Page 58 of Your Side of the Offense

Oh fuck. What do I say?

I open my mouth. "Um, yeah…"

Fuck! What was that?

The line goes dead.

Fuck.

Um, yeah? You are such an idiot, Su.

"He's lucky to have you." Arch's voice startles me to a jump. I had forgotten I wasn't alone.

I turn to find a soft smiling Archer. Not at all what I expected. Placing my phone on the desk, I turn back to him.

"Come now, let me tuck you in, you big baby," I say, ignoring what he just said.

He chuckles. "I am not a baby." But he pouts anyway.

"Riiight." I go to his closet and take out his sleeping pants and a crisp white shirt. Placing it next to him, I turn and wait for him to change. When he is finished, he gets in bed and I sit next to him on top of the covers.

"Are you going to watch me till I fall asleep?" There is a note of something in his voice, maybe…anxiousness.

"It's why I'm here. Now sleep, man baby." I try to joke.

He lies down and I take his tablet in his drawer where I know it will be. Archer is a creature of habit.

"You still read this stuff?" I ask him as I scroll through his hentai reads, more like porn with a plot. He got me into it when we dated but I honestly haven't read much after.

"Don't call it 'this stuff,' Peach, like you don't know its power." He grins.

I pinch his cheek and he laughs.

We used to read it together, it was our foreplay sometimes and often we'd end up reenacting the scenes. Sometimes we'd shop for costumes, it was a whole thing. It might have looked weird to others, but it was our thing.

"Okay, go to sleep now."

"Fine," he says in a low voice.

I start reading the non-porn comic books, waiting for him to fall asleep. I can breathe a little easier if he can sleep because it means he is going to get better. It's a whole other thing if he can't sleep. When we were dating, he'd get these times when he couldn't sleep, and I would go to his house or he'd sneak into mine and sleep there.

Sometimes he struggles with insomnia and can't get a shut eye. But he always said I helped him sleep. So fingers crossed.

Half an hour passes, and his breathing doesn't change even though his eyes are closed.

"Arch?"

He doesn't respond.

"I know you're awake."

He peeps at me with one eye. "Really?"

"Are you having trouble sleeping?" I set the tablet aside.

"Yeah, maybe I need to take another sleeping pill."

"No. You can't get your body used to a higher dose; you know the risks." I turn to look down at him.

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