Trust in Excess-Lovers Quarrel

 

            Carefully, she tucked the white garment bag into her suitcase, slipping her hand around all the corners to ensure nothing could catch on the zipper. She could feel the thick satin between her fingers as she pressed and held the dress she had spent weeks finding, every movement of her creamy hands a smooth and measured dance.  

            Zippers crashed through the still air and she picked up her bags. Boarding pass in hand, she smiled, only eight hours now and she would be in his arms once more. It would be a long flight, but somehow, he always made it worth it.  Nathaniel was working in Sacramento, where she met him. This was the third time she had planned a trip from her hometown in southern Minnesota, calling him excitedly at ten pm on a Tuesday when she found a great deal on airfare she couldn’t pass up.

“Sure darling, you can come down.”

“Well, is it ok, does it work for your schedule, do you want me to? Because it’s a great deal, and it would give us so much time together, longer than the last trip, and I think I can get it all off work, and it would be so great to see you again!”

“It always works baby, of course I want you to come down.”

“Are you sure, is there a better time for me to come? If not, I’ll book the tickets tonight.”

“Whatever you want to do.”

She laughs. “But that is what you always say!”

“And it is always true, my love. Come down if you want to, it’ll be fun. There is a company party that weekend, we can go together.”

And so here she was, walking through the chilly April night between the airport and the shuttle station, rolling a bag with her new dress in it, something to impress him and help him miss her, remember her.

They went to the company party and danced just one time. She looked up at his handsome face and his eyes, which were lost somewhere on the horizon. He had that look all weekend, and she decided it was romantic, for him to be so consumed in thought.  

“Nathaniel, isn’t it wonderful to dance together? Just like when we first met, can you believe that was only last year?” She rested her head on his lapel, trying to capture every second and slice about being with him, her heart speaking loudly enough for the both of them.

He stayed in her hotel that night, a getaway for the both of them, he said. She giggled as he opened the door, his arms around her waist, backing her slowly into the room.  His arms which had hair darker than hers, and graying; it gave him that “classic” look. She had spent many lunch hours with her girlfriends raving about “her very own George Clooney”.   

In their hungry race to the bed, she left clothes strewn across the floor. Something made a small, sharp sound as it hit the carpet, but she spent only a second deciding it was his expensive leather belt.

The midmorning sun came in through the sheer curtains, and she surveyed the room, thinking to herself how it looked very much like a movie set.  She was the gorgeous leading lady and Nathaniel was the handsome older man, head over heels in love with her, of course. They were ready to start their lives together, she was sure of it. It would be just like in the movies.

She rolled away from the window to wrap herself around him. He stirred slightly in his sleep, and she closed her eyes once more. And between the window and her naked shoulders, a worn gold ring sat on the floor, a few feet from the pocket of his suit where it had hidden all night, the sun playing off its edges, just like in the movies.