A very bad dream that was actually a great dream, but terrible because it was so great.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No!” I hold my hands up, stopping the conversation from going any further.
“You were mumbling a lot. Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?”
“I was mumbling? What was I mumbling? Like, could you make anything out of what I was saying?”
Please let it all be unintelligible.
“I couldn’t understand anything. But I didn’t think it was a bad dream. I actually thought you were happy…you know, enjoying yourself.”
Oh, I enjoyed myself, that’s for sure.
“No, it was a nightmare,” I say. “Not a happy dream.”
The backs of Caleb’s fingers caress my cheek. It’s the backs of his fingers with knuckles and all that jazz, something a school nurse would do to see if I have a fever, but because of the schmexy dream, his backs-of-the-fingers touch feelsrealnice.
“Your face is ice cold.”
That’s his assessment? Really? Because I’m feeling all sorts of hot.
Caleb stands, looking at the dying fire. “We’re out of wood. Let me go outside and see if I can find some more.”
“No!” I reach my hand out, grabbing his arm. And again, it’s just a freaking arm, but touching it fills me up with butterflies. “You can’t go outside in the storm for more firewood. That’s ridiculous. I’ll just wear my coat to bed and bundle up.”
“I don’t want you to be cold.”
“It’s fine.” Even as I say the words, my teeth chatter.
“That’s it. I’m going out.”
“No! I forbid it!”
Everything is dark, but not too dark that I can’t make out the shape of Caleb’s amused smile. “You forbid it?”
“Yes, I forbid you from going outside in a blizzard and catching a cold and dying and leaving me here all alone to fend for myself.”
“Well, I can’t let you be cold. I mean, we could…” His words drift away as his eyes bounce from his bunk to my bunk.
“We could what?”
He scratches the back of his neck. “I was just thinking that we could bring up our body temperature by, you know, sharing a bed.”
“Like, you sleep in here with me?” I point down at my bunk.
“In a totally platonic way. You know, just keep each other warm.”
“That is survival 101. And we are snowed in.”
“Why do you keep saying it like that?Snowed in?”
“Something I saw on Hallmark.” I wave it away. “So you and me in one bedtogetherwhen there are seven other beds?”
He counts all the bunks. “Yes, there are seven other empty beds.”
“But we’re cold,” I say.
