Clandestine

She set the candle on the window shelf and adjusted the curtains so they wouldn’t catch the flame, then turned back to the little room with it’s dreary colors. Two double beds with bad matching art framed above the headboards. An old T.V sitting on a bureau and a small table with two chairs off to the side.

“Could be worse,” she thought and she stuffed the suitcase into the closet, “at least it’s clean, and the carpet is halfway respectable.” She grinned then, thinking about his comment about the floor.

“You’d trust the floor?” he’d asked.

“Sure, I’d just pull a sheet from the bed.”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that.” he had replied.

This floor looked clean, just a little worn. She looked into the bureau mirror. “It’s not the only thing worn.” She sighed and put it out of her mind. There was nothing she could do about her age or her appearance in the next few minutes. He would be here any second. They had agreed on a time, and it was now. She hoped he wouldn’t be late and give her time to fret.

As if in answer to her thought, there was a knock on the door, and her name called softly. Her heart was up in her throat as she stared at the door. This was it. When she opened that door her life was going to shift. He would either be with her the way she was, or walk away. She had given him permission to walk away.

“If you don’t like what you see, just smile and wave and walk away. I’ll go home and it will be like we never met.”

He had laughed at her then. “Like I could ever forget. I don’t care if you have six arms. Just make sure you wrap them all around me.”

She hesitated with her hand on the knob. He called her name again. She pulled open the door.

And there he stood in all the glory that she knew would be there. Time stood still for a moment while she gazed up into the face she had imagined so many times. He showed no emotion for a beat, then his features opened up, and she could tell he wasn’t going to smile and wave and walk away.

She stepped back, “Come in.”

He stepped through the door. Vaguely, she recalled them talking about not getting to the bed or the floor, and just making it against the door. It wasn’t going to happened that way. They were both too nervous.

“Wanna beer? I brought some. Some soda too, if you’d rather do that.” she gestured to the cooler on the floor.

“Not just yet,” He said. He dropped his leather jacket on the back of a chair, then reached for her.

She walked into his arms, buried her face in his chest, slid her arms around his lean waist, and let out a heavy sigh. He pulled her against him with one arm around her, and the other hand cupped her neck as he kissed the top of her head, breathing deep the scent of her hair. She closed her eyes and took in the warmth of his body, the strength of his embrace, and his breath on her check. Time lost all meaning as they gently swayed to the rhythm of their heartbeats.