The sun woke me up before my alarm clock even rang, a strange sight for November in Seattle. Fortunately, Seattle was a dog friendly city. No way would Matilda want to be left in the hotel room all day. She’s got places to see and sidewalks to explore. I grabbed the remote for the curtains, pressing the button commanding the sheer curtains to open up. I continued to lay in bed thinking back to the night before, reflecting about how many answers lead to more questions.
I was relieved I had a night full of blissful dreams, not the nightmares that I usually expected. One dream in particular that made me happiest of all was Athen cradling me tightly. We had just made love. We were on the beach. I could still feel his skin against mine. The cool dampness that was connecting our bodies was heavenly. I was in heaven. I only hoped that a new pattern of dreaming was emerging, more positive and less creepy. The dream was so vivid, and I could feel his every touch as he embraced me. That was my first dream of its kind. I couldn’t wait for another. Being patient wasn’t my best quality. I breathed in desperately, hoping to have the salty air from my dream run through me one last time before getting up.
I was listening intently for movement in the rest of the hotel suite so I didn’t get out of bed too early; when all of a sudden, my bedroom door swung open to reveal Athen standing with a non-fat pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks in one hand and a Top Pot donut in the other.
“My word! You can’t get any closer to perfection can you?” I asked, feeling the smile on my face unable to evaporate. Everyday Athen got kinder than the last, and I didn’t even think that was possible. I sat up in my bed, secretly wishing I wasn’t wearing the black t-shirt that Cyril bought me as a gift that read, “I DO ALL MY OWN STUNTS” blazing across the front with a stick figure biting the dust. I started to pat my hair down and then realized it was hopeless. It wasn’t like anything was bound to happen at this rate anyhow, so I gave up.
“Hey now,” Athen said laughing.
“For heaven’s sake, that can be annoying. It will be nice when this whole mind reading thing doesn’t happen all the time,” I scolded him, grabbing my Top Pot donut.
“When did you get up? I thought I would have heard you.”
“I wanted to surprise you, so I was pretty quiet. I’m glad it worked. I have a feeling with Arie in charge today, there’ll be very little time to grab anything to eat. We should get what we can now.” His beautiful eyes bringing me back to my wonderful dream from the night before.
“Are you kidding? Is she that serious about it?”
“Pretty much. We go along for the ride and try to help her carry her bags. That’s about it.”
“I hope Matilda can keep up.” I looked over at Matilda who had a worried look in her big, brown eyes. She was a fit bulldog but, nonetheless, still a bulldog.
“I had a pretty incredible dream last night you know?” I teased him as best I could. “It almost seemed real. Maybe I just wanted it to be.” My voice trailing and my grin unable to be hidden.
“Is that so?” Athen said, grabbing and holding me tightly against his chest. “Wanna share any details?” he asked gently, hugging my body back and forth with his.
Athen lifting me up and gently placing me on a boulder near the sea raced into my mind. He was frantically undressing me, as our lips became connected driving us both into a madness we had been without far too long.
“Absolutely not,” I said, staring into his eyes. “Since you won’t give me the real thing, I’m not going to give you the satisfaction of hearing the fun stuff I’ve got going on up here,” I said, pointing to my temple, doing a double tap with my index finger.
“Fair enough.” He kissed me on my forehead.
“Can’t wait for the real thing though.”
“Yeah, well, I’m barely able to look at you, let alone touch you at this point, sweetie, but it’s the way it’s got to be. You’ll see.”
I began hearing the others shuffling around in their room. I knew I‘d better enjoy my donut pretty quickly, so I could hop in the shower to get ready for the day.
By the time we had made it downstairs to hit the streets of Seattle, it was about 10 am, which in Arie’s mind was perfect timing, since that was when most of the shops opened up. The fog started to lift down the streets of Seattle allowing all of the Christmas decorations to be exposed on the lampposts. I had made clear the stores I needed to visit, Nordstrom’s being first on the list. Much to my amazement, every store I had listed she, also, had planned on going to, plus some. It looked like today would be a whirlwind. Arie was a true shopper. Maybe, if I was lucky, she would want to keep on going, and Athen and I could sneak back to the hotel with Matilda or because of Matilda.
The streets were hustling with the typical business people, rushing off to who knows where, thinking things were far more important than they were, while in stark contrast witnessing the families who must have taken the holiday week off to be together. It was a truly friendly sight. All of the wreaths and holiday swags hung from building to building, hanging above the streets, creating a ceiling along 5th Avenue. The red, velvet ribbons were gently flapping in the light breeze reminding me how l was glad to have my jacket for the day’s adventures. I began to get a little flutter in my stomach at the thought of beginning the holiday shopping experience with my family. Matilda began pulling on the leash in the direction of Nordstrom’s and off we went. I was looking forward to seeing the holiday window displays there. They were always impressive. Seattle was known for great ones, but Nordstrom’s really outdid the rest. The goal was to all take turns, since we were buying for each other, and stand post with Matilda outside each of the stores. So far, it had worked wonderfully.