Garth watched Bekah as she watched the movie. It wasn't really a movie he was interested in, but she had wanted to watch it for a while. It was one of those rare moments where her girlish instincts kicked in and she had the urge to watch something like this or eat chocolate or something. She shifted her head from his shoulder to his lap, with her arms crossed under her head and her head resting on them. Garth looked down at her, running his eyes over her body. He shifted his gaze back to her curls, which were everywhere. He lifted his right arm and put his hand on Bekah's crown of curls and moved it down over her head, gathering the curls as he did so, placing them all in one spot. He repeated the petting action, grinning to himself when she started making her noise that was in between a coo, like that of a pigeon, and a purr. He felt her relax further than she already had been, and he could practically see her eyes half-closing in the simple pleasure she got from the slight pulling of her hair.
Her slight weight and warmth on his thighs were starting to heat him from the inside out, so he turned his attention to the movie instead, while still petting her soft hair. The movie was in the middle of a tender moment between the two characters. The main guy was telling the girl how much she meant to him, and at the end he mentioned something about her being pretty. Garth wasn't paying too much attention to the movie though.
Garth was surprised when he felt Bekah tense up and blow raspberries at the T.V. It was almost like she was mad at how the guy was acting. Garth paid more attention to the movie. The guy seemed to be doing a good job of being sentimental and romantic. He didn't understand.
"What went wrong?" He asked the girl on his thighs. Bekah turned her head to look up at him. Her cheeks were blown out in an almost pouty kind of look.
"He called her hot," She started to explain. Garth still couldn't understand. Wasn't that a good thing? He asked her this, and she continued. "Well yeah, it's flattering and all, but it was bad timing. He should have said-" She cut herself off. "You really don't know?" She asked him. She seemed to be surprised. He shook his head. "Oh. I would have thought you would have known. You're usually really good at telling a girl what exactly she wants to hear, and meaning it," Bekah said, smiling softly. "But, what he should have said was 'beautiful' instead of 'hot', Every girl wants to hear it at some point in their life, and in the movie that would have been the perfect moment. There's even a saying that says something like 'Find a man who calls you beautiful instead of hot because it means he truly cares for you' or something like that." Bekah explained further, watching his face, reading it as he slowly began to understand. Once she was satisfied that he understood it deeply enough, she turned back to the movie, and started to idly trace nothing on his legs. That is, she was making no particular shapes, but was moving her fingers over his lap.
Garth soaked in the sensation of her fingers and started petting her again. He stared at the T.V. but was going through his memories, trying to remember if he had called Bekah beautiful. Oddly, of all the compliments he had given her, he couldn't remember using that specific word. He racked his brain, but there was still nothing.
"Hey," He addressed Bekah softly. She turned her head toward him again, looking up at him with a curious expression and a question in her eyes.
"Hmmm?" She asked wordlessly. The simple sound brought warm memories of exchanging the noise as they kissed, but he shouldn't focus on those memories at the moment.
"Have I ever called you beautiful?" He asked. He watched Bekah's face as she sifted through her own memories. It went from concentrated on her task to a softness and her eyes glistened in the dim light, then back to determined, then finally to a scrunched-up expression that suggested that she couldn't find anything in her memory. She shook her head, re-misplacing her curls.
"I don't remember it if you did…" She trailed off. Garth raised an eyebrow at himself. He hadn't known, but that was no excuse.
"Well you are," He said, and scooped Bekah up in his arms and drew her to his face, planting a kiss on her lips that rivaled the sweetness of honey. She returned it with the same sweetness.
As soon as the kiss ended, their lips trying to stick together, Bekah pressed her lips together and thanked him and threw her arms around his neck and kissed him again, pressing her soft lips to his once more, saying without words how much she appreciated that one compliment.
Regretfully, after the kiss was broken apart again, Bekah sighed and went back to watching the movie, this time resting her head on his chest with an arm on his shoulder and the other bent across his abdomen and up to his chest. Garth kissed her on the top of her head tenderly, wrapped his strong arms around her, savoring her warmth and softness against him and went back to enjoying the movie with her.