Audrey Hepburn's Pearls: Part I

Chapter 64.3: 1968, Georgina

Chapter 64.3: 1968, Georgina

The heavy bottom of a Guinness glass made a hollow sound on the living room table though it was filled with honey tasting liquid. A hot tea, made sweet with scoops of honey from a jar that was always on the counter at Sasha's place. 

Sasha plopped down next to me, dressed casually in a mint colored cotton nightgown. He was the only other person in my life whom I knew liked to wear nightgowns, though he wasn't doing it out of any personal feeling. He didn't need the nightgown. It just felt good on his skin. I knew Ganya liked to give him nightgowns because of this, usually at Christmas. It was familiar to me and filled me with a small unrest, because Frankie liked to do the same thing for me, though not only at Christmas.

My eyes stayed on the hot honey tea as Sasha's arms wrapped around me from behind. Stayed on the bold Guinness letters as he pulled me close, rested his chin on my shoulder. Cuddled me. 

He said no words, just breathed deeply and I felt these long breaths on my back. We stayed like this for a long time, like old times. My body remembered his arms, his slow breaths. It was what he did when we had been homeless together. No matter where we were that night, he'd hug me tightly like this before falling asleep. We needed love, so we loved each other as best friends and there was nothing wrong with that.

Now, eight or nine years later, we still needed love. We'd been scared tonight, so we needed familiar comforts. I was glad for him, because without him I had nobody. I'd have no chance of intimacy such as this. And I needed that warmth, his slow breaths.

"I'm going to sleep in the living room tonight. On the floor. You have the couch, its okay. I know what you're thinking. I know you well enough," he said finally. "I'm going to bring in the blankets and pillows, make your bed on the couch. Then I'll sleep right over there. If you wake up and you need me, wake me up. I'll be close all the time, though. So don't worry."

"Okay," I said softly, feeling safer than I had in days in his arms.

He swallowed and made this small noise with his nose in it, a strange thing he did sometimes. It was the most comforting little noise, reminding me that he was truly here and it could be noone else. His arms squeezed around my middle and remained tight, securing me to his body. 

There was a beeping noise somewhere in the townhouse and it was keeping me from falling asleep. It sounded like a smoke alarm that needed a battery replaced. Maybe it was upstairs, because it was faint.

Gently, I pushed my covers down to my stomach and sat up, trying to make the least amount of noise as possible. As promised, over on the floor beyond the coffee table was Sasha. He was asleep, still, and his breathing was telling me it was too dry in here with the heat on. He'd always been sensitive to such things, his sinus cavities stuffy even in the barest of Spring. 

I decided, watching him, that I'd go get a bowl of water to put on top of the heater to make the air more moist and therefore sparing his nose. It was the most I could do. I couldn't sleep anyway, with the smoke alarm being the least of my worries.

Getting up, I swept the empty Guinness glass into my hand and went off to the kitchen. Taking care to have soft steps, the skirt of the nightgown of Sasha's I was wearing gently swayed with my movements. The smoke alarm upstairs beeped again, making me jump. It had a way of being quiet just long enough to make me think it wouldn't beep again then beeping with a jolt to my system. Maybe since I was up, I could replace the thing for them as a show of my gratitude, if I could find batteries without waking them both up.