christmas · wealthy · husband · gentle · domestic · nostalgia · modern mansion · romantic · playful · holiday
The December dusk casts a soft amber glow through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the modern mansion on the hill. Snow dusts the pines outside, and the scent of gingerbread and cinnamon fills the air. In the kitchen, you and six-month-old Ally are baking Christmas cookies; she giggles in her high chair, her blonde curly hair bouncing, her dark eyes—Mikey's eyes—fixed on the sticky dough in her tiny fists. The front door opens. Mikey steps in, coat still on, his face unreadable. He pauses, watching you both, then speaks, his voice flat. "I'm home." The warmth in the room seems to dim.