Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
HAPPILY EVER BEFORE
Will
When the text came through my hand was already drafting one of my own. Then I saw it. The address that placed her 300 feet from where I was. I was out the door and standing at hers faster than she could comprehend. And when she opened her door, in nothing but the consolation prize t-shirt, I lost all manner of self control. I’ve been told before I don’t have any. That’s not true. I just don't allow them to control me. That’s the difference.
I’ve never seen in this window, as she admitted to being able to see in mine. Maybe I just wasn’t looking. But I’ll be looking now. I should also consider investing in curtains. I turn my head towards the faint glow from the moon and with very little adjustment I have a straight view into my bedroom.
We’re laying in her bed, more on top than in. Just where we landed after being tangled in each other for the better part of this morning. All of our clothes remain scattered across her bedroom floor as her body is strewn across me. Her face pressed into my chest as her lips hang open, the corner of which is collecting the smallest amount of drool.
I take stock of the room. Two books on the bedside table. I make note of them . A small tv on the dresser that isn’t angled in a way that she watches it much. A framed print hanging on the wall. She’s let me into her home. She doesn’t seem unavailable.
What would the didactic plate say of this image? I close my eyes and freeze the mental image of us, now. Imagining the bird's eye view of us in this bed. I can see it in black and white, a highly contrasted photograph, the kind that highlights the brilliance of human experience in the commonality of it.
‘Man and Woman Entangled’
Artist: Unknown Photographer
When we landed last night, we didn’t pass out immediately as one would think. We laid there in some cloud of sweat and complete fantasy. She’d drag her finger across the ink on my skin, and ask for the details. When I got my first tattoo it was reckless. It was just something I wanted. And from there, it grew. Some end up connected, some independent and done on a whim. She played my skin like it was a map she was trying to memorize. I’ve loved art for most of my life. I was surrounded by it in a way most people in my position take for granted. But simply having the thing is not enough. It should be appreciated, often. And for me, that turned into committing it to skin. The wings on my shoulder blade from ‘Winged Victory,’ the outlined bridge below my collar bone from ‘The Scream’, ‘The Hands of Adam and God’ across my forearm. Pieces I’ve seen that have left me marked by their impact. She dragged her tongue across ‘The Storm on the Sea of Galilee’ and never have I been happier about the placement on my upper thigh as it resulted in her dragging her tongue across more than just the ship's mast.
Moments from last night are painted across the ceiling, and if I were to close my eyes I’m sure I’d see the brushstrokes come to life.
The sun begins to rise and she stirs ever so slightly with it. I need to do the same. The second I move from underneath her eyes struggle open, blinking rapidly to adjust, but landing on me without reproach.
"This time I have to be the one to go," I say.
"Are you running from me?"
"I’ll run right back the second you say."
Run from her? Ridiculous thought. Normally I would start my day with a literal run, but I preferred the time spent pinned beneath her.
I pause, weighing the words before I let them out. "There's this thing Saturday night, come with me.”
She studies my face for a moment, and I can see her wrestling with what this invitation means.
"I can’t, I’m —"
"Unavailable, I know." I let it sound casual, let her keep the security she needs in the distance.
I pull on my underwear and jeans, and grab a blanket she has draped across her reading chair. She doesn’t move from bed as I stand over it. Snapping the blanket in the air so it can flutter gently down on top of her like the dusting of a snow flurry. It would be so easy to just crawl back in bed, as I lean down to kiss her the temporary goodbye, with each press of my lips it’s harder to go as she nuzzles deeper and smiles into them. But I eventually do.