Closure

The two lovers lay nestled between blankets tossed across the bed. He caresses his love along her stomach as the sunlight shines through the blinds. She awakens to find him there. She then thinks back to the night before remembering the multiple explosions he caused between her thighs until they both exhausted themselves.

She feels him begin to awaken and snaps back to reality. As he becomes more coherent, he looks up at her and smiles, gazing up at her while kissing her thighs. She returns his gaze with the same pleasantry and then whispers “No,” slightly but he ignores her command. She roughly waves her legs back and forth to which he responds with confidence, “You know that can’t stop me.” She requests again, “Seriously, don’t you think four times was enough?” His response as he gently kisses her thighs again while seemingly trying to convince her to change her mind, “Okay if that’s what you really want.”

She gives him a sarcastic smirk and gets out of bed to go to the bathroom. Her mind wanders back to the night before. She entered the restaurant dressed to entice but not seduce her date. She was meeting her ex, but not just any ex. He was the ex that never was. He was afraid to commit. He wanted all the benefits of a relationship but did not give them in return. He used his personal circumstances as an excuse not to express how he really felt about his woman. Yet, whenever she was around her very presence made him weak. She was his kryptonite and somehow, she always felt it but could confirm it.

She on the other hand expressed her feelings for him quite openly although it took some time over their 10 year “situationship”. All things came to a head when she told him she loved him and he didn’t say it in return yet, he still welcomed the opportunity to make love whenever he could get his hands on her. Even through the long periods of not communication between them, if something happened to him, whether good or bad she reached out to him some way. He on the contrary, stood by idly spectating as she encountered life’s ups and downs without her ever knowing.

As she approached the table, he looked her up and down as though he was seeing her for the first time all over again and he was still amazed by her beauty. He stood to greet her. They both smiled and embraced one another. He took in her softness, her smell, everything that was familiar to him and held her just a second longer than she did to the point where they both noticed and casually laughed it off.

He thanked her for meeting him and complimented her on how beautiful she looked. She thanked him in return and folded her arms and leaned in against the table anxiously awaiting the reason she was asked to join him. The waiter soon approached and took their drink orders. Before the waiter could excuse himself, she jumped right in to ask why he asked her to meet.

He hesitated to start but then began to explain how his 15-year-old son, his mother, his friends, and a host of other relatives had been inquiring about his happiness and finding love, more specifically marriage. He told her what he told them which was that he just didn’t think he was in a position financially to be in a relationship. He then explained their response was he needed to find a woman that would love him for who he is and not what he has. She interjected and agreed, stating that she too used to tell him that when he would bring up women that he was dating when they were only friends hanging out. She never brought up the fact that in the past when he would talk about other women to her she wanted to know why he dated other women and but never asked her out for a date. She continued to tell him that he needed a woman who would love him for the man that he is not for what was in his wallet.

He agreed by nodding. He then admitted that is why he has asked her to dinner. They suddenly made eye contact. She had a look of fear and confusion in her eyes. He had his eyes fixed on her but a knot in his throat. He told her that he’s known from day one that she was “that woman.” Her eyes shifted to different points of the room and then back to him. Every time she looked at him, he was looking directly at her, and she shifted her eyes again as tears began to well up in her eyes. One tear fell and she swiftly tried to move it as if he wouldn’t notice but then another fell. She looked at him and he was still looking at her intently. She shifted her eyes and grabbed a tissue from her clutch. She began to stumble over her words and asked him what he meant by his words.

He then poured out his heart of the past 10 years they have known each other. He told her how much her friendship has meant to him, how amazing she is as a person, how he knew she loved him because he could see it in her actions and because she has said it. He then told her that he loved her and has loved her all this time. He told her at that very he was in love with her. He proclaimed he didn’t want to hurt her and would make it his mission to never hurt her again. He continued to say he knew she would never do anything to try to hurt him. He could see his words were overwhelming to her but wanted to plead his case while he had the chance.

While he was talking, she cried, constantly dabbing tears from her eyes thinking about all the times she felt like she was the only one who felt something and how she had wished he would have said how he felt in the past. She then suddenly began to stare off into space. He asked her if she was okay. She finally came out of her daze and looked at him with a blank stare, more tears welling up in her eyes. She told him she wasn’t okay, got up from the table and proceeded to leave the restaurant. After he closed out the check with the waiter, he went outside to find her standing disheveled trying to order an Uber. She couldn’t manage to focus enough to find the app on her phone. She was still wiping tears from her face as they would not stop falling. He came up to stand beside her and she moved away. He moved in closer to her again and asked to take her home so they could continue to talk and to make sure she got home safely. He practically had to beg her to allow him to take her home. She finally locked eyes with him and nodded in agreement.

Once they arrived at her home, she fiddled with her keys at her front door and suddenly dropped them. He picked them up and asked her which key she needed. She told him and he unlocked the door. She put her things down and took off her shoes. As she began to walk away, he grabbed her hand and pulled her into him. He then grabbed her waist with one hand and caressed her face with the other, kissing her slowly, yet deeply. She was hesitant at first, but her body gave way quickly to his familiar touch. She felt herself getting weaker by the second and abruptly stopped, asking him if he wanted something to drink before they sat down to talk. She pointed him to the kitchen and stated that she’d be back.

She went into her bedroom to change into sweatpants and a t-shirt but to her surprise he found her compromised, vulnerable and wet. She turned around after putting on her sweats to find him standing in the doorway of her bedroom. She tried to act normal and proceeded to walk out of the room, but he did not move. She walked into his eyes glaring right into hers as she looked up at him slowly. Her heart began to pound. He grabbed her by the waist again and backed her up to her bed. He began to kiss her so passionately that sensations ran from the back of her neck down to the small of her back and somehow found their way to pulsate through her vaginal walls. He whispered he loved her before laying her down on the edge of her bed and yanking her sweatpants off exposing her thick thighs. He rubbed them and ran his tongue up and down both of her legs. Then he caressed her stomach placing kisses around her naval as he began to pull at her panties.

She began to ponder if she should stop him because she didn’t want to get caught up. It was too late; her legs were on his shoulders, and she was speechless. As he breathed, she felt the contrast of cool and warm air along with his tongue maneuvering inside of her. She tried not to feel anything but all she could think about was him finally telling her that he loved her. The thought replaying in her mind only made her more open, more susceptible to him pleasing her. And within minutes she reached a peak she never reached with him before. He had her completely open. She climaxed again, her legs were shaking, and she was desperately trying to stop it, but she couldn’t and he didn’t stop either. She climaxed a third time and screamed as she grabbed the sheets.

He raised his head, proud at his accomplishment. He was ready for more and just as he was about to engage his member, she stopped him and told him she didn’t have any condoms. He didn’t have any either. They were both responsible adults and knew stopping at that point wase the right thing to do. She collected herself as he went into the bathroom. She sat on the edge of the bed pondering what to do next. Everything was happening so fast. She had loved this man for years. She loved him still, but love wasn’t enough. He had hurt her in ways he may not have realized and felt he needed to know. He came from the bathroom smiling at her as she looked up at him with a “we need to talk” grin. He read her face very well and laid on the bed and patting the space next to him. She grabbed a pillow and laid beside him positioning herself to see him sideways as opposed to straight on. He on the other hand was laying on his side with his head rested on his hand which he has propped up. As she began to speak, he complimented her. His words distracted her for a moment. She couldn’t believe this was the same man who the year before never so much as reached out to her for a holiday or birthday even. Now he was overly affectionate and complimentary.

She began to tell him about all the ways he made her feel in the past and how he hurt her and that now he claimed to have seen the light and asked what he wanted to come from all of this. He told her that he wanted a chance to be the man he has always wanted to be for her, the kind of man who would adore her and give her the things she desired and of course the things she needed. She asked him questions about women he dated and why he dated them. He told her why for each of them. Some answers she understood, and some upset her to hear, and she told him so. He apologized for every one of them. Throughout the night as they talked, they exchanged kisses and he got carried away and attempted to make her scream several times before daylight broke. Before the end of round two she had to grab a pillow to muffle the sound.

Flashback to present day, while in the bathroom he rolls over and sees a little jewelry box that he made for her years ago when he took his son to paint ceramics for his mother for a Mother’s Day gift. He needed to pass the time, so he painted her a jewelry box. He opens the box, pauses, and stares. His heart sinks to the bottom of his chest yet beats as though he has been running the 1¬00- yard dash. The bathroom door opens, and she comes out to find him holding a diamond ring. Neither of them is smiling. Both of their eyes are intensely locked on each other and neither of them is backing down.

He asks her about the ring. He is obviously feeling more anger than hurt. He feels betrayed. She tells him with no fear or remorse in her tone that it is her engagement ring and that she has a fiancé. He looks completely puzzled because the news was a shocked him to his core. He was speechless as he had seen no signs of her being engaged or dating anyone on social media, not even on her friends’ pages. She explains that he didn’t see it because there simply weren’t any. She didn’t want any posted and her friends obliged, it was that simple.

He asks her how long she has been engaged and she tells him seven months. He asks if her fiancé knows about him, and she says yes. He asks, assuming the answer would be no, if he knows they were together at that moment, and she replied yes. The answer crushes him.

The week before she had a conversation with her fiancé. She told him that she received a text from her “ex” and that he wanted them to get together soon, sometime the following week. Her fiancé asked if it’s the ex that she told him about when they first met. Her and her fiancé had started as friends much like her and her ex. Her fiancé had expressed his desire to get to know her on a deeper level and wanted them to date as more than friends. He communicated with her every step of the way. His words and his actions were aligned. He always made it known where he stood. This was a gamechanger for her and reaffirmed her belief that if a man wanted to be with a woman, he would pursue her and pursue her he did.

Early on she had told him that if her ex ever contacted her before she got married that she would like to see him in hopes they could finally talk and clear the air. When she confirmed it is the same ex they spoke of long ago, her fiancé reminded her that he’d be out of town the following week and it would be an ideal time to do what she had to do. She asked him if he was still okay with her meeting him. Her fiancé stated e he trusted her, and he knew that even if “sex with the ex” happened if they were safe, and she got what she needed their relationship would be good moving forward.

Her ex sat grinding his teeth, rocking back and forth in disbelief. Every emotion from anguish to wrath was running through him. He couldn’t believe that she of all people had done this to him. He couldn’t believe that she let him give of himself so freely and so openly. He shared his emotions with her after all this time. He asked her, “Karma, why would you do this to me? I thought you loved me.” She responded without hesitation, “I do, but I needed closure.”