Pretending Ambrosia

“This can’t go on forever,” he said, returning to the warm bed with two steaming cups of coffee. “This moment, I mean. This... sense of perfection.”

“What do you mean?” She tucked a lock of rumpled hair behind her ear, and sat up before accepting the mug with both hands. “Ooh. Hot.”

He leaned over and snatched a couple of tissues from the box on the bedside table. “Here, wrap these around it.” She accepted them and sipped from her drink.

“I like your coffee.”

“Yeah?” He sampled from his own cup and made a face. “Most people tell me it’s gross, and I think they’re right.”

She grinned at him over the rim of her mug. “So what was it you were saying?”

“Oh.” He took another sip and set the mug down. “It was just thinking it’s kind of sad that this isn’t the way life is all the time. Tomorrow I have work, and you have work, and we’ll have to worry about things again.”

She took one hand from her mug to play with his hair. “So we won’t go to work tomorrow.”

“We can’t do that.”

“Yeah, we can. We’ll play hooky. We’ll conveniently contract malaria.”

“And then what?” he laughed. “Should we get tuberculosis on Tuesday. How about mad cow disease on Wednesday? We have to face reality sometime.”

She held his gaze; her eyes were clear. “Who says that this isn’t reality? How are the good things in life any less real than the parts that suck?”

“I guess...”

She sat up and took his hand. “Ready? Let’s pretend... this apartment is some little kingdom far, far away from the rest of the world. The word ‘office’ doesn’t even exist here. It’s just us, and maybe the birds singing outside the window. And this crappy coffee is honeyed mead – no, ambrosia.”

“You read too many fantasy novels,” he teased, poking her in the side, right where he knew she was the most ticklish.

“No!” she shrieked, giggling and fending him off with her one free hand. “Don’t, or I’ll spill it all over the bed.”

“What, the ambrosia?”

“That’s right.”

Smiling at her, he took the mug from her and tried the drink again.

His foul brew had never tasted so sweet.