Rome & Julie

Chapter 5

I woke up, smelling one of the best smells I’ve ever smelt.  It was familiar, but it was too early in the morning to remember.  A groan escaped my chapped lips, so I quickly ran my tongue over them to get them wet.  With a crack of my eye, I knew I was in my room, more specifically, in my bed.

Last night… Huh.  Interesting.  I relayed the events that happened, and the only emotion I felt was disappointment of not being able to watch a movie with Rome.  No awkwardness of how Rome changed in front of me and I didn’t notice, and zero weirdness of how Rome changed me into his shirt.

I looked down, and sure enough, the only clothes I was wearing besides my underwear and bra was Rome’s dress shirt.  And the wonderful scent was coming from it.  I recognized it now.  It was the smell of Rome.  Taking a huge gulp of the scent wafting around me, I threw the covers off my body, sliding my legs off the bed.

I sat there rubbing the sleepies out of my eyes, in attempt to wake up a bit more.  Fluidly, I got up and walked to the bathroom, having the sense that the day would be a good one.  When I entered the threshold, I closed and locked the door behind me, slowly turning back around to get ready for a nice shower.  I washed my face and set out two towels on the toilet to use after I finished.

The shower was heavenly.  Although it didn’t feel like it washed my worries away, it did calm my muscles and woke me up to have a good start to the day.  When I stood stupidly in the middle of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my torso and a towel wrapped around my hair, I wondered what to do about clothes.

Glancing at Rome’s dress shirt on the floor, I simply dressed into what I was wearing previously.  His shirt was a little damp from the humidity of the bathroom, but Rome’s scent was still there, as though embedded into the threads.

Unable to keep from smiling at the absurdity of my wearing Rome’s shirt, I skipped out of the bathroom, running into my room to get some shorts.  I took my hair out of the towel, letting it dry naturally.  I was sitting at my desk in my room, reading The Raven when the smell of breakfast reached my room.

In the kitchen, Maggie was at the stove, and Rome was sitting at the dining table, reading the newspaper and drinking coffee.  How… sophisticated of him.  He glanced up at me quickly then back down to his paper.  But he took a second take, obviously looking at how I was still wearing his shirt.  I saw surprise and amusement in his eyes, and I gave him a big smile.

“Good morning all!”  I said in a perky voice, skipping over to the table to sit by Rome.  He continued to stare, and I pretended not to notice, looking at Maggie in the kitchen.  “What’s for breakfast?”

“Oh, so all is forgiven?”  Maggie said, bringing two plates full of food over to Rome and I.  I smiled at Maggie, feeling awful and guilty for getting mad at her.  She didn’t deserve it.

“Yessum, all is.  I’m sorry Aunt Maggie.  I’ll read whatever you want me to, for you know best.”  Maggie gave me a small, dainty smile, and set down my food in front of me.  Immediately, I dug in, ignoring Rome’s look of surprise and disgust.  “Oh don’t worry,”  I said to Rome, mouth full of chewed bacon.  “I won’t get any food on your shirt.”  I wasn’t sure if Rome understood me, but I didn’t dwell on it, and continued eating.

Rome chuckled, and began eating his food like a sophisticated man.  Ew.

“So tomorrow you’re leaving.  Have you packed yet, Julie?”  Maggie said to me, sitting down with her own plate of food.

“Nope.”

“Well you should probably get on that.”  There was a pause, and without even looking over, I knew Maggie was wondering why I was wearing Rome’s shirt.  Was it really that big a deal?  I mean, come on, we were getting married!  “Jeremy is coming over this afternoon.  He wants to see you before you go.”  I smiled a little.