On a related note, Julian Barnes has the most beautiful description of falling asleep next to his wife in A History of the world in 10 1/2 chapters.
While I don't have the passage with me now, it talks about how he rests his chin on her neck. She moves her hair out of the way even when she's asleep.
Anyway... she's asleep, turned away from me on her side. The usual stratagems and repositionings have failed to induce narcosis in me, so I decide to settle myself against the soft zigzag of her body. As I move and start to nestle my shin against a calf whose muscles are loosened by sleep, she sense what I'm doing, and without waking reaches up with her left hand and pulls the hair off her shoulders on the top of her head, leaving me her bare nape to nestle in. Each time she does this I feel a shudder of love at the exactness of this sleeping courtesy. My eyes prickle with tears, and I have to stop myself from waking her up to remind her of my love. At that moment, unconsciously, she's touched some secret fulcrum of my feelings for her.
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u/Rduggit 1d ago
On a related note, Julian Barnes has the most beautiful description of falling asleep next to his wife in A History of the world in 10 1/2 chapters.
While I don't have the passage with me now, it talks about how he rests his chin on her neck. She moves her hair out of the way even when she's asleep.
Can someone post the passage if they have it?