Five reasons he really actually loves Karen, he realizes one day when he’s alone in his car, staring up at tree branches as they stretch and reach for clouds or telephone wire, waiting for the light to turn green:
I.
There’s a richness to Karen’s laugh and when they’re lying bed, she likes to talk about Alaska and how there are little islands there they could run off to and never have to sell paper again. She smiles against his neck as she ruminates on ice fishing and Eskimos. He asks in a quiet, low smiling voice if they’d get matching coats with the fur around the hoods and she presses her face into the crook of his neck, laughing and he can feel it rumble through his bones.
II.
After two months, she confesses that she only came to this “stupid, boring town” for him anyway and when he asks her why, she just says, “It felt like the thing to do,” and shrugs. And when he says, after a short pause in which he moves his eyes over her face, “Well, I’m glad you did,” she laughs like she’s about to cry and so he kisses her.
III.
Sometimes he falls asleep on her couch after work while she’s making dinner for him, a sitcom playing in the background and the white noise of the laugh track lulling him to sleep. And she’ll kneel by his head when dinner’s ready and say his name really quietly so just the breath of her words wakes him up. She’ll say, “Hey, Sleepyhead, dinner’s ready.” She smiles this wide smile, the kind that floods her eyes and he’ll stretch and rub his eyes, smiling back at her and it’s nice.
IV.
They spend a Saturday afternoon stretched out on his carpet like cats where the sun falls through the window, staring at the ceiling and listening to his iPod on shuffle. Her hips are touching his and her hair is splayed out across the floor behind her. She turns to watch him and her lips brush against the shoulder of his t-shirt. He feels it warm through the cotton. The song is slow and about beginnings and she’s singing along quietly and he takes her hand, pulling her into his side.
V.
When she kisses him, he feels it. Really, honestly feels it. It’s been a while since he’s felt it with a girl who wasn’t Pam. Maybe the only time someone besides Pam has made him feel it. That dizzying feeling that makes his body hum from head to toe, forcing him to lean back in and kiss her again. And she tastes like things he’s wanted for a long time even though he isn’t entirely sure what that really means. But when he touches her face and rests his forehead against hers, she closes her eyes and he feels everything inside of him drop just a little.
The light turns green and he’s thinking about booking one of those Alaskan cruises in the summer.
unfold is the author of 102 other stories.
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