Chapter 10: The Kitchen Table Talk
The front door clicked shut behind Dina, and the sound seemed to echo through the quiet apartment like a gunshot. Morning light poured through the kitchen windows, butter-yellow across the wooden table where two ceramic mugs sat, still steaming. Leo stood at the counter, his back to her, one hand wrapped around his coffee. He had heard her come in. Of course he had.
Dina's body still hummed with the memory of tangled sheets and warm skin, Shane's low laugh, Astrid's breath against her neck. The flush on her cheeks had nothing to do with the brisk morning air and everything to do with the night she had just lived through. She slipped her keys onto the hook by the door and stood there, frozen, watching her husband's broad back.
Leo turned slowly. His tired eyes took her in, the rumpled clothes she had thrown on before driving home, the way her gaze immediately skipped away from his. He didn't speak right away. He just looked at her, his face unreadable beneath the quiet weariness of a man who had spent the night alone.
He poured a second cup of coffee and set it on the table across from his own. Then he sat down in his usual chair and gestured to the seat facing him.
Dina's hands trembled as she crossed the kitchen. She lowered herself into the chair with a soft exhale, her pregnant belly pressing against the edge of the table. She wrapped her fingers around the warm ceramic mug and stared into the dark liquid, unable to meet his eyes.
"You were out all night."
His voice was calm. Not accusatory, not sharp. That somehow made it worse.
"I'm not angry," Leo continued, and the quiet honesty of it made her throat tighten. "But I need to know who she is."
Dina's stomach lurched. She had imagined this conversation a hundred times, always in the dark, always in her head, and always ending with her confessing everything or lying through her teeth. But now, sitting in the warm morning light with his steady gaze on her, she found she couldn't do either properly.
"Leo," she started, and her voice cracked.
He waited. He didn't push, didn't fill the silence with his own words. He just sat there, his coffee cooling between his hands, his eyes soft and tired and utterly present.
Dina took a shaky breath and set her mug down. She pressed her palms flat against the wood, steadying herself.
"Her name is Astrid," she said, the words coming out in a rush before she could stop them. "She came into the deli a few weeks ago. She's pregnant too. Her husband, Shane, he came in first, looking for those spicy pickles, and then she started coming in alone, and we just... we started talking."
Leo nodded slowly, encouraging her to go on.
"And talking turned into something more." Dina's voice dropped to barely a whisper. "I didn't plan it. It wasn't some deliberate thing I set out to do. But she looked at me like I was still a woman, Leo. Not just a walking incubator, not some fragile thing to be handled with gloves. She looked at me like she wanted me."
The words hung in the air between them, raw and painful. Dina pressed a hand to her belly, feeling the baby shift inside her, and forced herself to continue.
"Something happened last night. With her and with Shane. I slept with them. Both of them." She looked up, her eyes wet and pleading. "And I'm not sorry for it. I'm sorry for hurting you, I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but I'm not sorry for feeling wanted again."
Leo was quiet for a long moment. His jaw worked, the only visible sign of tension in his body. Then he let out a slow breath and reached across the table, his hand covering hers.
"I know I've been distant," he said, his voice rough. "I know I've been treating you like you're made of glass. I thought I was protecting you, taking care of you. I didn't realize I was making you feel invisible."
Dina blinked, tears spilling over her cheeks. "You didn't touch me anymore, Leo. Not like a wife. I tried to tell you, I tried to show you what I needed, but you kept pulling away, telling me to rest, telling me not to overdo it. And I just... I felt so alone."
"I didn't know," he said, his voice cracking. "God, Dina, I didn't know. I thought you were tired. I thought the pregnancy was draining you. I thought I was helping."
"You were trying to help," she whispered. "I know you were. But you stopped seeing me. You only saw the baby."
Leo's thumb traced small circles over her knuckles, his touch gentle and warm. He looked down at her belly, then back up at her face.
"Who is she?" he asked again, but this time his voice carried a different weight. Not jealousy. Not accusation. Something closer to curiosity, to a man trying to understand a world he had never been invited into.
Dina swallowed. "She's a lawyer. Sharp and beautiful and she has this way of making you feel like you're the only person in the room. Her husband Shane is a hockey player. Big, kind, gentle hands." She flushed, remembering exactly what those hands had done. "They're both pregnant. Well, she is. Astrid is. They're expecting a daughter. She's due a few weeks before I am."
Leo absorbed this, his brow furrowed in thought. He didn't pull his hand away, didn't flinch. He just held her, listening to her speak about another woman with heat and tenderness in her voice.
"And she makes you feel alive," he said quietly. It wasn't a question.
Dina nodded, tears streaming freely now. "Yes. She does. And I know that sounds terrible. I know I'm your wife, and we made this baby together, and I should be grateful for all of it. But I was drowning, Leo. I was drowning in my own body and my own loneliness, and she threw me a lifeline."
Leo was quiet again, his thumb still stroking her hand. Finally, he sighed and leaned back in his chair, rubbing a hand over his tired face.
"I'm not going to pretend I understand all of this," he said slowly. "I'm not going to pretend it doesn't sting, hearing my wife tell me she found comfort in another person's arms. But I see you sitting there, Dina, and I see how miserable you've been. I see how hard you've tried to hide it, and I see how much brighter your eyes are right now, even through the tears."
He paused, and when he spoke again, his voice was soft, almost wondering.
"Maybe I've been so busy trying to protect you from the world that I forgot to protect you from me. From my own fears. From the distance I built because I didn't know how to handle my terror of losing you both."
Dina reached across the table and took both of his hands in hers. "Leo, I love you. I love this family we're making. I never wanted to hurt you."
"I know," he said. "I know you didn't."
"I don't know what this means," she continued, her voice pleading. "I don't know how to be a good wife to you and also be with her. I don't know what the answers are."
Leo squeezed her hands. "Then we figure it out together. Starting now."
The morning light deepened around them, warm and golden, and for the first time in weeks, Dina felt like she was breathing.
Dina was still breathing in the warmth of his hands when Leo stood up, came around the table, and pulled her into his arms. She went willingly, pressing her face into his chest, letting the tears soak into his worn flannel shirt. He was solid and familiar, the anchor she had felt adrift from for so long, and his arms wrapped around her with a care that made her chest ache.
"I'm sorry," she whispered into his shirt. "I'm so sorry."
"Hush," he murmured against her hair. "None of that. We're talking. That's all I wanted, all I've ever wanted. Just to talk."
She felt his hand move in slow, soothing circles over her back, and she let herself sink into the weight of it. Her belly pressed between them, their baby shifting in response to the rhythm of her heartbeat. She felt Leo's hand move to rest on it, warm and gentle, palm flat against the curve.
"She's a good person, Leo." Dina pulled back just enough to look up at him, her eyes red and swollen. "Astrid. She's not some random woman I met in a bar. She understands what it's like to carry a child and feel like you're disappearing into it. To feel like your body is no longer yours, like you're just a vessel everyone is waiting to open."
Leo's brow furrowed. "But she's pregnant too. You both are. How did you even... I mean, physically..."
A small, almost embarrassed smile flickered across Dina's lips. "Carefully. Very carefully. There are ways. And her husband Shane, he helps."
"Her husband," Leo repeated slowly, the word settling in his mouth. "He knows. He's okay with this."
"More than okay. He encouraged it." Dina shook her head, still marveling at it. "He said he could see the connection between us. He didn't feel threatened. He said he loves Astrid more when she's happy, and she was happy with me."
Leo was quiet, processing. He returned to his chair but pulled it closer to hers so he could keep holding her hand across the table. "So what is this, Dina? What do you want from me?"
"I want you to see me again," she said, her voice cracking. "I want you to touch me like you used to. Not like I'm going to break, not like I'm made of glass." She pressed his hand against her belly. "This doesn't make me fragile, Leo. It makes me strong. It makes me need you more, not less."
He studied her for a long moment, something shifting behind his eyes. "I can do that," he said slowly. "I can try. I've been so scared, Dina. Every time I looked at you, I remembered what happened to my sister. She lost her baby at seven months. I watched her go through that, and I swore I'd never risk losing you the same way. I thought if I kept everything quiet and still and safe, nothing would happen."
Dina's hand tightened around his. "You never told me that."
"I know. I thought it would scare you. I thought if I carried it alone, it would protect you from it." He swallowed hard. "But it just made me cold. It made me push you away when all you needed was to feel me close."
They sat in the warmth of the morning light, both of them crying quietly. The baby kicked inside Dina's belly, and Leo smiled through his tears, pressing his palm to the spot where the movement was strongest.
"She's going to be as stubborn as her mother," he said softly.
Dina laughed, watery and shaking. "I hope so."
Leo wiped his face with the back of his hand and took a breath. "Okay. So we set some ground rules. Nothing crazy. Just... how do we make this work without hiding it from each other?"
Dina considered. "I don't want to hide anything from you. I think that's what made it so awful, the sneaking around. It made it feel dirty when it wasn't. It was beautiful, actually. Being with Astrid and Shane, it wasn't just sex. It was connection. It was two other people who saw me, fully, and didn't want me to be anything I wasn't."
"Okay," Leo said slowly. "Okay. So we don't hide. You tell me when you see her. You come home after. You talk to me about it if you need to. And I don't shut down."
"And I make time for us," Dina said. "Real time. Without the deli, without my phone. You and me, our baby, this home we built. I need to be here for you too, Leo. I can't just take from you and give everything to her."
"That sounds fair." He paused, a new thought surfacing. "Do you think... would it help if we got to know them? Not just the bedroom stuff, but actually knowing them as people? Maybe if I saw them the way you see them, it wouldn't feel like a threat. It would feel like an extension of our family."
Dina's eyes widened. "You'd want to meet them?"
"I think I need to," Leo admitted. "I can't keep imagining her as this mystery woman who stole my wife's heart. If she's as good as you say she is, maybe I can understand why she means so much to you."
The idea took root in Dina's chest, spreading warmth through her. "We could have dinner. Shane grilled for us last time. He's a really good cook. Astrid is a lawyer, sharp as a tack, but she's also soft and funny. I think you'd like them, Leo. I really do."
"And where would they be with all this?" Leo asked, cautious. "Do they want to meet you halfway? Is this just about you being with them, or is there room for more?"
Dina's mind raced, remembering the intimacy of the morning, the way Shane had held Astrid while Dina touched her, the easy rhythm of their three bodies in the tangled sheets. "I think there's room. I think... they want a community too. Astrid is terrified of giving birth, and Shane is scared of losing her. They're as isolated as I was. Maybe more."
Leo nodded slowly, turning the idea over. "What if we moved closer to them? I mean, this lease is up in three months. The baby will be here by then. We could look for a place near their building. Then you could see her whenever you wanted, and I wouldn't be sitting here imagining what you're doing. I'd know. I'd be part of it."
Dina stared at him. "You'd really do that? Move us because I fell in love with another woman?"
"I'd do it because you're my wife and you've been drowning," Leo said simply. "And because I'm your husband, and if this is what you need to feel whole, then I want to help you get there. Not stand in your way."
Dina surged forward, wrapping her arms around his neck, and kissed him hard on the mouth. It was the first real kiss they'd shared in months, deep and hungry and full of all the words they hadn't said. Leo responded with a low sound of surprise, then his hands were in her hair, pulling her closer, kissing her back like a starving man.
The baby kicked between them, and they both laughed against each other's lips.
"I love you," Dina breathed. "I love you so much."
"I love you too." Leo's voice was thick with emotion. "Let's do this. Let's meet them, let's see where it goes. I'm not going to lose you, Dina. Not to fear, not to distance, not to anything."
She pulled back, wiping her eyes, a new kind of brightness in her face. "I'll call Astrid. Today. I'll tell her everything, that you know, that you want to meet them. And if she's open to it, we'll have dinner at their place this week."
Leo smiled, a real smile that reached his tired eyes. "You know, for a woman who just told her husband she's been sleeping with another couple, you look happier than I've seen you in months."
"I am," Dina said honestly. "Because I'm not lying to you anymore. I'm not hiding. And you're holding my hand instead of letting go."
He squeezed her hand and looked down at her belly. "We're going to figure this out. All four of us."
"All five," Dina corrected, patting her stomach. "She counts too."
Leo laughed, pulling her close again, and the morning light wrapped around them like a promise.
Leo laughed, pulling her close again, and the morning light wrapped around them like a promise.
But then the laughter faded, and something else took its place. Leo's hands, which had been resting on her back, began to move. Slowly at first, almost reverently, as if he was relearning the geography of her body. His palms slid down her spine, tracing each vertebra through the thin cotton of her shirt, and Dina felt a shiver ripple through her that had nothing to do with the morning chill.
"Leo," she breathed, but it wasn't a protest. It was a question.
His answer came in the way his hands curved around her hips, thumbs pressing into the soft flesh above her waistband. He looked at her, really looked at her, and there was hunger in his eyes. Not the careful, clinical concern of the past months. This was the look of a man who remembered exactly what his wife felt like beneath his hands.
"I've been such a fool," he murmured, his voice rough. "You asked me to see you. To touch you. And I was too scared to even try."
"Don't," Dina whispered, reaching up to cup his jaw. "Don't beat yourself up. Just..."
She didn't finish the sentence. She didn't need to. Leo's mouth found hers, and this kiss was different from the one before. It was slower, deeper, a deliberate rediscovery. His tongue swept against hers while his hands slid up her sides, palms skimming the swell of her ribs, the underside of her breasts through her bra.
Dina moaned into his mouth, her body arching into him. God, she had missed this. Missed being touched like she was desirable and not a porcelain doll. She had missed the weight of his hands on her skin, the heat of his want.
Leo pulled back just enough to look at her, his eyes dark and roaming over her face. "Is this okay? The baby..."
"The baby is fine," Dina said firmly, taking his hand and pressing it flat against her belly. "She's fine. I'm fine. I'm pregnant, Leo, not invalid. And I need you to touch me like you mean it."
Something in his expression shifted. The careful restraint that had defined him for months cracked, and beneath it was the man she had married. The man who used to pull her into the walk-in cooler at the deli and kiss her breathless between lunch rushes.
His hands came up to the hem of her shirt, and he paused, waiting. Dina nodded, and he lifted it over her head, exposing her swollen belly and the simple cotton bra that strained to contain breasts grown heavy with milk. He let out a slow breath, his gaze traveling over her body.
"You're beautiful," he said, his voice thick. "You've always been beautiful. I just forgot how to tell you."
He leaned in and pressed his lips to the curve of her belly, right where the baby's latest kick had landed. The sensation was warm and intimate, and Dina felt tears prick her eyes again, but these were different. These were healing.
Then Leo's hands found her breasts, cupping them through the fabric of her bra. He thumbed her nipples through the cotton, and Dina gasped, gripping the back of his neck. The sensitivity had ramped up during pregnancy, and the light touch sent sparks straight down to her core.
"Fuck," she breathed. "I forgot how good that feels."
Leo grinned against her skin, and she felt the vibration of his chuckle. "Let me remind you."
He unhooked her bra with practiced ease, and she laughed, a wet, surprised sound. "Still got it."
"Never lost it." He slid the straps down her shoulders, easing the fabric away, and her breasts spilled free, heavy and full with dark nipples already beaded. He cupped them, his thumbs circling her areolae, and Dina arched into his touch with a low moan.
"Look at me," she said, and he did. "I need you to see me. All of me. Not the mom-to-be, not the woman who runs the deli. Just me, your wife, who wants her husband to fuck her in the kitchen."
Leo's pupils blew wide. "Jesus, Dina."
"Unless you're too scared," she teased, and the challenge in her voice was unmistakable.
That did it. Leo stood and pulled her to her feet, his hands going to the waistband of her leggings. He hooked his fingers beneath the elastic and tugged them down, along with her underwear, in one smooth motion. She stepped out of them, naked now in the warm morning light, her belly round and full between them.
He looked at her, taking in every inch of her, and she watched him watch her with a kind of tender ferocity. Then he dropped to his knees in front of her, his hands gripping her hips, and pressed his mouth to the mound of her belly again.
"I'm going to worship you," he said against her skin, and the promise in his voice made her knees weak. "I'm going to touch every part of you. And then I'm going to make you come so hard you forget why you ever felt alone."
Dina's fingers tangled in his hair, and she nodded, unable to form words.
Leo's hands roamed up her thighs, spreading them apart as his mouth moved lower. He found her wet, already slick with arousal from the conversation and the kissing and the raw honesty of the morning. He made a low sound of approval, thumbing her clit with a practiced circle that made her gasp.
"God, you're soaked," he murmured, looking up at her.
"You made me this way," she said, her voice shaking. "Now do something about it."
He didn't need to be told twice. He leaned in and dragged his tongue through her folds, and Dina cried out, bracing her hands on his shoulders. It had been so long. So achingly, desperately long since he had tasted her. She had forgotten the exact pressure of his tongue, the way he knew just how to circle her clit before sucking it gently between his lips.
"Oh, fuck," she moaned, her hips bucking against his mouth. "Leo. Baby. Yes."
He worked her with single-minded focus, one hand gripping her ass to hold her steady while the other slid up her belly to palm her breast. He pinched her nipple lightly, and the combined sensations sent a bolt of electricity through her. She felt her orgasm building, coiling low in her belly, and she let go of any hesitation.
"I'm going to come," she warned, her voice breathy and raw.
He doubled down, sucking her clit hard while three fingers slid inside her, curving up to find the spot that made her see stars. Dina screamed, her body shuddering through an orgasm that wracked her from head to toe. She came hard against his mouth, her knees buckling, and Leo caught her, easing her down onto the kitchen chair.
He rose over her, his own arousal evident in the straining fabric of his jeans. Dina reached for his belt with trembling hands, fumbling with the buckle. Leo helped her, shedding his pants and boxers in quick, impatient movements. His cock sprang free, hard and thick, and she wrapped her hand around it, stroking him slowly while she caught her breath.
"I want you inside me," she said, looking up at him. "I want to feel you. Like we used to."
Leo hesitated for just a moment, glancing at her belly. Then he shook his head, as if clearing away the last of his fear, and lifted her gently onto the edge of the table. He spread her thighs and positioned himself between them, his cock pressing against her slick entrance.
"You're sure?" he asked, his voice strained.
"I've never been more sure of anything," Dina said, pulling him closer.
He sank into her slowly, inch by inch, and they both groaned at the sensation. She was tight and slick, and the fullness of him inside her after so long made her eyes roll back. He bottomed out, his hips flush against hers, and stayed still for a moment, letting her adjust around him.
"Fuck," he breathed into her neck. "I missed this. I missed you."
"I'm here," she whispered, wrapping her legs around him. "I'm right here. Now move."
He did, slowly at first, but with increasing confidence, his hips rocking into her in a rhythm that was familiar and new all at once. Dina gripped the edge of the table and let herself feel it, the stretch and slide of him, the weight of his body against hers, the way his belly pressed against the curve of her own pregnancy. The baby kicked, just a flutter, and Leo laughed breathlessly against her throat.
"She knows. She knows her daddy's here."
Dina bit her lip and arched her back, taking him deeper. "Don't stop. Please, don't stop."
He didn't. Leo found his pace, thrusting into her with a need that bordered on desperation. The table creaked under them, the coffee mugs rattled, and Dina didn't care. She came again with a keening cry, her inner walls clenching around him, and the feeling of her tightness around his cock undid him. He buried his face in her neck and spilled into her with a groan that was almost a sob.
They stayed tangled together, breathing hard, their bodies slick with sweat in the warm morning light. Dina wrapped her arms around him, holding him close, and felt the baby settle between them.
"I love you," she said softly.
"I love you too," he replied against her skin. "And I'm going to spend every day from now on showing you."