Negotiations

After Steve's words Maria chuckled and smilingly asked, "Are you sure about that? All the cheeky remarks?" Steve looked up as if he thought about it for a moment before he replied, "Well, maybe don't joke about leaving me. That seems to be a sore spot." Maria laughed in response to his words, which in turn caused Steve to place a quick kiss on her lips before he hugged her as he continued to use her as his support.

While still in his embrace, Maria raised her head up to look at Steve and asked, "You do realize that just because this matter is settled, it doesn't mean I am done yelling at you for being irresponsible and walking over here on your own. The doctor told you to rest and not do anything reckless. How did you even get here in the first place? It couldn't have been easy for you to walk all the way from the couch to the kitchen." Steve smiled and brushed Maria's bangs to the side before he answered her. "The doctor also said I had to walk a bit each day in order to keep my blood flowing. Consider my walk for the day taken care of. Besides, I made sure I was careful. I held onto something every step of the way, ending my walk with the sturdiest holding of all, you." Those final words were added with a chuckle and him touching the tip of her nose in a playful manner as he said the word 'you'.

Maria shot him a glare and walked him back as she scolded him about the risk of him falling and hurting himself even more. Then she asked him, "Besides, didn't it hurt? You have bruised and broken so much. I would imagine that each step would be like a punch to the gut." Using his usual smooth words and humour to deflect, Steve said, "Well, I happen to like a little pain from time to time. Besides, what is a punch to the gut if it means I can rattle you up like this and get a kiss in the process." After Steve was carefully placed back on his seat on the couch, Maria shook her head as she let out a sigh and said, "I can already tell I will have my hands full with you in the next few days. It is clear you won't make it easy for me and I am beginning to wonder if I might have asked for too little when we negotiated my compensation for these few weeks as your caretaker."

Steve chuckled and said, "I am happy to renegotiate at any point. Just say the word or say a number. Heck, you can take my card and take however much you like." As he rapidly moved his eyebrows up and down, and had a telling smirk on his face he added, "But if the negotiations do open up again, I would like to add some requests of my own if you don't mind."

Maria narrowed her eyes and instantly rejected his demands before he could even make them. "I can already tell that my answer to every single one of them will be 'no'. So, don't even bother." Steve chuckled and said, "Oh my, such strict words. You sure do think badly of me if you can tell you want to reject my requests without even knowing what they are." Maria did not bat a lash as she replied, "I know you well enough to know what that look in your eyes means. Nothing good can come from me letting you make any requests regarding our little arrangement here. Surely anything you come up with, will have something to do with an inappropriate act of some kind."

"Me? Request something inappropriate?? You must be mistaken. Although I imagine that some things you won't be able to avoid. At least not for long. After all, what could possibly be inappropriate between two adults in a committed relationship".

Immediately Maria's face grew red once more and Steve had reached his goal. He wanted to bait her into having to say just what it was she imagined him to have thought up. If she was brave enough to answer, he planned on teasing her some more by flipping the script, pretending that she was the one whose mind had been filled with inappropriate things. Although he didn't think it would come to that. Either way, this was already providing him with quite the chuckle, and he imagined that what he had in store for her, would provide plenty more. Because there was one thing he was sure of that she hadn't thought about, and that would provide Maria with quite a bump to overcome during this wonderful journey they had started together.