Chapter 10

The night started peaceful enough. Laughter, easy chat, that relaxed feeling after a beach day. Sophie, in her marshmallow-soft pajamas, was scrolling through her phone. Ethan, looking all serious and handsome, was wrestling with emails on his laptop. Peaceful... for about five minutes. Then the bed decided to stage a mutiny.

Sophie didn't notice at first, but her bed was sinking. Like, seriously sinking. It wasn't a slow dip; it was a dramatic, gravity-defying plunge.

"Ethan!" she called out, her voice a mix of confusion and alarm. He looked up, one eyebrow doing a slow, questioning climb.

"What's up?" he asked, his voice a low rumble.

"My bed's, like, dying!" she exclaimed. "It's a broken bouncy castle!"

Ethan checked it out. He pushed down on the mattress—CRUNCH. The bed groaned like an old monster. "Yep," he said, shaking his head. "It's officially a disaster."

Sophie's eyes lit up. "So, we share!" she declared, already picturing herself all cozy in the other bed. "It's just one night! Think of it as... extreme bonding!"

Ethan wasn't thrilled. "You're saying I get the broken bed?" he protested, his voice laced with disbelief. "No way. I'm not risking spinal damage for your comfort."

Sophie, already halfway to the other bed, gave him her most charming smile. "Come on, I'm tiny! You're a giant, you'll be fine! Think of it as a... resilience-building exercise."

He grumbled, but she'd already won. "Fine," he muttered. "But if I wake up with a crick in my neck the size of a small dog, you're buying me a lifetime supply of pain killers."

"Deal!" Sophie chirped, already making herself comfy in the other bed.

But here's the thing: those beds were tiny. Both of them were tall, and they spent the entire night bumping into each other like bumper cars. Ethan grumbled about Sophie hogging the covers, Sophie accidentally kicked him repeatedly, and then she started snoring—a loud, rhythmic snore that made the whole room vibrate.

"Seriously?" he muttered, trying to shove away from her. "You sound like a freight train going through a tunnel filled with marshmallows!"

"What?" Sophie mumbled, her eyes still closed. "I'm not even touching you."

"Yes, you are!" he insisted. "You're practically draped over me like a human burrito!"

She shifted, her foot landing squarely on his leg. "Oops," she murmured. "Sorry."

Ethan sighed. This wasn't funny, it was torture. Just as he was about to give up, BAM! Sophie rolled off her bed and landed directly on him. Her head landed on his chest, and she let out a happy sigh, snuggling in.

Ethan froze. This was... unexpected. She was completely oblivious, totally comfortable, and he was a human-sized pillow.

She mumbled, "You're comfy, Ethan."

He managed a shaky whisper, "Yeah... super comfy." His heart was doing the tango.

She snuggled closer. "Can we stay like this?" she whispered.

"I think you've mistaken me for a very, very uncomfortable human-sized heating pad," he said, his voice barely audible.

She started snoring again. He was trapped, a human-sized pillow, for the rest of the night.

The next morning, Sophie woke up, all sunshine and smiles. She looked at Ethan, who looked like he'd wrestled a grumpy badger.

"Hey," she said, yawning. "Thanks for letting me sleep... on you."

Ethan's eyes went wide. "You... you what?"

"I used you as a pillow," she said, completely innocent. "Was I too heavy?"

His face turned a shade of red usually reserved for emergency situations. "You... used me as a pillow?!" he sputtered.

Sophie shrugged. "You didn't complain," she said. "This is gonna be a long, long vacation."