Here, with him, for a little longer.
It’s early, when she wakes.
They left the curtains drawn, so morning light starts to come into the bedroom.
Lili blinks against it, stretching in the warmth of sleep. Behind her, Aleksandr’s arms are wrapped around her. He’s asleep, his hand sprawled over her stomach under his shirt she’s wearing. The silence is soft, and the rhythm of his breath is steady.
Reaching for her phone on the nightstand, Lili checks the time, squinting.
5:58 a.m.
Slowly, she extricates herself from his arms.
Seeing Aleksandr asleep feels like a secret she wants to keep. How he breathes, the way his hair is mussed. The usual tension in his face while awake—perception, calculation—is gone while he rests.
These moments, him in the early morning; the presence of him in her life. It all feels precious and stolen. Like she’s claiming—asking for—more than she should.
Lili leans down and kisses his forehead, pushing aside the thought.
“Where are you going?” he mumbles.
“Shh,” she whispers. “I’ll be back.”
Softly, she closes the bedroom door behind her, so the espresso machine won’t wake him further.
As the coffee runs, Lili looks over the day’s newspapers spread out on the kitchen counter. After a moment’s consideration, she grabs theTimes. She pours a dash of oat milk into her cup.
Balancing two mugs, newspaper tucked under her arm, Lili uses her elbow to finagle the bedroom door open, taking a sip from her coffee as she goes. As she gets back into bed, an arm wraps around her waist, and Aleksandr pulls her in aggressively. Lili lets out a little shriek, trying to keep the coffee from spilling, as he pulls her flat against the bed, towards him.
“Hot coffee!” she protests, twisting to set the mugs down on the nightstand.
Aleksandr grins, propping his head up on one hand to look at her.
“Good morning,” he says. His voice is husky from sleep as he smooths his hand up her bare stomach, under her shirt, borrowed from him. The buttons are done unevenly. Leaning forward, he kisses the spot between her breasts. Lili exhales, and she feels his smile against her skin. As he continues kissing her—brushes of his lips against the slope of her breasts, pushing her loose shirt open—she settles her hands in his hair, a little sigh on her breath.
But then he’s frowning, drawing away. He reaches under his side, finding a small black crystal.
“Why is there a rock in my bed?”
“That’s not a rock,” Lili says. “It’s obsidian. It’s protective. Keeps away emotional negativity, evil spirits. It’s actually really good for your Scorpio moon. Helps ground you. With the Capricorn, Scorpio, and Aries mix, it’s just a lot of...” She waves her hands generally around him. “Intensity.”
He stares at her.
“You, Aleksandr,” she informs him. “You’re the evil spirit.”
He rolls his eyes. He sets the obsidian on the nightstand, before pulling her more firmly under him, and kissing her again, a long kiss, sleepy but heated.
“How’d you sleep?” he asks, brushing his knuckle over her cheek. Lili leans into it; the skitter of calming things, settling. “Alright?”
“Yeah,” she murmurs. “I’m... okay. What are you doing today?”
“Well, I was planning on staying in bed.”
“Sleeping? Past six, really?” she teases.
“I didn’t say anything about sleeping.”
“Oh—”
