Finally, One Morning We Found Ourselves in Bed - Ariana Speyer

It had come as a surprise, I told her, when actually I knew all along that eventually that’s where we’d end up. Sheets askew, clothes on the floor, the cat alternately meowing and sniffing. The cat loved Kelly, adored her, followed her around like a dog would, so my taking Kelly and doing things to her didn’t sit well with the cat.

The funny thing was it didn’t end up happening till the morning, I remember the date, June 12, because it was three days before my birthday. I had slept on the pull-out couch, as was my habit. Kelly was letting me crash at her apartment until I could find my own, but 2 weeks had turned in to 2 months and the more time I spent with Kelly, the less interested I became in finding another apartment. I liked the way she looked smudged in the morning, before she got in the shower, when she was making us coffee. Her hair stood out in a little halo around her head and her eyes puffed up slightly. Call me crazy, I thought it was sexy.

She would say, Don’t look at me, what are you looking at? Like I was a rubbernecker on the highway. I’d look away and then look back when she had turned to get the mugs out of the cabinet. I guess I even liked her coffee mugs, I liked everything about her. The way she’d come home from work and put on music and dance in her bedroom. She'd close the door, but I could tell that's what she was doing. The way she'd talk back to the TV and call herself a crazy person for doing so. What I meant to say is, I wanted it to end up in bed all along, from about the 3rd day, desperately, but whether or not that would happen was a question that seemed to suck up all my time and energy.

I had started to take her breakfast in bed most mornings, once I figured out what she liked to eat- a half a toasted whole wheat bagel, yogurt, fruit, and I’d run out and get the paper before she got up and put that on there, too. At first she acted suspicious, like I had put a razor in the bagel, but soon enough she got used to it, and we started talking on her bed while she ate, and she’d offer me bites. That morning, June 12, the bites turned in to kisses, and finally, we found ourselves in bed, not on top of it. And once I was in, believe me, I never wanted to leave.