Arranged Love: Cristina's Story

Arranged Love: Cristina's Story - Chp 7

Arranged Love: Cristina’s Story

Chapter 7 - Cristina

Curled up under the blankets with the large teddy bear that Tristán gave me before he left with the twins I tried to sleep but with no luck. Having a summer cold is the worst kind of cold out there and I was miserable. Snuggling closer into the bear an all too familiar scent filled my nose leaving me feeling relaxed and on the verge of sleep. Who would have thought that I’d appreciate a teddy bear that smell like Tristán? Not me when he gave it to me for my birthday but all these months later my feelings towards the bear have changed. In the months of living with him we’ve out of necessity shared a bed something I became use to rather quickly. When we moved into the house from the condo I briefly attempted having my own bed—that lasted all of 6 hours. Now it seemed I couldn’t fall asleep without curling up next to something the smelled like him and if it happened to be the real thing all the better. I’ve turned into a pathetic pile of mush.

Sleep wasn’t happening which didn’t surprise me at this point. After all didn’t I tell him the bear wasn’t going to work? Umm...Yeah, yeah I did. With a sigh I threw off the covers and very sloth like made my way down to the kitchen for some tea. The water was close to boiling when Tristán walked into the house. It sounded like he had been heading for the stairs until he heard the teapot whistle. Coming into the kitchen he shot me a look.

“What? I told you the bear wasn’t going to help.” I said grabbing a cup and placing a tea bag in it before removing the teapot from the stove. Once I had my tea sweetened to the way I like and to what some would say to the point of disgusting I grabbed my cup and headed back to bed at the slow sloth rate in which I came down the stairs at the first time.

Tristán walked silently behind me. Somehow I believe he doesn’t know what to say much less do at this moment. I couldn’t blame him considering I know I am a pain in the ass when sick especially since I don’t do sick well. With a yawn we walked into the bedroom. I sat the cup of tea down on the nightstand and crawled back into bed where I promptly threw the teddy bear at him before settling in further with my cup of tea and a book.

“Do you want me to leave so you can attempt sleep again? Or would you like to actually get some sleep?” He asked me after catching the bear.

“I’ll behave myself. I’ve it out of my system now.” I answered with a small smile for an apology.

I sat slight propped up with some pillows watching Tristán as he shook his head at me while placing the bear on a nearby chair. The muscles in his strong powerful arms flexed with the movement of placing the bear on the chair. He was handsome and built something I was willing to admit to anyone but anything else wouldn’t be admitted to anytime soon. Striding over to the bed where I sat I watched as the muscles flex continuously with the effort of each movement. What drew my eyes to watch him? I have no idea but I quickly turned back to my book before he caught me watching him and made too much out of it other than just tired boredom on my part.

It didn’t take me long to see that reading wasn’t going to happen. Not more than fifteen minutes into reading the book the realization came that it was impossible to continue reading while seeing double from tired eyes that couldn’t keep focused and rereading the pages twice hadn’t made it anymore understandable. With a sigh of frustration and a yawn of defeat I gave up the book in order to once again curl deep under the blankets again. With a shiver running down my spine I snuggled close to Tristán who wrapped an arm around me as I rested my head on his chest. Tristán gently hummed a song that I didn’t recognize while heavy eyelids closed drifting off to sleep to the sounds of his humming and the soft sounds of the movie that was playing on our bedroom TV.