“Not yet. Slow. We have all night,” I whispered to her.
A distant look crossed her eyes, and for a moment, she looked sad. Then she leaned forward and brushed her lips across mine. I swept the tip of my tongue across them and bent my legs to hold her closer, filling as much of the space around our bodies as I could.
I made love to her for hours, bringing her to the point of trembling and crying out in bliss over and over until I couldn’t hold out anymore. I came hard, spilling out into her as she clung to me, kissing my neck and shoulders with something close to desperation. My mouth settled onto hers, and I gave myself over to another kiss. Our bodies and spirits became one, and in that moment, everything was perfect.
* * *
Morning came before I wanted it to that day. The bed was so comfortable, and I’d slept deeply, enjoying having Leah right there beside me. All I wanted to do was stay like that. Maybe I could convince her to play hooky from work for the day and hide under the covers with me. I was sure I could come up with a compelling cover story that would excuse her not being there. Some creativity and a little bit of stretching reality would definitely be worth spending the day ordering takeout and pretending nothing outside existed alongside Leah.
But it seemed I was too late coming up with that plan. When I rolled over to kiss her awake and try to convince her to forego work in favor of a day hiding out from the world with me, I found the other half of the bed empty. Getting up, I went over to the bathroom, but the door was open. The rest of the apartment was empty. It disappointed me but wasn’t that much of a surprise. It was fairly late in the morning, and Leah had probably already left for work. She knew how much shows exhausted me and wanted to give me the chance to sleep it off some. It was nice, but I would have rather her wake me up to say goodbye.
I went about the rest of my day and figured Leah had to work late because by the time I had to leave for rehearsal, she still wasn’t back. It wasn’t the first time that had happened. Getting this promotion worked her hard, and she often stayed away well after normal work hours. I texted her a few times from practice, but she didn’t respond. The next morning, I still hadn’t heard from her, and when I left to run some errands, her car wasn’t sitting in the driveway. I called her again, this time leaving a voicemail.
“Hey, Leah. It’s me. I just haven’t heard from you in a couple days and was thinking about you. Miss you. Don’t work yourself too hard, okay? Let’s have dinner tonight. We can go back to the seafood place. Or something else if you’d rather. Just come on by when you get home from work.” I hesitated, leaving a pause. “Bye.”
I almost filled that space with “I love you.” It would fit in, feel right, but I didn’t say it. As much as I felt it, that wasn’t something Leah and I had said to each other, yet. I didn’t want the first time for her to hear it to be when I was leaving her a voicemail wondering where she was.
That evening I waited for her to knock on the door. It got later and she didn’t come, so I walked to her door and knocked on it. She didn’t answer, and I checked the driveway. Her car still wasn’t there. Another series of texts went unanswered, and I was starting to feel like a pathetic sap in some bad TV movie. Even that didn’t stop me from wanting to find her. Worry was really starting to settle in, and I just wanted to make sure she was safe. I called again, but this time it went straight to voicemail. There wasn’t even the nicety of a ring.
I tried not to think about it for the rest of the night. There had to be some sort of explanation. She was working more, or something had happened with a friend who needed her help. The ideas of what could have happened became more and more of a stretch throughout the night until I finally fell asleep. I slept late the next day and woke up to the sound of a car pulling up in front of the building. Looking out the window, I saw the landlord climb out of his car and reach into the back seat. He came out with a sign and planted it in the lawn.
I rushed out and caught him just before he drove away.