✔️ Midnight Sparks『 T.H. 』✧･ﾟ:*

Chapter 25: Here we are

Moon shining

Sun rising

You're the one I want to wake up to

- Niall Horan

- - -

When my eyes fluttered open the next morning, the room was spinning and my stomach churned.

The worst hangover of my life had officially begun.

I cracked open one eye to peek at Tom, and found him still sleeping soundly, his face smooshed into the pillow.

Then despite how awful I was feeling physically, a wave of calm and contentment washed over me.

I continued to lay there, trying to recall everything that had taken place the night before.

The rush of sensations. Skin on skin. Giggles. Utter bliss. And that feeling like I was finally home.

These bits and pieces of last night's memory drifted in, but they were interwoven with bewildering scenes of what must've been random dreams after I'd been taken over by sleep.

A particular scene flickered in my mind – in my darkened bedroom, I'd felt movements in the bed. Then a glimpse of Tom's figure as he slipped away from the room. Before he disappeared, I could hear him talking on the phone in a lowered voice.

"Yes, medical school... No, she doesn't know yet."

Was that what Tom had said?

It sounded so bizarre. It had to have been a dream.

Right?

"Is this really real?" Tom's sleep-tinged voice jolted me from my thoughts.

I groaned as he reached for my waist, pulling me close to him. "Hey, no making fun of the things I say when I was sloshed."

"Then you'd better distract me with something else," he murmured, his lips against my neck. Ticklish. Warm.

"Oh, wait!" I sat upright. "Speaking of distracting, this reminds me.."

"Hmm?" he asked, stifling a yawn.

I gingerly swung my legs from the bed onto the cold floor – my hungover state demanded slow and steady movements – picked up Tom's sweatshirt, pulled it over my head, and then tip-toed over to the closet. A few seconds later, I returned to bed with a square navy box tied with a white ribbon.

"Merry Christmas, Trev," I said shyly. "I totally spazzed and forgot to give it to you last night."

"Oh wow, thanks, Ali. I love opening up presents," he announced with a bright smile.

"It's just a little something, nothing extravagant," I warned him, biting my lower lip nervously.

Tom pulled the ribbon apart, and his smile grew bigger when he opened the box. "Hey, look at that. A new cap. Brilliant!"

He immediately tried on the cap – black, with Under Armour's white logo stitched at the front. "How do I look?"

"Perfect," I murmured, wondering for the millionth time how I'd gotten through 22 years of my life without knowing those crinkly brown eyes, easy smile, soft lips... Without knowing how incomplete my heart had been.

"Glad you approve," he replied, grinning and pulling me in for a quick kiss.

Breathless from even the briefest contact between our lips, I shook my head and shyly explained, "I think the cap will come in handy – when you're out and about and you need to go on stealth mode."