Overheard Last Night In My Bedroom

"It's freezing in here. Do you care if I turn on the heater(space)?"  I say.

He pulls his CPAP mask away just long enough to say. "The air conditioning is on. Its been on since March. Turn off the air conditioning and you can turn on the heater."

"We could turn on the heater in this room with the door closed and it wouldn't raise a single degree in the rest of the house. That's why we got it, remember? "  I reply.

"Not that cold in here." is his muffled retort.

"Fine. I'll freeze to death." I respond.

"Fine." again muffled.

"If I die I'm gonna hurt you." I add for emphasis.

He pulls his mask away from his face again "You can't. Remember? You'll be frozen. To death." He returns mask and chuckles through his CPAP.

"You're mean. Just wait. You won't be laughing when my ghost plucks your ass hairs out one by one." I warn.  He starts laughing into his mask hard enough that he starts to choke.

"That's right. You won't even know it's coming. You'll be lying there all night and suddenly OWWW!" I continue. 

By now he's choking as much as he's laughing and he's not even close to being done.  It's one of those things you can tell after so many years of loving the same person.

"Stop it I can't breathe."  he says when he tugs his mask down one last time.

"Serves you right." I tell him as I turn over and snuggle into my portion of the blankets.  I listen to him until his breathing returns to normal.

By now I'm warm enough to sleep, but I certainly won't tell him that.

We have had a million moments like this in our 13 years together.  Things nobody else will ever fully understand.  If you do understand, it's because you've had some of your own.  There is something to be said for the everyday.  It gets you through a whole hell of a lot of reluctant compromise and dutiful stand-by-your-man(significant other)-ness.    Life isn't always pretty and it certainly isn't perfect, but there is perfection in it, especially moments like this.