10

Mariah shifted so her head rolled from Chad’s arm to his chest, and as Chad scooped her closer with his arm, she sighed.  “Hey, baby,” she groggily whispered at the end of a deep breath in, “is the movie over?”  The small tv in the corner mutely displayed the startup menu from the movie they hadn’t watched, casting its soft white glow across the room. 

 

He kissed the top of her head and hugged her in closer.

 

“Yeah,” he returned simply.  She tilted her head up and met his eyes briefly, then settled down again into his arms. 

 

“Mmmm, this is nice,” she smiled into his tshirt, “but I can’t believe I fell asleep!  It was so interesting…” she trailed off into a yawn, then stretched out her arms and slipped away from Chad.  “What happened to the dog?”

 

“Well,” Chad hesitated.  She looked amazing all stretched out across his sofa.  He didn’t want to tell her.”

 

“Oh my god, he died?”  She stared wide-eyed at him.  He shook his head and reached to hug her, but she sat up.  “He reminded me of my dog growing up.  Bentley.  He was this big black dog.  The vet told us he wouldn’t get any bigger when we adopted him but he got twice as big!  Can you believe that?”

 

“Wow.  How big did he get?”

 

“He weighed more than me when he died.”  She slouched back onto Chad.  He held her loosely so she could get up again, though he didn’t want her to.  “It was when I went to college.  He got sick and we had to put him down.”  Chad felt her weight sinking into him, and tentatively wrapped his arms around her own, cupping her hands gently in his.  They fell asleep like this, both thinking of Bentley.