I woke early, still wrapped in Ari’s arms. I stretched and found my phone on the nightstand and saw that it was only four-thirty in the morning. There was no use in trying to fall back asleep. I was up. I snuck out of the room, went to the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee. Half way through The Times, Andy joined me.
“Morning, Ava! I am not used to having anyone up before me. Everyone in this house likes to sleep in.” He frowned. “Anything new?” He asked, pouring himself a cup.
“No, I had no dreams at all, actually.”
“Strange,” he said, scratching his head.
“Tell me about it. I can’t remember having a dreamless sleep in my whole life until just recently.”
“Hmmm. We will get this figured out,” Andy said with determination, nodding more to himself than to me.
Aggie joined us an hour later, then Ari woke up and found us all in the kitchen. He kissed me on the top of my head and a sweet chill went down my back.
“Morning, Ava Baby,” he said with a sleepy smile, and then started making a new pot of coffee.
I had read the paper completely, even the boring stuff, and looked up and noticed a pair of running shoes by the back door. I padded over and tried them on. They had to have been Lauren’s because they were bright pink and orange Nikes, just her style. They were a perfect fit. Ari was sitting at the table, reading my discarded paper. I walked over to him and he instantly wrapped his arm around my waist and looked up.
“I’m going to go for a run; do you think Lauren would mind?” I said, pointing down to the borrowed shoes.
He gave a laugh, “Nah, she won’t be up for hours, so you’re good. Be safe. You want me to go with you?”
I smiled playfully, “Nah, you’d only slow me down.”
Aggie giggled.
Ari kissed me goodbye and my cheeks grew pink. I was not used to this kind of affection, especially with an audience consisting of his family members.
As I walked towards the back door, Rory entered the house wearing his jogging gear. He noticed me heading out for a run.
“Ah, awesome, wait up and I’ll go with you.”
“Alright, I guess.” I looked over at Ari, who was rolling his eyes at Rory.
“How was your night last night, Cuz, huh?” Rory asked, nudging Ari with his elbow. “Wink, wink.”
“Rory,” I said with agitation, “If you don’t come now, I am leaving you. I have to be in class in less than three hours and I have homework to finish, so let’s move.”
“Yeah, alright. You’ll fill me in later, won’t you, Ari?”
By then Ari was already back to his paper, thankfully giving no attention to Rory.
I have to admit, running with Rory was actually fun. He kept pace and helped push me a little faster than I was used to running. I filled him in on the fact that I had not had any dreams.
“Yeah, that’s because you were caught up in dreamland with Ari.” He puffed and I chose to ignore his comment, knowing that acknowledging it would only provoke further Ari-related conversation. After that, we just ran and I concentrated on clearing my head. My world seemed to be happening too fast for me to handle.
We got back to the house and Rory veered off to his place to clean up before class. I made my best attempt to knock all the sand from Lauren’s shoes and then walked into the house and put them back where I had found them. Ari was waiting for me, talking to his mom and looking as handsome as ever. He had on dark fitted jeans, dress boots and a light sweater. He would fit better in a J-Crew magazine rather than in his mother’s kitchen. He astounded me. I felt even more aware of the fact that I had just run six miles and probably looked like it, too. We said our goodbyes to his family and Ari drove my car back to campus. He dropped me off at the front door to our dorm so I could clean up before class, parked my car and went to his own classes.