.
    She went to the kitchen to fix some hot cocoa, and laughed when she saw the frozen dinners by the ice tray s in the freezer. Thinking of officer Sexy pants, who was the next best thing to Hugh Jackman in real life, with his amber eyes, and tall physique.  She dropped some ice into her steaming cup of cocoa and made sure to grab her book before sinking into the tub.
    Brianna’s bath was short lived, she was only fifteen minutes into the story when she started to nod off and she was forced to call it a night and drain the tub. She had been so exhausted the night before that she didn’t even remember falling asleep wrapped in a fluffy purple towel. Her hair and the sheets were still damp from the attempt at indulgence.
    Stretching she rubbed her eyes and cherished the comfort of her bed. When she’d assembled the futon, she bought a luxurious cobalt blue down comforter to throw over it, and decorated the bed with white lacey throw pillows.
    Brianna had been thankful when she’d put it together that the bed was more comfortable than it looked because, besides the tub, that was her second favoritest room in the apartment. Thinking of the silly word favoritest, made her miss her babies.
    Thinking of them remind ed her of the uninterrupted soak she’d promised herself. She eventually shuffled into the bathroom, peed, and half way fell back to sleep on the toilet while waiting for the tub fill. She sank into the bath so happy to be awake enough this time to enjoy the relaxing experience. Any mother with little kids would agree so rare a thing was meant to be savored.
    In fact Brianna couldn’t even remember a time when she wasn’t bombarded by little children that could hear the sound of running water from a mile away, and try locking the door! Well forget that! The cries, the violent rattling of the door handle, the plain ferociousness of the children turned monsters, determined to get in at any cost, had taught her long ago, to give up and just leave the stinking door wide open.
    Remembering of her little stink heads made her smile, she missed them already after only one day of being without them. She lingered in the bath tub until she would either need to add more hot water or freeze.
    Brianna reluctantly stepped out, and wrapped up in another purple towel, chuckled at her reflection. Everything she bought to decorate common areas in the apartment were various shades of Chelsea’s first love purple.  She wasn’t sure what she was going to when Brody got old enough to care.
    Everything she did revolved around providing her children with joy.  She didn’t spoil them, but more often than not she went without something if she had to choose. She’d even placed several pictures of Mike sporadically around the kid’s room.
    Once dried off she shrugged into a soft white t shirt and her favorite pair of ancient jeans, worn thin in several spots, but super soft to the touch. She painted her toenails, and jotted down a list of things she wanted to buy for Christmas.
    Brianna had