Jewel Ann - Idle Bloom

She moves against me, her body begging for our perfect pleasure, and my body wins over my heart. I taste her lips, suck in her sweet tongue, and knead her breasts.

“Look at me, Vivian.”

She opens her eyes, water raining between us, a few drops clinging to her long lashes. As I rock up into her, deeper every time, her cherry lips part and her tongue slides along her lower lip. The warm staccato of our breathing mingling between our mouths.

Vivian’s eyes leaden as I rub her clitoris.

“Stay with me, baby.”

She pulls them open again. “Oli …”

I need this. I need to see something other than pain in this woman’s eyes. I need to see passion, love, life … us .

Gripping her hips, I grunt from deep in my chest and bury myself in her so deep I swear I just lost my mind and it may never be found again. Every muscle tenses as I still, releasing into her. Exhausted, I rest my forehead against hers. We share weak smiles before our heavy eyelids surrender.

Vivian … sprawled out on her stomach, diagonally , across our bed, naked, sated, and mine. Until this moment I hadn’t realized that I’d been holding my breath for eight weeks. How did I do that? How does one live without breathing? How could I possibly live without her ?

I’ve traced her tattoo so many times in the light of the moon I think I could recreate it with my eyes closed. Her fun and witty personality brings a spontaneous smile to my face even when I’m alone. Her beauty is the brightest star in my sky. And the sex is—indescribable. But this … tracing flower buds and counting freckles, I’m in Heaven. Vivian is my heaven.

“Wondering what I looked like before all that ink and the nasty scars it hides?”

“Shh…” I kiss her shoulder. “It’s two in the morning. Go back to sleep.”

She rolls to her side and kisses my chest. “It’s okay. Sometimes I try to imagine what the pre-Caroline Oliver was like.”

I twirl a lock of her long hair around my finger. “And?”

“And I can’t. Which makes me think that I wouldn’t have been part of that life.” She places the palm of her hand on my chest, over my heart, and spreads out her fingers. “So I don’t go there anymore, because a life without Oliver Konrad isn’t a life at all.”

I swallow past the suffocating feeling in my throat. When Vivian opens her heart and shares such raw vulnerability, it’s like a vice around my chest. She has no idea how fierce my need to protect her is. The unbearable part for me is when I feel like the biggest danger to her is me and my past.

I go for a mood lightener. “Yeah, well I’ve never tried to imagine you before me. Probably because I still wake up every morning and question whether I dreamed you. And when I realize you’re my real, it’s like winning the lottery every damn day of my life.”

She giggles. “Lottery? Pfft … whatever. You must mean scratch tickets.”

“Nope. I’m talking the sole winner of the Mega Millions … every day.”

She ghosts the pads of her fingers over the thin patch of hair on my chest. “Oli?”

“Hmm?”

“Remember when you came to The Green Pot and needed some more plants that day we were really busy?”

“Yes.”

“Remember how long the line was and I let you budge and got you what you needed without having to wait?”

“Yes.”

“Remember I told you that you’d owe me a favor?”

I chuckle. “Yeah, I remember.”

She looks up at me with an inward gaze. I can feel her heavy thoughts like a barrier between us.

“Go back to Portland.”

I shake my head before her last word. “I said I’m staying.”

“You need to go back.”

“Vivian, no, I don’t want to go back. Caroline doesn’t need me, her parents just think she does. But the truth is they’re as delusional as she is.”

“Oliver, you need to go back for you.”

“What does that even mean? Have you been talking to my mom?”

“You owe me.”

I clench my hair then rub my hands over my face, releasing a sarcastic laugh. “I owe you? Really? You’re trying to trade cutting in line for sending me back to Hell? No, I won’t. Yesterday morning, yes, I was going. Even last night at my parents’ house I planned on going. But I saw the pain in your eyes, Vivian. Hell, it’s dark in here and I still can see the goddamn pain in your eyes! I’m not going. Period.”

She rolls on top of me, our faces a breath apart. “Oli, don’t you see? The pain you see in my eyes is for you not because of you. Get on the plane tomorrow, but not for Caroline, or her parents, and not for your job, but for you, Oli. And if you can’t do that…” she blinks and her tears fall to my cheek “…then do it for me.”

I don’t want to go. When I said I was staying it was for me as much as her. But when a man loves a woman the way this man loves this woman , there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her. To the front of the battle line, the end of the earth, to my last breath … That’s how far I will go for her.

“For you , my love, only you.”

Vivian

Another Monday, another school day, another day to miss Oliver. It’s been six weeks since he boarded the plane to Portland, six weeks since we made love until the sun peeked over the horizon, six weeks since he soothed me to sleep in his arms, and six weeks since he left me asleep in our bed and walked out the door without a goodbye.

After he agreed to go back, for me, I had two more requests. One, that he’d make love to me until we both fell into a post-coital coma, and two, that he’d leave without a goodbye. Missing him is like a dull pain; when I’m studying or sleeping, I don’t notice it so much. But the goodbye … it’s a slow, cruel torture.

We talk and text every day, even if it’s just a quick I love you. Oliver has been working for the firm during the day and visiting Caroline in the late afternoons into early evening. Her progress is slow but noticeable. They’ve changed her medications and she and Oliver have been able to have random conversations about the food she’s served or a show that’s on the television at the hospital. Neither have talked about Melanie or the events that led to that tragic day.

I still go to Oliver’s parents’ every Saturday night, and sometimes my parents drive out to join us. While Hugh is out rowing on Sunday mornings, Jackie comes over for coffee. This is when we have our heart-to-hearts about Oliver. She assumes Caroline is talking through Melanie’s death with the doctor in her private sessions and discussing her ongoing struggle with depression in group sessions. Oliver still refuses to see anyone or even talk to Jackie about any of it. I fear he’ll start to slip away from me and everyone else who loves him if he doesn’t.

“My mom wants to get these wedding invitations mailed out, but you haven’t given me Oliver’s address in Portland.”

“Just send it to his house. I’ll relay the details.” I set down my menu. Alex and I discovered we both have a break between classes on Mondays that hits right around lunch time. I’d planned on using it for study time at the library, but she insisted we use it for wedding planning over burgers and fries … okay, salad for her. Although at this point there’s not much left to plan.

“My mom thinks that’s poor etiquette, since he’s basically living in Portland.”

“Well he’s still making the mortgage payment here and I hope to God he still considers this home.” I slap her hand. “Why do you order a salad and then steal half of my fries. Just get the freakin’ fries.”