Most nights for me end the same way. I read on my iPad until I get the nods, wake almost dropping said iPad at least twice, set it down, roll onto my left side and nod off.  Somehow, when I did this last night, Willy was still awake (this is not normal), and he called me out for not kissing him good night.  I was feeling cheeky and let him know that this was because he had chosen the wrong side of the bed to sleep on(I sleep on my left side, and this faces away from him).  He was perplexed, and said, “but, you don’t even like this side of the bed…”

Willy and I have been together for almost fifteen years.  When we first started having “sleepovers”, I noticed right away that we both preferred the same side of the bed.  Not counting on this being a decision that I would be living with for the rest of my life, I ceded my side of the bed without even discussing it. In time I got used to it, but I have always slept on “my” side of the bed when Willy is travelling.  Last night, I let him know that this was the case.

At first he didn’t believe me that I had done this nice thing for him, and refrained from telling him for such a long time.  He tried to come up with proof that really, I just didn’t want his side of the bed.  “I slept on the outside at your house so that I wouldn’t disturb you when I went into work so early”, said the man who NEVER got up early before children.  I, on the other hand, often crept out of bed being cautious not to disturb him as I walked to work at 6:00am. He persevered, and pointed to my reluctance to learn how to work his old alarm clock.  The clock that all the writing had been rubbed off the buttons, and could have easily been moved to his side of the bed, whichever side that might have been… He kept trying, but these were the two strongest arguments that he had.

We lay in silence as he tried to digest this information that had clearly altered his world view.  He confessed that his mind was indeed blown. He couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that I had done something that I derived no benefit from, but that he clearly had.  I never told him as he happily and blissfully slept on the good side of the bed, not realizing that I secretly wanted to as well.  I let him assume that I slept on his side when he was away because I missed him, but the truth is I just wanted a few nights on the good side.  I could tell that he wanted to ask me something by the way that he almost started to speak a couple of times, so I asked what was up.  He hesitated, but confessed that he was worried that there might be other good deeds that I had kept from him. I quickly set his mind at ease by telling him that this was the only nice thing I’d secretly done for him, ever.  “I kinda believe that,” he replied, as he drifted off to sleep, snug on my his side of the bed.