The Last Night

Breathing in deeply, Eddus inhaled the scent of Abbi’s hair. Facing him, she lay sleeping, her hand resting gently against his chest. Her head was slightly tucked, and her forehead just touched his chin.

They’d gone to bed in the usual manner that night, as they had for the past two weeks. Eddus walked Abbi to the spare bedroom. They’d embraced, and she’d kissed his cheek before they said their good nights. After her door closed, Eddus left the passage light on and went to his room, where he’d undressed, donned a pair of running shorts, and got into his bed.

He didn’t close his eyes to sleep, but watched the bedroom door. He was waiting, as had become his custom each night, for it to open and Abbi to come in and climb into bed with him, where they would fall asleep side by side.

After a few minutes, he smiled as he saw a shadow move along the crack of light at the bottom of the door, pausing for a moment. Every night, she would hesitate outside before silently pushing it open and entering.

Tonight was no different, though she did stop outside of the bedroom for slightly longer than she had on previous nights. The door opened, and she entered, pausing again for a moment before walking to the bedside.

Eddus watched her in the dim light coming from the open door. She stopped in the same place on the floor that she had every night. He lifted the bedcover for her, but she remained still, looking down at him. He slowly lowered the sheet’s edge. Unable to see her face well in the shadowy light, he wasn’t sure if something was wrong.

After another few moments, she moved. She reached down with both hands, grasping the hem of the oversized t-shirt she wore every night. She raised her arms, pulling it over her head, then let it drop to the floor beside her, and stood motionless for another moment.

Eddus watched from where he lay, not moving and uncertain what to do or say. In the dim light, he could only see the bare skin of the right hand side of her body.

Abbi leaned forward and lifted the bed sheet. Getting into the bed with Eddus, she moved as close to him as she could and kissed him softly. Without a word, she straddled him before he had the chance to try and move away.

In the soft light, Eddus’ gaze rested on the top of Abbi’s head. Her long hair, which she untied at night, fell behind her shoulder onto the pillow on which she lay. Every so often, he could feel her breath against his skin. Other than the movement of his thumb, softly caressing the skin of her hip, where his hand rested, he tried not to move at all so that he did not wake her.

His mind was a blend of conflicting feelings and emotions, as the memories of the night’s events played in his mind like a movie on loop. The emotion he felt was guilt, and the guilt he felt was for the happiness he could not help feeling.

Though he’d done nothing to stop her, he had never quite become fully comfortable with Abbi coming to his bed every night, even though he made room for her and, on many nights, like this one, even lifted the cover for her to join him. It wasn’t as though he didn’t want to be with her. It wasn’t as though he didn’t want to be with her.

He felt an undeniable attraction and was both thrilled and amazed that she seemed to genuinely enjoy his company. He would have been more than happy for her nightly company if only he could get over the fact that she wouldn’t talk about her age.

He knew that between them, as consenting adults, there was nothing wrong with their interactions. Although she would not tell him her age, she had assured him it was not an issue.

He’d wrestled with the emotion more than once, starting with the very night he’d met her, and allowed her to invite herself along with him to the pub, and then again when deciding to begin her portrait. Not that he’d felt it was wrong to draw her. He had, in fact, drawn many a young person, even done child portraits, though they’d all been commission work.

The feeling of fault had come when he thought of Abbi, not simply as the subject of the piece of art he worked on, but as the young woman he’d met after the theatre. He could not keep himself from recalling that meeting; the girl who had, by all accounts, made him feel extremely uneasy, as well as her questions, that he couldn’t seem not to answer.

Everything he knew and felt told him that she was just someone he’d met, and yet, every time he had put pastel to canvas, he would think about that night and wish that they could meet again.

Then, by some twist of fate, or perhaps coincidence, his hopes were realized that day two weeks earlier in the park. As strange as the events of that day were, Eddus felt an exhilaration as though he’d reunited with a longtime friend. Although he knew nothing about her, and even less after her revelation of the pixie ring, he couldn’t help but want to prolong their time together.

For two weeks, there was a nagging, small voice at the back of his mind. Each day they spent wandering the different parts of the city, a new place each day. Each night after the first, he welcomed the young woman, or pixie, as she’d told him she was, into his bed, and he fell asleep with her at his side. All the while, the inner voice persisted, though more and more muffled as the days went by.

Now here he lay next to her, his hand resting on the bare skin of her naked body, while the voice in his head reprimanded him. He did his best to silence it. He would not, could not, let it convince him that the night’s events were wrong.

He only wished that it were not the night before she would be leaving to return to her world. She’d only told him shortly before they got ready to go to bed. He didn’t want whatever this was to end.

While not wanting to think of her leaving, Eddus could not keep himself from imagining her disappearing into the ring of mushrooms as she stepped into it. He wondered if she would let him be there to see her go into the pixie ring.

Exhaling a long sigh, he kissed Abbi’s forehead. As much as he didn’t like the thought of her leaving, he couldn’t help but be curious. Just after she’d told him that she was a pixie, she told him that she did have wings. What did she look like with wings? Were they suddenly there when she stepped into the ring? How...?

He couldn’t imagine it. Earlier, as she’d sat atop him, he’d run his fingertips from the small of her back, up her spine. There was no trace or hint of anything there but her smooth, bare skin.

Closing his eyes, he once again inhaled the fragrance of Abbi’s hair, remembering...

As he drifted off, he could again see her face above his as she’d gotten into the bed, climbing on top of him. Her eyes shone brightly in the soft light as she leaned forward to kiss him.