Pt. 5
Finally! I paged him two and a half minutes ago. I pick up the phone and say, “I have to have her.”
“What?”
“I have to have her,” I repeat. I should have probably started with something like…I don’t know, hello, but I just dropped Donna off at physical therapy and I’ve got to talk about this. Now.
“Who?”
“Who? Who do you think, who?”
“Donna?”
“Of course, Donna.” Who else?
“How is she?”
“She’s amazing,” I say like some fourteen year-old in love.
“No, I mean, how is she? After the accident?”
”Oh, she’s doing well. She hates physical therapy, of course, but that’s not why I called.”
“You have to have her.”
“I have to have her. I…we…we slept together last night.”
“What? This is…wow! Congratulations, I mean…wow!”
“Calm down, Sam. We slept together, we didn’t have sex.”
“What?”
“We fell asleep watching a movie.”
“Oh. Well that’s…not nearly as exciting.”
“Yes it is, Sam. You have no idea. When I woke up this morning, holding her, it was the most amazing moment of my life.”
“You were holding her?”
“We were holding each other. I can’t describe it in words. It was…everything.”
“And now you have to have her.”
“Yes. I mean, I’ve always wanted her, loved her; you know that. But now it’s different. It’s like…I don’t know how I ever woke up before. Like I can’t imagine ever waking up again, not without her. It’s like I breathed last night for the first time, and now I feel like I’m suffocating without her. Oh God, I sound like a buffoon.”
He chuckles at me. “No, you sound like a man in love.”
“I’ve been in love for years, why do I just sound like this now? Am I sick?”
“Do you have a fever?”
“Come on, this is serious.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t do serious at five o’clock in the morning. I do confused at five o’clock in the morning.”
“I need you to focus; I’m worried.”
“About what?”
“I’m worried that when I see her next, I’m going to…I don’t know. Confess my love, drop to one knee, rip her clothes off and…you know.
“Would that be so bad?”
“Well, we’ll be in the White House the next time I see her, so…yeah. I don’t think it’s the place for sex.”
“I meant the confession part, not the ripping off her clothes part.”
“Right, of course. Still, confess my love at work?”
“Well, it’s certainly not ideal, but if it’s going to be one of the three options you listed above, that’s the one I’d go with.”
“You’re supposed to be helping!”
“You’re supposed to be calling after 7am my time. We have a deal.”
“This is an emergency!”
“This is not a 9-1-1 emergency. You 9-1-1’d me.”
“It is!”
“No, this is at best a 7-1-1 emergency. We’ve been through this before.”
“Seven? It’s at least an eight.”
“8-1-1 is a work or legal emergency. Personal emergencies are 7-1-1.”
“I know the rules, Sam.”
“Yet, you 9-1-1’d me.”
“Yes, because….”
“Yes?”
“Because…”
“You’re stalling.”
“You’re interrupting. Because…I could get fired for sleeping with my assistant, and CJ could kill me. That’s physical danger; 9-1-1.”
“You’re pushing the envelope there.”
“That’s what I do, now help.”
**********
It’s a glorious day! I get out of physical therapy where I pay a woman, or rather my worker’s compensation insurance pays a woman, who forces me to do what she calls exercises for my leg that hurt like hell. Margaret picks me up from the torture office in her car that has no air-conditioning, just what you want in mid-August, announcing that she needs to stop at the drugstore for tampons, where we ran into Cliff Calley. While walking away from him, after politely but uncomfortably answering questions about the accident, my walker gets caught on a rubber band of all things and begins working like most grocery store shopping carts. In the process of trying to get it unstuck, I run into a display of at least 500 Hershey’s candy bars, all of which fall on the floor. The 16 year old behind the counter feels the need to do a loud speaker price check on the tampons, which I’m sure is just a way for he and his pre-adolescent friends to get their kicks. We finally leave there and pick up lunch on the way back to the office, where I find that I’d been given poppy seed dressing instead of light Italian for my salad. Have you ever had poppy seed dressing? It’s not delicious.
But like I said, it’s a glorious day! Why, you ask? How could a person who’s had the day described above be in the mood I’m in? One simple reason really: I woke up in the arms of Joshua Lyman. The earth could quake, the oceans could dry up, a satellite could fall from the sky, and it would still be a glorious day; because for the first time in my life, I woke up in the arms of the man I’m destined to spend my life with.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. We’ve known each other for seven years, traveled extensively together, slept in planes, busses, trains, and automobiles; we’ve never woken up in each other’s arms? No, we haven’t. Occasionally, I’ve woken up on his shoulder, or vice-versa, but never before have we slept wrapped up in each other the way we did last night. Oh, that’s not what you were thinking? You were thinking we had sex, weren’t you? Pervert. I am injured. I am in no shape to have sex. At least not amazing, mind-blowing, best sex of my life sex. And with Josh, that’s the kind of sex I want. Please don’t point out that Josh and I aren’t dating and therefore I have no reason to think we’re going to have sex; you’ll just blow my mood.
I’m telling you, waking up in his arms was like coming home. It was by far the most intimate thing I’ve done in my life, and we were both fully clothed. When I opened my eyes this morning, I was afraid to move. I didn’t want to wake him and end the moment, so I just lay there, memorizing the very feel of it. My head was just under his chin, in that area between head and chest, my lips actually grazing his Adam’s apple. We were on our sides, chests touching. I could literally feel him breathing. His left arm was around my waist, keeping me close, his hand resting on my lower back where my shirt had ridden up a bit. My right arm was resting was resting on his hip. His right arm came from underneath the one pillow we were sharing to the back of my head and his fingers were in my hair. His left leg was out in front of him a little bit, and my right leg was draped over both of his at the thigh. I can honestly say that I’ve never been as close to someone as I was at that moment. I’ve never felt that safe or that loved in my life. The way we fit together was absolutely incredible.
I’m not sure how long I was awake before I felt him stirring. I’m guessing it was only a matter of minutes, but it could have been hours and I wouldn’t have noticed. I could tell the moment he was awake, the moment he realized where he was and who was in his arms, because he stiffened for just a second. But then, he relaxed again; his fingers that were in my hair started massaging my scalp and he pulled me even closer with his other arm. That’s when I knew that it wasn’t going to be weird or awkward, and I made a sigh of contentment and nuzzled into his neck a little more.
Neither one of us spoke for several minutes; we just lay there holding one another. Finally, we knew we had to get up and get ready for work, so we slowly peeled away from each other. And when we did, I felt almost lost; like my body had never been apart from his and it didn’t know quite how to handle it.
We got ready for work while discussing the arts in education bill, as if it were any other morning. It was nice…just the two of us…doing what we do.
**********
“Hey, how was it?”
“It was good.” It was perfect. It was life altering. It was amazing.
“Any new exercises to work on?”
“No, she tortured me the same way today that she does everyday,” I say with a huge grin. I can’t stop smiling. I just can’t.
“Well, you seem to be in a good mood, considering.” I’m not going to say anything about it, but he can’t stop smiling either. That’s a good sign.
“I’m in a wonderful mood, actually.”
“Really?”
“Yes,” I say matter-of-factly.
“I’m in a really good mood too.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I…slept well last night.”
I’m smiling even bigger now. How can that be? “Well, a good night’s sleep can do wonders for your outlook.”
“Yes, it can. So, are we still on for Chinese tonight?”
I should pretend to contemplate this for a few seconds, but instead I blurt out, “I’m looking forward to it.”
“Me too.”
“Maybe we should stop and pick up a movie on our way home.” I tried to act nonchalant, but I don’t think it worked.
“That sounds like a great idea.” He turns and heads into his office. “Oh, I talked to Sam earlier.”
“Really, what’d he have to say.”?
“Oh…all kinds of stuff.”