“We said a lot about them. You’re going to have to refresh my memory.” I took off the towel and put on his shirt.
Coming over to me, he helped brush back a few strands of my hair, which were starting to curl from the water. “I said that any two people with working organs can have a great screw, but that a relationship based only on sex won’t last. I was right. They didn’t. I don’t want to be like them.”
“I was going to tell you this during dinner, before everything happened last night.” I looked up at him. “You might not have noticed, but I’m a little weird. I have full conversations with my dog, and honestly sometimes I think he’s a secret mastermind. I make weird faces because I’m having a conversation in my head. I change into this super polite doll when I’m around adults, even though I am one. I’m still a little jaded from my ex and worry I’m going to ruin this because I suck at dating. Like you said, I snore…I still will never admit I drool though. There are times where I hate getting dressed up and just want to eat ice cream and watch Netflix until the sun comes up. Because I like you, I lie, and say crazy things like I run nine miles every morning, when in reality I think the fact that you do that every day is insane. Oh yeah, and I ramble…apparently.”
“So what you are saying is, you aren’t perfect and you're a handful?” he said slowly.
I nodded. “I will drive you crazy, which is why I wanted to warn you last night, before we went further.”
He laughed and kissed my forehead. “Maybe you forgot, but I knew all that from the beginning. It still didn’t stop me from liking you. Any other warnings you have for me?”
“In the morning, my hair will look like a French poodle. Don’t worry, I will fix it. It’s the price I pay for shower sex.”
He just shook his head. “Do you want anything to eat before we go to bed? I'll bring it.”
“Anything is fine,” I told him, falling onto his bed…I was so sleepy.
Eli
Safe to say she was by far the most unique girl I had ever been with in all my life. Her list of faults…I believed every one of them, and yet I didn’t seem to care. She made me happy. Next to her, because of her, I smiled and laughed more than I had in any other period of time. Even in the beginning, I got a kick out of her just getting worked up over my words. Now her rambling and mishaps just seemed to be part of her charm. Taking the tray, I headed back in to find her buried under my sheets, blissful, her eyes closed.
“That smells good,” she whispered, sitting up in the middle of the bed.
“Here.” I handed her the glass of orange juice, which she happily took, before setting the tray of sandwiches between us. “Turkey or ham?”
“Must I really choose?” She pouted.
“Both works, too.” I had made more than enough.
Smirking, she took the turkey first. “Thank you.”
“You know”—I grabbed a sandwich for myself—“I’m not perfect either, right? I’m a controlling neat freak who gets his kicks torturing young interns, and I only have one friend whom I’m an ass to, for the most part.”
“If I found out you were perfect, I would feel uncomfortable,” she replied, licking the mayo off the side of her lip.
I tried not to focus on it.
“Besides, after last night, I have a better understanding of what type of person you are.”
“And what type of person am I?”
“A rock,” she said.
I looked at her, completely confused.
“My dad always classifies people in terms of nature. People who are rocks, like you, are always at the base of people. Helping people, taking care of people, no matter the cost. You don’t realize it, but when Logan was saying how much he wished he could pay you back for always being there for him, I saw it. You are willing to sacrifice everything for the people you care about.”
“Isn’t that everyone?” I took another bite.
“Yeah, but not everyone plans their lives around their little brother and mother, where they go to school, where they start their careers. Not everyone calls their brother's professor just to check up on how he’s doing. You do it because you love them enough that worrying about yourself makes you feel selfish. Even when we first met again at the hospital, I was wrong; you weren’t telling me to leave because my presence bothered you, you really were worried that Logan was going to keep blaming himself. You are your family's rock. It’s not a bad thing, it’s amazing,” she said, eating as her brown eyes watched me carefully.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about her reading me so easily. “What does your father call you?”
She laughed. “I’m the rain because, as he would say, I’m vital to his life. The world would be a horrid place if it never rained. My mother says it’s because I can be a summer shower or a hurricane. And my brother…my brother used to say it was because I was a wonder. No matter how many times you see the rain, if you just sit and watch, it’s wondrous. As you can tell, they were all biased.”