Morning

I awaken at 6AM. I roll over to face Nuria, who is lying on her side with her back toward me. I run my fingertips over Nuria's back. Her skin is smooth as silk. I rub her back lightly, running my fingertips over her entire back, her belly, her hip, and down her thigh. "I love that," she says. I love doing it. Finally she rolls over to face me. We lie in bed cheek to cheek, but I continue my fingertip massage. 

"You woke me up at one thirty," she tells me. "You shook me and said, 'It's one thirty, you have to get up.'"

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Nothing."

"What did I do?"

"You went back to sleep."

"No, I didn't go back to sleep. I was asleep the whole time." 

I do that kind of thing more often than I would care to admit. I do things while I'm sleeping. I have no memory of doing these things. I am asleep, probably dreaming, when I do them. 

"It's almost six thirty," Nuria says. "Time to get up." She means it's time for her to get up. But I know I won't go back to sleep.

I roll my legs off the bed and switch on the small lamp on the dresser beside my bed. It's a cool little lamp. I like that the on/off switch is on the lamp base, very easy to reach. And there is a USB charging port on the side of the lamp base that I plug my phone into overnight. 

The house is cool and Nuria slips on jammies and a flannel shirt, I pull on warmup pants and a t-shirt, and we go to the front room. Nuria makes her morning coffee then sits on the couch and watches TV news. I sit at the computer and start this blog. When it's about half written, I interrupt it to go and sit with Nuria.

"Te amo," she whispers to me.

"Te amo muchisimo," I whisper back. And because I'm in the mood, I add, "Te extraño, te necesito, te quiero, te deseo."

After a while, Nuria asks me what I want for breakfast. "Do you want gallo pinto?"

"With egg?" I ask.

"And sausage," she suggests.

"Sounds good."

Nuria goes to the kitchen and I go to the computer to finish writing this blog. Another day is beginning. Who knows what it will bring, where we will go, what we will do.