Sleep on it

Sunday

It was Blaine’s idea to go to Bed, Bath and Beyond to select bedding for the bed he bought for the basement bedroom. (Give me a second to see if I can figure out more ways to add some form of “bed” to that sentence.)

As I told Mica later, it was like I was taking him to the vet. The closer we got to the bedding section, the slower he walked, the more he wanted to stop and study every little thing.

Standing, at last, in the middle of the model beds, I asked, “What grabs your eye?” Given his pained expression you would have thought I meant that literally.

“Oh, I don’t know.” He jammed his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

“There is no wrong answer,” I promised.

Except there was. It was in the form of a solid red one that looked like it had been rejected by the Discount Puff Jacket Company out of Decatur.

I rolled my lips inward to prevent myself from saying that out loud.

It’s his house, his guest room, his decision.

Still.

“No?” he asked.

I didn’t dare look at him if I stood any chance of selling this. “It would look great in Eli’s room. Do you need a comforter for his bed?”

Speaking slowly, he answered, “I don’t know. Do I?”

“It would be nice,” I said, “to provide your grandson with covers. Maybe a pillow.”

“As long as I don’t have to get rid of the straw mattress.”

While I tried to free myself of the giggles, we moved to the more sophisticated sets. That’s when I noticed Blaine had pointed out a couple that were different patterns and colors but both had a touch of yellow in them. That made me think of the drawing of the aspens he had bid on but didn’t win at the art show some weeks back. And that gave me an idea for a Christmas gift.

He was clearly not having fun and wanted me to make it easier. Now that I needed the final selection to contain yellow, I narrowed the choices down to one. It’s primarily tannish gray with some yellow pleating across the center panel and in some embroidery in another panel. The card attached to the display said other colors were available online. I looked while we were there and there’s a predominantly brown one with red pleating that’s pretty too. Blaine liked the one with yellow better.

“If it doesn’t work with the wall color, we can return it and order the other,” I said.

“Or learn to live with it,” he offered.

“Or repaint the walls.”

“Oh, God.”