• Moi: Have you slept yet?
• Seraphim: I actually have an appointment with sleep very shortly...
• Moi: Then go sleep. I took a long nap earlier. And I don't want to keep you up longer, since I kept you up so late last night!
• Seraphim: Dancing to good music, good conversation with a new friend, hilarious British TV, and curling up with a pretty girl and her cat: worth every minute :).
• Moi: Yeah, I was smiling stupidly all day.
• Seraphim: Well, I look forward to making you smile again tomorrow.

The prompt was “Write a story about an animal”

“You will never guess what he ordered to drink when he took me out to dinner…” My sister sat on the other end of the phone line waiting in anticipation. She had these rules about dating. To get to a second date the gentleman who took her out had to live up to a set of simple standards. He couldn’t be a Republican, he couldn’t be a Duke fan, and he couldn’t order domestic beers when there were local or unique beers on tap. These may seem like simple demands, but nothing demanded from my sister is ever simple. 
“A Bud Lite. And there were at least ten beers on tap. We might as well have been at a brewery.”
One thing you have to know about my sister is that, god love her, she has the tendency to exaggerate. I didn’t know much about her date Will at the time, but I knew a few things. He lived in my sisters apartment complex, had a miniature dachshund named Dolly, and the only time my sister ever saw him was when he was walking Dolly who liked to bark at my sister’s dog Josie. In fact, it was the proximity of dog walking that prompted him to ask my sister out on a date in the first place. 
A few days later she called me again to inform me that he had asked her out a second time and she was having a hard time deciding on a yes or no response. 
“He is a Libertarian! And that is practically as bad as being a Republican. And what man in his right mind would name a dog Dolly, not to mention actually own a miniature dachshund?”
My sister thought it was more than a little bit strange that his dog was about the size of a teddy bear and presumably named after singing sensation Dolly Parton.  
Eventually, after a good many days of waffling, my sister went out with him again. She was appalled that he couldn’t drive stick shift, he didn’t really care about college football, and his couches were made of leather. There were other things that stood out too, though. He hadn’t named Dolly. He’d taken her in when he found out his alcoholic parents had been a bit overeager when they decided to get a dog and they wanted to send her to the animal shelter. It didn’t bother him that Becca was a Democrat, and she found out she liked football as much as college basketball.
Two years later, Will admitted something that never ceases to amuse me. He stood beside my sister after their wedding and blushed a little bit underneath a wide, loving smile. He told her he used to wait for her to take Josie out on walks to take Dolly out too. Just so he could talk to her. When she relays the story to other people, she always says: ”He had the audacity to use his dog to talk to me!” 
Of course, she never mentions that after he told her about his ulterior motive she cried like a baby. And of course, I smile and nod my head like that’s exactly the way it happened. 

Go to work. Hot-box the walk-in freezer, order pizza, clock out, have free shift drink, go home, take nyquil, do homework. 

Oh, hello self. 

“Venus in Sagittarius people want to learn new things, and experience everything together in love relations. These are idealistic lovers who want you to appreciate their beliefs, visions, and ideals. They can be a confusing mix of the lighthearted and serious. They are roamers and seekers, and don’t commit in their relationships as easily as others.

Venus in Sagittarius personalities turn others on with their big smiles. They pride themselves on their open minds, but you may notice they can be judgmental too. They are threatened by inhibitions on the part of their lover, dullness, and emotional overkill. They are restless, and won’t put up with lovers who dwell on any one thing. When the going gets tough in their relationship, they have an overwhelming need to run away.

Venus in Sagittarius partners need lots of room in the relationship to grow. Avoid getting stuck in, and understand their need to move on. Avoid criticizing their beliefs, join them in debates, and philosophize along with them. When they feel the need for more experience, join them.”

“This life is so crazy. You can really do anything. If I wanted to take up pottery and move to the middle of nowhere, I could. If we wanted to get married and move to Alaska and start a family we could -“
“Hold the phone. I am not going to Alaska.” 

I like how neither of us picked up on the fact that my only opposition was in living somewhere cold. 

Last night taught me that whatever I do, whoever I do it with - I don’t feel a thing because it isn’t you. I don’t have one foot out the door when I think about our future. 
All I want is to bridge the gap between our distance and wake up beside you every morning for the rest of my life. Oh, you beautiful man. 
I’ve spent the past year and a half running wild, having nights like last night. Soaking naked in a hot tub, making out with two people at once (with an entirely different person’s hands around my own). 
And don’t get me wrong, it was delightfully wicked and fun, but it left me with an ache in my chest because all I wanted was to soak in a hot tub with you, and you alone. The gypsy with the dreadlocks and the toned body and the sinful tattoos was beautiful, but my attraction to him was detached, because he still wasn’t you.  

My hands ran through his hair and I imagined the faint outline of the tattoo underneath. I paused, kissed him.

“What was it like, getting a tattoo on your skull?”
He gave me that faint, coy smile, and wrapped one arm around the small of my back.
“You know how wood has grain? How things can go with the grain or against the grain? Imagine this. The core of your body is a strong wood, a maple. The sensitive places, balsam,” he traced his fingers across my collarbone, behind the backs of my knees, rolled his knuckles into the back of my hair and grazed them across my skull, “Now imagine a razor cutting against the grain of the wood, chipping away. Against, against, against. And that’s only the outline. You still have the shading, the gradient.” His nails found my rib cage and traced them, too, digging a little harder. 
“But the places you use the most, the back of your knees, those are the ones that hurt the most. Your head heals, it doesn’t aggravate you. It just heals.”

“I don’t want to sleep, I’d much rather kiss you for hours. And then sleep for hours. Or do both at the same time, while simultaneously finding joy from each. Maybe I should just kick you out of my bed so I can rest.”
“Oh yes, try that. See how far that gets you.”
He grabbed me around the waist and buried his head into the center of my back.
“But if I kick you out, that negates the option of you ever coming back. And I would love for you to come back.”

***

The next morning we blearily opened our eyes, tangled up together on his twin sized air mattress. Surprisingly, it’s the only place I want to be right now - a marginally comfortable pseudo-bed with the most beautiful man. 
“I want to kiss you,” he whispered, and traced the back of my neck with his mouth.  
And he did, he kissed me until we were both awake and all traces of bleariness had disappeared. His straightforwardness, his honesty, it’s completely staggering.  

***

“I swear to god, the 3rd Punic War was instigated by Masinissa and Carthage breaking the Zama treaty with Rome. And that was when Carthage fell.”

“No. It fell long before then. Rome had complete control over it.”

“No she didn’t, Rome exercised treaties with Carthage to establish peace, but she left Carthage to rule themselves. Rome finally overthrew Carthage in the 3rd Punic War and devastated the city, burnt it, and then burnt the cities that were loyal to Carthage. That was the final, decisive end to Carthage.” 

I could feel him thinking in the dark. He slid his arm around my back, pulling me close. 

“Oh really?”

“Yes. Really.”

His hand tangled into my hair, and he pulled me in, hard. I forgot to breathe and he kissed me. I almost laughed in surprise. I was only in his bed because there was no room anywhere else. Sean had a lady over, and Ethan and Laura took up the floor and the couch in the living room. So Ned graciously offered to share his bed with me, we’d been friends long enough that is wasn’t weird. I was sitting in the bean bag chair when he took my hand and walked me to his bed. We talked for hours, laughing and cuddling. Like friends. We talked about his son, our lives, delved into history and religion. Settled on Rome.  

And then he kissed me. His arms wrapped around the small of my back and he kissed me.

Love is such an annoying thing, and mostly it makes me want to vomit.