Forever And A Day

So the time came when they wanted to share something special. The act of intercourse was going to become an obvious highlight of their night. Both sharing that moment of climax together as one. And with caution in hand she handed him the condom. There was no questioning about it, safety was too important now.

Later, Craig slipped into bed beside his wife. His arms cuddled her in embrace as she slept without a second thought about what he had just done. It was only later, after sleep that he began to realize what had happened. Marie turned to him and kissed him as he opened his eyes. The dream he had was dominated by Zoë and what they did. "Morning my love. How was your meeting?" she asked. His eyes sprang wide and he looked at her.

"It was very intense." He sat up and rubbed his eyes. "It went on a bit late. Must have been three when I got back." He searched for the alarm clock noticing the time, ten-forty or thereabouts. Marie lay beside him, naked, expecting their usual weekend morning session of lovemaking. But, Craig seemed opposed to any thoughts regarding that. He quickly made his way to the bathroom, leaving Marie wondering. On his return soon after he was dressed and it was clear to her that sex was not on his immediate agenda that morning.

As the weeks turned into months Craig and Zoë continued to be student and teacher for those four hours a week. On other occasions they had become lovers, spending hours together whenever they could. And Marie began to notice something about his behaviour. He was going to meetings more often late in the evenings and when they made love, although it was good, Craig would take much longer to cum and seemed less interested than usual. Instead of being playful on his own behalf, it was Marie who had to encourage their intimate times together.

Marie did not like these changes. But she understood that men did sometimes become less interested. Maybe it was those meetings he had? Maybe work was getting harder during the mid term perhaps? She never once thought seriously about what was really happening, although it had crossed her mind on more than one occasion.

Zoë loved the attention of her new lover. It felt as if she had met that ideal man atlast. He was her mentor too and she would do almost anything to please him. Craig now was the real center figure of her life and she became less and less aware that he was married to another woman. Her demands on his time were stressing him. He so much wanted to be around when she needed him, but it was impossible. Craig had to hide their relationship as best he could. Making love and caring for two women in reality was not that easy. It was also expensive. And that Christmas brought his bank balance into dire straits.

"What have you spent it on?" Marie asked, checking the bank statements over lunch. "We have never been so much in the red before. I can't understand it. What are all these extra withdrawls each week?"

"I needed the cash."

"What for? You are clearly spending too much on something. They are enormous."

It was getting harder to think of reasonable excuses. The situation was becoming more and more riskier and now the spending made it obvious to him. He had to make decisions sooner rather than later. It was either Zoë and face certain separation or even divorce, or break the heart of someone he had just learned to love as much as had loved his devoted Marie. Life without Marie was unthinkable as they had gone through so much pain together in their past. Not being able to have children together was devastating enough. They needed each other so much, and always would. Break-up would destroy both of them.

Craig sat in the bar and waited for his lover to arrive. This time he had something to say which he dreaded. It was time to lay all of his cards onto the table and face his problems head on. Zoë would surely understand. And when she arrived looking as radiant as ever, his heart began to sink, knowing what had to be said. She agreed to order a round of drinks and a meal at the restaurant nearby. He held out his hand and forced her to sit at the table.

"What is it? What's wrong?" she asked.

"Listen to what I have to say. And please listen carefully." She could see he meant business. He was serious and never before had she seen him so worried. "We have to stop this."

"Wait. What do you mean? Break-up?"

"Yes, if that is the way you want to put it." He began to explain their circumstances and his point of view as to how and why it should end that way. Zoë did not agree. She could not agree. The whole suggestion sounded outrageously stupid. They loved each other and that was that. For the first time ever they had reached an argument since being together over the months. She was upset and almost pleaded with him to reconsider things. But, Craig was determined their affair had to come to an end, although he himself would have loved for it to carry on forever. Zoë stood up and turned. She left the bar in tears and she hailed a passing taxicab on the street that took her home. He felt so awful, having to do such a thing, but the time had to come and the final decision had to be made.

"You ok love?" the cabdriver asked. She sat in the back seat sobbing her heart out. She ignored him at first until he repeated his concerns. "Mind your own fucking business, ok?" she replied abruptly. Her anger and remorse was unmistakably apparent.

Craig stayed to drown his sorrows in the bar. He realized once the alcohol began to take affect that he had to stat calm and cool, so as not to show his real feelings when he eventually got home. Marie was already becoming overly suspicious, or so he thought. Infact, she trusted him so much that it was still the last thought in her mind that he would be having an affair with a student let alone anyone else. Now it was over. Those three and a half months had come to an end and he still had someone At least to go home to at the end of the day.

Zoë was bitter. She went absent from class for two weeks. Instead of being the bubbly person she had become, she turned depressed and spent her days thinking about the good things that could have happened if she and Craig had stayed together and continued. Those thoughts made her feel even worse, making her hate him even more. She could not bear to even set eyes upon him. College was now fast becoming another opportunity she would have to let go. Craig was part and parcel to it all, it was him or nothing.

One day, she woke up and realized that letting a man ruin her life like this was not exactly what she wanted. Those two weeks allowed her to think more clearly once the grief had subsided. It was not too late to pick up the pieces again, without him being so close. It was something she had to try At least. After all he was just another man like the rest. He took what he wanted, enjoyed it and then dumped her. It had to happen sometime. She considered it to be all part of life's experiences and would learn something from it.

Craig watched her enter the class and take her place at her desk. His heart beat faster in his chest at the sheer presence of her being there. He still loved her and the same feelings struck her too. As soon as she noticed him, she wanted him so much. It was not easy for either of them. Yet, they both knew things could never be the same as before. Together, they fought their emotions and continued. Their recent passed hanging over them like a phantom, but at the same time, a pleasant phantom that lured them into a wonderful relationship when it lasted, for as long as it did.

The following weeks went by and there seemed to be some kind of healing between them. It was as if nothing had happened. Craig paid more attention to her academic progress, which Zoë took more and more serious as the time passed. They even began to laugh and joke between each other and somehow that healing was not just about amicable separation as lovers, it was a rekindling of their feelings too. Neither of them realized what was unfolding until one afternoon, Craig had invited her for lunch at a nearby restaurant.

They both enquired about how they felt and listened over their meal. Craig explained that he had fallen in love with two women and it was impossible to be seeing both of them at the same time as lovers. Zoë understood, or At least she tried to understand. She still knew that deep inside that he was the man she wanted more than any other. She tried to tell him that there was a place in her heart that was still vacant for him and in her choice of words; "waiting for someone else to come along and fill that space."

Craig was touched by her thoughts. He even felt jealous, knowing that place was really his. "How about I give you a ride home later after college? And I can see that rough estate your live on you keep writing about so much?"

"Sure, that would be nice," she agreed. He had never once been to her home or anywhere near in those three and a half long months they had been together. "But, you can't meet my parents, ok?" she joked.

"There would be no point, would there?" He looked sincere. If only he was single. She would certainly be the one he would love to be with. However, that was not the case. Marie was his proper and justified lover, not Zoë. Playing one against the other was why it all went wrong in the first place.

That evening he drove Zoë to her home across town. The journey was silent between them as their favourite tunes played on the stereo. Craig parked the car a few houses away from her own and they sat for a while listening and thinking. It was dusk, and the subdued streetlights had left them reasonably unnoticed by anyone who happened to pass by.

The full rush of feelings towards each other was rekindled as they kissed. This was no first time kiss; this was a re-awakening of a love that had never died. Together they were re-discovering the long lost feelings that they had once shared, that neither had ever dared to share with any other. It was their love. A love re-visited as they embraced each other once more, a crescendo of the past that only they knew. Once more entwined in total unity. Lips and eyes caressed as two bodies merged as one before finally reaching the zenith of all human experience. The sowing of the seed and the acceptance of the seed was once more brought to life, or was it? Words of hope were spoken as Craig whispered softly into her ear. "We now have a future to rebuild, perhaps."

Zoë's eyes changed and became colder. Feelings that were willing to be shared only moments ago were now retracting. How could he suggest such a thing? It was just a moment in time, a reflection of what they had in their past. "We need to talk about it." She told him, pushing him away gently. Their heads moved away, still close but now outside of the aura of their bodies. Nothing made sense; every spoken word seemed to make things worse. Love was screaming out from within yet love was seemingly seeping away like water upon arid land. "You're taking the piss!" was the continued spoken response she gave him. The last words that were heard before the total fracture of the heart, the complete breakdown seemed final as she opened the door and left, slamming it behind her.

Why? There was a future, they both knew it surely? Craig watched as she strode towards her house. His heart sank deeper as he thought about it. Maybe there was someway they could still love each other, a reasonable place, somewhere in-between that could be found that they both could agree upon. But it seemed it was too late.

Zoë stopped, almost at her garden gate. He started the engine and noticed her simply standing still in the street, her back towards him. Then she turned and looked at him in the beaming headlights of his car. She sighed to herself and thought. Surely, this cannot be the end? They had so much in common and still so much love to give. Those months were not based purely on lust and desire. Love did mean something special between two people.

Craig suddenly realized at that moment that he only loved one woman, not two. For as long as he had been married to Marie, there was something missing now. Something that had diminished over the years that used to be there once. That something was true love. Marie had become like a best friend he had learned to live with. She was part of his life like a devoted sister, but one he was allowed to make love to. Now it really was different feelings altogether. True love had now been sought in Zoë, not Marie. Life was so cruel indeed.

Three years later, Zoë lay on the hospital bed with her thighs tucked high and wide. The pain was tremendous, but bearable as the final contraction pushed the head of her child into the world. Craig held her hand as she felt their son take his first gasp of air and cry. Then the nurse placed him onto her breast to take his first ever feed as they both admired the miracle of life unfold before their very eyes. They were happy and content, despite the age gap between them and now even happier to see what their love for each other had created.

Marie was happy too. She had discovered that divorce from a man she had been married to was not so bad after all. At least, finally he was happy with his new wife and son. She could now spend time pursuing the career she so much desired all her life and while there was still time left, she wrote her own experiences of life and published them successfully, as a writer of romance and fantasy.