Rejection

He had rejected her...even in his sleep. She stared at his back in bewilderment and hurt, unable to understand his animosity. Just a minute ago he had lain with an arm and leg thrown over her; possessively, with all the authority of a proprietor and yet protectively, with all the tenderness of a lover. But when she moved closer, he turned away.
Tears welled up, and she looked away, screwing her eyes tightly shut to prevent them from leaking out. One salty drop trailed its way into her ear. She turned her head sideways to dislodge it and stared at his blurred back again. She placed a hand on his back and smoothed the crinkled cloth clinging to his body. The gold ring encircling her finger glinted in the faint night-light, touching a raw nerve.
Her mind roved over the past few months. She brooded over his anger, his dissatisfaction with her. She dragged her eyes away from him and stared instead at the wall in front of her. There, pasted on the wall, she could see the days he had been happy with her, the days when joy-filled laughter and brightly colored places had dominated their lives.
She felt him stir and turned her attention back to him, or rather, to his back. He had moved to lay on his back, with an arm flung out, like an invitation to her, to lay her head on it.

******************

She sighed contentedly and snuggled closer into his side. She lay with her head on his shoulder and her hair splayed across the hard muscles of his arm. She could feel the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest, as can only be induced by sleep.
He rubbed a hand across his nose to dislodge the strands of her soft hair which were tickling him. She smiled and took hold of his hand and smoothed the top of her head with it to settle the hair, and then ran it down her cheek and laid it back onto his chest. She opened her eyes and looked then, at the large hand clutching her much smaller one, making hers appear fragile.
He turned onto his side unexpectedly, catching her unawares, unconsciously cuddling her into his chest, tucking her head into his chin. And he lay there with an arm and a leg thrown over her; possessively, with all the authority of a proprietor and yet protectively, with all the tenderness of a lover.