Middle of the Night

Luke

I sat on the bed next to her. “I need you to get dressed.”

She shoved her hair off her face and turned to the alarm clock on the side table next to the bed. “What time is it?”

“Three,” I said.

“In the morning?” she asked, more confused than ever.

“Just, please trust me,” I said.

“Luke, I don’t understand.”

I helped her out of bed. Turning on the light in the bathroom, it gave us enough illumination to navigate the bedroom. Injuring her before arriving at our location wasn’t in the plan.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Why are you dressed like that?”

The more she asked, the fewer excuses I gave her. She would find out when we got there. I feared if I gave it all away too soon, she might refuse to come.

I had chosen a good time because in her sleep-delirium, she was quite pliable and went along with helping me get her dressed.

While I would have wanted to make it a formal affair, I wasn’t going to have her freeze to death. The temperature at night in Dallas put frost on the windows, s