Stephen lay awake in his bed, thinking, contemplating the days prospects, his lunch hour and his eventual departure from work. He doesn't want to think of leaving work just yet. It hasn't even started yet. Annah lay beside him with her eyes slightly flickering but closed tight like a vault door. He remembers beautiful times, times on beaches, times on huge American bridges, them looking over at everything, observing their lives and looking back in prospect, at a future that will bring happiness.
Annah is dreaming, dreaming of a past time, slightly distorted but she remembers it was last winter, in January. Stephen lay in the snow with his green, almost emerald-like eyes glistening far more beautiful than they ever have before. She remembers well. Clear as day. They hardly knew each other then yet they lay and they laughed and they would kiss and nothing would seem to disturb that. No awkwardness or people they knew walking past, glaring at how close they are. No imagining of themselves and how they look, nothing like that. They were two young lovers with the world ahead of them. This moment seems almost frozen in her mind. For a moment she believes her relationship with Stephen has relapsed to the scenario in her mind, but as she wakes she realises how close they have grown through the year. She observes her fiancees dark pupils, his eyes blackened in the darkness, his eyes only visible by the glaze of wet.
Stephen wakes as soon as the clock goes off at seven. He begins work at 8 but likes to have an hour or so in order to get ready properly. He likes to have a shower, to be able to do his hair, to have breakfast and then to be able to get the car out of the snow and then to be able to drive off to work. His whole morning a flashback of the morning before, a repetitive occurence each morning. The only difference is Annah, her hair, her attitude, her kisses. He tries to look at a life without her and imagines nothing but lonesome nights, crying sessions and the comtempletion of suicide in the evenings. He shakes this thought off and lifts himself up. Stephen unaware of Annah's wakeness, he jolts when her hand strokes the curvature of his spine, it sends a tingle of pleasure through this whole body. The feeling reminds him of a small electric shock. She pulls him downwards and rests her hands on his chest, leaving her lips perched against his right arm, wrapping closer.
Stephen lay in the bed with her breathe against his bicep. He is surprised at how fresh it actually is, becoming paranoid of his own breath he attempts to shuffle out of the bed, but fails as she grips his ribcage. "Dont go baby, I need you," she whispers. "I'm not going baby, I wanna get to the bathroom", "Baby just pee here, it'll keep us warm", Oh how I love her humour, thought Stephen as he attempts once again to escape the bed, she pulls him back. "Do you love me?" She asks him, rather innocently. "Do you love me?" He questions back. "Yes," she responds. Stephen knocked by the speed at which she gave an answer, he lay in the silence until he could think of something to say. " Love is complex, it's hard to find, I've only fallen in love once, and I will only ever fall in love once." She blushes and kisses his lips and as she does he slips out from under the covers, still following her mouth with his until he is stood up. They break and Stephen walks towards the bathroom to have a shower.
In the shower Stephen remembers meeting Annah. It was at a party when they were both 18, they talked for a while, before making out and going home with each other were they had reckless sex. He remembers touching her skin, places untouchable by others, that morning he woke to her naked flesh unaware to what had actually gone on. She woke and kissed his cheek. She gave him her number and he went on his way, totally unaware of their future. He rang her up that night. "Hey, it's Stephen you know from-"
"Oh hey"
"Erm, I wondered whether you wanted to meet up" Stephen spluttered nervously.
There was a slight crackle on the other end, "Yeah, what day were you thinking?"
"Well, erm, next Saturday maybe, I dunno."
A slight pause. "Erm yeah that's good,"
"Right okay yeah, okay seeya on Saturday."
On the Saturday they met each other on a little street, Stephen had to get the bus there and Annah simply had to walk a few steps out the door.
