Idiosyncratic Couple Short Story

The Idiosyncratic Couple

“Let’s get married.” I stared at my boyfriend, Erik, of four years in bewilderment. You would expect that my bewilderment would come from his demanding proposal, but that’s not what bewildered me at all. You see, it was an early Saturday morning, and like all Saturday mornings I liked to have a mug of coffee before communicating with other human beings, even if it was my own boyfriend. It was my thing, and Erik knew that. So my bewilderment was out of two factors: 1) he was talking to me while I was drinking my coffee, and 2) he looked absolutely atrocious at the moment. Erik’s hair was ridiculous. In the morning, his soft, dirty blonde curls were usually swept to the side or cutely tousled. Today, however, was

Just as I was about to sit beside him, his arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me down on top of him. My eyes widened in surprise as I was suddenly lying on top of him with my back against his chest. “Hey!” I protested. Erik only laughed. The hearty sound rumbled deep in his chest, which caused me to giggle because it tickled my back. After our small fit of laughter, we both sighed and just lied there on the couch cuddling each other for a while. “This feels nice,” I finally murmured. “We should do this more often.” Erik hummed. “Definitely.” It was silent again. I briefly wondered if he fell asleep, and I decided to take the chance to look. And it turned out I was wrong. His eyes were closed, but his brows were scrunched as if he was thinking, but he looked tired. Upon closer inspection of his face, I realized he wasn’t just tired but exhausted. It dawned on me that he must’ve tossed and turned all night thinking about the proposal, and all I did was make him doubt himself. Or even worse…us…
Guilt washed over me once more as my head collapsed against his chest. “Oh, Erik,” I whispered. “I’m sorry.” “About what?” “If it weren’t for my morning coffee, you wouldn’t be feeling