Adorable Manstincts

One stormy night a nearby streak of lightening caused a crack of thunder so loud that a man awoke from a deep sleep and instinctively threw himself over his pregnant wife to protect her –or so the story goes (my interpretation).  Mommega told me this story once a few years back and it’s the type of story that causes a knee-jerk aaaawww. In women, it’s irrepressible, something that mother nature must have deemed necessary for the survival of mankind: when a woman finds something adorable she must.say.awww. And one of those times is when a man’s protective instincts kick in.

As a little girl I remember if ever I stumbled and fell, my dad was there with lightning speed to pick me up from the mean, scratchy asphalt. I was never sure which startled me more, the act of falling and scraping my knee or how quickly I was back on my feet through no voluntary movement of my own.  According to my brother, my sister once wanted to see if she could breath under the plastic pool cover while they were playing in the old dough-boy pool (no you cannot, 5 year-old Jenny), whatever her reasoning, our dad noticed and in a nano-second he was already in the water, Levi’s, shoes and all, pulling the cover off her head. Though his actions left us very much alive and safe (and oddly enough our actions left him mad whenever we hurt or almost hurt ourselves), they also left us wondering, how the hell did he get there so fast? Of course now we know, manstincts.

This Love makes us say aaawww–in retrospect, not when it’s actually happening.  Mommega’s story made me realize how much I wanted to find a partner who’d instinctively want to protect me from some unknown danger like that.

Flash forward to middle of the night Tuesday night when I was awoken to find myself staring up at B who had thrown himself over me in a panic.  Realizing there was nothing to panic about, we just stared at each other, confused. Me because I had no idea what was going on and him because he was, as I came to realize the next morning, still dreaming.  He eventually plopped back down and then asked me to scoot over.  I did with a stupid grin on my face because I was instantly reminded of Mommega’s story.

“What was that about?” I asked, stupid grin still in place but now an aw was waiting behind my lips for the right moment to come out.

I expected to hear only the source of danger that he was trying to protect me from, but he just stared at me with his brows furrowed as if I was speaking another language. Apparently the sleeping brain cannot decipher English? No answer to my question but I was just content enough, feeling as special as I did, to go right back to sleep.

~~

“So were you having a nightmare last night?” I asked nonchalantly as I sipped my green tea in the morning.

“No, why? What did I do?

“You don’t remember?! You got up all fast and threw yourself over me like you were trying to protect me from something . . .” but then I considered another possibility and my smile disappeared, “or you were just trying to hop over me to run to safety, I’m not sure.  And then you asked me to move over.” I frowned.

B laughed. “I can’t remember any of that. Were you on my side of the bed?”

“No, I don’t think so,” I said seriously trying to remember if I deserved that and continued, “you know, for such a thoughtful and sweet boyfriend, you sure are rude when you’re asleep.” I made that last part up, though I should have said it but I’ll tell him later–or he’ll read it.

Silence.

“I’m just going to pretend that you heard some loud noise or a nightmare startled you and that you were trying to protect me from one of the two,” I said. “Does that sound like something you’d do?”

“Yeah, of course,” he said without hesitation and a smile.

Eh, close enough. I hugged him. My hero again, protecting me from cockroaches, dirty dishes, loud noises and/or his nightmares. Aaaawww.

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