Another Day

The alarm started beeping at 7 am this morning and I pawed along the ledge around Eric's mattress, found my thermometer, popped it in my mouth and hit the on button. I didn't close my eyes again because I never opened them. I lay very still. To get an accurate reading of your basal body temperature, you have to have had 3 or 4 hours solid sleep, and not have moved around too much. Movement can raise your temp and give you a false reading.

Eric rolled over.

"I'm buying a gun from the guy. At the Shanghai. The one... "

My eyes certainly opened then. No one has ever before told me they were buying a gun as a way of saying good morning. But what could I say? I needed this temperature, having missed yesterday's after a 4 am pee. If moving around a bit was going to possibly give me a bad reading then opening my mouth was definitely going to fuck that temperature up. So I just said "Mmm?" as Eric continued with the details, the oddness accruing as he went.

The thermometer beeped. It fell out when I opened my mouth. "You're buying a gun?"

"Yeah, weird dream, eh?"

I started breathing, scrabbled for the pen and my chart, scribbled what might turn out to be an illegible 61, turned back over and snuggled myself under Eric's arm. "Morning, baby."