Calming down

"Babe? Are you listening?"

"Huh - oh, yeah. Sorry. It was a long day I'm a little out of of it." Derek tried to explain, quickly snapping back to reality. "What did you ask again?"

Jade looked at him worryingly. "I was asking about the book.. but I think we have more pressing problems." She put the book down on the table, and started rubbing Derek's shoulders. "I know things have been tough, especially with all of the family dramatics recently.. But we're gonna get through it."

Derek smiled. He knew how lucky he was. As Jade worked his shoulders, he couldn't get the book out of his mind. He leered at it. He knew how dumb it was to blame the book - but he couldn't think of any other explanations. Maybe he's just stressed. He felt like he was losing his sanity.

"Tell me more about the next door neighbor. Is he a silverfox?" Jade joked, still doing her best to make Derek feel better. He laughed, "Oh yeah. Total heart-throb." Jade jokingly swatted him. "Honestly? He started off very distant but after a few minutes of talking he seemed alright. Maybe he's just lonely or something, you know" Derek said, recounting the conversation. "I told you we should have went over sooner! Now he probably thinks we're some stuck-up millennials or something." Jade whined, finishing up the shoulder rub.

"Either way, he's coming to the barbecue, so we'll have an opportunity to make it up then. But for tonight.. it's just us. Any ideas for how we should spend our night?"