Waking Up Late

Thomas’ phone buzzed on the nightstand as he squinted to adjust to the light that had invaded his room. He looked at the time on his phone. It was 10:30! He slept through his alarm and Rachel had been long gone.

He unlocked his phone and continued to adjust his eyes as he saw the missed messages from Rachel and his co-worker, Frank, wondering where he was or if he had forgotten to login.

Rachel: Hey sleepyhead. Hope you’re okay. You were pretty out of it this morning.
Rachel: You okay? Haven’t heard back. Aubrey says you’re still sleeping. I saw my sleeping pills out. You know how those mess with you. Text me when you wake up. Love you. ❤

Thomas fired off a quick text to Frank telling him that he overslept and then a few to Rachel. She was right. Those pills did have a tendency to mess with him and make him feel hungover the next day. He tried to remember what happened, but all he could recall was getting up, taking one of Rachel’s pills, and then going to the kitchen for water.

As he crawled out of bed he could hear the kids laughing and running around. He supposed Aubrey had tried to keep them quiet long enough, but in her defense it was late and he needed to be up.

After splashing his face with some water he started having flashes of his dreams or rather THE dream. They were always a little weird when taking one of Rachel’s sleeping pills, but this one seemed vivid and involved Aubrey. He still had the video. That was real at least, but he needed to delete it. If Rachel found out or he got caught watching it again? He needed to reconnect with Rachel and get Aubrey out of his head. He grabbed his phone again and shot off another couple of messages to Rachel.

Thomas: How about a date night tomorrow night.
Thomas: Just you and me.
Rachel: Sounds great. What about Aubrey and the kids?
Thomas: Aren’t Fridays your early days. Plus, she lives here.
Rachel: Okay.
Rachel: Gotta go. Another meeting. Talk tonight?
Thomas: Sure. I love you.
Rachel: I love you. ❤

After showering and shaking out some of the cobwebs Thomas poured himself a very late cup of coffee as he was still feeling a little groggy from the night before.

“Morning sleepyhead,” Aubrey teased as he strolled into the kitchen.

The kids then joined in on the teasing about him sleeping in, but Thomas sensed a different vibe from Aubrey. He knew it had to all be in his head. After the video he couldn’t quite look at her the same. He needed to say something, but was worried about how embarrassed she might be. Then there was his dream. He had experienced sex dreams before, but the one last night seemed so vivid, but thankfully there had been no evidence of such a dream. Thomas sometimes missed his youth, but definitely not the teenage wet dreams.

He distracted himself by playing with the kids for a bit as he rummaged through the pantry for a quick breakfast. Aubrey had offered to make him something, but he knew she had her hands full and at this point he needed less Aubrey in his life, not more.

The rest of the day was pretty quiet as Thomas caught up on some of the work he missed that morning and tried to get ahead for tomorrow’s date night, hoping that Rachel would be able to get off early.