Foreign Bodies

Miriam buries her face in Cole's soft neck as she lays next to him, and hears him let out a quiet grunt seeming to imply surprise. He looks up at Miriam, who smiles back at him. He looks somewhat dazed, though he may have dozed off, she reasons, and just wasn't expecting the contact. But the truth comes out shortly.

"Sorry," Cole's voice is quiet, and sounds sleepy, but is tinged with sadness "I didn't mean to move. I just wasn't anticipating that."

He settles back into his bed, and after looking at Miriam for permission, puts his arm under the curve in her neck and brings his hand to her head and begins brushing through her soft hair.

"Weren't anticipating what, Cole?" Miriam finds herself enjoying Cole's gentleness, the silky, new feeling of his skin, and her place in the crook of his neck that smells like cedar.

"To be honest? I thought you were just going to lay there. I didn't think you would come over to me," Cole's petting of Miriam's hair now stops, but his hand rests in the shiny brown waves.

"Of course I'm going to cuddle with you, Cole, I came back to your house to do so," Miriam assures him, bringing her slender leg over his thick ones, his left ending at the knee.

Cole thinks this over, and then says with some apparent chagrin, something he clearly doesn't want to share, "You'd be surprised. You’re my first Tinder match to come to my house. Most people don't want me after they see me."

"I’m sorry, Cole," Miriam nuzzles into his neck, briefly stunning him into silence, that causes his breath to become shallow and fast, and his already rapid heartbeat to speed up.

She doesn't know what else to say, but she knows she'd like to get him used to having good things happen to him again.