3 Falling Asleep

Stella knew that Fred would fall asleep as soon as she put her arm around his chest. It had been their habit. Fred wasn't a sound sleeper but he had confessed that having her as a bed buddy helped with the nightmares that had haunted him from his childhood. And his nightmares were legitimate. When an eight-year-old boy has to learn how to shoot a gun by target practising on bunnies, it leaves a mark.

Stella wouldn't sleep though. Wouldn't isn't the right word. She couldn't sleep with Fred in her arms. When Stella first met Fred she was intimidated. His stature was like a mountain, broad shoulders, tall and very large hands. Unlike they show in the commercials, Fred didn't have a narrow waist either. He was muscular and fit with greying temples and piercing grey eyes. Stella knew that this man could analyze a person at a glance. The awe she felt at his presence made her weary. His friends were far more approachable.

Tom was her friend's husband now and she could easily see him as an older brother she could grow up with. Her friend Daisy had exorcised most of the ghosts of his past. They already had two children with the third one on the way.

Rupert was a celebrity. That celebrity status made him far more accessible in Stella's mind. That was until she started to get to know him. Rupert was a cynic and an introvert, despite everything the media made up about him. To top it off he wasn't half the manwhore the paparazzi made him be.

And then she got to see the softer sides of Fred, the side that took upon himself to buy Daisy her wedding rings when Thomas had forgotten, or that side which rushed to Daisy and Tom's aid when they were in trouble. Stella realized that she was in love with Fred the day he brought over Tom's two-year-old son and eight-month-old daughter over to their place so that the couple could celebrate a quiet marriage anniversary.

Stella knew that it was a truth that she could never express. Her love was forbidden and the risk that she ran was losing the closest friend she had, a friend and a guardian rolled in one. He also had a bloodline that made anyone associated to him a target for murder. He was the man who brought down the Bartoli Gang, his own Mafia family. He was related by blood to the Mariposa gang from his mother's side. In fact, he was the heir apparent to the Mariposa gang as his cousins were all dead. They died in a clash with the Regnante gang. His uncle survived but decided to take the entire Mafia back to Italy. Fred didn't have much of a family.

Stella played with Fred's hair which had grown in the past couple of weeks. She knew that he would get a haircut soon. Fred liked his hair short but Stella liked to roam her fingers in his silky grey tresses.

Fred cherished the caress, however. He wasn't asleep. It wasn't easy to sleep with Stella beside him, with all that he felt for her drowning in the silence that accompanied her safety. It would take Stella an hour or so more before she would fall asleep. Fred could then wrap his arms around her curvy body and pull her close to him. That would be enough to give him a good night's sleep. Fred had learnt early on in their sleeping arrangement that having Stella in his arms kept the nightmares at bay. It had become a habit now.

Soon Stella yawned and reluctantly put her hand away and curled up facing the wall. A few minutes later Fred's large body spooned hers and they were both drifting into bliss.