Beautiful Morning

I awoke in a sweat, my eyes slightly tearing up. A horrible nightmare.

I took one glance around the bed and immediately found her lying next to me. Still fast asleep, like always. No matter how strangely I moved through the bed, it never seemed to bother her even a bit.

She suddenly swung her arms around me.

“No, don’t go yet. Let’s stay in bed, please.” Her eyes were still closed, but her grip was tightening.

To loosen it, there was only one consistently working method. We had plans for today; did she already forget that?

No matter. I quickly leaned in, and she fell back down on the mattress. I pressed a kiss on her lips, hoping that it would work as well as always. After slipping out of her arms from below, I continued unfolding my plan.

I shifted my mouth to her ear, giving it a gentle nibble as I whispered into it.

“Good morning beautiful. Have you already forgotten about our plans today? It was your idea to go shopping for once in a while. So get up already, or I’ll shower without you.”

“Noo, don’t go. Wait for me,” she responded immediately, her eyes now wide open.

“I knew it would work. Get up, I’ve made a schedule for today and I fully intend on keeping to it.”

“And the shower?”

“Depends on how fast you can get out of bed.”

After finishing my sentence, she reached the bathroom even before me, leaving me stranded on the mattress.

“Come on, honey, the water’s getting cold if you don’t hurry. You know, it’s actually really expensive to keep the shower running for long periods of time.”

I chuckled slightly at her ridiculous proclamation while entering the bathroom.

“As if it makes that large a difference.”

“No, I’m serious. Last month my water bill was through the roof, and you spent all four weekends at my place.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not correlated at all, but whatever. Wait for me.”

It took a little more than an hour before we finally made it out of my apartment. But we were still on schedule.

“Come on Laura, hurry up. We’ll miss the next train otherwise.”

She suddenly hugged me from behind while we stepped out of the apartment.

“Do we really need to go shopping today? I know I said so last time, but clothes can wait, can they not?”

“Your clothes may be able to wait, but I’m not coming with you just to shop for clothes. There’s a signature event waiting for me.”

“Alright, I guess.” She let go, slightly disappointed.

We finally made it to our destination, briefly passing by the bookstore I frequented. There was a new book in the display window that seemed fitting.

“Come on,” Laura said, dragging me away from the door. “You said it yourself; there’s an event you wanted to attend, right? You can’t let yourself get teased into buying every book where two women interact on the cover, or we’ll never get there.

I’m sure you can get that later. Seriously, will you ever stop reading those?”

After seven more short interruptions, caused by both parties, I got to the venue. Waiting in line with Laura in tow, the time simply flew by.

After that order of business was done, she insisted on getting something to eat, despite her always somehow managing to be tight on money. I refused at first, but she kept on nagging until I gave in.

We both ordered a small snack to go before continuing to our next destination. My carefully crafted schedule had already been shattered to pieces by the time our order was processed.

The next few hours blew past like the wind, filled with every mundane couple’s activity Laura could find. Every time I tried refusing, she insisted upon doing it, since we “barely went out otherwise”.

It seemed like this entire day was just a setup for her to take me around town and unwind for a bit, which, admittedly worked.

When we finally arrived back at my apartment in the evening, arms filled with bags, I was exhausted. I quickly threw myself on my couch, Laura squeezing in behind me purely to spite me. She threw her arms around me and quickly dozed off. Unbelievable, that woman.

In her warm embrace I slowly fell asleep, too.

I faded back into conscience from a single question leaving Laura’s lips. She had just proposed. I couldn’t have felt any happier, yet I lost complete control of my body.

“Are you alright?” she asked, while I felt my body collapsing to the ground.

My mind felt like it was literally in the process of melting, before everything fully faded to black.

I found myself fully engulfed in the orb.