Mango
It’s cosy under the duvet covers.
They don’t like to sleep facing each other. She cuddles up to the radiator, her muffled snores emanating from deep within the pillow. He lies near her, sprawled, a human’s width away; one arm draped over the edge of the bed, mouth ever so slightly open. A right pair of gorms, they are.
He sleeps soundly when she’s near. He doesn’t mind if the duvet falls away to expose his bare skin. He falls so deeply under the heavy blanket of slumber that he rarely feels the cold. If he does, she’ll be there to lay a warm hand across his chest; to play absent-mindedly with the soft fuzz that ever so slightly resembles Batman’s mark. She’ll tangle her fingers into his soft curls and, with warm breath, traces kisses over his cheek.
The sun rises and the shadows bend from East to North to West.
They stir. Once wakefulness resumes, they banish the distance between them. Palm to palm. Cheek to shoulder. Hip to hip.
His beard grazes her neck. Electricity courses through limbs and lips and her heart quickens in shameless pleasure. They chuckle over something or nothing and she feigns offence. His hold tightens and they playfully struggle. He soothes her once more with a graze of the neck. She falls in on herself; limp like a bad souffle. He gently molds her into his frame and mumbled sighs caress her ear.
‘This is nice,’ she yawns, sleepily.
‘I’m going to put a mango up your chuff.’
She’s facing away from him, but she can easily picture the mischievous grin that has just spread itself across his face like warm butter.
‘You’re easily the most horrific person I’ve ever met, you know that?’ she smiles.
‘I know. I’m also going to open up an umbrella inside you. To see if it’s bad luck.’
The playful struggle resumes and she laughs wildly.
‘Let me go, you dirty pervert.’
‘Nope. I like winding you up. I also like how you persistently seem to believe that you’re stronger than me, when we’ve seen on many occasions that that simply isn’t the case.’
She smiles in fair agreement and relaxes her grip. He gathers her up in his arms and rests his cheek in the crook of her neck.
They chuckle at one another, both knowing that the next ludicrous obscenity is about to punctuate the otherwise perfectly romantic atmosphere.
Mango up the chuff or not, at that moment she knows.
She just knows.
