The after-nap

Undergraduate days were deceptively tiring. I was certain that it wasn’t studies or anything remotely academic that had me yawning by midnight. Of course, she wasn’t much better either. In her world though, sleep has to be prefixed with some intensely flavored herbal tea. It was, then, one such calm night. Both of us had heavily invested our time and efforts into organizing a fashion show for our undergraduate school. A fashion show that consisted of us terribly average looking engineers; walking awkwardly on a flimsy wooden ramp with an air of snobbishness. Nevertheless it took quite an effort from our part. While I handled the logistics and the grimy details involving college funds, she contributed artistically. She does have longer fingers. We had finished our last day of practice. The show was next day. All that was left was for us to compile a back up music CD with all the numbers we would be using the next day. Having had to drop her home, we decided it was best if we used her computer to do so. Of course, she began the night off with some tea. And while I knew that was delaying the night even further, I decided it was fine since none of my midnight yawns had yet appeared. We then climbed our way up the stairs to her bedroom. The songs were rapidly selected and drive was triggered to start burning. 11 songs to go, not much longer, before I sped back with bike to make it back to my hostel before the gates closed. However, these were days of slower Pentium processors. The dogs barked in the night completely unaware, as the progress status bar on the screen ticked over ever so slightly. Not much can be said about her patience. She prefers to keep that for the really tough times. When she realized that the burn is going to take a while, she selfishly flopped herself back on the bed. “When you are done, shut the computer down and lock the house door on your way out”. She muttered, barely.
That pretty much summed up her efforts for the night. In the meantime, I diverted my attention back to the computer. Hoping that staring at it would make it work faster. 10 songs to go… So in defiance, I too, fell back on her bed. Decided a nap ought to do just fine. Imagine me then, half sitting and the other half napping. Turns out, the CD burn took an hour. The nap took the next six. I awoke with a faint realization of my surroundings, and then followed by a panic attack of pure fear and nightmarish images of her parents with deadly sickles. What I did not notice was some one had covered me up with a sheet and adjusted my terribly uncomfortable half sitting half napping position into a completely sleeping one. I rushed downstairs, preparing my defenses for what had happened that fateful night. But none was required as I was politely asked to join the rest of the family for tea and breakfast. I left soon after, dazed and completely awake at the same time. It is a fair and ethical assumption that you must love the person you eventually spend the night with. But does the order of events has to be just so?