Wait, Are Hickeys Actually Sexy?

Reframing my thoughts on the little red bruise my husband left on my neck last week.

I had forgotten about it until I looked in the mirror the next morning.

Suddenly, scenes from last night came rushing back to me: The darkness. The sheets. Our bedroom. His body (his body). All at once, the little faded red bruise just above my collar bone, a hickey from PJ, felt incredibly sexy and maybe even a little…naughty?

I remember a few years back, I had given PJ a hickey on the left side of his neck (visible in the photo above). The next day, we all went to my brother’s house on the river to go out on the boat. We were standing in the dining room about to head out back, when my mom suddenly gasped.

“What is that on your neck?!”

How she saw it, I still to this day have no idea. PJ had his head turned the opposite way and my mom was on the other side of him. It’s like she could see through him or something. It’s mind-boggling, and also very, very impressive.

At the time I remembered not feeling ashamed or the need to really hide it from her. “It’s a hickey I gave him last night,” I plainly told her. And that was that. We’re adults! We’re married! We share a bed and a life and everything else, so why not also be comfortable sharing the fact that we give each other hickeys from time to time?

Speaking of, the hickey he gave me from the night before, just above my collar bone, was already starting to fade a bit: