Those Healing Hands of Time

Catching our breath, we lay there lightly kissing each other. She pulled back a tiny bit to speak, looked me in the eye and said, "I can't believe how good this feels, being here with you. And I can't believe we weren't doing this weeks ago."

"Felt phenomenal, but this feels great also, you know, holding you, kissing."

"Umm-hmm, does."

After a few more minutes she added, "But there is one thing right now that might make me feel even better."

"Oh? What?"

"Emptying my bladder," she laughed as she squirmed out and ran to the bathroom. After hearing her urinate, I heard the shower turn on. I quickly called the dining room and ordered their special 'Lovers' Breakfast' before following her to use the toilet and share the shower with her. I was still drying off when there was a knocking at the door. I wrapped my towel around my waist, grabbed some cash and opened the door. A blushing sweet-looking teenaged girl pushed the rolling cart into the room and averted her eyes as I pressed the cash into her hands. I thanked her as she rushed from the room.

"Who was that, Bry?"

"A teenager with the cutest blushing face just brought us breakfast."

"Were you naked?!"

"No, of course not, but I'm sure she figured out what we had been doing in here and couldn't wait to leave."

"Mmm, smells good. What's to eat?"

We lounged around eating a wonderful breakfast and drinking some of the best coffee ever before getting dressed. During the day we did a short hike, had a fabulous lunch and while I worked out in the gym, Di swam laps in their modest pool. We capped it off with a couples massage, something I never thought I would partake in but I'm glad I did. The two masseuses were thoughtful, professional and spoke minimally allowing us to enjoy the session. We enjoyed dinner that evening, more dancing and, of course, more sweet loving in our room.

The next morning, we cleaned up, dressed and had breakfast downstairs, sparing the young lady any more embarrassment. Our drive home was quiet. I had a million things racing through my mind and I'm sure Di did too. Shortly before we got to her place, she asked me to pull over. She cleared her throat, swallowed hard and looked me in the eye.

"Uh, I had a really good time, Bry, probably the best three days I've ever had."

"Yeah, me too."

"And I can't believe how close I feel to you right now. Uh, I guess what I want to know is what should we be calling this, us?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, are you my boyfriend?"

"I sure hope so."

"Are we exclusive?"

"I sure want to be. Yes, I want to spend more time with you and see where this leads us. So yes, exclusively."

She smiled, crawled over the drink console and gave me a warm hug and a loving kiss. "Good, 'cause that's what I want. OK, drive me home and I'll face the music with my parents," she laughed.

I didn't see them when I dropped her off and I don't know if they were peeking through the curtains at us when I gave Di a nice 'good-bye' kiss. But I did want to tell them at some point they had a fantastic daughter I was falling for and I hoped she was falling for me.

-----

The process of getting to know one another can sometimes be a bit uncomfortable. I have never believed in telling all the gory details about previous relationships to a new woman in my life, but there are certain things which come up during conversations. For instance, my time with Christina came up during a discussion about future plans. I had mentioned wanting to be on the same page with Di about us and that hadn't always been the case in my life. That led to me telling her about Christina and how devastated I was when we split.

Di briefly told me about one of her prior boyfriends who she had strong feelings for until she caught him in bed with another woman. We commiserated and talked about the healing process. It had been well over a year for me and a bit longer for Di and we both felt we were finally over the trauma of those break us.

The one big unresolved topic for Di was Heather. I thought it was a dead issue but one evening after a second glass of wine, Di cleared her throat and said, "I believe in honesty while respecting privacy. But I have to know something. Not all the gory details, please, but I need to know something more about that woman at the big dinner."

I groaned inwardly, smiled and asked what was on her mind.

"Just who is she, anyway?"

"Well, to start out, she was Heather and please note the past tense. I haven't seen her in months."

"But she sure seemed taken with you and you with her. I mean, I could practically feel the heat between you."

"The heat, as you call it, is long gone."

"OK, so what happened?"

I knew I had to at least give Di the courtesy of an honest answer, I mean, we were getting very close and if she wanted to know, I couldn't keep it from her.

"Well, remember how we were to have a plus-one?"

"Yeah. Our CFO and I decided to go together but we were only coworkers and not like you and her, you know, together together."

"Well, I was still reeling from the uh, the situation with Christina and how we split rather acrimoniously, I would say. And I needed to have someone to go with. I called a couple of single women I knew but one had recently met a new guy and the other couldn't go because it was her sister's wedding that weekend."

"So?"

"Well, so the one with the sister suggested I hire someone to go with me, you know, an escort."

"An escort? You hired a hooker?!" she shrieked.

"No, now wait a second. It wasn't like that at all. This was a reputable escort service that had both women and men who would accompany you, you know, for things like this. I guess some people hire them just for dates..."

"And to screw!"

"It was specifically stated I was hiring someone for her time and nothing else. There was no discussion of sex at all."

"So, you flew her to New York, spent what, uh, three or four days together and you're telling me you didn't screw?"

"Di, please..."

"The way she was looking at you that night I know you two did it."

"I feel uncomfortable talking about this. I don't want to talk about what we did..."

"Because when you did it, she was nothing more than a hooker and not some fancy escort. Have you seen her since?"

"No."

"Talked to her?"

"Once, on the phone."

"Why?"

"To be perfectly honest, I was lonely and I thought I'd like to see her again. She said 'no'."

"Why?"

"You'd have to ask her but she suggested she didn't want to escort people she was fond of, or something."

"And you haven't talked to her since that?"

"Nope. Not at all."

"Hmm." She stared at me but I had trouble reading her. I knew she wasn't mad but I got the idea she was more disappointed in me than anything else. I decided to mention one final thing.

"Uh, there was one more topic we discussed when I had that call with her."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. You."

"Me?!"

"Uh-huh. She told me I should track you down. Said you were watching me the whole night and gave her the evil eye a couple of times. Did you?"

"Give her the evil eye? Well, I have to admit I was struck by you and I liked dancing with you but I don't remember how I reacted to her. Wait! Just how is it your company happened to contact ours?"

"I went to my boss and asked if we had any dealings with you guys and he said yes. He also was getting ready for the new project and recommended I be the liaison. I was happy to do it mainly because Heather had suggested I get in contact with you."

"So, the hooker set you up with me?" she laughed, something I was glad to hear but she went on; "Uh, Bry, I like you. I like you a lot. I could even see a long-term future with you. But I need to chew on this a little bit, you know, think it over."

"OK. Uh, not looking for details but if you've ever had a one-night stand or a brief hook up, you might want to keep it in mind when thinking about this situation. OK?"

"Yeah, sure."

"I'll be heading out. Uh, can I call you?"

"Let me call you, OK? I need you to give me a few days, please."

"OK. By the way, I really, really like you and would love to have a future with you, too. Good night." I kissed her sweetly on the lips and was glad to see she responded rather warmly.

-----

Three days later Elise rang my line and told me I had an important call. I punched the line with the blinking light and was thrilled to hear Di's voice.

"Hey, I thought I'd give you a call."

"And?"

"And I've been thinking about everything, you know, her, you and me."

As she spoke there seemed to be a funny bit of feedback on the line but I figured it must have been due to a cellular issue.

"And what have you thought?" I asked nervously.

"I'm thinking two things: First, whatever or whoever we did in the past is just that, in the past. So, I'm going to forget all about her, well, almost all about her." That funny feedback echo thing was still there.

"What do you mean 'almost'?"

"Well, that brings up the second thing. I figure since she was directly the reason you got in touch with me, well, then maybe I'm super grateful for her input. I guess..."

"Di? Is there something wrong with this connection? It seems I keep hearing an echo like you're talking twice or something."

"Hmm. Nope. Don't hear it. Elise, is there something wrong with your phones here in the office..."

I bolted out the door to find her with a cell phone to her ear and both she and Elise sitting on the desk giggling. I took two big steps to her and wrapped her up in a big hug. I grinned at Elise and mouthed 'You're fired.'

"I'll leave you two love birds alone for now. You've got fifteen minutes, then I'm coming back from break. Don't make a mess with my desk," she laughed as she stepped out of the office and closed the door.

-----

Di admitted she thought things over and realized she had been wrong to make a big issue about my brief relationship with Heather. She did want to send Heather a quick 'Thank you' note for suggesting I get in contact with Di, so I gave her the contact info for Professional Services, Inc.

The only other speed bump in our relationship was the distance thing. I know many people commute an hour each way to work but I believe that's ridiculous. It is a waste of time and energy and can't be good for the planet. Di was comfortable and happy in her place and wanted to stay close to her parents as they aged so moving was not an option for her. My job required quite a bit of hands-on work and exclusive telecommuting wouldn't work. I wanted to be with Di more than one or two nights a week, however, so I went to my boss with a request. He groaned and moaned as I outlined my request but he didn't say 'no.'

Two weeks later, I had it all set up. I snuck over to visit her parents one day while she was at work and later called for a weekend date. I told her I wanted to take her to dinner in her town on Friday evening. I knocked off work early, showered, packed an overnight bag and took off. When I rang her doorbell, I saw some movement from the curtains next door. Looking over, I saw her mom and dad peeking out and grinning. He gave me the thumbs up.

Di looked fabulous. She had on one of my favorite dresses that teased but revealed nothing. We walked hand in hand to the car and as I opened the door for her, I glanced up to see her parents' curtain closing. We were escorted to our secluded table and enjoyed a fabulous meal and an excellent vintage wine from France. Afterwards we strolled in the semi-dark along the river walk for a short distance before I sat with her on a park bench.

Well, you know what happened, don't you? I confessed my love, I proposed, she squealed with happiness and accepted my proposal. I nervously pulled out the ring her mother had helped me select and, of course, it was perfect in every way. She was giddy with happiness and suddenly pulled me up and demanded we go home to tell her parents. I grinned to myself. Afterall, he had approved my old-fashioned request to marry his daughter and her mother had helped with the ring selection.

We walked up the steps and instead of opening her door, she rang her parents' bell. They played it perfectly. The oohed and aahed over the ring and the two females immediately started talking weddings. Her dad offered me a nice scotch while musing the best thing for me to do at this point was to learn those two famous words that keep every marriage intact: 'Yes, Dear.'

I moved in with her a few weeks later. I know my boss was unhappy but we worked out an arrangement where I would spend one day a week in the main office and telecommute the rest of the week. I also became a permanent liaison between the two businesses much to everyone's pleasure. Elise remained at the main office working remotely with me parttime and parttime with a newly hired woman in our department.

-----

Two Years

Our wedding was a modest affair. There were about thirty or so people in the small chapel on the campus of the local junior college as we walked together up the aisle. An old friend of mine was the officiant for the brief and poignant service. As we turned to leave the altar, I saw a flash of someone leaving, someone who looked for all the world like Christina. I decided to totally ignore her.

At the little reception in the student union next door, we had an informal receiving line. I was stunned to see the very last one in the line was none other than Heather. I groaned inwardly but put on a nice smile. Di recognized her immediately and reached up and gave her a big hug. They were chatting like old friends before Heather turned to me.

"Hey, guys, I just heard about the wedding this morning and raced up here to see it. I'm sorry to crash your party and even sorrier to not have a present for you."

Di laughed and gave her another hug before saying, "Heather, you gave me this guy and he's the best present ever. I can't begin to thankyou enough." After Heather gave me a quick, chaste hug, Di gave me a not-so chaste kiss, I guess to mark her territory, before the two stood there talking and laughing like old friends. Yeah, life was good.

Later that afternoon as Di was getting changed for our honeymoon, I remembered it had been almost exactly two years since the fateful night Christina and I split. I quickly thought back about all that had happened, the issues I had to deal with and the demons I had to overcome. Yeah, I had come a long way over those two years and I was truly fortunate to have had those healing hands of time.

Trionyx- Fall 2022

-----

The theme for this story comes from Willie Nelson's song Healing Hands of Time.This rather short song with its gritty optimism is, I believe, one of his better ones though it never reached the popularity of many of his other tunes.

Votes and comments are appreciated. Thank you.