AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Your plan to get me naked…”
“Yeah,” I breathed, my lips on her neck.
“It’s dashed.”
I continued nibbling at her throat for a few seconds before her words sank in. Straightening up to my full height, I stared down at her. “Huh?”
“I got my period.”
My own shoulders sank. “Well, that’s inconvenient.” I fixed her sweater back around her shoulders and readjusted myself for what felt like the hundredth time today. “You feeling all right?”
“You want TMI?”
“Yes.” I caught her finger and kissed it. “Always, when it comes to you.”
“I’m a little crampy, but my second day is always worse than the first. Like a murder scene.”
I had nothing to say and assumed it was better to stay silent in this kind of situation, so I kissed her temple then laced my fingers with hers on the way back to the table. Gemma’s salad was waiting for her.
Kevin smirked. “That was quick.”
I mushed my palm against his face. “Shut up.”
Gemma poured herself a beer from the pitcher, and Luke raised his glass to her, openly surprised at how she helped herself. “You drink?”
She answered by taking a few gulps then covered her mouth when she let out a tiny, adorable burp.
All three of the us laughed, and Luke tipped his chin to her. “Didn’t expect that to come from a vegan yoga teacher.”
She picked at her salad, fumbling over a cherry tomato, probably figuring out that I’d been talking about her. “I told you,” I said, speaking to my friends even though my eyes were on her. “She’s full of surprises. In the best ways possible.”
After dinner, we drove back to my place, and she popped a couple Advil before we cuddled on the couch, watching some nature documentary about climate change. It was so depressing I had to keep myself busy by sucking marks into the undersides of her breasts.
That night, I fell asleep with my hand splayed across her belly since she said the heat of my hand felt good on her stomach, but I woke up to her side of the bed cold when my alarm blared.
I squinted, focusing my bleary morning eyesight around the room until I found her. “Hey, you,” I said, all groggy and rough. “You’re up early.”
She nodded from where she was perched on the big grey chair in the corner, her pencil scratching along a paper. “I had cramps so I made tea and took some more Advil.”
I yawned. “What are you doing?”
“Drawing.”
“What are you drawing?”
“You.”
I sat up on an elbow and wiped sleep from my eyes. “Me? Can I see?”
She stuck the pencil between her teeth while she crawled up onto the bed next to me and turned the paper over in her lead-covered fingers.
I took the paper to study it, blown away even if it was a rough sketch. She captured me asleep, arms around my pillow, the sheet at my waist, my back on display.
She nudged my shoulder after a while. “Do you like it?”
“Yes, of course, yes. You’re so talented.” I shook my head ever so slightly, a little embarrassed. “I guess I… It’s nice to see me through your eyes. You see me as beautiful.”
She tugged the sleeves of one of my sweatshirts over her hands, like she wasn’t sure what to say. Like maybe her art spoke for her. That when she couldn’t sleep, it was me who kept her company, soothing her mind. Or, at least, that’s what I hoped it meant.
