I made a mental note to soak up all of the things I missed when he was gone: touching him, hearing his heartbeat, smelling his cologne, feeling his heavy arm draped across my waist, hearing his heavy breathing as he battled jet lag, watching his eyebrows furrow as he thought or listened intently. Those were all things I couldn't have while he was away. Oh, and the sex? Well, that goes without saying.
I couldn't let him lay there, glistening like Edward Cullen in the sunlight (we were both in need of some serious UV rays), and not touch him. I decided to start absorbing everything while I could.
I curled up against him and lay my cheek on his chest. I held my breath and listened. His heartbeat was strong and steady. I could feel it thump lightly against my ear. I tapped softly to the beat of it with my finger on his chest. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. That heartbeat was his but it was also mine. All mine for the next 11 days.
I felt the change in his breathing as my face rose with his chest. He stretched with both arms out and arched his back. I clung to him like those little furry Koalas that used to hang from my pediatrician's stethoscope. He looked down at me and smiled, remembering where he was. Then those big, strong, gorilla arms wrapped around me tightly.
"I love waking up next to you," he said above my head.
"I love falling asleep with you," I said into his chest.
"Can we stay in bed all morning?" he asked, and then kissed the top of my head.
My cheek smushed against him as I smiled. "There's nothing I'd rather do."
Every time Cayden came to visit, it seemed like things went non stop. There were so many people I wanted him to meet. We'd do a couples date one night, we'd be out with the family another night, happy hour with coworkers another night. We always had to make a conscious effort to make nights for just us. But that Saturday was our first Saturday we'd have all to ourselves. No plans. No outings. No obligations.
Cuddling led to spooning, which led to a new positon that surprisingly wasn't included in my new coffee table book, 100 Hot Sex Positions by Tracey Cox. I might have to email her with some sketches and tell her to add it. But I don't even know if I could describe it. I was half on my side, half on my back, with my knees together and legs lifted, wrapped around Cayden's left side. I don't even know how we ended up there, but it fit. Fit quite nicely.
A couple hours later, we were waking up again, blinking against the sun. I felt better rested than I'd ever felt before. I had no idea what time it was, but my growling stomach told me it was breakfast time. Around 12:30 we pulled ourselves out of bed and padded into the kitchen in our pajamas (well, Cayden changed into a t-shirt and lounging pants). The house was quiet. Terry and Randy must have left for the day and Joyce and Joey were still in Oklahoma.
I started a pot of coffee and Cayden put two crumpets in the toaster oven. He kissed my neck while I stirred the pancake mix. He leaned against the counter and watched me closely while I flipped our fried eggs, trying my hardest not to break the yokes.
I wanted to live like that every day, but at the same time, I didn't want to get used to it so I wouldn't miss it. My brain couldn't decide if it wanted to absorb him or push him away. My heart won out with absorption.
We carried our plates and mugs to the coffee table and sat down next to each other on the brown, suede couch. I flipped on the massive 55-inch TV and pulled up the latest recording of Modern Family. Neither of us had seen it.
Cayden and I were hooked on the same shows: Cayden turned me on to Rules of Engagement and I got Cayden hooked on How I Met Your Mother, Modern Family, and Brothers and Sisters. Our emails back and forth to each other would always include a reaction to that night's sitcom, followed by, "I can't wait until we can watch our shows together."
So when our stomachs were stuffed with breakfast, we curled up on the couch and did just that. We even threw in a few episodes of a new show, Happy Endings, because we ran out of recorded shows to watch.
"This is the perfect morning," Cayden said. "Having a lie in, having breakfast together, just cuddling up to you and watching our shows. It's just perfect." ["having a lie in" = sleeping in]
Just then, the garage door opened and Terry and Randy came home.
"Do you mind if we take over the living room to watch a movie?" Terry asked, as she started inflating the queen sized air mattress in front of the TV. "Randy has to go back to Houston soon, so we thought we'd watch a movie first."
I was bummed to give up my perfect afternoon and my quiet living room, but I it was her house, too. And, granted, it was her TV. I sympathized with her because of the long-distance thing. I knew a tear-filled goodbye was on its way, so they at least deserved a movie date first.
That's when I realized Cayden and I had never gone on a one-on-one movie date. How pathetic was that?
"Babe. Let's go one a movie date!" I was nearly giddy with the idea.
"Wow. Will this be our first movie date? Kind of like a real couple? With popcorn and everything?"
"Not just popcorn," I said. "Butter popcorn. Movie theater butter popcorn." (I know that shit is awful for you, but why is it so damn good?)
Cayden checked movie times while I took a shower. We had two options: Arthur at 6:15 or Water for Elephants at 8:20.
When I got out of the shower, I had a text on my phone.
We hanging out this weekend, or what?
It was from my good friend, Brady. No, not THAT Brady. A different Brady, an old high school friend. He'd been in Korea for the past two years in the Army and he was finally back. He'd just moved down to Fort Hood and he was in Keller for the weekend. I completely forgot I'd made plans with Shanna and Ronnie to see him. He wanted to meet Cayden, the man who turned me into such a ooey-gooey romantic, because he still didn't believe it himself.
"Crap," I said to Cayden. "Can we see the earlier movie and then maybe meet up with Brady, Shanna, and Ronnie later? I totally forgot I was supposed to see them."
"That's OK, at least we had the perfect morning and afternoon, and we'll get to go on our first movie date first."
Arthur was exactly what we expected: somewhat funny, somewhat lame. But it was perfect, because it was our first movie date. We ate greasy, buttery popcorn and shared a Mr. Pibb. I was in heaven.
We walked outside, hand in hand, and stopped dead in our tracks when we saw the sky. It was layered with towering storm clouds. Everything was gray and green with a slight hint of orange. The wind blew so hard the trees bent nearly in half. My phone buzzed and I saw a text from Shanna.
This weather looks nasty. We better wait this out, or maybe reschedule?
I texted Brady.
Nasty weather over here. Sorry, but it doesn't look like we'll make it out tonight! Raincheck, love ya!
I silently thanked the storm gods. Not that I didn't want to see Brady or Shanna and Ronnie or anything, but being home and cuddled up with Cayden during a thunderstorm was exactly what I wanted.
Lucky for us, the inflatable air mattress was still set up in the living room and the only thing good on TV was Paranormal Ghost Stories. We cuddled under the blankets and thunder shook the world around us.
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