The Summer House – Part 2: The Squeaky Bed
Wife & Couples·EN·1 min read·Published 2026-11-07, updated 2026-11-07·Part 2 of 2
The bed squeaked abominably.
It squeaked when Katerina sat on it. It squeaked when Dimitri lay down. It squeaked, with a shriek like a seagull, when they both fell into a helpless heap of laughter and rolled onto the floor.
"It's the springs," he gasped.
"It's a hundred years old."
"It's a very happy bed."
"It is not happy. It is loud."
They lay on the cool tiled floor, tears of laughter running down their faces, staring up at the beams. The shutters were open, and moonlight poured across the room in a white bar. The sea sighed in the dark below the terrace. A night-scented jasmine drifted through the window.
Katerina turned her head. Dimitri's face was inches away, silvered by the moon, lined with laughter. She remembered him at twenty-two, in a taverna in Plaka, spilling wine across a table. She remembered a hundred other moments, dim and shining, strung like beads.
"Can I ask you something?" said Dimitri, softly.
"Yes."
"May I kiss my wife? On the floor?"
"Yes," said Katerina. "And if I say stop, you must fix the bed."
"I will never fix the bed."
"Then I'll never say stop."
He kissed her, slow and warm, his hand rising to the loose hair at her temple. She kissed him back, tasting of wine and salt, with all the tenderness of twenty years, drawing him close. The night was warm. The sea breathed. The iron bed waited above them, creaking faintly, in the moonlight.
When they parted, both of them were smiling.
"Green?" he asked.
"Green," said Katerina. "Very green."
They went back every summer. The children have learned to knock. The bed is, by general agreement, unfixable.
More married couple romance: The Cruise · Couples Retreat · The Second Honeymoon
You finished “The Summer House”
If you liked this one, these are the closest matches.
Wife & Couples · 2 parts
The Hayloft
Megan and Jake spend a weekend helping on a friend's Vermont dairy farm. Up at four, covered in hay, they remember a version of themselves that used to laugh.
Wife & Couples · 2 parts
The House on Lake Como
Elena and Marco borrow a friend's lake house on Como for a week, children left with their grandparents. The silence is enormous, and slightly terrifying.
Wife & Couples · 2 parts
The Tiled Courtyard
Pilar and Javier buy a crumbling Andalusian courtyard house and spend the summer re-laying its blue tiles together. Nobody told them how hot August would be.
More stories you might like
Wife & Couples · 2 parts
The Hayloft
Megan and Jake spend a weekend helping on a friend's Vermont dairy farm. Up at four, covered in hay, they remember a version of themselves that used to laugh.
Wife & Couples · 2 parts
The House on Lake Como
Elena and Marco borrow a friend's lake house on Como for a week, children left with their grandparents. The silence is enormous, and slightly terrifying.
Wife & Couples · 2 parts
The Tiled Courtyard
Pilar and Javier buy a crumbling Andalusian courtyard house and spend the summer re-laying its blue tiles together. Nobody told them how hot August would be.
Wife & Couples · 2 parts
The Ferry Bakery
Eleni bakes bread at dawn on a Greek island and sends it on the early ferry. Nikos, the doctor on the next island, writes back on the paper bag.
Wife & Couples · 2 parts
The Island Postmistress
Helen takes a year-long post as postmistress on a tiny Greek island. Stavros, a fisherman, visits every Tuesday to ask if there is mail for him. There never is.
Wife & Couples · 2 parts
The Anniversary Dress
Julien secretly commissions a dress for Aurélie's twentieth anniversary. When she discovers the fitting appointment, she assumes he's having an affair. He isn't.