She got out of the shower naked, her favorite purple towel wrapped around her hair on top of her head, and like that she walked across the hardwood floors towards her bedroom. Quickly, she peeked around the corner to see if Michael was still sleeping. Then, she opened a drawer next to her bed and started to put on panties and a brown bra. While she put the bra in place, she watched Michael sleep.
All she could remember was him walking into the house right before she went to sleep. They had talked for about 15 minutes, and then he had woken her up by climbing into her bed around 3am.She remembered him shaking all over and she knew he had had another nightmare. He had not worn any clothes but she was too sleepy to mind. And so she had wrapped her arms around him and had pulled him closer to her to give him a hug. That always calmed him down. She had been stroking his hair while his breathing resumed a normal pace and he finally fell asleep in her arms.
She shook her head as she got a pair of jeans out of her closet and put it on. They had known each other since they were in kindergarten together, and they were sharing this house as friends for the last four years, and the one complaint she had were these nightmares. He was hardly ever home but when he was she sometimes woke up hearing him scream in his room, and she was sick of it.
Getting her towel away from her hair, she threw it at him. He woke up with a start. ‘What the hell is this?’ he inquired, too sleepy to sound angry. ‘Get out of my bed,’ she said, pulling up the zipper of her pants. ‘I am sick and tired of your nightmares. Get another job!’ With that she pulled the covers away from him, regretted it instantly because she got a good view of his semi-hard cock, turned around abruptly, and walked out of the room.
Michael followed her into the kitchen, her towel wrapped around his hips, and he opened the fridge to find something to drink. ‘How has it been going the last two weeks?’ he asked, closing the fridge door and sitting down by the kitchen table. ‘Things have been fine,’ she answered, getting the toast out of the toaster and sitting down on a chair across from Michael. ‘Thanks to you sending the money for the furnace right away, everything worked out perfectly while you were gone,’ she added while spreading the butter with a knife. As she did not get a response, she looked up, noticing a fresh scar on his shoulder. ‘What happened?’ she inquired when her eyes finally met his. He shook his head lightly and ignored her question. ‘I am glad everything worked out. As you know I am very responsible when it comes to taking care of this house or anything else, so you don’t have to sound surprised that I sent the money when you asked for it.’
He reached out across the table and took one half of her toast. ‘What happened?’ she asked once more, and instead of taking a bite of the toast, he leaned back and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. ‘Sandy, I am not going to tell you what happened to my shoulder. We have been through this before and it would only upset you. So let’s let it lie!’ He took a bite now but his eyes did not let go of hers. ‘I am fine, as you can see. I came back in one piece, as I always do. I pay the rent, I take care of things around here when I am home, I sent you the money. I know you don’t like my job but it is just what I do.’ He took a deep breath before he continued. ‘We go through this every time and it never satisfies either of us. I am off work this week-end, so let’s talk about going to Charlie’s tonight and hang out with the guys. I don’t want to think about my job when I am home.’
She pushed her chair back and stood up. ‘I would like to not think about your job, Michael, I really do,’ she said, trying not to sound upset. ‘But somehow you remind me of it every night when you are home.’ She could feel herself loosing it. ‘Why don’t you stop waking me up in the middle of the night, and I’ll consider it a deal on my side.’ With that, she walked past him, shaking her head over getting mad at him once again.
‘Did you tell him?’ Sam put his Queue down and looked at Sandy in disbelief when she shook her head. ‘You spent the whole day with him in the house and he did not pick up on anything?’ Sam could not believe it. Together, they watched Michael as he got ready to finish the game. ‘He lost weight,’ she said, more to herself. Sam agreed. ‘Yes, and so have you.’ With that he clapped his hands and congratulated Michael. ‘Okay, Mike, let’s do another one.’ Hanging out at Charlie’s was great. Sam, Sandy, Bill, Dave, Stuart, and Michael had been friends forever. After finishing college it had been increasingly hard to get together. All but Sandy and Michael had families by now, and things just were not the same if they all got together with wives and kids. But they still squeezed in a night here and then, and it was great. After three games of pool Sandy sat down to watch the others play. It was great to see Michael happy. He was laughing. This was rare. She shook her head when she thought how much his job got to him. Why wouldn’t he admit it to himself?
And why did she care so much? He was right: he was responsible and had it together except for the nightmares. And she felt guilty for feeling more than she should for him. She had to admit that the women who were looking at him right here in the bar made her jealous. And every once in a while she caught herself looking at him that way, too. Sometimes, he caught her watching him and she prayed that he would not notice. They had been friends too long to make any changes.