“How About We Sleep Together?”

I shouldn't have agreed to go to the classmates' reunion. I shouldn't have gone to the reunion tonight.

"I'm sorry." Her voice was so light that it sounded like a hallucination in the dark car.

Blake heard it, but did not give any reply.

Blake drove into T community, winding around to reach to the building, and parked directly downstairs in her apartment building.

The T community where Ava lived was really old and shabby, with old buildings, no elevators, few parking slots and residents in all walks. The building Ava lived in was particularly complex. It had shops on the first ground along the street. To get home, she has to get upstairs from a doorway within the community, walk through a long staircase and cross a big platform to get to the corridor door of her apartment.

Once during high school Ava was not feeling well in class. Blake was asked by the teacher to send Ava to her home. It was that time that Blake knew Ava's address and first saw such a building. He had deep impression about the building.

"Can you make it alone?" Blake unlocks the car door.

"Yes. Thank you. Please feel free to leave." Ava unfastened the seat belt and opened the door to get off.

The road was uneven and lights were few in the community. Before entering the dinner hall today she hurt her ankle, and now she was so drunk. All these factors cause her a stumble when she got off the car and stepped on some slippery ground.

With a light tut, Blake got out of the car and went to help her.

"I'll help you." He didn't want to wake up tomorrow and read on the news that a woman died in front of her own home after she fell off stars drunk in the middle of the night.

Ava felt his body temperature and the strength of his arm, and could not believe such a luck happened to her.

"Thank you." She leaned most of her body weight on Blake and went upstairs carefully with his help.

Recently, the COVID 19 stroke the community for a couple of times, so the stairwell was filled with a strong smell of disinfectant. Under the dim light and with the smell, there was somewhat a gloomy atmosphere.

"Will... Won't you leave the P city recently?" Ava couldn't help but talk to end the silence.

After graduating from high school, Blake went abroad to study in a university. For the past seven years, his news was rarely heard of. The only person in the class who had contact with him was Evan, who said that Blake majored in artificial intelligence or automation and probably would not come back home.

"Um, yes. The epidemic was so severe in recent years, that my parents often worried about me staying alone abroad and missed me very much. I was worried about them asl well. So I decided to came back home. There are many opportunities at home as well." Blake did not talk too deeply, ending this topic simply introducing his own situation.

"Oh, that's right."

Although Ava walked as slowly as she could, they finally went out of the stairwell. The moonlight fell on their shoulders. Looking at the moon in the sky, Ava thought, the moonlight tonight was so beautiful.

"I can walk the rest of the way myself." Ava broke away from Blake's support.

The road before was smooth and even, and Ava's corridor door was quite close. Her home was on the left side of the corridor door. She should not fall.

"All right," said Blake, "Good bye."

"G..." Ava was about to say goodbye when suddenly there came a noise under the platform.

"It's forbidden to go out. Exit closed! We just received a notice that there are affection patients in this community. 48 hours from now, residents are only to come in and but not go out!"

Ava and Blake looked at each other and ran to the edge of the platform, looking down from the parapet.

Not far from the community gate, there are security guards as well as a few people wearing protective suits. They guided the security guard to block the gate while explaining the situation to the residents who tried to go out.

"Yes, 48 hours. No, you can't come out. Anyone cannot."

Blake's face turned awkward. "I'm going down to check it out." Then he went downstairs quickly.

Ava hurriedly followed him, but she couldn't walk fast due to the hurt ankle, so she could only take several steps and take a rest. When she arrived at the gate, she saw Blake trying to explain to the security guard:

"I'm not living in this community. I just came in for ten minutes. Can you let me out now and pretend I didn't come in?"

Security captain refused: "You did come in; how can I pretend you haven't? So many people witness you here. If you go out and transport any infection, who could afford the result and bear the responsibility?

"Can I quarantine at my own home? Is it okay?"

"Please don't force difficult things on us, boy. The notice we received clearly said that we only allow residents back in but not let anyone out, even it's a fly. Are you a taxi driver or you come to see your friend? If the former we will try to find a place for you to live, the living conditions may be a little poor. If the latter, you'd better stay at your friend's home."

Blake was about to argue again, but the staff with protective suits came over to drive people away: "Well, don't gather together. Go home!"! Tomorrow we will have test for everyone in this community. As long as there is no new patient, we all go back to normal life after 48 hours. Don't worry about it!"

Blake was pushed away from the door, stood blankly for a moment, and then grabbed his hair irritably.

Ava came to him and did not know how to comfort him. She opened her mouth carefully: "Or… Would you like to go to my place?"

The water in the tea kettle was bubbling, like singing some happy music. Ava glanced at Blake who was on the phone on the outside terrace, and put some tea leaves into the prepared cup. She suddenly remembered that it's almost early morning, and drinking tea at this time will cause insomnia. So she poured the tea back into the tea can, and just poured a glass of water and put it on the coffee table.

Frank had already lied on the bed almost asleep when he received the call from Blake. He thought that Blake called him in the middle of the night because of some urgent work, so he didn't dare to delay, and picked it up without any hesitation. But after a moment of silence, he heard Blake actually entrusted him to fetch some clothes for him.

"What, you are locked in someone else's community?" Frank felt curious and funny, "Whose community is it, is it a client's?"

Frank didn't know that Blake had a class reunion today. He thought Blake was still working on the plan or at the construction progress in the middle of the night as usual.

"No, it's a... friend of mine." Blake stroked his forehead and looked into the room inadvertently.

Ava was sitting quietly on the single-seater sofa and staring at a glass of water in from of her, with hands on her bended knees.

Blake sighed subconsciously and said, "I'll send you the password of my electronic door lock. Please help to get two sets of clothes and my computer. The suitcase is in the cabinet, its password is three zeros. Yes, the toothbrush and towel are also for me..."

There was a large platform outside the balcony of Ava's apartment, which is the roof of the shops downstairs as well as the terrace of her apartment. Traces showed that the terrace had once been full of live. In the corners there were many flower pots, and along the walls were cement planters. But due to a lack of care in recent years, the flower pots were empty and the flower planters were full of weeds.

Blake smoked a cigarette outside before returning indoors. When he came back, he saw Ava was still in the same posture staring at the glass of water, as if she had settled down.

"What are you thinking about?" Blake raised her eyebrows and said in a bit tired tone.

Ava looked up at him and said, "There is only one winter quilt at my home."

Blake twitched his eyebrows before they fell back: "It's okay. Give me a blanket, I'll just sleep with it on the sofa for the following nights."

Ava stood up and came. She looked at his tall body, and then looked at her dilapidated sofa...

This sofa has served in her home since she was a kind. The sofa was at least 20 years old. It shall be fine to support Ava's petite body, but probably not able to sustain the tall Blake.

"Hum you sleep on the bed, I'll sleep on the sofa." Ava suggested.

"I sleep on the sofa and you sleep on your bed." Blake's voice left no room for negotiation.

When he returned P city to start a business, he started everything from scratch. He was so used to be the one that made final decisions. He was already proficient in analyzing the development trend of things at the first time, and quickly finding the optimal solution. In his opinion, there needn't any discussion over who sleeps on the bed and who sleeps on the sofa.

For no reason he would sleep on the bed and let a girl sleep on the sofa.

But obviously Ava didn't agree. She was very stubborn with making Blake sleep on the bed.

"No, you sleep on the bed, I sleep on the sofa," she repeated.

"You, sleep on the bed! I, sleep on the sofa!" Blake also reiterated.

One was tall and one was short, both standing and looking at each other, discussing such a small issue. But for no reason there was a sense of tense air that neither seemed would not give in to each other.

Ava shook her head: "You sleep on the bed, I sleep on the sofa."

Blake frowned tightly: "Are you a repeater? I've already decided to sleep on the sofa. You are so annoying."

Ava knew that if she insisted, Blake would get angry. He had got angry during the classmates' union and got annoyed for being blocked in this community. Ava didn't want to make Blake angry gain. But she didn't want to give up her opinion neither.

She looked at her old sofa in distress, and suddenly thought of a way to get the problem solved: "Otherwise... how about we sleep together?"

He narrowed his eyes: "What did you say?"

Ava said: "Let's sleep together on the bed. My bed is a double bed. You can sleep on one side and I sleep on the other side. So we both can have bed and quilt. How about it?"

Ava was not totally unaware of what usually happens between a man and a woman in such nights, but what would Blake do to her? She knew that even if she stood naked in front of Blake, most possibly was that he would just turn away and ask her if she was insane.

Blake was about to open his mouth and really wanted to ask if she was insane. How could a girl took the initiative to ask a man if he wanted to sleep together? But after thinking about it, common girls wouldn't ask for it, but Ava was always quite different from the common girls... This seemed reasonable to him.

With a buzzing sound in his head, Blake was too angry but to laughed: "Not acceptable." He sat on the sofa, spread his hands and firmly occupied the entire sofa. He did not intend to continue this ridiculous conversation, "Okay. No more words. This is my territory from now on, and no one can move me out of my nest."