The Morning After
I rarely sleep after I’ve been with someone. It’s hard enough sleeping somewhere unfamiliar (like the Holiday Inn in LA), but having Autumn next to me in bed throws everything off for me. She didn’t hog the bed, in fact, she barely moved throughout the night.
Autumn fell asleep easily on her stomach, her delicate back glowing from the bathroom light. Around 4am, I rolled quietly out of bed to turn off the light and felt my way in the darkness back to her. Her perfume was flowery and I could almost taste it when I tenderly kissed her neck before getting comfortable under the covers.
“What time is your flight at?” she whispered. The light peeked through the off-white curtains. I must have dosed off for a few hours.
“Three, I think. Supposed to be leaving the hotel by noon so I can check out and all catch a cab together to the airport.” I rolled over on my back and folded my arms behind head, letting out a tearing yawn.
“I could take you to the airport,” she offered. “If you want.”
I leaned over a kissed her forehead. “Are you sure you want to sit in LA traffic for me?”
“How embarrassing,” she said, changing the subject. “Today I’ll have to do the walk of shame!”
“Nobody will notice. You look great,” I said, getting up from bed to check the time on my phone. I had 3 text messages from the Hot Mess, so I tossed my phone in my open suitcase. “Do you want a shirt to wear?”
She pulled the covers up to her neck, as if suddenly embarrassed. “Yes, please!”
“Why are you being like that?” I asked, shuffling through my clothes for a clean shirt. “Like I said, you look great. No clothes needed.” I tossed her an extra sleep shirt I packed, a tattered gray George Washington University shirt with a stretched out neck. “Is this okay?”
She sat up, letting the covers fall into her lap, exposing her beautiful smooth skin before slipping on my shirt. It was clearly too big for her, the shoulders draping over her skin, but she looked cute anyway. “Did you go to George Washington for school?”
“Yeah,” I answered. “Majored in religion.”
“Are you religious?”
“No, not really,” I laughed. “Weird, I know.”
“How come religion then?”
I zippered up my hoodie and sat in the chair next to her side of the bed. “When I was younger, people would always say that gay people are going to hell. It said so in the Bible. I didn’t know anything about the Bible, so I could never argue back. I’m not particularly religious, but I spent such a long time worrying about whether or not I was going to hell just for being gay! So I decided to study religion academically. So I could have my own answers.”
“And? Do you have your own answers now?”
“Yeah, I guess. I will always remember this story my professor once told me. He said a guy asked two rabbis, ‘summarize everything in the Bible while standing on one foot.’ The first rabbi smacked the guy and sent him on his way, saying he was being ridiculous. The second rabbi, who’s supposed to be well known and I don’t remember his name, stood on one foot and said, ‘treat others how you want to be treated. The rest is just commentary.’” I explained. “Are you hungry? I think the hotel serves breakfast until 9:30am. I could go down and bring us back something to eat.”
“What a great story,” she sighed. “I can go with you to get food.”
“No, you stay here. Enjoy the bed and the television. Just tell me what you want to eat.”
She smiled, her eyes turning in to familiar rainbows. “Surprise me.”
The breakfast bar was less glamorous than the concierge advertised. Overweight families and old couples stood in line for stale-looking breakfast meats and neon yellow scrambled eggs. I grabbed two apples and a small box of cheerios, stuffed them into my pockets, and headed back to the room.
Autumn was still lying in bed when I returned. She was flipping through television channels, stopping at TBS when she recognized the Friends theme song. I crawled into bed next to her, dumping my loot in the space between us. “Sorry, breakfast here sucks. Would you care for an apple or an apple or perhaps some questionably old cheerios?”
“Apple, please.” She reached for the apple, examining it with her thumb before taking a bite. “Do you like this show? We can change it.”
“No no, I love Friends! Which character are you?” I asked.
She paused thoughtfully and took another bite. “Rachel, I think. Or maybe Monica, I’m not sure. What about you? I bet you’re Ross.”
“So I’ve been told, but I don’t see it.”
We spent the morning together in bed, reciting our favorite lines from Friends over a pretty pathetic breakfast. She didn’t seem to mind, though. After the Friends double episode, I finally dosed off with Autumn’s head on my chest.
I woke up with my mouth open and I feared I had been snoring. Autumn had fallen asleep as well with arm draped over my body and awoke when I kissed her head. “What time is it?” I whispered.
She checked her watch and dropped her arm back on my stomach. “11:17.”
I sat up. “Crap, I gotta pack and take a shower. Did you want to shower?”
“Yeah, is that okay?” she said, sitting up. “Is that weird?”
“What? No. There’s extra towels in the bathroom. The housekeeper left like five extra ones.”
She stood up, the bottom of my t-shirt clinging to her upper thighs. I told myself I should pack first, but I ended up following her into the shower.
With 8 minutes to spare before checkout, I skipped folding my clothes and just jammed everything into my suitcase, took out my cell phone and texted my co-workers that I’d just meet them at the airport, and zippered it shut.
“Thanks,” Autumn said, handing me back my t-shirt. “Your shirt smells nice. Like your cologne.”
“For a minute I thought you were going to tell me I smelled.” I was too lazy to unzip my suitcase, so I threw my t-shirt in my carry-on.
“Oh, walk of shame, here I come,” Autumn said, fixing her skirt in the mirror. She looked fantastic like the night before, even with her hair wet and messy. “I just want to say, I don’t normally do this. You know.”
“Neither am I!” I added. “So I apologize, I have no idea what the etiquette is for this kind of stuff?”
“I don’t know either!” she shrugged.
I pulled her in by her waist and kissed her with all the hope of a lovestruck teenager. It was 12:04, but I didn’t care.
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