The Era of Good Feelings
Chapter 8: After The Caffeine, um, Loving
Natalie dozed off right after we made love. I know, the guy’s supposed to be the one who rolls over and falls asleep, but she was still more sleep deprived than me. And besides, I napped for a bit as well, because I was a bit sleep deprived myself.
It was still late afternoon when I woke up, and I had a problem. Mom’s side of the family was getting together for Christmas Eve, and I’d be expected to be there. About the only way I could get out would be to play the “I’m stuck in the White House and I gotta work late tonight, but if I tell you why, I’d have to kill you” card, but they knew I was just an intern, so I didn’t think I could play that card plausibly.
On the other hand, I didn’t want to leave Natalie in bed by herself. Sure, I could have woken her up to tell her, but like I said, she was still more sleep deprived than me, and I really didn’t want to wake her up.
I guess she felt me stirring around in the bed, though, so she woke up. “Hey,” she mumbled sleepily as she snuggled closer to me.
“Hey,” I answered as I let her. I didn’t need to go just yet....
She smiled at me. “You got plans tonight?”
“Wish I could stay here, but family’s getting together tonight for Christmas. You?”
She shook her head. “All my family’s out of state.”
“You wanna come with me? Hate for you to be alone, and I’m sure there’s plenty of room and more than enough food!”
“You don’t think they’ll ask questions about the girl you’re bringing home for Christmas?”
“Given the ‘change in priorities,’ they’ll just assume we’ve been doing it on the office desks or something....no, sorry, that didn’t come out right—”
“That’s fine.” Another beautiful sleepy smile. “I don’t mind if they assume that. We know it’s more than that.” I know this doesn’t sound guy-like, but...is there a guy-like way to say I nearly melted? “And right now, sex on the office desks sounds more plausible than sex in the Lincoln Bedroom. Problem is”—she kissed me—“I need to stick around just in case something newsworthy happens over Christmas. Hopefully not, ’cause I want to work on those new response adjustments.”
“You think that’s all you’ll need? Adding the emotion filters and, uh, all that?” I figured “all that” sounded smarter and more supportive than “all that other techno-speak that I wouldn’t understand anyway.”
“I’m sure there’s more to it than that, but I think we’re close now. I’ll hole up in here tomorrow to work on it, and maybe I’ll work up something I can use, and...we’ll see!” She smiled confidently.