some night.

After a long evening they drove back to her apartment in the dark.  These nights were fun because they got to help out with the meetings and see their friends, but they didn't really see much of each other.  A couple times during the night he had come up behind her and touched her to tell her, "here, behind you!"  He'd smile at her across the room in between conversations and she would wink back.  They'd stay late afterwards to help clean up.

"My paycheck is late again," she said as they wound around streets on the residential shortcut that gave them a fifteen-minute catch-up window.  The trees, which were so brilliant by day, looked various shades of gray and black in the cloudy evening.  "Maybe if I was making decent money that wouldn't matter, but I'm not.  Four hundred dollars matters!"

"That's obnoxious," he said.  "What's the hold up?  Did the boss tell you when you'd get it?"

"He said late Thursday. Maybe Friday."  She was annoyed.

When they got to her apartment, he turned off the car and they both got out.  She went before him down the walkway and unlocked the door.  They went inside and he stood in the doorjamb as she put her purse and plastic coffee mug on the island.

"Alright, well I hope you have a great day at work tomorrow," she said as she turned around and stood face-to-face with him.  She hugged him and stood there for a minute.

He wrapped his arms around her back and rested his head on her temple.  She looked out the window into the black nighttime and he, looking at the mirror on the wall across the room, said, "I wish I could get an artist's depiction of this, right now."

"Of what?" she asked.

"My big arms wrapped around your little self, and your beautiful hair.  It's just cute."

She laughed pulling her head back to see his face and kissed his cheek.

"Love you."  He walked away from the door and she quickly lost his silhouette with the kitchen light behind her and the moonless night outside.