Big Time

Seven

John hadn’t seen or spoken to Rasha in almost 10 days. With all that had been going on at work, he hadn’t had the time or energy. And on the weekend, he’d collapsed, needing to catch up on sleep.

When he called, he did so knowing that he’d probably left it too late. He didn’t really want it to end here though. In fact, he would give anything to spend the night with her.

“Hey, how are you?” he asked after she answered on the third ring.

“Fine,” she said sharply.

“Sorry I haven’t called. Things have been crazy at work.”

“I assumed you weren’t going to.”

John detected a tone of pissed-off-ness in her voice. “Well, I did,” said John raising his eyebrows.

After a short pause, Rasha asked, “Do you have a girlfriend?” Her voice was tentative.

Surprised, John said, “No.”

His statement was greeted by silence from the other end of the phone.

“I’m not dating anyone else,” he insisted. “I’ve just been snowed under with work. Things have been crazy, that’s all.”

“Why are you so busy?”

John wasn’t interested in talking about work. “It’s always like this. We should catch up in person. How about tonight?”

“You can’t call me up and expect that I am free without notice. Anyway, I am working tonight.”

“What time will you finish?” asked John, scheming.

“Maybe midnight.”

“Hmm. I’m sure I’ll be working late too. But let’s have a drink afterwards?”

“I don’t know.”

“Come on,” John encouraged.

She sighed. “Maybe.”

“Come over to my place when you finish so we can see each other.”

She hesitated for a few seconds. “Just a drink though. I am not going to stay the night.”

“It’s your choice,” John said, already feeling disappointed.

After hanging up the phone, John mimicked her sigh. Things are already starting to get complicated.

When he got home around 11, he opened a bottle of white wine, poured himself a glass and turned on the TV. When Rasha arrived over an hour later, he was asleep on the couch, ESPN on in the background. He quickly came to when he heard the buzzer. When she got upstairs, he welcomed her in awkwardly. They kissed tentatively on the lips.

“Feel like a drink?”

“Yes, okay, that would be good,” she said.

He walked over to the kitchen sink, threw out his warm glass of Chardonnay, and then poured them both a fresh glass. Minutes into the conversation, while she was in mid-sentence, his eyes started to glaze over.

His eyes had closed only a second when his reflex jerked him awake.

She frowned. “Are you asleep?”

“No,” he said, trying to clear his head.

“You were.”

He wasn’t sure if it was an accusation or if it was fact.

“I’ve been working long days.” He couldn’t stop himself from yawning. “It’s been a long week, and I’m really tired.”

“I should go home.” She crossed her arms.

“Don’t. Stay the night and then we can talk properly in the morning.”

“I’m not going to sleep with you,” she said firmly.

He was stunned. “We’ve slept together before, I’m almost falling asleep before your eyes and now you’re telling me you won’t have sex with me.” His lethargy made him grumpy.

She nodded once. “Correct.”

“That’s fine. I’m going to bed. You are coming, yes?” he said trying to mimic her accent as he walked off to the bedroom.

Around four a.m., John felt something stir beside him. At first he didn’t understand what it was, but once he was conscious, he realized Rasha had joined him on his side of the bed and was snuggling up to him, breathing loudly. It wasn’t quite snoring, but close, and she was right next to his ear.

He rolled to the extremity of his side of the bed and tried to go back to sleep. The more he tried to clear his mind, though, the more deafening her breathing became.

After 10 minutes, he decided to go to the spare room. John was really agitated, pissed off he couldn’t even get a good nights sleep in his own home when he most needed it. What a debacle it had been to invite her over. And we didn’t even have sex.

When he got up at seven the next morning, Rasha had already left. When running out the door for work, he saw a message scrawled on the back of an envelope. What happened? Was I loud?

John walked to the subway thinking how to respond. She obviously knows she snores. Why else would she write that?

Rasha called John later that day with the same question. “Why did you leave?”

“I have a big day today and needed a good night’s sleep.”

“Did I snuffle? I just have a blocked nose.” Her tone sounded almost angry.

John felt he was on unstable footing and tried to be delicate. “I’m sorry. You were breathing loudly and I needed a good nights sleep. I’ve got some important meetings today. It’s no big deal.”

“It is a big deal. If you cannot sleep with me, then we cannot date.”

John went into his turtle shell.

“You have nothing to say?”

“Hey, I really wanted to wake up with you this morning and make love, but sleep is really important to me at the moment.”

She contemplated it for a second and then hung up.

John thought about Rasha. His attraction to her was purely physical and they were far from soul mates. She was too scattered for John to get serious about. John thought she was probably a highly sexual person, last night aside, and when they did it, it was great. So maybe they could continue seeing each other and enjoy the chemistry without a relationship or sleep-overs?

Later in the day, knowing she would probably be at work, he called and left a message on her answering machine. “Hey, I need my sleep for work, but it was good to see you again. Was last night that big a deal? I’m sorry. Let me book us into dinner at Boca Chica, a South American restaurant in the East Village on your next night off work. Just let me know when.” He figured a little bit of home cooking might get him back into Rasha’s good books.