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“Sorry I’m late!” Hermione called as she walked through the front door, closing it behind her.
She quickly kicked off her heels, curling her toes as they cracked in relief, and set her bag down. With a huff, she tossed her keys into the small bowl on the table in the entryway then made her way through the house to find her husband in the kitchen, pouring a bit of whiskey into crystal glasses for both of them.
“How was your day?” his wife asked as she wrapped her arms around his waist from behind, pressing a kiss to his shoulder blade.
“Your daughter.”
“Oh, she’s my daughter today so she must have done something horrid,” she chuckled.
“She told me that she had to go to the store for … woman things.”
“Oh dear. It must not have been that bad since you’re standing here, alive and well.”
“Instead of using the bathroom here, she LEFT me alone at the store to use the public loo so … I decided to meet her in the appropriate aisle and I felt … so lost. I didn’t know what to look for!”
He felt her body shaking against his back and let out a sharp exhale of annoyance.
“It’s not funny, Hermione,” he murmured.
“I’m not laughing at you, love. I’m sorry you had to buy her feminine products at a public store.”
She released her hold from his waist and used her hands to turn him towards her.
“Oohhh! Babe, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about!” she said gently upon seeing his reddened face.
“It was when she found me in that aisle and practically yelled at me!”
“She didn’t yell at you.”
“Well … no, she didn’t yell at me but she might as well have!” he said as he leaned back against the counter.
She reached around him to pick up both glasses and handed one to him.
“What happened after she found you?” she asked, taking a sip to hold back the rising laughter.
Marcus let out a sigh then tilted his head back, downing the liquid in one gulp.
“She asked what I was doing and I told her that I didn’t know what she needed but if I looked, I might somehow know! And she …”
He paused for a long moment, making Hermione’s eyebrows raise slightly to encourage him to continue.
“… she told me that we weren’t there for that .”
She bit her lips, holding the rim of the glass against her mouth, waiting for him to continue.
“We were there for makeup,” he finally concluded, his voice barely a whisper.
The giggles soon filled the room before turning into full blown laughter. He felt his ears turn red as warmth flooded his entire face and neck with embarrassment. He pushed off of the counter to walk out of the kitchen but she gently grabbed his arm, turning his body back towards her.
“I don’t mean to laugh, Marcus, but look at the bright side: you didn’t have to walk out of the store with a bag of tampons or anything of the sort.”
After setting her glass down, she cupped his face in her hands and smiled tenderly up at him.
“You are the best father a girl could ever ask for,” she told him softly.
“How can I be when I can’t even buy those products ?”
“The fact you went with her because you thought that’s what she needed should tell you that you’re willing to do that for her. You did it for me when we were dating,” she reminded him.
“Yeah but you were about to bite my head off if I didn’t get you the right kind of chocolate candy so I wasn’t going to deny you.”
She squeezed his face just a little bit at his cheekiness then pulled him down, raising herself on her tiptoes to kiss him.
“You’re still alive so you must’ve done something right,” she teased as his arms wrapped around her waist, a deep chuckle reverberating in his chest.
They kissed a few more times, each one getting deeper than the last.
“I’m never taking her shopping again,” he whispered as they pulled away enough to look at one another.
“You’ll never have to take her shopping but just wait until we have to give her ‘the talk’ when she starts dating.”
Marcus let out a groan and dropped his forehead to her shoulder, now dreading when said day comes.
“I’m so happy we had one of each; the boy already gone off to uni but this one … your daughter is going to be the death of me,” he muttered.
“Once again, my daughter? Last I knew, you had a hand in creating her,” she laughed, pulling away to grab her glass and take another drink.
“If she’s going to be anything like you, she won’t date until she’s 40.”