I felt her pull away from our embrace. For the first time since my dream, I opened my eyes and looked into hers.  I breathed in sharply as I realized she was crying as well.  “Why are you crying?” I asked her, as I awkwardly chuckled.

            I watched intently as she clenched her jaw, trying to gain control of her emotions. Her voice cracked slightly as she managed to respond, “You said that you loved me.”  And with that admission a new wave of tears began, tears that I could not help but cry with her.  “You were asleep when you said it, but it felt like you were speaking directly to my heart.”

            I pulled her in again, but it didn’t seem to be enough.  In that moment, I could not bring her close enough to satisfy my need to be with her.  I had no idea the emotional purgatory she had been in as she patiently waited for me to reciprocate her profession of love.  It was clear that the sleeping confession gave her peace.  It made me feel awful to have put her through that when I really did feel that way about her.  I whispered ever so softly into her ear, “I do love you, don’t ever doubt that.  I love you so much it scares me. You are my dream and my reality.”

            “Look at me getting all emotional when I should be your shoulder to cry on.”  She wiped underneath her eyes and chuckled slightly as she returned to a sitting position beside me as I lay on the couch.  “I didn’t hear from you and I figured the food here would be sub-par, so I picked up something for you.”  She pointed to the bag sitting on the table.  “It took some time to find you. When I saw you in here sleeping so peacefully, I wasn’t sure I should wake you.” 

            I genuinely smiled and assured her that I could not think of a better way to be woken up.  She blushed and confessed to “not being able to resist”.  It started off as a touch, but when I said the words she had longed to hear from another soul for practically her whole life, she did what she felt was appropriate given the circumstances.  To that, I truthfully stated that I could wake up like that everyday for the rest of my life.