She Penned my Dreams

Morning After

Spencer

            I woke up to a hand sliding across my chest and a small, contented sigh brushing the edge of my jaw. Shivers ran down my front as I opened my eye and saw Katie still sleeping, a lovely smile on her perfect lips, her hand coming to rest in on the center of my chest near her face. I remembered her falling asleep on my shoulder in the last few chapters of Wuthering Heights, but somehow through the course of the night, we’d shifted so that I was lying on the couch, with her practically on top of me. I noticed with a smile that Katie still had her cowboy boots on.

            I wondered what it was about this girl that made me so comfortable around her. I’d never fallen asleep with a girl before. I’d never had a girlfriend serious enough to stay over with. I don’t even know if you’d consider my past relations with women as ‘relationships’ or them as ‘girlfriends’. But this, waking up to see a beautiful girl sleeping on my chest, her leg between mine and a smile on her face, I could definitely understand why so many people spent so much time looking for and working on relationships. I’d never thought seriously about being in a real relationship with a girl; it always seemed like something made for other people, not people like me. But for just a couple moments more, I allowed myself the pleasure of imagining that this woman, asleep in my arms, might just be special. I found myself running my fingers through the soft, tangled strands of her hair. She sighed again, and I couldn’t help but wonder how my name would sound if she sighed it like that.

            I was pulled out of my musings by her deep green eyes, cracking open and looking around. She squinted in the morning light before burying her face back into my chest. She took a deep breath through her nose, and I was suddenly self conscious, wondering how he smelled.

            “K-katie?” I asked quietly, letting the backs of my fingers brush down the length of her arm.

            “Hmmm? Morning.” She drawled into my shirt, he bottom lip catching and dragging against the fabric of my sweater. She stretched and looked up at me with a smile, her Amazon green eyes gazed sleepily into mine, and I found myself wishing we weren’t waking up on the couch. But my bed instead. Just then her stomach growled, yanking me back to reality and the realm of actual possibilities. She sat up slowly, stretching her back and adjusting her dress.

            “I’m, um, I’m sorry I, uh, forgot about making dinner last night,” I said to her, as I stood up.

            “It’s alright, I really enjoyed last night, just as it was,” she said, touching my arm.

            “Umm, yeah, yeah I, uh, I did too.” I stuttered, turning away from her and walking into the kitchen. “Um, so I have eggs and bagels if you wanted a breakfast sandwich, or uhh well, we could go somewhere if um you wanted something else. Unless you, umm, had to leave.”

            “You scramble, I’ll toast,” Katie said with a pleasant and still sleepy smile. “Just give me one second and point me to a bathroom.”

            “Right down the hallway, first door on the left,” I said. Finally I managed not to stutter for the first time all morning, and I was giving her directions to the bathroom. I sighed and set my elbows on the counter, dropping my head into my hands. ‘She stayed all night, and hasn’t run out yet. That means she could like me, right?’ I had myself half-convinced that she could be interested in me, until she walked back into the kitchen and I was reminded of how exceptionally beautiful she was, which was always inversely related to my chances with her. But at that moment, I didn’t much care what my chances were. I cared that she was in my apartment at 9 in the morning on a Sunday and that she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever met. I liked the way her tan skin glowed in the morning light. I was lucky and had a corner apartment, with four windows in my whole place. But I’d never appreciated the windows more than when Katie stopped in one of the square of light and stood with her arms held slightly out from her sides, like she could literally soak up the sun’s energy.