She woke up first, slowly swimming up to consciousness from a heavy, contented sleep. She felt cool air coming through the open windows against her bare shoulders and opened her eyes to see early morning sun just touching the bedroom wall. She squinted at the alarm clock—seven-twenty—and then turned her head carefully to look at Jim. He was still sound asleep, his face half buried in the pillow, his hair rumpled and the sheets pulled tight over his shoulders. She lay and looked at him without moving, not wanting to disturb him. She thought about the night before, wondering if that last time had really happened, or if it had been a dream….She felt her face flushing again, and smiled. She snuggled up closer to Jim, smelling his skin. He stirred then, opening his eyes drowsily, and slid his arm around her waist. He saw her looking at him and smiled, a small, shy, happy smile she hadn’t ever seen before. It was as if a mask she hadn’t even known he was wearing had fallen off overnight.
“Morning,” he said. “How’d you sleep?”
“Morning,” she replied, smiling back, also feeling shy but shiningly happy. “Great. You?”
“Like a baby,” he agreed. She waited for him to follow that up with a joke, something to put things back on their usual level of casual banter, but he just lay there and looked at her happily, completely unguarded. Finally he said, wonderingly, “I don’t think I’ve ever felt this happy before.”
She considered this. “I know what you mean,” she agreed. She looked at him some more. She knew that sooner or later, they’d have to move, to be distracted, whether it was by another wave of intense emotion, or just by the concerns of everyday life, and this moment would be over. There’d be others—with any luck there’d be many others—but as she lay there, brimming with joy, part of her consciously noted this perfect moment as it happened, and tucked it away in her heart to remember forever.
Chapter End Notes:
The End. Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
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