Reunited

But at 4:20, he calls me. "We still on for tonight?"

"Yeah," I answer. "Are you sure you still want to meet?" I am so freaking scared that he's going to disappear on me again, I can hardly bear it.

"Absolutely," he reassures me. "Just call me before you leave work and let me know where you are."

At 5:10, I call him and he answers immediately. "I'm leaving work now, and I'll be there as soon as I can. Hopefully the traffic won't be too heavy."

"All right. I'm outside of Carmine's right now," he says.

Again, I can't resist asking him, "Are you sure you still want to meet me tonight?"

"Yes, I'm sure!" he exclaims. "I'll be here."

But when I pull into the parking lot of the shopping center twenty minutes later, I don't see David anywhere, and my heart drops into my stomach. This can't be happening again.

I wander into the True Value hardware store next to the pizza parlor, thinking that perhaps he has come here to kill time. After scanning all of the aisles in the store and not seeing him anywhere, I call his cell phone. "Uh...where are you?" I ask, trying to keep my voice casual.

"Out front of Carmine's. Where are you?"

"You weren't out front of Carmine's a minute ago! I'm in the hardware store next door. I'll be right over." I clap my cell phone shut and just about swoon from the relief of knowing that David is still there, waiting for me.

I step outside and turn the corner. He is standing in front of the pizza parlor's door, smiling at me.

DAMN! He looks good. Too good...I'm toast.

I walk over to him and we hug. Truthfully, it's an awkward moment. I hadn't realized until now just how angry he had made me by standing me up. I pull back from him, and it seems like he's going to try to kiss me, but I turn around and walk into the restaurant before he can.

We sit at a booth in the far end of the parlor, as far from the other diners as possible. After we place our orders and the waitress brings us our sodas, I just stare at him.

"What's wrong?" he asks.

I look down at the Formica tabletop. I am so fucking weak. "I want you to come over here and sit next to me, but I didn't want to ask you."

Immediately, he stands up and moves to my side of the booth. He settles down next to me and I appraise him.

"I guess you didn't get the package I sent you last week, did you?" I ask him.

He feigns a puzzled look, but I can tell he's lying. "Package?" he echoes. "No...I haven't gotten anything in the mail."

"Really," I reply, more a statement than a question.

We start talking about our respective weekends, and then he interrupts himself. "Okay...I lied to you. I did get your package late last week. But I haven't opened it yet."

The tiniest smile crosses my face, and I raise my eyebrows in his direction. "Mmm-hmm..."

He grins back at me. "You knew I was lying before, didn't you? You could see right through me."
"Yep."

"But I didn't open the package yet. I swear!"

"Why not?"

He takes a deep breath. "I saw it last week at my mom's house, and I knew it was from you, even though there wasn't a return address on it. And I just wasn't ready to open it yet."

"Why? Did ya think it was a bomb or something?" I roll my eyes at him. "It's just a Christmas gift I'd gotten you a while ago."

Our pizza arrives and I serve him the first slice. "Eat up."

As we eat, I ask him in my most non-accusatory voice why he stood me up.

"Because I'm callous and cold-hearted and mean," he tells me. "And I just get lazy. I don't know why. I thought that I was gonna call you to shore up our plans to go out that Saturday, but I got busy on Thursday, and I didn't call you...kept thinking to myself, 'Gotta call her today, gotta call her now,' but I didn't...and then it was Friday, and I didn't. And then it was Saturday. I don't know why. I'm just lazy about that stuff sometimes."

"That's not laziness," I counter. "That's just fear. Plain and simple. You're afraid." But privately, I still think he's lying. I still think he went out that Friday night and got high, and has been avoiding me ever since because he is ashamed of himself. "David...look, you don't owe me anything...I'm not gonna yell at you. Is that why you haven't called me since then? Because you thought I was going to get mad at you? Because I wouldn't be mad. I was just sad. Really, really sad."

He grimaces. "No, it's not that I was scared that you were going to be mad at me. Hell, I've seen you mad at me before! It's because you would've been sad. And I can't stand to see you sad."

"Well, you shouldn't have done that. You should've just called me and told me to forget about it. I'm a big girl, I can handle disappointment!"

"I know," he sighs. "I'm just a coward." He polishes off another two slices of pizza, and encourages me to have another slice. "Eat, eat! You gotta be starving."

I've only had one slice, but I'm full. Sitting this close to him makes my appetite disappear. "Nah, I'm good."

He chews on a pizza crust. "I read your horoscope today. It said--"

"I know you did," I interrupt him.

He cocks his head. "Really? How'd you know that?"

I smile. "I know you! I keep telling you that, but when are you finally gonna believe me?"

"I read your horoscope every single day," he tells me, his face solemn. "Every day." He nuzzles up next to me and rests his warm left hand on my thigh. "Mmm...you smell so good." He begins kissing the nape of my neck and trying to suck on my earlobe through the heavy curtain of my hair. Then he pretends to yawn and stretch, his arms rising high above our heads, and then drops his left arm down around my back. His hand snakes down to the small of my back, then to my waist, and then even further down. He gives my ass a gentle squeeze.

I’m wet again, damn him! How does he manage it? It seems effortless on his part, and I hate him for it, just for a moment.

We leave Carmine's and I inform him that I'm going to drive him home, despite his protests. I want to spend as much time with him as possible. Before we get into my SUV, I hand him the CD I've made for him, along with a plain white envelope that contains the lyrics of the songs on the CD as well as a letter I've written him.

We chat as I drive down the pike towards his house, and when we stop at a red light, he cups my chin and pulls my face to him. "This one’s a nice, long red light," he whispers before kissing my lips for the first time all night. I relax into him as his tongue explores my mouth. I wasn't sure he even wanted to kiss me ever again.

We hold hands and kiss intermittently for the rest of the ride to his house. As we approach his street, I ask him where I should drop him off. He tells me I should make a u-turn and drop him off at the bank, which is about a block away from his street, but I accidentally-on-purpose pull into the parking lot of the Observatory Field instead.

David laughs. "This'll work, I guess. Is that what they call a Freudian slip?"

I shrug, unashamed. He has to know what is coming next. "Maybe."

Our gentle kissing soon gives way to a full-on frenzied make-out session in the front seat of the SUV. His cell phone keeps vibrating. It's Christine. She's been calling him all night. I pull away and tease him, "It's your girl calling you...she's feenin' for ya."

David makes a terrible face, rolling his eyes. "She's not my girl. Ugh. Don't call her that. And she can feen all she wants. I'm yours right now." He kisses me again.

I giggle, nipping his neck with my teeth. "We could put that vibrating phone of yours to better use, I think."

He reaches down between my legs and presses his index finger firmly into my slacks, right above my clit, making me gasp. "I could put it right here...mmm...you're sooo warm."

"Look how wet you make me," I murmur. "How much time did you say you have?"

We look at each other for a long moment, and then we climb into the back, pulling the seats down to maximize the space in the trunk. I pull out a condom from my purse and hand it to him. We undress ourselves quickly; I leave on my bra as he crawls on top of me, grinding his erection into my belly. "I am rock hard." He slides his finger into me as he kisses me. I am so wet that I feel like I might just drown.

"Now! I need to feel you inside me now!" I whisper frantically, and he eases into me with a gentle finesse that makes me tremble.

I grab his narrow hips. "Nice and slow this time, babe."

We stare into each other's eyes as he presses into me, and I feel like I'm looking into the other half of my soul at this very moment. It's disconcerting, but I cannot tear my gaze away from his.

"Oh my God! David!" I cry out as I receive him inside me. He pulls down the cups of my bra and takes each of my nipples, one at a time, between his full, soft lips, suckling my breasts until I feel a hot tingling sensation between my legs. Then his lips return to mine, his tongue plunging relentlessly into my mouth over and over again.

I close my eyes as he begins to tease my breasts again with his lips. "I love you.”

"I love you too," he whispers hoarsely. He moves his hips rhythmically against mine as I lift my legs up and apart for him. He shoves his left arm under my head and pulls me closer to him, close enough for me to bury my face in his neck and breathe in his delicious scent as he pounds me.

"Let me get on top," I implore. He smiles and pulls out of me, rolling over onto the upholstery. I climb astride him and grasp the base of his cock, guiding him into me. I place my hands on the flat plain of his belly and begin to rock my hips back and forth against him. He moans, his hands clutching my hips, helping me move. Then I lean back so that he can get a better view of me, completely naked except for my powder-pink bra that is still clasped just under my breasts. I hope he likes what he sees. I throw my head back, swaying and rolling my hips slowly as I ride him, vaguely conscious of his soft groans. He makes me feel completely wanton and shameless and free, like a porn star, and I love every second of it.

I dip forward to kiss him, pulling back after a few minutes to rub my bare breasts across his face, his mouth gaping as he tries to take my nipples between his lips. I lean forward over his face even further, and his hands cup my ass as he starts pumping me up and down on his cock. Faster and faster I ride him, and I can feel his body underneath me tensing, ready to climax. “I’m gonna come soon,” he grunts, his teeth clenched.

I bear down on him inside of me, tightening my muscles to enfold him as firmly as possible. I lean over him, my breath hot in his ear, whispering, "Come for me! Come for me…right…now!"

And he does, another lengthy, wrenching orgasm. His face contorts in pleasure as a strangled sound escape his pursed lips. With the final pulse of his climax, he squeezes his eyes shut even harder than before and howls in total satisfaction and release. I sit up straight, with him still inside me, and we smile at each other.

"Was that good?" I tease him.

"Uh-huh," he sighs. Then he pouts. "But I want you to come, too."

I kiss the tip of his nose. "Not gonna happen, honey. I don't come from sex. Only from my toy. But this is still a lot of fun!"

I lift myself off him and lay down on the back of the folded seat. We lay in silence for a few minutes, listening to the music playing from my iPod, which I had left on when we’d first parked. His cell phone keeps vibrating.

Finally, I sit up and begin dressing myself, my demeanor becoming almost business-like. I’m still kind of in shock that we’ve just made love again. But I don’t want to tip my hand. I’m so afraid he’s going to hurt me again.

“Guess you’d better go,” I remark.

“Yeah.”

“It was good to see you tonight. Enjoy your Christmas gift.” He’s heading over to his mom’s house and has told me that he is going to open the package I’d mailed to him last week.

He kisses me briefly, then hops out of my SUV and walks into the night.