One year, four months and fourteen days; I'd looked at the calendar and was sure— a long time in the desert, I suppose. It didn't feel so pathetic doing the math while waiting in the Hilton lobby at noon on a Tuesday. Sarah had asked how long it had been for me.
"I think I want to give you a post-valentine present..."
When I heard her say it I momentarily stopped breathing.
"Can you find a hotel somewhere halfway between us?"
Her voice seemed quieter than normal and there was gravity when she said it. She wasn't joking and this wasn't an impulsive suggestion. She knew what she was doing.
Married people with needs are the living embodiment of the biological truth that sex is resilient and persistent. We're like small plants who find cracks in the sidewalk to live in, and we find each other— small, blind, green tendrils in inhospitable places entangling and holding onto each other.
My inhospitable place was an otherwise happy marriage to an asexual woman, Sarah's was a sexual home without adventure or appreciation. None of it mattered, though, when we what— Talked online? Chatted?
"What is the verb I'm looking for here?" I had asked her once.
"EXPERIENCED!" She had said.
Yes! That was it— none of our "inhospitable homes" mattered while we experienced one another. The delirium of experiencing her dirty mind freely thrilled me. I often fell to sleep imagining her in my arms, my face between her thighs; I drifted off warmed knowing that she'd love that I wanted her so fiercely.
I watched the entrance to the hotel casually and was surprise when I felt a tap on the shoulder and a quick hug from someone behind me.
"I found you!" She whispered in my ear.
The embrace was quick but it triggered something. I was so filled with lust and anticipation that it felt as if time slowed. I could remember every detail— The color of happy flush on her face, the blurred-fur softness of the cashmere sweater she was wearing, the vague warmth of her face close to my ear, and as she withdrew, the lovely smell of her hair.
She was so beautiful! I felt the world dimmed as she smiled and put her hands on her hips laughing slightly...
"Well?... where are we staying?" She winked at me as I croaked out the room number and picked up her bag.
"Sarah, what's in the bag? It's not an overnight thing, right? Did I misunderstand something?"
"It's a surprise for you— well maybe me too— but you don't get to see right away!" Now I was REALLY curious.