Cuddling

Hello, hello, Jasha here! I missed last week's post (oops! I'll have to remember to make up for that), but i'm on time with this week's! This week's prompt was "You don’t like snuggling or a lot of touching, but when you’re asleep, you’re a cuddler, for better or worse." and our challenge was the Alphabet Challenge, which each sentence had to start with the next letter of the alphabet, starting at A. It was also decided, last minute, that we would start the alphabet backwards if we reached the end of the end before we finished writing.

So, here is my post! Hope you enjoy it!

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As it was, when she and Quinton first started dating, Xandra knew that he was not very physically affectionate, and would not often initiate anything. But if she was the one to initiate it, he wouldn’t pull away unless he wasn’t feeling comfortable - for the most part. Cuddling was, generally, out of the question - he just wasn’t interested in wrapping his arms around her.

Despite that, however, Xandra loved him. Even if he did often sit on the opposite end of the couch to avoid her using him like a pillow. For the most part, she was fine with it; she had her moments where she needed something more than idle conversation across the room, but she adapted to his needs quickly enough, while he adapted to hers.

Generally speaking, though, while she was fine with things how they were, her friends were not too happy about the situation.

“He’s taking advantage of you,” they would tell her, when she met them for coffee. “If he really loved you, he wouldn’t spend so much time avoiding you!”

“Just because you want your boyfriends to be affectionate with you,” Xandra would tell them, every time they started up the argument again, “doesn’t mean I have to want that myself.”

Kelly, her so-called best friend, was one of the worst of them for insisting that he didn’t really love her. “Look, Xandra,” she’d often say, whenever they were out together - Xandra had quickly learnt that it meant she was about to point out a good-looking guy, or a cutesy, affectionate couple, on the street. “Maybe he’s the one for you,” or “wouldn’t you like to be like them,” she would continue, while Xandra did her best to ignore whoever she was pointing out.

“No means no,” was often her response, though she knew such a thing went in one ear and out the other with her friends, “I’m fine with things the way they are, so how about we drop the subject now?”

Other than her friends being insistent that he wasn’t the right man for her, however, her life was as peaceful and normal as anyone could ever hope for. Plus, she had a secret; one she dared not tell her friends, because she knew better than to trust them with secrets.

Quinton was a cuddler was he was asleep.

Rather early on, when they’d moved in together, Xandra had noticed that he seemed to actively seek out something to hold when he was asleep. Sometimes, if he dozed off on the couch, it was pillows or blankets - once, it had been his laptop - but when they were in bed, no matter if he fell asleep facing towards her or away, she’d always wake up wrapped in his arms. Time after time, she’d literally have to fight her way out of his arms if she woke up before him - which she often did.

Unfortunately, he was not only a deep sleeper - she was certain he’d sleep through the end of the world - but he was also a clingy bugger. Very rarely would he wake up while she was struggling to free herself - more often than not, he’d wake up some time after she’d taken a shower in the mornings.

When he did wake up, however, he was often surprised - if not by the fact that he’d been cuddling, then by the odd positions they often ended up in during her daily struggle to free herself.

Xandra would ignore his expression each time, wriggle free of his arms, and wander off to the bathroom.

“You’re going to be late for work again, if you don’t get up,” she would call over her shoulder at him as she closed the door to the bathroom behind her. Zoned out, as if unsure if he should be confused, embarrassed, or something else entirely, was a cute look for him, but she didn’t have the time to admire his expression.

Yes, Xandra was quite content with her life indeed.