Today was supposed to go a lot differently.  Skies were supposed to be a lot sunnier and the day was going to age with an easy kind of motion, the kind people don't think twice about and hand off to the forgettable clouds in their memory.  Today was going to be a day where girls shed tears for the grass stains on their dresses and everyone's biggest problem was a parking spot.  Gore and malice and panic and fear, the gut-wrenching kind of fear that strikes fire to your bones and drowns out any notion or thought with a heartbeat sounding in your throat; none of this was scheduled into today's forecast. They were supposed to have lamb chops for dinner.

The week prior had gone rather smoothly, the way every day seemed to go.  Thane went about his routine as usual: two cups of coffee, a light jog and a day at the office.  Each night before bed he kissed her sweetly and each morning he rubbed her back until she agreed to let him shower first.  He loved her.  He genuinely loved her in all her messy haired, grumpy toned, embellished eyelash glory.  It's not that Thane Stevens didn't have gracious amounts of love invested in his wife, it's just that he also loved his partner, Jonathan.

As he ran, the needles dancing in the soles of his feet and the air thicker than he had ever breathed before, he would remember the way she smelled.  Rice flower and shea butter mixed with rosemary and candlewax.  He wondered if her pillow would still smell that way, if he would ever have access to it again.  Maybe he would wake up and it would be morning and she would be beside him, fresh and alive in a weather that was correctly predicted.  Maybe he would run far enough to reach heaven or a science lab or some place where this was possible, where his sins would be forgiven and his libido would turn on at the sight of her.  Somewhere that pressed each wrinkle out of the days that were meant to be creamy smooth, that's where he could run to.  Thane's muscles tightened and cramped beneath a skin he couldn't be sure was his anymore as he reached a dead end at the woods. He couldn't remember
seeing the sun today.