Hope you all had an nice weekend! Here's a little something to finish it off.
The need to urinate woke Wheeler, the alcohol working its way out of his system. He ignored the urge for as long as he could. Spooning behind a naked Linka was far more appealing to him. She was still sleeping soundly. Wheeler noticed that another side effect, besides the full bladder, was a mild headache starting to form behind his eyes. Reluctantly, he slipped out from under the covers and headed to the bathroom.
After relieving himself, he looked around to see if Linka had any headache medicine in her toiletry bag. None that he could see. He decided to try her purse, feeling guilty for rummaging through her things, but figuring that after last night, they really did not have anything to hide from each other. Unfortunately, he did not see her purse anywhere. His last resort was the hotel store. Sure, he would pay twice as much for a small bottle of pills, but it was better than having a throbbing headache the rest of the day and he really didn't want to disturb her. He could also take advantage of the free breakfast the hotel offered and bring some food and coffee back for him and Linka.
Scribbling "BRB" and drawing a heart on the hotel stationary located on the nightstand, he placed the piece of paper on his pillow just in case she woke up before he returned.
Linka began to stir five minutes later but when she rolls over, she knocks Wheeler's note to the floor. When she senses that she's alone, she opens her eyes. There is no way Wheeler woke up before her.
Perhaps he is in the bathroom, she thinks to herself.
She notices that the door is slightly ajar, and listens for the shower, hoping that maybe she could surprise him. She hears nothing, so she gets out of bed and wraps the sheet around her as she begins her search for him.
"Wheeler?" She asks before pushing the bathroom door open.
There is no sign of him. Was it all a dream? She turns around to examine the room. Her clothes are on the floor, but none of his. The fact that she has never just taken off her clothes and slept naked, drunk or not, can mean only one thing: he left when he woke up, sober and regretting his infidelity.
She sighs and decides to brush her teeth and use the toilet while she's there, her bladder also needing emptied after a night of drinking.
She tries to recall the night before. The hours between now and her fifth drink at dinner are a bit fuzzy. The bridge. The kiss. The elevator. More kissing. Her room. More kissing. The bed. More kissing. Their words. More kissing. Their actions. Again and again…and again.
Maybe it was all a dream. There is no way that two people as drunk as we were could have managed so much…activity.
Such a vivid dream that she took all her clothes off? She could have sworn it was real. She told him she'd have said "yes" to him if he'd asked her to marry him. They both said "I love you." They agreed it wasn't the alcohol talking. He said he'd never let her go…but he's not here.
It must have been a dream.
She makes her way back to the bed, intending to put her pajamas on and go back to sleep, try and fend off the headache that she can feel starting. She retrieves her purse out of the lock box in the closet and shakes out a few pills, then heads to the kitchen for a glass of water. On her way there, she steps on something, not painful, but big enough to notice. She pulls the offending object off the bottom of her foot and holds it up to examine. A button…from Wheeler's shirt.
It was not a dream. He was here. We really did spend the night together. He really did leave.
Despite wanting to fall back to sleep to give the headache medicine a chance to work, all Linka can do is hug her pillow and cry. A knock on her door has her quickly wiping her cheeks and drying her eyes. She gets out of bed and opens the door.
"Wheeler?"
"Sorry I had to wake you. I wanted to let you sleep, but I screwed up and forgot to grab a room key before I went to get us some coffee and bagels."
She sighs and closes her eyes, relieved that he didn't go back to Stephanie.
"What's wrong?" He asks, setting down the drinks and bag of bagels. "Oh God, you're not regretting last night are you?"
He grasps her arms and holds her in front of him.
"Don't do this Linka, we talked about it, remember? It wasn't the alcohol, it's what we both wanted…what we've always wanted. We can't go back to the way things were. I won't pretend that last night didn't happen…that it didn't mean anything to you."
"Nyet, I do not want that either. Last night…it meant everything to me. It is just…when I woke up and you were not here…I got scared. I thought you left."
"I didn't want you to think that…that's why I left the note saying where I was."
"What note?"
"The one I left on the pillow next to you!"
Her blank look sends him over to the bed to prove it to her.
"Look, it's right…where'd it go?" He looks around and finds the piece of paper laying facedown on the floor. "Here."
He hands her the note and she reads it.
"Oh…will you stop leaving me notes and just wake me up! This is the second time I have not received a note you wrote! Fortunately this time did not result in losing each other," She half jokes as she reminds him of the note she didn't receive from him two years ago.
"I'm sorry," he says as he folds his arms around her. "I wanted nothing more than to stay in bed with you and have you wake up in my arms, I could feel a headache coming on though and wanted to get some aspirin before it got too bad. I tried looking around for some here, but didn't see any in the bathroom and couldn't find your purse."
"I had it locked up in the safe."
"I didn't want to bother you and I didn't want to be snooping through your things so I went to the gift shop to get some."
"How is your headache now?"
"I'm still waiting for the meds to kick in."
"Me too…come back to bed? Bring the bagels and coffee!"
Wheeler strips down to his boxers and joins her in bed. After eating, they set the remainder of their beverages on their nightstands and lay back down facing each other.
He puts his hand on her hip, pulls her close, and leans in to kiss her.
"This is how our day was supposed to start," he says.
"I like this."
"I know you wanted to go to the Eifel Tower, but I'm good with this."
"Da, me too," she says, stifling a yawn.
"Let's try and get some more sleep. We'll be glad we did later."
"Promise you will still be here when I wake up?"
"I promise. You'll never wake up alone ever again if I have my way."
"Good," she lifts her lips to his, puts her arm around his waist, and snuggles against him. "We can pretend this morning never happened and wake up to a new start."
"Sounds good to me."
He slips his arm under her head and drapes his leg over hers, holding her to him as he kisses the top of her head.
They fall back to sleep, content in each others' arms.
To Be Continued...