In His Arms

            The rain pattered against the windowsill so softly that it was like listening to the pitter patter of soft feline feet across a carpet. The bed was warm and I stretched out leisurely, my legs dangling off the bed and my finger tips grazing the dark leather of the headboard. The blankets felt like fluff and feathers against my skin, not stifling me and not letting the cold air in either. It was a Friday morning, and the sky outside, behind my curtains was gray and dark. It couldn’t be more than six in the morning.

            “Hey, Love.” His deep and soothing voice breathed against my ear as he wrapped his arm around my waist. I smiled and hid it under one of the blankets. All of the blankets were tangled among us in a comforting cocoon of bliss as we creaked our joints in an awakening ceremony. I looked over at him, to my right, and sleepily replied with a soft hello. He smiled and called me adorable and closed his coffee eyes while nuzzling into my neck. “What time is it?”

            Turning over to my left I flung my arms across the bed and stretched them out while looks at the glaring red numbers on my clock. Not able to keep them in focus, I shrugged and backed into him so that we were in a spooning position. His warm arm pulled me closer and he kissed the back of my neck, falling back to sleep.

            Sighing in content, I listened to the patter of rain as it hit the window and closed my eyes, imaging the future and hoping all would be as peaceful as it was now.

            The wind howled as the snow into the room. The window wouldn’t shut all the way so the room was getting colder as the night went on. Finally, in annoyance and exasperation, he got out of bed and pulled the curtain open. He then proceeded to open and reclose the window to try and get it to shut all the way to stop the snow from getting into the room. I had told him that I would switch him spots, so that he wouldn’t have to deal with it, but he said that he wouldn’t allow that.

            With a final tug at the window, it hit the wall and cracked. He stopped in shock and we both looked at it in slight fear, afraid that the whole window would now shatter into a million pieces and leave us running to sleep in the living room or bathroom.  It stayed, though, and we breathed a sigh of relief as he made his way back to the bed.

            “What strong arms you have,” I said, truly grateful for them.

            “The better to hold you with,” He smiled, pulling me against him under the blankets and kissing my nose. I giggled and kissed his lips. “What soft lips you have,” he whispered as he kissed me again.

            “The better to pleasure you with,” I whispered as I slid my hands down his stomach to thank him for fixing the window.

            “I hate apple pie,” I said as we sat in bed thinking over what to get for Thanksgiving, “So you can get it as long as you don’t expect me to eat any of it . . . And we get a pumpkin pie.”

            “You are so picky,” He grumbled as he jot down the rest of the grocery list. The smell of pumpkin spice was in the room as the scented candle melted away into the night. We were supposed to have a romantic evening, but had to scrap it once we realized that Thanksgiving was a week away and hadn’t gone shopping for it yet. My nightgown, which I had bought especially for that night was now covered by the blankets that I was using for warmth in place of him.

            He was running hot, so he wasn’t under the covers at all, taking the warmth of his body away from mine. And as he scratched his head, I knew that the evening was dead and laid back in bed, waiting for him to toss aside his list and forget about what tonight had originally been about. After watching him struggle to think of a few more food items, he tossed the list onto the nightstand to his right and blew out the candle.

            I sighed, greatly disappointed as he turned his back towards me. The smell of pumpkin spice filled the air and it comforted me as I struggled to keep myself warm under the thin blankets and try to hope that we could pick up our evening in the morning.

            “Shit! Shit! I forgot! Shit! I am so sorry!” He cried out as he pulled the covers off of me and hopped onto me.

            “What? What did you forget?” I asked, trying to sit up despite him holding my hips and neck down with his hands.

            “I forgot that we were supposed to celebrate moving in together! How could you let me forget? I’m so sorry, babe,” He smiled and kissed me. I smiled and kissed him back, glad that the night hadn’t been ruined.

            The heat in the room was stifling. The air conditioner was broken and the blankets had been kicked and thrown off the bed, as well as most of our clothes. It was too hot to even touch one another, too hot to talk, and too late in the evening to even try and find a solution to the draining heat. I laid in bed, sweating and feeling disgusted with myself. I always felt disgusting in the heat and it didn’t help now, especially when he kept saying how sexy I looked.

            I didn’t believe it, how could I? My hair was matted down in sweat, tangling together from my tossing it away from my neck and into a bun repeatedly through the night.  My skin was sweating and with sweat came dead skin just peeling off once the sweat dried. And then there was the smell! Sweat smells so bad.

            “Babe, you look beautiful. And I would show you how much I believe that—“

            “No! Too hot,” I groaned out, turning so that my back was too him. He laughed and stroked my back, causing my back to twitch a bit because it is my weak spot. He stopped laughing suddenly and left the bedroom, coming back with a tray of ice cubes.

            “I think I have a way to cool you down,” he whispered a bit mischievously as he ran an ice cube lightly across my neck.

            It was 3:15 am, and we were wrapped in the covers during another spring shower. I giggled as he made some sort of joke about how cute I was that he couldn’t believe how lucky he was to have me. I hugged him close to me as my head rested on his chest and kissed under his chin.

            “I love you,” I laughed. He said he loved me too and asked what time it was. I shrugged and asked him if he had to go to work in the morning. He shook his head and said that the only thing he had planned for tomorrow was to marry me.