Page 751 of The Tempted
You give him something to hang on to as he waits for you to join him.
“I’m wearing a turquoise silk jumpsuit, the very same one I wore when you first laid eyes on me. I look the same as I did that night, the lines from my face are gone, my hair is brown, but there is a lost look in my eyes as I wander around. I don’t know what I’m searching for but I know the moment I see you with your hand extended toward me, it’s you, you’re exactly what I’ve been searching for.”
He keeps his eyes closed as tears spill from the corners and I do my best to wipe them away, eventually I resign, allowing them to fall, for they are the tears of the love we will one day find again and I welcome them, adding my own to them.
We will meet again.
“You’re wearing that same charcoal suit, with the black turtleneck and gold chain. Your lines have faded, your hair just as dark as it was that first night, and when you smile at me, it’s a smile full of promise. You ask me my name and I tell you, waiting for you to repeat it back because this is a familiar dance we’re taking,” I continue, stopping a moment to clear my throat.
“I ask you who you are and butterflies take flight inside me as I await your answer. You grin at me and I learn you’re cocky, you're confident, and more than that you believe wholeheartedly the words you’re about to utter.” My voice trails off as I watch his lips part.
“Me? I’m the man you’re going to spend all of eternity with,” he whispers as his eyes flutter open, applying the final touches to the picture I was painting, reminding me this wasourpicture.Ourlife.Ourlove.
“That’s right,” I reply, holding his face as I lean closer to him. “Forever and always, my love.”
“I love you, Gracie,” he rasps. His hands travel up my sides, slowly, knowing it’s the last journey they’ll ever take over me. Finally, he takes my face and I close my eyes as his lips brush across mine.
Soft and endearing.
Painfully heartbreaking.
Lovingly, Victor kisses me one last time. Thirty years of love, three decades of memories and all the lessons we’ve learned melt into that one kiss affirming the one thing that may have once been lost to us—the beautiful love we created will never die.
We’ve found eternal love in a sea full of illicit temptations.
“I’ll see you soon,” I whisper against his lips, pulling back a fraction to stare into his handsome face one last time.
“Goodbye my love, until we meet again,” he says softly.
And we would meet again.
He’ll be the man in the charcoal suit.
I’ll be the woman in a turquoise jumpsuit.
He’ll grin at me and I’ll take his hand and together we’ll be.
Always together.
