Modern Divinity

7. Confrontations

Celestine awoke the next morning, smothered by the blankets on her bed. She closed her eyes and uttered a delighted 'mmm' sound thanks to the first good night's sleep she had gotten in days. Picking up her phone to check the time, she saw it was already early in the afternoon. At first, she was dumbfounded over how she managed to sleep in so long, but then she thought back to the events of the previous evening and her 'encounter' with Donovan in the living room. And then a second 'encounter' later on in the kitchen while she was doing their laundry. And then they had ultimately gone to bed, together, so of course that led to yet another 'encounter.' To their credit, they had tried to sleep, but with his arms wrapped around her while they were laying so close together, there was no way hands weren't going to wander.

"Ah," she whispered, "yeah that would do it."

She rolled onto her back and began a mighty stretch, her shoulder joints popping as she reached up over her head. She looked over to the other side of the bad, half expecting Donovan to be gone since he was so good at making sneaky exits, but to her delight he was still there. He was laying on his back, propped up on a couple of pillows, with his right arm covering his face to try and block out the daylight.

She smiled despite herself. He looked kind of cute, and she almost didn't want to wake him up. She debated getting up without him and making breakfast, but she didn't really think it was fair that he kept getting so much luxury treatment, in her house, without chipping in at all. So instead of planning breakfast, she started plotted a fun (for her) way to wake him up.

Sticking her foot out from under the blanket as a test, she confirmed that her room was still as frigid as always. That gave her an idea. She began to rock back and forth under the blankets, rolling a little, to gather them all tightly around her. After a minute she had formed a massive, fluffy, blanket cocoon by successfully bundling them up on her side of the bed. That left Donovan with nothing but the sheer sheets to cover his sprawled out, naked body.

After a minute or two he shivered and lifted his arm so he could see. Blinking away the last bit of sleepiness, he looked down to see his predicament.

"The fu-" he muttered, popping himself up on his elbows. "It's fucking freezing in here."

Celestine made a muffled sound of agreement, her voice stifled by her blanket burrito. The noise attracted his attention and he turned, stared, slowly squinted his eyes, then pressed his palm against his forehead in resignation over how weird she was.

"Do you want me to turn on the heat?"

"Mmef," she replied, the sound muffled by the fabric.

With a grunt he forced himself over to the edge of the bed. He flipped his legs around and sat for a minute, running his hands through his messy hair while he yawned. With a muted grumble, he got to his feet and headed to the radiator that was set into the wall.

She watched him fiddle with it from the safety of her ingenious heat pod. Even at a distance and seeing him from behind, she could see him shake his head in exasperation.

"It's broken," he yelled from the corner of the room.

She blinked in surprise and stuck her head out from under the blankets. "What?!"

"It's broken," he repeated. "The valve is loose." He stood back up and did a slow, ominous, turn to face her. "Did you not notice that? You've just been sleeping in a freezing cold room this whole time thinking it was normal?"

The room was silent.

"Oh my god," he said, absolutely blown away by the concept. He threw his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose in disbelief. "There are so many layers of 'why' to this that I think I need to sit down before I pass out."