My Korean Christmas Prince Ch. 04

With all of those revelations out of the way, I make Caleb hand the stack of DVDs over to me and quickly flip through them. I've seen pretty much all of them, of course, but there's one movie that someone I'm sort of friends with is in that I never got around to watching. Caleb's open to anything, and before we settle down to watch it he pours us some whiskey from a local distillery that he likes. Our fingers touch briefly when he passes the tumbler to me, and although outwardly I have to hide my reaction at the little jolt of electricity, inwardly I have to smile at the romantic movie cliche (all of which I'm well versed in, of course) before reminding myself that I'm just enjoying his company as friends.

Soon after we've arranged ourselves on the couch (I'm careful to put a more than normal distance between us), Rosie, Caleb's dog, jumps up to plunk herself down between us, and it's not long before Sonia has also joined us, seating herself on the backrest behind me with her back half nuzzling into my neck and right shoulder. Talk about a domestic scene! I think to myself, with another burst of longing that I try to stifle, but as the evening has gone on it's gotten more and more impossible.

The movie is a sci-fi horror, a genre that I wouldn't usually watch, but it's actually better than I'd expected and has a good plot and characters and good production and design and cinematography. And since Caleb is focused on the subtitles (I guess he doesn't know much Korean after all), I can let the urge to watch him and not the movie get the better of me. It must be the alcohol, but I've never felt such a strong urge to reach out and touch someone, to grab hold of some of that warmth. It takes me a conscious effort to keep my right hand away from Caleb, so I put it under my right leg for safety. I remember now what it means to feel a magnetic attraction, and even though I've acted it scores of times, actually feeling it, really feeling it, is for the most part completely foreign. I'd felt it with Tae-seok, but I'd let myself be led to forgetting what it's like for all of these years. How could I have forgotten, I wonder to myself. What have I been missing from my life all this time?

We laugh together over the jump-scares, the gore, and some surprise deaths and surprise victories, but soon the lack of sleep from the past two days and the jet lag and the alcohol and the warm dog filling up the space between us are all just too much and I feel myself drifting off. I remember struggling to stay awake, but the next thing I remember is a warm hand on my arm...

"Hey, there. Looks like it's past your bedtime," I hear a voice saying gently.

In a sleepy haze I slowly remember where I am, who the voice must belong to. I blink slowly a few times, vaguely notice that I'm looking up blearily at Caleb from near his shoulder. Brain, slowly struggling to make observations and draw conclusions. What time is it? The movie's still playing. Wait a sec. There seems to be less of a gap between us than there should be. Was my head on his shoulder? Oh my god, how embarrassing. The dog must have gone. Rosie. What a cute dog. It's so warm and cozy next to him. Caleb... What a nice guy. And good looking. I'm not supposed to be sitting this close to him...

"Sorry," I say through the haze, apologizing instinctively and making a half-hearted effort to move away.

There's that low, soft gentle amused laugh that I already love to hear and want to hear more of. "Gentle". I give up trying to move in the direction that's away from the one I want, and, my defenses down, instead I give in and lean back into that warm shoulder and close my eyes again. If I could put what I'm feeling into words, it would be a wish... that Caleb would put his arm around me and enfold me in his warmth.

"Ai, jal saeng-gin namja!" I mumble in Korean as I feel myself being pulled back to sleep. It's the same thing I'd said when I'd seen him fresh from his shower. "What a good looking guy."

"'Jal saeng-gin namja', yourself," Caleb says with a chuckle, and if I were more awake I would be impressed at how well he speaks Korean and embarrassed by the fact he must also know what it means and wondering how much other Korean he knows, but right now I'm too sleepy to think to care about any of it.

I drift off again, I think for only a few minutes, but Caleb has apparently seen that I'm not going to make it to bed without help (I really shouldn't have had that whiskey), and so with some gentle coaxing he's draped my arm around his broad, muscular shoulders and practically lifted me down the hallway to the guest bedroom, his beard gently tickling the smooth skin on my face. I mumble some more incoherent phrases in Korean, something about a nice, gentle farmer who is a prince in disguise who has a cute cat and a cute dog and a cute house and cute furniture, but he can't cook, he needs someone to cook for him, I'm a good cook...

We've reached the bedroom and Caleb steers me to the bed and pulls the covers back and sits me down on the crisp, clean sheets, and somewhere in my stupor I feel him hesitate. I clumsily try to pull my shirt over my head, but it's a button up and Caleb laughs at my pathetic attempts (that lovely, beautiful, sexy laugh again!). I feel him patiently unbuttoning my shirt, and when my head emerges I see him smiling and still shaking his head at me. I throw my arms around him in thanks, but it's actually more like a big hug because I want to get close to him because I like him, this smart, kind farmer who has secret banker powers or something, but he politely untangles himself. I start to unbutton my pants, but Caleb backs away hurriedly and mumbles, "Well, I think you've got it from here. Good night!" and leaves in a hurry. I have a strong but vague feeling of disappointment, but with a deep sigh I lay down, top half first, and then with a bit of effort and a few failed attempts, get my bottom half up onto the bed, and once I've pulled the covers over me and my head touches the pillow I'm out like a light, like a boxer who's been knocked out cold and is out for the count...