A simple phrase

	Your eyes still hazy from your slumber begin to adjust to the darkness. You're met with a sharp pain running down your back as you turn your head to glance at the clock. Your head pounds as you make out the numbers, "Barely 4AM..." As those words leave your lips your body falls limply back to the bed. As you lie there staring up at the ceiling you hear a soft groan coming from beside you and feel something pulling on the cover. As your eyes focus in the dark, you see the gentle curves of a woman's body laying right beside you. Your heart races as you see her laying next to you with the shirt you had worn last night draped over her and her hair tustled about like she had been in a storm. You roll over in bed and as you do a sharp pain runs down your back. The pain bringing with it images of the night before.

	The warmth of her supple skin against yours, your fingers running through her silky hair, the sound of her voice crying out through labored breath against your ear. The sounds and sensations of a night of ecstasy unlike any other in your life. As the memory of the night before poured back in you found yourself recalling every moment since the two of you met, and through the pink haze that filled your thoughts you relived every moment the two of you shared. A simple question ran out in your mind again and again, "What did I do to deserve this bliss? Was it magic words that brought my happiness? Or some divine command from on high which granted this angel that slept only an arm's reach away?" As that thought echoed in your head your arm reached out to her and brushed her hair from her eyes. As you stare at the blissful look on her sleeping face all of your questions and fears simply faded away. All that remained for you was a single thought embodied in a simple phrase, "I love you."

	Your heart once again began beating wildly as the words you had dared not to speak passed your lips. Though little more than a whisper they resounded in your ears like cannon fire. You lay completely still frozen by your own words and watch for any signs that she may have heard you, but there were none. The unchanging satisfied smile that had stretched across her face from the moment you first saw it gave you a sense of solace as you turned and sat up. Your back once again ached as your foot touched the cold floor. You leaned over and put your head in your hands as you thought of what you had just said. With a harsh grunt you gingerly began to pick yourself up from the bed, but before you could make it to your feet you felt a pair of arms wrap around your waist accompanied by a nostalgic warmth press against your back. A muffled sound cries out to you over and over again, never more than a whisper. You can't make out the words, but the cool droplets against your back tell you all you'll ever need to know. The voice which seemed so distant was tearfully reciting the same simple phrase.