When I blew the light out, Matthew was already in bed with the duvet half-covering his chest.
"Took you long enough," he said, wrinkling his nose playfully at me. "S'it weird to say I'm excited t'sleep?”
"Probably, but you are weird, so" I said with a cheeky grin, though I felt the same way. I slid my way beneath the covers beside him, but stopped suddenly, propped up on my elbow before I could get comfortable.
“Oh…shit.”
“What’s wrong?”
"N-nothing. My stomach felt weird just then." I gingerly settled myself down, letting Matthew pull me in and rest a hand on my stomach. Everything was fine for a blissful few minutes before I started to feel hot and my throat kind of funny, but I tried to push it away and kept my eyes closed.
"If s'too hot y'can take off a blanket," Matthew said sleepily.
"What?"
"You're sweaty, lovely," he murmured into my hair and folded down one of the blankets halfway. I put a hand over Matthew’s where it rested on my stomach, gently grabbing at it.
"S'wrong?"
"Still feels off." I was embarrassed by my desperate need for Matthew’s touch, but it was the only thing I could think of that could possibly help settle me.
"Your stomach?"
I squeezed Matthew’s fingers in confirmation. He carefully rubbed circles onto it and kissed the back of my neck,
“You’ll be fine.” He promised “honestly, I think it was all of those stale cookies. You finished the whole jar.”
I grunted, cheeks heating up. He was right. Of course he was right.
I tried to fall asleep after that, but even though I was exhausted I kept waking up every twenty minutes or so, tossing and turning or startled into awareness by cramps. Matthew shifted, eyes fluttering open “can’t sleep?”
“Hm. No.”
“Stomach still off?”
“Yeah.”
He sighed, kissing my shoulder and rubbing my sweaty back. I rolled over to face him “why are you still awake?”
“You keep moving around, lovely.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’m just worried about you.”
“I’m okay.” Even as I said so, another cramp seized my middle and I cringed, hand flying to the spot.
“Hm.” Matthew frowned, sitting up. My eyes tracked his movements.
“Need something? Tea? Hot water bottle? Both?”
“Both sounds good.” I breathed.
Matthew just smiled at me “want a bath, too?”
“It’s late. And I don’t have a nice bath.”
Matthew kissed me affectionately and got up.
