After my uninspiring phone call, I returned to the party to tell everyone I was going to call it a night. “Don’t go,” they all said, convincing me to stay a while longer. Caving into their request, I hung around and pretended to be fine when I was losing it inside.
I circled the yard one final time, making sure I spoke to everyone before I made my exit, then did the unthinkable. I removed my sandals and jumped in the pool.
“Somebody go in there and get her!”
“She doesn’t know how to swim!”
I rose to the top.
“Yes I do!” I yelled.
Three seconds under, rise to the top. Three seconds under, rise to the top. I swam from one side to the other as my friends grew louder and louder, muffled under the water. I reached up for the edge and pulled myself to the surface. Water dripped from my hair, into my eyes, as I stood in the shallow, smiling from ear to ear clearing my face.
“So you’re a show off now,” the deep voice said.
I opened my eyes to a grinning Mash kneeling before me.
“Hey you,” I said.
I lifted myself higher, and met his lips with the quickness.
“What are you doing here?”
He pulled me out of the water.
“I came to bring you home.”
My soaked clothing dampened his as I pressed against him, locking my lips with his as if it were for the first time. Chatter in the background didn’t break my concentration. I was in the arms of the one I wanted to be with, and didn’t let go of his tongue until our hosts told us to get a room.
“Who knew he was coming here?” I asked.
“Just me,” said Levi. “My wife can’t keep a secret.”
I gave him a fist motion. Mash then said to him, “Levi, you said it was hot down here. You should have said boiling.”
He removed his shirt and his shoes, picked me up, and I wrapped my legs around him. I hugged him tightly around his neck, and screamed as he leaped in the pool. My eyes closed when I felt the water on my feet, but I opened them once Mash pinched me, and kissed him underwater. We rose from the deep end, my arms still around him, spinning and playing in the water, convincing the others to join us.
The night ended with a splash party, Mash and I abandoned before everyone else. I skipped the tour and led Mash to my bedroom. Our bedroom. I was in a rush to feel him inside me, but he took his time to give me what I wanted. He shampooed my hair in the shower, building up the sensual stamina to come. I was in agony, yearning for our bodies to bond once more. He kissed me after every rinse, teasing me with finger play in between. I shuddered from the cold air blowing above, then warmed with heat when he tasted my quivering lips between my thighs.
I turned my back to him, but he had something else in mind. He lifted me between my legs and carried me to the bed. On my knees, I fell atop the satin spread, and he held me in place grazing my ass cheeks with his teeth. He spread them apart and wet his fingers, massaging my forbidden with gentle, circular strokes. Screams of passion parted my lips as my face was buried, muffling my cry, until he laid me on my back.
I squirmed even though I hungered him, “You remember how to take it. Look at me,” he said and submitted his plow. I clutched on to him as tight as I could, moaning and sighing in his ear. “Good girl. Oh, how I’ve missed your sugar,” he expelled, driving deeper and faster.
Abruptly he positioned me on my side to the edge of the bed, digging in me sideways, yowling at the touch of a newfound corner as I switched between circular motions, and galloping charges from my throbbing womb. I spread my ass open so he could see his excavation, heightening his intensity. Barely keeping quiet he held onto my shoulders, and released his load locked inside of me.
My drip held her grip while I waited for him to regain his strength, and release me from his hold. I clutched and vibrated on his wood, happy to have him where he belonged. I thought about when he said wherever we are together is home, and he was right. I belonged at his side, and he was home for me.
Lying next to me, he ran his hands through my hair then all over my body, studying my face while adorning me.
“How do you feel?” he asked.
“Like all is right with the world,” I panted.
“It is now. I missed you. I baked the cookies you left in the fridge, and it made me think of how you only eat the crispy ends and give me the middle, then I was reminded of how you don’t eat the crispy end of cake. I can’t make sense of it,” he mocked.
“I know I’m quirky.”
“Yes, you are. But I fell in love with quirky.”
“I’m already lying here naked, you don’t have to flatter me.”
“I also fell in love with that swift tongue of yours.”
“It’s not the only thing you fell in love with.”
He rolled me on top of him, sweeping my face, and reading my eyes. I played with the stubble on his chest searching for words. Unaware I was putting him to sleep. He was tired and so was I, but I watched as he drifted off, and laid my head on his shoulder, giving in to the night taking us under its spell.
In the morning, he told me he signed with new management, and we could move on from the nonsense. I spoke my truth and told him I didn’t want to be kept a secret, and we agreed to move one from that narrative.
I waited for him to bring up the weekend in Cardiff. It was clear he was avoiding the subject when he mentioned how great my bed felt. It did sleep well, but it wasn’t top grade like our bed in London. It cost significantly less, wasn’t nearly as soft, and I personally upgraded his sheet thread count when I moved in. I lifted from his chest and took it upon myself to bring up the matter, “Just tell me nothing happened so I can calm my mind.”
“Nadia, nothing happened. Harv knows I despise her. He saw it as a way to get back at me. Reaching at its finest.”
“I don’t want to ever feel like that again. I drove myself crazy with theories. I needed to hear you say this is nothing. But then you didn’t answer your phone, and I lost it. Deep down I know you wouldn’t do anything to hurt me, but looking at that picture over and over, gave me a little doubt.”
He kissed my hands and stroked my hair, “That night, in that picture, I told her I would file a restraining order if she came to any more of my shows.”
“Who is she?”
“An old friend.”
“And she was in Copenhagen, am I right?”
“Yes. But can we not talk about her?”
Normally, I would have badgered him and made him tell me everything I wanted to know, but I trusted my gut and left it alone. “I was thinking, since we’re both here we might as well file for a marriage license, so I can change my last name before we go back.”
“I love that idea Mrs. Sharper.”
***************************************
The papers were filed and Maximus Sharper was properly introduced to his mother-in-law. Determined to have me wed in a traditional setting, we stood in church with her after Sunday service, and said our vows at the hands of her pastor. Mash surprised me with a written vow, using the pro and con list of our relationship, I wrote one night in distress. He said to the congregation, “I won’t read everything on this paper, because I’ve crossed out the things that don’t matter. My wife needed several reassurances of my love for her, and being the analytical person she is, she compiled a list I found. I’ve walked around with it in my wallet for good luck ever since, and I want to let her know that her list is also my list. My wife Nadia—She makes me happy. I have grown as a person because of her, and having her in my life has changed me for the better. And I love her. I love her. I love her. She also wrote I taught her how to swim, but I would like to add, she taught me what happiness is.”
My mother’s pastor didn’t get a chance to say the words, “You may now kiss your bride.” Mash reeled me in and kissed me before the words left his mouth, becoming man and wife in front of family and friends, making it o
fficial on two continents.
Fear no longer controlled me. I was no longer afraid of change, and ready to live life abroad with a man who is incomparable, and worthy of me. I was excited for our journey ahead, leaving my old life behind, and beginning a new chapter that felt promising in a foreign land. What I now call home.
The List
Cons: Interference with career, drama with colleagues, jealousy, financially challenged.
Pros: Makes me happy, changed for the better, grown as a person, sleep better next to him, taught me to swim, I love him, I love him, I love him.
AN AFFAIR ABROAD
An Affair Abroad Page 14