Title: Funny Bone
Book: Love Hacks
Characters/Pairing: Mark x Jenny/MC
Rating: Teen
Warning/Trigger: Mild use of language, brief mention of male anatomy and anal sex
Reader Tags: Are at the end of the story. If you would like to be added, moved, or removed please let me know.
Summary: When Jenny (fills prompt request ‘sledding’ from @blackcatkita for @kinda-iconic’s December prompt challenge. Includes the dialogue prompt “I already smile at your jokes, now I’m expected to laugh at them as well?” as requested by @brightpinkpeppercorn)
A/N: Writing hasn’t been easy for me lately, so please be gentle in your critique while I get my bearings back.
Propping her chin up in the palm of her hand, Jenny tried to keep what she hoped was an interested look on her face. Normally she loved when someone recognized her from her blog but at the moment all she wanted to do was refresh the airline app to see if by some miracle two seats to New York had become available. “I’m sorry,” she sighed, her cheeks blazing with color when she realized the eager faced woman in front of her had asked a question and she’d missed it. “I didn’t mean to space out like that.”
“Oh it’s fine,” the woman gushed. “I was just wondering what your next blog is going to be about.”
Relief shot through Jenny. This was an easy question, something she didn’t mind answering. She wasn’t always so lucky. The last ‘fan’ she’d encountered had wanted to know invasive stuff, like how big Mark’s dick was and whether or not Jenny was into anal. Trying to diplomatically get out of answering had taken a whole lot of diverting and an SOS text to Brooke who strategically called with an emergency. “The title is loosely ‘I already smile at your jokes now I’m expected to laugh at them as well: how to cope when your significant other thinks they’re a comedian but really they’re not.’ I’ll probably change it because that’s a whole lotta title.”
“It’s perfect though,” the woman laughed. “My girlfriend tells the worse jokes and there’s always this awkward pause where I can tell she’s waiting for me to laugh.”
“Do you force out a chuckle?” Jenny leaned in closer, her travel woes momentarily forgotten.
“Oh yeah and it is the fakest sounding thing ever. But…” the woman rolled her eyes, “it strokes his ego.”
Reaching out, Jenny picked up her glass of water and took a sip before smiling at the woman. “I have to do the same thing with Mark. I’ve perfected what I call my ‘Mark’s not so funny joke’ laugh.” She cleared her throat and let out a giggle that was an octave too high to be sincere. The laugh ended in her feigning a cough when she heard someone clear their throat and turned to find Mark standing next to her. “Uh, hey baby.”
“So much for my special laugh,” he tsked, shaking his head. The amusement shining in his blue eyes eased some of the tension that had started to form in her stomach. It was very rare that Mark got upset with her, especially when it came to hamming things up for her blog, but lately he’d been on edge about something. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him or ruin the holidays.
“Aw, it’s still your special laugh baby,” Jenny soothed, turning on her stool to loop her arms around his neck. She leaned forward, her smile softening as she rubbed her nose against his and thoughts of how lucky she was filling her head. Mark wasn’t just her husband, he was her best friend. He was always reminding her how important she was to him or surprising her with the perfect gift; which was why getting those tickets to New York was so important to her. For years Mark had talked about sledding in Central with his grandfather. The look of complete joy on his face when he spoke of the memory had given Jenny the idea of surprising him with Christmas in New York, complete with sledding in Central Park. Of course the idea had come to her rather late and putting together a last minute trip to New York during the holidays was proving to be impossible. “I love you,” she whispered, cupping his face, “you know that?”
“I love you too,” Mark whispered back before offering the lingering reader a brilliant smile. “I hate to steal her away but…”
“No, I get it,” the woman laughed. “My husband is probably ready to send out the troops at this point.” She held out her hand to Jenny, who gladly accepted it. “It was a pleasure to meet you and it’s refreshing to see that you really are nice as you seem in your blog.” She hesitated for a moment before leaning in closer. “If you ever find yourself in New York stop by Sayeed Enterprises and ask for Kam…I will treat you to lunch and perhaps I can introduce you to Lily. I have a feeling her and Mark would get along famously.”
“She seemed nice,” Mark commented when the woman disappeared into the crowd that was starting to take over the bar. “Kinda gave off that old soul vibe, you know?”
Jenny murmured her agreement, glancing down at her phone. A gasp caught in her throat at the sight of an alert from the airline. Two first class tickets to New York had just became available. Heart pounding, Jenny quickly clicked on the notification and hit purchase when asked if she would like to claim them. She didn’t allow herself to breathe easy until she received an email confirming their flight details for a flight that would leave in approximately six hours. “Mark,” she grinned, “how would you like to go sledding in Central Park…”