Thou Shalt Not(83)

What could I possibly say here? Well, I’m glad you finally decided to?

“But, the day I met you, I knew there was something different about you. I don’t know how. But I did.”

“What do you mean, different?” I said.

“Guys are creeps, Luke. Most of them just want to get into a woman’s pants and we can tell right away. Most of the time, that is enough to keep us away from them. A few nights a year, it is actually appealing.”

“Was this one of those nights?”

She propped herself up on her right elbow and looked at me.

“You aren’t paying attention,” she said, like I was being scolded. “Every woman wants to be wanted. But, I was never going to cheat on him just so I could have sex. If I was like that, I could have cheated on him dozens of time. But I didn’t.”

“Then why me?”

“The day I met you, I saw you check out my wedding ring. I saw something in your eyes.”

“You noticed that?”

“Yes.”

“What did you see in my eyes?”

“Respect.”

“Respect?”

“You saw that I was married. And you were respectful. But it didn’t change how you treated me, or interacted with me. It was like we had known each other for a long time, the way we bantered.”

“Are men not respectful when they see your ring? When they know you’re married?”

“Not usually. Some just don’t bother talking to you anymore. Like they just wanted an easy lay and when they find out there are complications to their plan, they move on. And others wind up seeing it as a challenge. As if they somehow need to prove they are more macho and alpha than the guy you’re with. But you...you saw that I was married and you treated me like we had been friends forever. You were welcoming, and helpful, and kind, and funny. And I told myself I wanted it to end up like this.”

“Right away you thought this?”

“Well, maybe a day or two.” She smiled.

I rolled over and took her face into my hands, kissing her deeply. I could taste myself this time, but I didn’t care.

“That first day...I was checking you out while I was still standing in the hallway,” I said. “But your back was to me. And when you turned around after I walked in, my heart stopped beating for a minute. It was like everything froze.”

“I like to keep the room cold,” she said. “Keeps the kids awake.”

God, she was a dork. Like me.

I faked laughter.

“Seriously. Then my heart started racing and I felt like I was a teenager again. Trying to talk to the prettiest girl in school. Only, you would have made the prettiest girl in my school look like a pile of used diapers.”

She laughed. “How charming! That’s quite the compliment.”

“Shut up,” I said. “I was worried I’d start blushing and get clammy hands and slur my words.”

“Well,” she said, smiling. “From the looks of things, my first impressions of you were pretty good.”

Then we kissed. Again and again. Until she fell asleep in my arms.





A clicking sound woke me up. I was in an empty bed.

My eyes immediately went to the alarm clock on my nightstand.

6:15, it blinked, in blurry numbers.

I panicked for a moment, realizing I hadn’t set my alarm. Obviously I was awake in time, but not waking up on time would have been very bad. I mentally scolded myself.

Then I grabbed my glasses that were sitting next to the alarm clock.

Where was April?

The bathroom door was open and the lights were off. She couldn’t have left. She didn’t have a car.

I got out of bed naked and grabbed the boxers that had been tossed aside the night before.

There is a very large window in my living room, which faces east. In the morning, the light from the sun can be blinding. When relatives or friends would sleep over and crash on the couch, they would cuss me out when I woke up, pointing out that they had been awake for hours because of the “goddamn sun.”

But if you woke up early enough, as the sun was waking up too, the view of the sunrise could be spectacular.

April was standing in front of the window, looking out at the sunset. Her right hand was pulling the curtains apart, letting in the light from the rising sun. Her hair and body were illuminated, glowing like fire. I knew if I moved to the left or the right, the angle would change and the sun wouldn’t light up her body in quite the same way. So, I stood there and stared.

April had put her panties on, but nothing else.

There are snapshots your mind takes throughout life. Certain moments frozen in time that you will never be able to forget. Images that sear into your brain and can never be removed, by anything or anyone. I knew this would be one of those moments.