“Why do you let me stay here,” she questioned, rolling over onto to her right elbow to address me more formally?

Still in the afterglow, hands behind my head like one of those sunny day, happy family long distance ads, I just smiled and laughed.

Her eyes and heart fluttered a bit, exposing more of her shoulders and a flash of her breast. She scooped up the covers and retreated.

I propped up to investigate. “The better question,” I continued as I leaned in to kiss her, “is whether I’ll ever let you leave.”

A blush betrayed the embarrassment through her sheeted veil, which she lowered to accept my advances. Nose to nose, eye to eye, we were closer now than we had been coupled in coitus.

“I love you.”

Neither of us flinched. Both of us stared.

To this day I honestly don’t remember which one of us said it, though we both heard it spoken. Maybe it was simultaneous combustion?

Instead we just started laughing and kissing, stopping to lay back down and stare at the ceiling, contemplating our shared fortunes.