Mark and Laura had a dream that before they were too old they would start a family and move away from the city. They worked long and hard for several years, and in an attempt to start they family, Mark even taking on a second job so that they could save enough for their move. Laura though missed seeing Mark as he was home to eat dinner late, then off to shower and head off for his second job; arriving back home while she slept. The loneliness from only seeing Mark but an hour a day, and only part of the weekend led her to feel unnoticed, unappreciated, and almost entirely forgotten, yet she knew she hadn't been. Mark sensed it too, though he didn't say anything at first, he only worked that much harder to make a change so their dreams could be reached sooner. One night, as was normally the case, Mark ate dinner, complimented Laura on another good meal, and started to head off to the shower; or so Laura thought. He had gone out of the room, but not to the shower, only to watch Laura head off to the kitchen with the dishes as was her routine. She also usually reached in the refrigerator and grabbed the ice cream, devouring at least a bowl a night. This night would be different though; as she left the dishes in the sink, walked to the refrigerator, and reached for the door handle, she felt an hand reach out for her and heard Mark voices say; "You don't need that anymore, and I don't need to be away evenings anymore either -- from now on, in the evening, I'm all yours." Laura, startled asked; "What, why, aren't you working anymore?" Mark gently pulled her around towards him and said; "We've worked this hard so we can move way, start a family before it's too late. For the past year I have watched you slowly lose that spunky attitude and sort of fade away from yourself and from me. We've sacrificed enough already, and we might not have all we wanted built up in the bank to move, but I cannot watch you become an empty shell of the woman I married. We have enough to move away and start on the rest of our life, even if not as completely as we planned. I didn't tell you before, I wanted it to be a surprise, but I found a better job, so we don't need to work so hard, and we can get out of the city, get on with our life, and our dream together." Laura looked at him with the saddest look he'd even seen in her eyes and said; "I didn't think you noticed, I was wondering if you even cared anymore." Mark took her in his arms; "It's because I noticed and cared that I did this. It's because I noticed what this routine is doing to you that I worked to make this change." Laura smiled at him, wrapped her arms around him and said; "What new job, where, and when do you start?" Mark said; "We've got all night and the entire weekend to talk about it, how about I put some coffee on and I'll tell you all about it?" Thanks for taking a look! Hope you all have a good night.