Do I Dream Again

Kyra woke up the next morning, her body entangled in Henrik’s, a small smile resting on her lips. She looked over at Henrik to see he was still sleeping. She reached over, beginning to play with his hair. She watched as he slowly started to wake up, his eyes fluttering open to look at her. As soon as his eyes laid upon her, a smile appeared on his face. “Hey,” he said, sleep still evident in his voice. “How long have you been awake?”

“Not long,” she replied. “Last night wore me out,” she smirked. Not having had enough of each other after the first time, Kyra and Henrik had proceeded to make love two more times. “I don’t even know if I can move right now,” she admitted.

“Well, if you’d like, we can stay in bed all day,” he joked.

“Oh no we can’t,” Kyra said, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Sophia’s going to be home soon. You remember her, don’t you? My five year old daughter who knows absolutely nothing about sex and isn’t about to find out today.”

Henrik started laughing at her, and Kyra glared at him. “She won’t find out,” he promised her, kissing her behind her ear.

“Hank,” she groaned, trying to get up, but he kept her in place on the bed. “Hank,” she repeated, knowing that she needed to get up and take a shower before she had to go pick Sophia up from ballet practice, that Martha had gladly offered to take her to since Gina was in the same class.

“Fine,” Henrik sighed, letting Kyra get out of bed. He rolled over on his back and Kyra bent down to give him a kiss. “Don’t tease me,” he joked as she started laughing and walked out of the bedroom towards the bathroom, grabbing some clothes on her way out.

Twenty minutes later, Kyra came back out of the bathroom, brushing her hair. “Are you planning on staying in bed all day?” she asked him with a small laugh.

“Would it matter if I did?”

“Well, normally I would say no, but since I have to go pick Sophia up, I don’t really want her to come home to find you lying in my bed. That would only lead to a bunch of questions, and I’ve already told you my daughter is not finding out about sex today,” she explained.

“Fine, I’ll get out of bed,” he told her, rolling off the bed, standing up in front of her, not caring that he wasn’t wearing anything at the moment.

Kyra stared at his body for a moment before composing herself. “Why don’t you go and take a shower while I go pick up Soph. And, please just be dressed before we get back. Not that I mind you not wearing any clothes,” she added with a smirk, walking up to him and placing a hand on his chest, leaning up on her tiptoes to kiss him goodbye. “I’ll be back in about twenty or thirty minutes,” she told him.

“Bye,” he called after her.

Kyra couldn’t keep the smile off of her face as she walked into the dance studio to pick up Sophia. She hadn’t felt this good in years, and she didn’t want the feeling to go away just yet. But, that was exactly what happened when she saw Sophia get out of her ballet class, tears streaming down her face. “Sweetie, what’s wrong?” Kyra asked, bending down to Sophia’s level, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

Sophia shook her head, and Kyra knew that her daughter didn’t want to talk about it right now. She put her arm around Sophia, guiding her back to her car. The ride back home was silent except for Sophia’s sniffling, and Kyra didn’t know what to do for her daughter. She wanted to know what had happened, but she knew Sophia wasn’t going to tell her right now.

As they walked inside the apartment, Kyra saw Henrik sitting on the couch, freshly out of the shower, his hair still damp. He started to smile at them, but then he saw Sophia crying. He looked curiously at Kyra, but she simply shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, indicating she didn’t know what was wrong.

“Sophia, sweetie, what happened?” Kyra asked lightly as she sat Sophia on the couch next to Henrik.

Sophia continued sobbing before looking up at her mother and Henrik. “Stacey made fun of me today,” she said between her tears.

Kyra sighed, wondering what Stacey had said this time. Stacey was another one of the girls in Sophia’s ballet class, but she liked to pick on Sophia. She would make fun of her in every way possible, from the fact that Sophia was shorter than everyone else in the class to the fact that Sophia was the youngest out of all the girls. “What did she say this time?” Kyra asked.

“She made fun of me because I don’t have a daddy,” Sophia told her, and Kyra’s heart broke. “Mommy, it’s not fair! Stacey has a daddy. Why don’t I?” she questioned. Kyra didn’t know how to react to the question. She had explained to Sophia before that she wasn’t going to have a father around, but she had never gone into details about what exactly had happened with her biological father.

“Why did she even say that?” Kyra asked, avoiding Sophia’s question.

“My ballet class is having a daddy-daughter dance,” Sophia said, tears still streaming down her cheeks. “And, then Stacey started making fun of me because I’m not going to have anyone to go with. She told me I wasn’t good enough to have a daddy.”

“Sophia, sweetheart, that’s not true,” Kyra assured her, wrapping her arms around her daughter. “It is not your fault that your father isn’t around.”

“Mommy, it’s not fair!” Sophia cried.

“I know,” Kyra told her quietly, not knowing what else to do for her.

“Sophia, I know I’m not your father,” Henrik began, surprising both Sophia and Kyra, who had forgotten he was still in the room with them. “But, if you’d like, I’d love to go with you to this dance.”

Kyra spun her head around to look at him, unable to believe that she had just heard him correctly. “Really?” Sophia sniffled.

“Yeah,” Henrik nodded his head. “I mean, I’m not the best dancer, but maybe you can teach me a thing or two,” he said with a smile. Sophia instantly stopped crying as she threw her arms around Henrik’s neck.

“Thanks, Hank!” she exclaimed. “I’m going to tell all my friends!” she said excitedly, hopping back to her bedroom.

Kyra continued to stare at Henrik in shock as she heard Sophia shut the door to her bedroom behind her. “Hank, I know that we just slept together, but that doesn’t mean I expect you to be Sophia’s father or anything,” Kyra told him.

“I know,” Henrik told her.

“And, you definitely don’t have to go to this dance with her. I’ll figure something out for her,” Kyra continued.

“Kyra, it’s fine,” Henrik assured her.

“I just don’t want you to feel like you have to do this.”

“I don’t,” Henrik told her. “I’m doing this because I want to, not because I feel obligated to. Sophia’s an amazing little girl, and she doesn’t deserve to be made fun of because she doesn’t have a father in her life. And, if I can make her happy just by going to some dance, of course I’m going to do it.”

“I don’t even know what to say,” Kyra told him.

“Nothing,” Henrik smiled, pressing his lips to hers.

***

“Hank’s going to dance?” Kristina asked in shock, her jaw dropping. She, Kyra, and Sadie had gone out shopping for some small things for her wedding and were now back at Kristina’s place, where Kyra had just told the other two what had happened with Sophia and Henrik. Kyra nodded her head to Kristina’s question. “Oh my God!” she exclaimed. “Where can I buy a ticket for this thing? I can’t pass up seeing freaking Henrik Zetterberg dancing!”

Kyra started laughing, but Sadie nodded her head. “Seriously, can we buy tickets for this event?” she asked seriously.

“I don’t know,” Kyra said, continuing to laugh at the two girls’ reactions. “But, seriously, do you think it’s too much? I mean, Hank volunteering to do a father-daughter dance with Sophia. I feel like he’s only doing it because he feels like he has to now that we’ve slept together.”

“Kyra, I hate to break it to you, but I’m pretty sure Hank cares more about Sophia than you,” Sadie told her. “He would have done that for Sophia even if he hadn’t slept with you or if he wasn’t dating you. He cares so much about that little girl, and he’d do anything to make her happy.”

“You don’t think it’s too much too soon?” Kyra asked as the front door opened and Valtteri and Henrik stepped inside.

“Hey,” Valtteri smiled, going straight for his fiancée and giving her a kiss as he placed a bag in her hands.

Kristina opened it up, smiling when she saw takeout from her favorite restaurant inside. “Thank you!” she exclaimed, giving him another kiss.

“I thought you’d like it,” Valtteri told her.

“You are seriously whipped,” Henrik told Valtteri.

“I have a surprise for you,” Kristina told Valtteri, and everyone looked at her curiously, wondering what it was. “You’ll get to see it later tonight when we’re all alone,” she added with a wink.

“And, that’s why I do things like get her favorite food,” Valtteri told Henrik. “She always repays me,” he added with a smirk.

“So, what were you talking about before we come in here?” Henrik asked, switching topics. “More wedding plans?”

“No, actually, we were discussing your new hobby of dancing,” Kristina told him with a smile on her face, wondering how he was going to react.

“You had to tell them, didn’t you?” Henrik asked Kyra, a smile on his face, letting her know he wasn’t angry at her.

“I just have one question,” Kristina spoke up.

“What’s that?” Henrik asked, looking over at her.

“Where do I buy the tickets to see it?” she asked, causing everyone to erupt in laughter.