Maya’s shoulders slumped as she took in the sight of the dishes piled high in the corner of the kitchen.
Add dishes to the list.
With her children in bed, she was finally able to catch her breath and look around. Of course it looked like a disaster. The living room was covered in toys and balls and dolls and books. She hadn’t had time to clean up.
Add toy cleanup to the list.
Moving into the crumb covered floor of her kitchen, she winced.
Add sweeping to the list.
The more she looked around, the more she saw everything that still needed to be done. The oven needed cleaning. The laundry needed to be switched from the washer to the dryer. The front room needed vacuuming. Her to-do list before she could go to bed was growing longer by the second. And that was only the things she could see that needed doing.
So absorbed in avoiding the crumbs, she nearly tripped over the scattered kitchen utensils her son had joyously scattered about the room in his efforts to ‘help’ her make dinner. Spatulas, stirring spoons, whisks, forks, and the potato peeler created a maze for her to wade through.
With a groan, she made it to the sink and let the warm spray of the faucet soothe her tired hands. The dishes were stacked to overflowing in the large farm sink, with the dirty pots and pans lining the counters. With a glance to the microwave’s clock to see how much longer until Jack came home, she picked up her first plate. She hated having him come home to a mess. He always felt like he had to clean up before he could sit down and rest from his own stressful and busy day. Even more than that, she hated going to bed with a mess. It meant she would be waking up to a mess and wide awake kids to deal with as well.
Quickly, the dishwasher began to fill as she rinsed and scrubbed. Someday she would get control of the mess that was her house. At least enough so that she wasn’t doing the entire day’s dishes after the kids were asleep. Scraping off dried spaghetti sauce was just as hard as chipping off the dried oatmeal leftovers from each breakfast bowl in the bottom of the sink.
There was something soothing about clearing out the sink of dirty plates, cups, and silverware. Not that it was something she particularly enjoyed, it just needed doing and she was the only one around to do it. Maybe the satisfaction came from being able to see the progress she had made as the sink began to empty. As she put another cup into the top rack of the dishwasher she heard the front door open and close.
Not having the energy to stop, Maya waved a soapy wet hand in his direction from her station in front of the sink. She didn’t even pause to look over at him. Any extra movement might tip her over into exhaustion and she wouldn’t be able to finish everything she had left to do. Besides, he always headed upstairs first to go say goodnight to the kids.
Seconds later, she practically melted as his hands slowly wrapped around her, pulling her back into his warm solid comfort. Well, to be totally honest, it was a toss up between gracefully melting into a romantic embrace and collapsing in an undignified heap in his arms. Romance won. Closing her eyes, she leaned her head back and sighed.
Instead of letting her go after a brief hug, he turned off the water and turned her away from the sink to face him. She was tempted to lay her head on his shoulder and let him hold her for a while despite her hands still dripping with soapy water. However, his face showed signs of the long and wearying day he’d had and she couldn’t force him to take on more.
His smile was soft and gentle, like he understood what she was feeling without her having to say a word. It made her want to go up on her tippy toes and kiss him. So she did.
That kiss steadied her. She didn’t feel as though she was going to be spread in a thousand different ways in order to get her to-do list done. Her mind slowed and the endless spinning of messes to be cleaned stopped battering her consciousness. Her focus narrowed solely on him, in the feel of his warm strength holding her space for her so she could breathe.
Taking both of her wet hands in his, he walked backward, pulling her with him toward the living room, a small smile on his face. How he didn’t trip over toys or kitchenware she couldn’t figure out. His dark brown eyes stayed riveted on her face. A sort of bubbly, fluttery, effervescenty feeling shivered through her core. Everything but the man in front of her faded into obscurity. Her to-do list forgotten.
And for the first time that night, she allowed herself to breathe deep. It almost made her sob. And it did make her yawn. His low chuckle had her smiling too, while she shook her head at him. She had too much to do for him to be leading her away from the dishes still to be done.
Reality came crashing back as he left the kitchen completely, entering the war zone of a living room. When she opened her mouth to ask what he was doing, he stopped her with a finger softly crossing her lips. He shook his head and seated her softly on the couch.
Kneeling down in front of her, he bent and took off her shoes. Once they were off he gently propped her feet up on the ottoman. He leaned in close and kissed her closed eyes one by one. Stepping away, he moved back to the kitchen and silently turned on the water.
Tears streamed down her face as she watched from the couch as he did the dishes she had tiredly been working through.
Her heart thumped with a deep joy, knowing that he was hers. He chose her over everyone and everything in the world. How was she so lucky? After working all day he came home to help so that she could finally sit without being crawled on by kids, knowing that while she sat, the mess was getting smaller instead of bigger. She couldn’t explain the lightness it caused her to feel in her chest.
The smile he then flashed her way was the whipped topping to what could have been a miserable end to the day. Instead she had reason to smile.
She was loved.
