"Dianne. Wake up, sweetheart." I grumble a little and burrow deeper under the covers. The voice again speaks, this time a bit louder. "C'mon honey. Let's get going."
Slowly the fog begins to lift from my mind and I sleepily blink my eyes open. No light comes through the blinds on the bedroom window, so I know that dawn has yet to break. A glance at the clock confirms this. I groan louder when I read the red glowing numbers: 4:17 a.m. Ugh! Sheesh! Not even birds are awake at this time of day!
The desire to roll over and go back to sleep is strong. The week had been a bitch between dealing with office politics, having two of our patients die and extra hours of training new employees. All of this had added up to very long days, middle-of-the-night calls and not nearly enough sleep. I had been looking forward to my weekend since Tuesday, and what the hell is Tom doing waking me up so early on a Saturday morning? He
knows
I've had a rough week...
And then with startling clarity I remember and come fully awake. This is it! This is the start of our vacation! You actually do have a good reason for waking me up before sunrise. I look up into your beautiful baby blues and feel love for you bloom in my chest. You'd suggested we spend a week away at our cabin on Thursday afternoon after I'd spent most of the day completing the paperwork on the patient who'd died the night before while dodging barbs from a coworker. You'd known I needed the break and had made one possible for us.
Alongside the love is bone-deep appreciation as my eyes drift down and take in the steaming mug of coffee in your hand. With a whimper of gratitude I take the proffered mug and savor that first nearly orgasmic sip. It's as strong as I like it and you'd sweetened it perfectly. After a couple more sips of the steaming hot brew, I look up at you, a welcoming, love-filled smile on my face. You take the cup from me, carefully setting it on the bedside table, as your lips descend to mine for your morning kiss. I wrap my arms around you and sigh as your tongue penetrates the warm recesses of my mouth. Hmmm, I think to myself. This is a much better wake-up than coffee. I tug you down so that you fall on top of me on the bed. However, instead of falling fully on top of my naked form for a bit of hoped-for morning lovemaking, you give me one more kiss on the mouth before pushing up from me. With a cheeky smile and a pop on my bare hip, you tell me to get out of bed.
Before long, we're on our way, heading west to our favorite rental cabin in the mountains. As you drive, I curl up in the front seat with a blanket over me to ward off the early morning chill. I want to doze, but instead find myself staring at your profile in the light shining dimly from the dashboard of your truck. I can barely make out your long eyelashes behind your glasses, and I know your baseball cap covers up your bald pate and part of your salt and pepper hair. Looking at you, I marvel at this incredibly gorgeous man who's chosen to love me. You must've felt my intense gaze. Either that, or my lovestruck sigh gave me away; you turn to me and smile, a wealth of love in your eyes.
The early morning stillness and the motion of the truck soon lull me back into sleep. I wake up a couple of hours later when you pull into the parking lot of a diner. My eyelids flutter open moments before you lean over to kiss me awake. Your tongue lightly touches mine before we separate to go inside.
Once inside the diner, the wondrous smells of bacon and fresh coffee greet us. The waitress behind the counter shoots us a broad, welcoming smile and wishes us a good morning as we enter. We grab a booth over by the side window. The diner isn't very busy yet; a few truckers are nursing mugs of coffee at the counter, and the place is pretty much silent except for a love song playing on the juke box.
The waitress comes over to take our order after placing two mugs of steaming hot coffee in front of us. We give her our orders and settle in with our coffee. Your hand reaches across the table to hold mine, and our fingers mesh together. I rub my thumb across your knuckles before bringing our joined hands up to my lips. I place a kiss on your hand before releasing it. Grabbing some money out of my purse, I head over to the juke box. You sip your coffee as you enjoy the gentle side-to-side sway of my hips.
I get to the juke box and flip through the selections, not looking for any one in particular. When I find the perfect song, I'll know. I flip through several more play lists before I see it. I slide my quarters into the juke box, punch in my selection, and return to our table. As I get back to it, the first notes of our song fill the diner. Tears glisten in my eyes as I hold my hand out to you. "Wanna dance?" I ask.
Without a word, you get up and take me in your arms. I look up into your eyes as our bodies move to the sultry music. We're completely unaware that all eyes in the diner are on us, or that the waitress has dimmed the lights for us. Our focus is on each other and only each other. As we dance, I sing along to the music where only you can hear. My voice catches as I get to the final stanza, and it's like my promise to you. As the last note fades, I look into your eyes once more and note a similar glistening making your baby blues sparkle. We share a brief kiss and sit back down. The waitress brings our food over to us just as we're sliding back into the booth.
We talk quietly over breakfast, saying nothing, yet saying everything. The main topic of conversation surrounds our week to ourselves and how much we're looking forward to having that week away. Finally, breakfast done, we head back out to your truck and continue on towards the cabin.