Field of Daisies

Chapter 10

I can feel my eyes growing heavy during the Obama video, so I excuse myself and clean up our dishes and then myself. It's sad to me that being able to move freely throughout this glorified studio is kind of thrilling. I reemerge from the bathroom in a loose gray t-shirt with "Monahan" on the upper right chest and navy joggers that are a bit short. I spot the makeshift bed Theodore has set up for himself. What a gentleman he is. But he's also right, it's only fair, isn't it?

"Are you going to bed too?" I ask him. How clever of me, not.

He replies, "We have a big day tomorrow, so I might as well."

I watch him walk into the bathroom and make myself comfortable in the bed. It's comfortable enough, not that I can complain either way. The sheets are silky, but the quilt is thinner than I would like for the fall weather. I made a bad decision to wash my hair before going to bed. Maybe we could turn up the heat?

When Theodore comes out in flannel pants and a matching gray shirt to the one I'm in, I roll over and watch him crawl into his blankets. I manage to hold back a comment about matching. I should not stare, it's rude, I know.

Before I turn off the light, I get up and go back into the kitchen to check for a thermostat, or a heater, or something helpful, while hugging my arms around myself for warmth. Theodore gets up and joins me, curious as to what I'm doing. Catching on, he comes up with nothing helpful. Theodore is using the extra blankets on the floor so it appears we'll have to do with what we've got.

We go back to our respective sleeping arrangements. "Just a friendly suggestion, Theodore. Do a little bit more research before booking a room next time." I smile at him and turn off the light beside the bed, hoping I didn't seem too antagonizing.

He turns off the overhead light and walks over to his bed. "Noted, Emma. But I will say, I'd like to see what you could have come up with given all of the leaf-peepers booking up the good locations. Goodnight." I can hear the returned smile behind his words, and it makes me feel a little bit warmer.

"Goodnight," I reply, curling up.

The heat quickly leaves me, and I turn over several times without managing to fall asleep. Maybe if I put on more clothes... I pull on a pair of socks and a sweatshirt, keeping the hood up, and try again.

I hear Theodore stirring too. "Hey, Theodore? How cold are you?"

"Heat rises, so probably colder than you, if I'm being honest." I'm glad he's teasing me. At least, I think he is.

I echo his words from earlier, "I'm not trying to pull something, but can you sleep in the bed too. For body heat. And the extra blankets." I hear him get up, prompting me to make room for him.

He piles the few blankets he had over the quilt and joins me under them. His body heat is already helping.

We're facing each other, so I ask a light question, "How long has it been since we tried to go to sleep?"

He checks his watch, sighs. "Only thirty minutes." We both laugh. My sense of time is clearly terrible tonight.

"Goodnight, again, Theo," I say to him before turning over. I'm not sure why I shorted his name, but it feels right. Not as kiddy as "Teddy" and not as proper as "Theodore". It's sweet, like he is, but still strong. It fits him more.

I can sense him next to me. Maybe I want him to take this the wrong way.

***

I wake up the next morning with an arm thrown over me. It takes me a second to remember that it's Theodore's. I'm stuck between being amazed that I slept through the night so soundly and fighting the urge to not move his arm off of me. I jerk my feet onto my side when it dawns on me that they're pressed up against his legs. I nearly regret my decision as my feet instantly feel colder.