Murray snuggled against Trudi’s soft upper arms, just below her shoulders, and talked happily with her until they fell asleep.
She woke up once in the night to go the bathroom, and when she returned to the bed. He climbed up onto the pillow and snuggled against her neck for half an hour, talking with her again. He remembered how hauntingly beautiful her neck had looked, when he had been staring at it on the verandah and contemplating her earlier plans to swallow him whole.
“It feels nice having you there,” she murmured, “But the only thing is that I’m a bit of a light sleeper. I can’t seem to drop off, with you resting on my neck.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, and climbed off her neck and into a position that would enable him to rest against her soft white cheek, “Is that better?”
“It is. Thank you, little cutey.”
They talked again, and eventually dropped off in turn.
In the morning, the rays of sunshine beaming into the room soon awakened them both. He watched her beautiful upper features as she sat up in bed.
“Did you sleep well?” she asked.
“I took a little longer than you to drop off, both times, which is probably why I woke up after you this morning. I wasn’t worried about the temporary insomnia though. It was lovely to be snuggled against your cheek and looking at your beautiful face in the moonlight.”
“What a delightful compliment to wake up to,” said Trudi.
“I’ll try to think of a different one every day for the next nine years,” said Murray.
“Maybe you won’t need to,” said Trudi, “This has been a unique romantic experience for me. I won’t deny that. But I don’t see myself in a relationship with a shrunken fan for all those years. I must have done alright by myself in the original timeline, and so I will again in this one.”
“Oh .... It’s not just that I’m heartbroken all of a sudden. There’s the practical consideration too. I don’t know what I’ll do if you don’t take me with you to America.”
“I will take you with me, but I won’t continue being your girlfriend. I think one night of that was enough to satisfy my curiosity about what it would be like,” said Trudi.
“Well you won’t be able to take me onto the set of future TV shows or movies. I guess I’ll have a lot of days of waiting at home for you to come in from a job and look after me,” said Murray.
“You won’t have to worry about that either,” said Trudi, “I changed my dinner plans last night, in order to accommodate what’s turned out to be our one night stand. The simplest way to tie up all these loose ends is to pick up where I left off with tonight’s dinner.”
“Do you mean ... eat me?” he asked, incredulous that the past self of this woman he’d saved from a similar fate in giant land was now willing to enact that fate for him.