Return to Me

Nine

Something was going off in my dream, but I couldn't figure out what it was. Frantically, I search to find the source of the noise, but there was no such luck. The noise kept going off--like some kind of alarm--and boy, was it annoying! One moment I'm in a field, laying among hundreds of beautiful wildflowers, the sun setting, the sky a hazy and beautiful orange--and then that noise! Oh, how I wanted it to stop!

And that's when I came to.

It was my alarm that was disturbing my dream.

Ugh, no. Time to wake up. As I slowly woke up, my arm rose and went searching for my alarm clock. Where was that damn clock? My arm and hand continued to search, but to no avail once again. This time my head popped up, determined to find that damn alarm and stop it's beeping.

Then I took in my surroundings, suddenly remembering where I am. I'm on the couch, in the living room, and my alarm--which is surprisingly loud from out here--was going off in my bedroom.

Looking down at my lap, there are stacks of paper and ribbons. I must've passed out while going over Emily's wedding invitations.

Since I arrived back home from the long Thanksgiving weekend a few weeks ago, Emily immediately put me to work with official maid of honor duties. Emily and I have been video chatting and texting nearly every night, going over all the small details.

Currently, her and Andrew were picking out invitations, and Emily sent me samples of all the invitations the couple both liked. And let me tell you, getting a box of invitation samples for a wedding that I wasn't having certainly earned me some strange looks from some of the other residents in my building.

Anyway, we were discussing and picking out which ones we liked the best among the large pile and managed to get rid of exactly four samples. Andrew and Emily are getting married in April--five months from now and they haven't sent out invitations yet. While we were video chatting last night, I reminded them both of this and told them to--scratch that, urged them to pick out an invitation soon so they can get those sent. They promised to have one picked out by Friday, and throughout all this, I started to wonder when I became the wedding planner. I felt like I was doing more wedding planner type duties, rather than maid of honor duties. Did they have a wedding planner?

Sighing, I gathered the somewhat wrinkled invitations and set them on the coffee table and got up to start getting ready for work.

When I entered my bedroom to gather my clothes to take with me when I went to shower, I noticed that my alarm had been turned off and that there was a figure sleeping in my bed.

Oh god.

I flicked on the light and the figure rolled over. "Geez, is it time to get up already?"

Sam. It was Sam. Oh, god I forgot Sam was spending the night last night!

Feeling so guilty, I crawled on the bed over to my sleepy boyfriend and began kissing his face. He found my lips and began kissing me back tenderly.

"Now this is quite the way to wake up." he mumbled against my lips and pulling me on top of him so I was straddling his waist.

"You never came to bed last night." he comments once the kissing stopped for a moment.

I kissed his bare and sculpted chest over and over. "I know, I'm so sorry. I passed out on the couch late last night while going over those wedding invitations." I reply looking up at him.

He comfortingly rubbed my back beneath the  t-shirt I was wearing and grinned. "That's okay. You'll just have to make it up to me."

"How?" I wondered, but then his fingers suddenly undid the clasp on my bra.