Last night I spent the night over at Loren's, mostly because I happened to be there when I got tired.

Climbing into bed, we talked about stuff for a while.

"Shh. Sleep now," he said after a while. He'd been teasing me about being an animal, because I love being scratched (my back, mostly), and petted, and I have a very catlike personality at times.

"I will fall asleep," said I, "if you keep petting me like that."

I was nestled on his right shoulder, and his right arm was curled around and he was stroking my hairline.

"Well then," he said, "I guess I'll just keep petting you like this, then."

And he did, until I fell asleep.

When I was almost asleep, he whispered

"Good night, Rosie."

Which made my heart thumder, because that's one thing that always kind of threw me off about Mike: he never used my name. Ever. I don't recall him ever calling me by name. It was always, 'hey you'.

But he said my name, Loren said my name.

I think I must have started a little bit, out of surprise, but I just tilted my face up to his neck and murmured a quiet

"Good night, Loren."

And beyond that, I don't remember anything, because I fell asleep.

It was a good sleep, and the alarmclock missfired and I ended up being about ten minutes late for work, but Margaret, my boss, didn't care. At all.

And now, I have a raging headache, so I'm going to bed.

.

Rosie.

PS, Nathaniel, a penpal I aquired way back when, is actually coming up to see me tomorrow. I gotta go meet his bus, 5am. Ugh. But I don't want him rolling into a strange town where he doesn't know anyone. So yeah. I'm going to bed now.

Before&After