A Night I Should Always Remember

Ally stirred. She sluggishly turned on to her side groaning loudly at the throbbing headache racing through her temple. She squinted at the unusual amount of light passing through her bedroom window. She tried to open her eyes, which was met by an aggressive throb near the front of her skull. As her eyes slowly adjusted she looked around the room confused and in shock to find she wasn’t in her own room. The room around her was painted a creamy, off-white color. There was a flat screen TV mounted on the wall, opposite the bed she was lying on. It hung delicately above a natural wood dresser with bronze legs and handles. There were several palm tree looking plants in weaved wicker baskets around the room. The light from a large sliding glass door was muted by a thin white curtain hanging from a bronze bar mounted on the wall. The floor was entirely wood except for the fluffy white rug under the bed. Ally turned onto her other side lazily, closing her eyes again. She didn’t want to deal with this right now.

All of a sudden a loud snore came from the bed beside her. She jumped out of the bed landing clumsily on the floor. Her head ached and throbbed at the sudden movement. Her legs wobbled and crumpled beneath her out of shock and exhaustion. She grasped for the bed frame, pulled herself up, and steadied her wobbling body. Her head spun, dehydration getting the best of her. To keep herself from collapsing on the floor again, she squeezed the bedpost so hard that her hands went numb. When her vision finally cleared and she was somewhat confident that her legs would support her weight, she let go of the bedpost. She shook her hands lazily until they stopped tingling. Only then did she remember what had startled her in the first place. She slowly turned her head, as to prevent any excessive throbbing, towards the person she had evidently shared a bed with the previous night. A shirtless man lay sprawled on the bed, his chocolate curls cascading past his shoulders. His face was peaceful and for a moment the tension Ally held in her jaw began to melt. He was beautiful. Ally smiled slightly to herself, unable to remove her eyes from his flawless face. Another thunderous snore roused Ally from her stupor. Her heart raced, her head spun, and her stomach churned. She heaved, running towards a door she could only hope was a bathroom.

She kneeled, hunched over the toilet for 10 minutes, her stomach determined to rid itself from any and all contents. Finally, her stomach settled. She was a mess. Her eyes were burning and crying, snot was dripping out of her nose, and she had vomit and drool on her lips and chin. She forced herself to stand up and move to the sink. She bent over slightly, ignoring the pain in her head, and splashed cool, refreshing water on her face. She filled one of the plastic cups from the side of the sink, filled it with the cool water and took small sips, washing the taste of last night’s alcohol and stomach acid out of the mouth. She started to feel better. As she finished her first cup water she checked her phone to try to remember what had happened last night. She found a dozen or so pictures and videos from her friend with the caption “Congratulations! I had so much fun last night! How’s Mexico?” Congratulations? Mexico? She was in Mexico? How had that happened? She opened her camera roll to find a multitude of pictures of herself and the man who now slept soundly in the room just outside the bathroom door. They were wearing very fancy clothes. She had a sparkly white dress and he wore a three-piece suit.

He was even more beautiful in the pictures! His dazzling smile reached his magnificent blue eyes. His long, curly hair was pulled into a messy bun on the top of his head. Ally trembled looking at the pictures. She knew this was wrong. She had been way too drunk the night before and definitely couldn’t have gotten together with anyone like that on her own. She’d always been horrible at flirting. Another giant snore snapped her back to reality. She was in Mexico, over 300 miles from her home! She needed to get out of here. She gathered herself and snuck back into the other room. She tiptoed past the bed, towards the room’s door. Careful to not make a sound she twisted the handle and began to sneak through the door.

“Ally?” She winced. Had she not been silent enough? She peeked her head back into the room to see the man sitting upright on the bed squinting towards the door. He was just as beautiful as he had been while sleeping, except there was something different. A glimmer of recognition began in Ally’s head. Suddenly everything made sense. Alcohol had always had a strange effect on her the day after. Whenever she was hungover her brain went back about 5 years. She smiled mockingly to herself, internally laughing at her foolishness.

“Hi,” she said half-laughing and breathing a sigh of relief, “Welcome to your honeymoon, babe.”