The sun was well up when consciousness crept into my head on little cat's feet.
My first impression was the wonderful feeling of Terri's naked skin against mine. I was lying on my back and Terri was cuddled up against me with her left leg sprawled across my body and her head cushioned on my left arm and shoulder while the same arm pulled her close to me in a loving hug. As she slept, she breathed with an adorable gentle buzz. I stuck my nose into her tousled hair and breathed in the wonderful scent of her body.
My second impression was one of surprise that I didn't have a headache! I cautiously felt around the bandage on my head. I found that I could find sensitive spots, but yesterday's prominent goose egg seemed to have largely disappeared.
My third impression was an awareness that my bladder was full; so full that it felt just like what a hand grenade must feel like right before it explodes! I realized that I was going to have to break our cuddling clinch in order to get to the bathroom and that gave me pause in spite of the protests from my bladder. Finally, I gathered up my resolution, gave Terri a loving kiss on the top of her head, and began to gently untangle myself from our warm and loving clinch.
"Uhhh... It feels like somebody is trying to escape from my evil clutches!"
"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to wake you, but I have GOT to drain my crankcase before we have to start swimming laps here in the bedroom!"
Terri gave me a sleepy but playful grin. "Well, at least it would be warm water that we would be swimming in, right?"
"That's true, but I'm not sure that I find the idea of having to clean up the 'pool' after the swim very attractive."
"That's a point. How about I let you go to take care of business as long as you promise to come back and keep me warm?"
"That sounds like a fair bargain, m'lady." and I proceeded to finish disentangling myself from Terri before doing a really short fifty-yard dash to the bathroom!
When I got back to the bed, Terri pulled back the covers and crawled out in all her naked glory! Little Stefan, who had lost his morning wood during the bladder draining, sprang right back to attention! "Well, it's nice to see that my little friend is happy to see me this morning! As for you, big guy, would you keep the bed warm while I go and drain a couple gallons out of MY bladder?"
"Why, yes m'am. That would be my pleasure!"
"Oh! And how is your head?" Terri said as she bent close to inspect the bandage.
"Better than I expected. It's hard to tell for sure with the bandage in the way, but the goose egg seems to be mostly, and maybe totally, gone! Best of all, I don't have a headache!"
Terri kissed me over the bandage and said, "I am SO glad! I had a horrible dream that woke me up last night! I dreamt that I woke up with a dead body this morning—and it was all my fault! I never would have imagined that I could be practically ecstatic when waking up to a nice loud snore!"
"Terri, enough of that! It was an accident! If you want to blame somebody, blame Murphy!" I gave her bare bottom a light smack and said, "Now get to the bathroom and do your business so you can get back and I can warm up my favorite ice cube!"
Terri squeaked and headed for the bathroom.
When Terri got back from the bathroom, she slipped under the covers and exclaimed, "Oh, wow! This is so cozy! You do nice work!"
I had to laugh, "Fortunately, your dash to the bathroom cooled you off a bit so all I had to do was maintain the residual heat. The drop in your own body temperature is what allows me to do very little but still be able to take inordinate credit for keeping your home base nice and toasty warm."
"Oh you guys! You'd scientize the romance out of a wet dream! What would you poor guys do without the spark of romance that my sisters and I provide every day?
"Hmm, speaking of romance, what happened to Little Stef? All of a sudden he's gotten really wimpy—and I was only gone for a few minutes."
I gave Terri a rueful smile and replied, "I think that Ms. Kitty wore him out last night. As you saw a few minutes ago, the spirit is willing, but as you just discovered, the flesh is weak."
"I hate to admit it, but Ms. Kitty is not totally into her game this morning either. I am really sore down there, and not totally heartbroken that Little Stef is not up to the Olympic form that he displayed yesterday."
Terri gave me a "little girl caught with hand in cookie jar" look and asked, "Do you mind if we just cuddle? That feels like it is more my speed right now."
I had to laugh, "Terri, that is the least of your worries! You have had the, I hope, good luck to have found an oddball, maybe even an eight-ball. For me, sex with a stranger is fun but unsatisfying. Sex with someone I care about is solid silver, and cuddling with a beautiful person that I care about is a golden gift from the gods!"
"That's neat! I hadn't thought about it that way before, but it makes sense. I think I agree with you." then Terri gave me a playful smile, "Of course, we could go platinum. All that would take would be for us to cuddle up naked in a two-person hammock under a palm tree on a tropical beach during a beautiful day with a light breeze scented with tropical flowers."
"My! I must say, my current companion has excellent taste in cuddling!"
"Flirt!" and that was followed up with a grin, a kiss and a contented sigh. "I don't know if I actually love you, but I am way, way down that road so far."
Terri paused and locked her beautiful hazel eyes with mine, "That seems so strange now. I thought that it would be smart to at least be nice to the only other person that was in the campground to start with. That almost didn't happen, but that moose caught your attention and you and your camera caught mine which brought us close enough to start a conversation—and now look at us!"
I chuckled, "Yeah, it does seem like an odd concatenation of events. I'm pretty sure that both of us touched on some sensitive spots during our conversation over the popcorn. Frankly, I'm amazed that I had the temerity to come into your camp later that night and have a chat over the campfire—especially when I almost walked by your camp while just wishing you a good night. And to think, all that reticence just to be sure that I wouldn't freak you out so you wouldn't think that I was a dirty old man!"
"Welll, you ARE a dirty-minded old man... but I think that is part of your attraction—along with the fact that I feel comfortable... no, make that safe, to be around you."
"As for love... Terri, you say that you have started down that road... Love—there are a whole lot of moving parts on that subject! Love comes on a continuum. You have crossed some thresholds of love with me too—and I would love to cross more!"
"Oh dear, that sounds like you have scientized love too; but, I will confess, you've made me curious."
"Well, according to my way of thinking, if you are human and aren't trying to hurt me, you are automatically entitled to the first level of love. Basically, I won't hurt you and will trust you for as long as you do not do anything that causes me not to trust you. In the realm of sex, I would judge that most prostitutes—or maybe I should say most prostitutional relationships fall into this level right along with almost all other business relationships.
"Friends constitute the second level of love. This is someone with whom you have enough in common that you enjoy being with them for intellectual and/or physical endeavors that you both enjoy. Relative to sex, I would hope that all one-night-stands would fall into this level, but I am convinced that such relationships span the boundary, such as it is, between both levels one and two.
"I figure that 'friends with benefits' is the third level. Of course, this name itself directly implies a sexual component to this level of love. For those who would argue that this level does not automatically have to be linked with sex, I would offer 'best friends forever' as the term that best expresses this level of Platonic love without implying that sex is a necessary part of the relationship.
"I think that this is the level that we are currently exploring. It has been a long, long time since I was this happy and contented, but, while I hope that it doesn't show, I'm also as nervous as the proverbial cat on a hot tin roof!"
"Nervous? What do you mean? I don't remember ever being this happy and contented before—so that part works for me big time. But why nervous?"