would!
Well, the heavens opened up and it started to pour. The rain was cold but the combination of all of the sensory overload just made it seem wonderfully intense. Cold rain cascading off of our bodies, trees heaving and roaring in the wind. Thunder was crashing and she looked at me with those dark eyes burning like fire and, well….she “invited me in” so to speak.
Terry smiled and chuckled a bit, “I have to say, that sounds like it was an amazing thing to experience.”
Jay grinned ear to ear and said, “At some point, a bolt lightning must have hit a tree so close, that the flash of the lightning and the thunder were almost simultaneous. But did we stop? Hell no! It was hands down, the most extreme experience I‘ve ever had in my entire life. How can you top that?”
Terry was beginning to laugh and said, “Wow, I've heard many first time stories, but they usually involve rose petals on the bed or Champaign and strawberries. This, I have to say, is the most unique one yet. It also proves to me that what I’ve heard of human sex drive is true. “Human beings will risk death for sex.”
“I know right?” Jay replied laughing at the comment. “The thing is Terry, those are the types of experiences I seemed to have all the time with Naeva. They were overwhelming."
Jay sat back and drank some water with a glow on his face. He settled in the chair again and continued.
“The only contrast to how good that felt came afterward. As wonderful as that was, we realized unfortunately, we were cold and wet. Our bathing suits had actually washed down the slope of the dune a bit so that wasn’t fun. It was also still raining and didn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon, so we ended up retrieving our bathing suits and going back to the hotel room for dry clothes. Afterward we just laid on the bed and passed out, taking a long nap together.
I woke up from that nap to the most wonderful thing in the world. Naeva kissed me on my lips and when I opened my eyes, I saw her face looking down at me. She looked radiant and she seemed to be studying everything about me. She looked in my eyes, played with my hair and she traced my mouth with her fingertips. Then she said, “I love you so much, it scares me sometimes.”
I just caressed her face telling her I loved her too. Then she said the same three words she’d said at the beach the night we first kissed. “Who are you?”
That time, I had the courage to ask her what that meant, although I really believed I somehow knew already. Still, I sat up a bit and asked, “What does that mean when you ask me that? You know who I am.”
She nodded her head and said, “That’s true, I know all about you, but that’s not what I mean.”
I asked, “What do you mean?”
She said, “You know how we both felt when we met? We couldn’t believe how comfortable we felt talking to one another, we fit so perfectly, remember?
“Of course, we still do.” I said.
She said, “I just don't understand how, or I mean who...What I mean is, when I ask who are you, I just don't know why…” Then she huffed in frustration looking upset she was having trouble putting it into words and said, "Mon Dieu! Why can't I explain this? You think I’m crazy, don't you?”
I replied, “How surprised would you be if I guessed what you meant?”
She answered, “How could you? There's no way.”
I said, “I think you ask me that because you can’t believe that two human beings can love each other as deeply as we do. I think that when you ask me “Who are you?” you really hope that I can tell you the reason someone like me exists, and how this could be possible.”
She stared at me with her jaw slightly dropped as though she was in shock. Then she asked me, “How could you know that?”
I replied, “Because it’s the same for me, I wonder who you are all the time.”
Jay moved forward in his chair and rested his hand on his chin. He dropped his head down, and sat with a look on his face that seemed distant and removed from the moment.
Terry sat waiting quietly and Jay finally continued.
“She asked me that after our fist kiss. Think about it. Those questions about why we just fit together were already questions in her head too, even then. Can you believe it? I mean we just met one another and none of it made any sense to me.”
Terry remarked, “That’s an amazing bond to have with someone.”
Jay nodded and said, “I just realized that I jumped in the story a bit. Making love to her happened my second week with Naeva, but there was something that happened earlier I wanted to mention as well.
Me and my friends were only supposed to stay one week. Well when the end of the week came, I was already in love with her and I had no intention of going anywhere. I was ready to sleep on the beach every night if I had to. As it turned out, Ron gave me the rest of the cash I would need to keep the hotel room up until Naeva was suppose to go back home with her sister. He was a good friend.”
Jay paused, “Well we both were good friends to one another. Hell, I would have done the same for him in a second no questions asked.
Anyway, that second week was absolute perfection because it was just me and Naeva day and night.
That was also when we began to find out who the other really was, you know? It seemed like we were making love pretty much every hour. We talked about our families and things we did when we were younger, religion, opinions on life and just about everything. Did I mention we had sex a lot?” Jay laughed.
"I’ll tell you that when that week ended, we both felt like our lives were over.” Jay froze in his chair and then shook his head. He looked up at Terry and tears began to fill his eyes. He dropped his head into his hands and actually cried rather hard for a short time.
Terry pointed out that there was a box of Kleenex on the table next to him which Jay used to blows his nose and dry his eyes. He took a deep breath and said, “I can’t believe that my brain just described our parting like that. What a rhetorical slash to the throat that was.”
Terry asked, “What do you mean?”
Jay replied, “I said, when we had to go back to our homes after those two weeks ended, we both felt like our lives were over. In Naeva’s case, that’s really what happened.”
Terry looked at Jay with an inquisitive squint. “You mean you never saw one another after that day. She died 20 years ago?”
Jay nodded his head and said, “That’s right.”
Terry stopped to think for a moment. “Bare with me, I think I may have missed something, and if so I’m sorry, but I was under the impression from what you told me earlier that she’d died more recently.
When I reviewed the profile questionnaire you filled out before your first visit, I saw that you were married with children. I’ve been assuming that Naeva was your spouse. Have I got this completely wrong?”
Jay sat there for a moment completely dumbfounded by what Terry had just said, but shortly after that he began to smile. Suddenly he broke out into laughter.
Terry smiled back at him and said, “I’m happy that you’re laughing instead of how you felt a few moments ago, but I’m not sure what happened. Fill me in.”
Jay dropped his head down, snickering a bit and then said, “I’ll tell you what happened. I’m a dumb ass Terry, that‘s what happened. I got so caught up telling you my story, I completely forgot a gigantic part of the present day situation.”
Terry sat back in his chair appearing to be relieved and said, “Good. Glad to hear that because right now, I’m thinking that you’ve been married, and still grieving for Naeva over the past 20 years.”
Jay chuckled again, “Oh my god. No, I haven’t been grieving for 20 years. This was recent information. Jesus, I’m sorry Terry.”
Terry said, “No need to be sorry, this is starting to make a little more sense to me now but I’m still not getting how the whole timeline fits together.”
Jay replied, “I know, how could you? Let me just add the part of this whole thing that will bring it togeth
er.”
Terry put down his note pad and pencil on the desk in an exaggerated way. He straightened his shirt and sat back in his chair as if he was getting ready to be there a while and said, “I wouldn’t miss this for the world. Continue.”
Jay chuckled, “I still can’t believe I didn’t clarify all of this. You see, when Naeva went back home, everything was perfect. We would write letters and we would call one another all the time. I just about went broke reimbursing my parents for the long distance bill, but I didn’t give a damn. We still talked anyway. We also planned the next time we were going to get together. We had planned a trip to Florida during the spring break.
Sometime in October of that year, it was a Friday night. We talked on the phone as usual and she told me that she might not be able to call me for a while since she was going on a trip with her sister up north or something, I can’t remember exactly.
I said, I love you, I hung up the phone, and I never heard her voice again.”
Terry looked at Jay sadly, “What happened?”
Jay gave a sarcastic chuckle and became visibly frustrated. “I never knew what happened Terry. I just