She opens her eyes, and I see them widen at my bare chest. “What are you doing?” She doesn’t sound alarmed. Just surprised.
“Scoot over,” I say.
And I know it’s okay when she doesn’t hesitate.
I slip under the covers and lie on my side next to her, left arm tucked under my head. My right returns to her back, picking up with my massage again.
“Again,why?Why are you so sweet?
What she callssweet,I nameselfish.“I wanted to do this the first night we slept here. Do you remember?”
She’s quiet a moment.
“Oh,then,”she grumbles, clearly recalling the night when she woke up after starting her period. It’s been almost three months since then, and I can always tell when she starts even though she does her best to hide it. I’ve wanted to comfort her every time.
Now I can.
“You don’t… have to stay, you know,” she mumbles.
Without taking my eyes off her, I reach above our heads and switch off her reading light. I’m not going anywhere.
I return to her back and keep rubbing in circles, keeping my pressure firm, but not too deep.
I feel her sigh beneath my touch.
Lying beside her, touching her fills me up so big, my answering sigh is ten times deeper than hers.
I love you.
We’re quiet for a few minutes.
“Zach?” Her voice sounds weirdly shy.
“Yeah?”
“Are you staying?”
“Yeah, babe. If that’s okay.”
I hear her swallow.
“It’s okay… It’s just…”
“What?”
Silence.
“What, babe?”
I hear her pull in a deep breath. “I might bleed through again. I can set an alarm so I get up to change in time, but—”
“Set an alarm?” I’m frowning at her shadow. I can’t read her face in the dark, but she sounds worried.
“The first time I bled onto the sheets, Josh freaked the hell out.”
That bastard.
“Well, Josh is a dick.”
