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I stripped to my undershirt and boxers, neatly folded my clothes and set them on my nightstand, then climbed into bed, arranging the extra pillows between where the two of us would lay. I turned off the lamp on my side and lay on my side, facing the wall.
None of this was a part of my routine. None of this was acceptable, or close to comfortable. I wanted to crawl out of my skin.
Layana returned not long after.
“You moved my bags,” she said.
I kept my back turned to her. “You left them in the bed.”
“That’s because I was using them.”
“And I needed to use the bed.”
I felt the mattress dip slightly as she climbed in.
My every muscle tightened with awareness. I could smell her vanilla and hazelnut scent more clearly than usual. It must have been a soap or shampoo instead of a byproduct of working at a café.
“Pillows are supposed to be for your head, not used to take up a third of the mattress space,” she said.
There was still a pillow for her head.
“If you need extra, take it,” I said.
One of the pillows in the center of the bed brushed against my thigh, carrying up my side until it was gone. The space between us felt too open, leaving us too close.
“Don’t touch me while I’m sleeping,” she said.
As if I would even consider it. “That’s what the pillow barricade was for.”
“So we’re on the same page,” she said, voice slightly questioning.
“Completely.”
Same page? Same bed? I wasn’t entirely sure we were even on the same planet.
The soundof someone else’s breathing ripped me from my sleep. Disoriented, I blinked at the ceiling that wasn’t my ceiling, my heart hammering in my chest.
None of this was right.
It took me a moment to orient myself. I was trapped in a mountain lodge, in a social environment, with a woman sharing my space—it was my worst nightmare.
The cold space around me suggested Layana wasn’t in bed with me. I turned my head to look and be certain.
The room was dark, and I could make out her arms sticking straight up in the air over the open part of the room.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“I’m not sure you did wake me.” I felt like I hadn’t slept at all.
“Want a muffin?”
“No.”
“Banana?”
“No.”
