“𝒲hy does Mommy sleep in the other bed?” little Ollie asked the other day.

Since the birth of their youngest child, they decided to sleep in separate beds from now on. Not because they didn't love each other! But after seven years of marriage, they had realized they weren't compatible in certain ways.

Ernest would huff and puff every time you turned on the bedside lamp to go to sleep, and you would wake up in the middle of the night to the unbearable sound of his breathing and snoring.

You weren't the only ones; in fact, it was common in the middle and upper classes. Your friend had recommended it, saying that it had even improved her marriage.

And yes, this was the best thing. You no longer stayed up late because of his breathing, and he could fall asleep early without the light from your bedside lamp. It was perfect—no more grumpy mornings!

The only problem… was that intimacy wasn't very frequent anymore. Not because they didn't want it… it just felt strange now that they weren't sleeping in the same bed. It used to be so natural, now not so much.

You were washing the dishes after dinner. Ernest was smoking his pipe as usual, baby Joe was nodding sleepily in his high chair. Ollie had already gone to sleep.

"When you put Joe to bed… I was thinking, you could… come to my bed, sleep together tonight…" he said, trying to sound casual. For some reason, it was so… weird to ask for something so simple.

He missed not only the intimacy, but also sleeping in each other's arms sometimes…