A quick note for all of you not familiar with The Last Five Years. This story is going to be told in an unusual format, with Lilith starting at the end of their relationship and working backwards, and Frasier starting at the beginning and working forwards. That's essentially all you need to know, so hopefully the rest of this will be pretty clear. Thanks for the reviews and enjoy.
Chapter 2
When I woke up this morning, she was still there. I thought it had all been a dream, after all, didn't she hate me? I'd thought she did, as I'd thought I hated her. We'd met at a chemical dependency seminar, we'd had a disasterous first date, and I'd thought I would be content never to see her again. But then she showed up as my debate partner on Psychology This Week, and her hair was down and she looked beautiful and I'd been reduced to a stammering schoolboy.
I remembered how I'd carried her out of Cheers, and how we'd barely paused for breath since we got back to my place, our clothes scattering across the living room and up the stairs. I could hear her timid voice say something, and I'd stopped and looked at her in concern. "What?"
She blushed. "I said it's my first time."
"Oh." What was I supposed to say to that? "Well, if you don't want to--"
"Frasier--"
"I know, it's okay, you don't have to explain to me, I understand--"
"Frasier." I stopped and looked back at her. "I still want to do this."
Now this I hadn't expected. I hadn't been with many women since Diane dumped me, and I was used to being rejected with every possible excuse that ever existed. And now I was here with a beautiful woman, who'd never been with anyone else, and she wanted to be with *me*?
She fell asleep when it was over, her arms around my waist, her head fitting perfectly into that space between my neck and my shoulder. I remember looking down at her and realizing that for the first time in a long time, I was happy.
And now she was here, curled up beside me, looking beautifully trusting and innocent in the early morning light that fell across the bed. I gently smoothed her hair, and dropped a kiss on her forehead, and those beautiful dark eyes fluttered open.
"Hi," I smiled. "Sleep well?"
She looked startled for a moment, then that luminous smile that I remembered so well from last night crept across her face. "Hey there, stranger."
We make breakfast together. She makes the toast, and I make everything else. Laughing, she informs me she's not much of a cook. The toast is a little on the burnt side, but I put extra jelly on it and assure her it's delicious. She smiles shyly at me. I feel like the luckiest man in the world.
Then we have to go to work, but I see her again that night. And the next. I've never felt this way about anyone before. I'm happy, and I can't believe that things won't be like this forever.
