The beginning of everything else

Bad at Basketball

As the plane leaves the runway, I settle into my favorite place on earth. I have the window seat, and as I watch the buildings in LA rush past the window and turn into tiny specks I snuggle into Noah's chest, his arms are wrapped around me pulling me in, and his chin is resting on top of my head. He's so strong and warm and he smells soooo good that I could drift off to sleep right here.

It's been a busy month as we both returned to work after New Year, Noah's new job is going incredibly well, but it does mean some long days that clash with my work pattern. He's enjoying his job, and his new boss is impressed and I couldn't be prouder of him, but I'm also very thankful for the two weeks we had with him back in LA before his work schedule kicked in. There have been times when we have both felt like we haven't spent much time together, only being in the same place around bedtime or before 7 am, but we've both agreed that these are the years for building our careers so that one day, when we are older, we'll be able to dial it back.

It's crazy to think that technically we are only 2 months in, although of course with 24 years of history, and I've never felt so confident and so sure about what I want, and who I want that to be with. We've bickered of course, this is me and Noah, it's something we have done all of our lives, but it is becoming abundantly clear that as long as we talk, everything will be alright. The closest we came to a real argument was one evening after I got out of the shower to find Noah's clothes scrunched up in a pile right next to the laundry basket - and I mean right next to it. It had been the third night in a row where he was really late home, and my plan had been to spend the evening in bed, wrapped up in his arms, not picking up his clothes from the bedroom floor. 

We're learning each other's trigger points, the things that make an argument escalate far more quickly than they should, and we're also learning the quickest way to defuse it. Mine are when I'm tired or hungry, it really is as straightforward as that, whereas Noah hates to feel out of control, which has a family resemblance to his brother. Whereas Lee just hates change in its entirety, Noah is fine as long as he feels like he has a plan. Tell Lee you are changing plans on him, he'll be grumpy for the rest of the day, give Noah 15 minutes to wrap his head around it and he'll be fine, but don't and he'll pout like Lee.

I had missed him the last 3 nights, vaguely waking in the small hours when I felt his weight dip the bed, and I was tired because apparently after a few weeks of living together I couldn't sleep properly without his arm holding me against his chest. I was ridiculous, irrational even given that it would take 30 seconds to pick those clothes up off the floor, and technically he hadn't not put them away yet, he was still in the bathroom brushing his teeth. Still, that bit of my brain had fired straight up and I remember standing in the middle of the bedroom, still wrapped in my towel as he switched off the en suite light and started to re-enter the room.

"You know they don't get clean near the laundry basket?" I ask, staring at him, eyes wide, pointing at the pile with my whole hand like a game show host, showing off the world's shittest prize.

"I feel like that question's rhetorical" he smirks leaning against the bathroom door frame, then pointing to the bath towel wrapped around his waist "but I was gonna pick it up when I had done with this".

He's trying to distract me, I know his plan, and if I wasn't so committed to being argumentative, I'm pretty sure it would work. You see you defuse Noah Flynn with gentle words and reassurance, but with me, it's all about breaking the chain of thought. If you can get me to feel some other emotion the irritation dissipates quickly. It's a tactic Lee learned long ago and he used humor to calm me down, and whilst Noah will also calm me by making me laugh, he has another very unique distraction that usually does the trick. He'd gotten out of the shower, just before I got in, and his torso is still slightly glistening with droplets of water running from his hair and beading across his skin.