Prelude To A Cruise, Chapter 2 free porn video

After Michelle left, I got myself ready for my date with Diana. I had no idea what kind of restaurant she wanted to go to so decided to dress for the plane trip, a simple pair of slacks and one of my favorite satiny shirts. I love the feel of a woman’s hand on that shirt, and I was hoping to feel Diana’s hands on it later.

When I met her at her house, I was again taken aback by her big smile. Diana isn’t beautiful like my Michelle, but she’s very pretty in a girl-next-door kind of way. She was wearing a simple pair of slacks and a loose-fitting top that didn’t reveal any details about her figure. She suggested she drive since she knew where the airport was and had an excellent restaurant in mind where she’d been wanting to go for quite some time.

The McDonald’s drive-thru wasn’t exactly what I presumed she had in mind, but I couldn’t help but laugh a little when she pulled up to the speaker and asked me what I wanted. We ordered and drove to Riverfront Park on the Columbia River. She found a secluded spot to park, and we sat in the car eating our dinner and talking.

Diana told me more about her husband, Phil, and how he’d become ill with brain cancer. After it was diagnosed, the doctor told them he likely only had a few months left. She told me that after the initial shock and tears, they talked for hours and hours about what he wanted for her after he was gone. She said she’s never talked to anyone about that time in their life before. I felt pretty honored that she trusted me with such an intimate and painful part of her life.

I learned she was the youngest of her family, she has an older brother and sister’ and that she was raised in Moses Lake; her mom was an elementary school teacher, now retired, and her dad is an auditor. She told me she and her husband were so engrossed in their businesses that they hadn’t had theto make a baby, and how much she regretted that decision now.

I told her I’d never met anyone like her either. I couldn’t help but think that someone who’s had such a recent heartbreak and was now so happy was a unique person. The more I got to know about her, the more I liked the sound of her name, Diana.

Speaking of happy, Diana finally drove us to the airport and we walked to her plane. To say I was impressed is a monumental understatement! Her plane was beautiful, white with fiery red striping on the body and wings and polished to a gleam. From the look on Diana’s face, I could tell how proud she was of it. I thought she might kiss it!

Every time I see this, I think of Phil. He gave it to me,” she explained. Diana untethered the straps that held the wings down, then opened the door on one side and gestured for me to climb in. I did so and she climbed in on the other side, then went through her pre-flight checklist one by one, including making sure both of us were belted in. She enumerated them and voiced each one out loud, but I was excited and can’t remember them. When she was ready, she hit the starter button and her engine came to life. She looked over at me with a smile on her face and commented, “Isn’t that a sweet sound!”

I gave her a thumbs-up, and she gave it a little throttle. We started to move, rolling to the end of a runway. After a short pause, she pushed the throttle forward throwing us back against the seats. It seemed only a short distance until it lifted off the runway, and we were actually flying! We gained elevation pretty quickly until she leveled it off and let off the throttle a little. It made a huge difference as we could now talk and hear each other.

She told me that she listened to the radio just in case, but didn’t need to communicate with the big airport’s tower unless something happened. I was fascinated and loved looking down on the town I’d lived in for so long but had never seen from above. It’s funny how you can see things you have seen before, but see them for the first time in a new light, like how all the streets interconnected with each other. She flew us over both our houses so I could see it from above, then she started North.

I was loving it! I’d never dreamed that flying could be so much fun. Well, actually I had, but it was only in my imagination before. Now I was experiencing the real thing, and it was every bit as much fun as I’d hoped it’d be, even more. I remember watching the flying scene in “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World,” with the cars below driving about double the speed of the old airplane, but this certainly wasn’t like that. We were zipping past the cars.

Diana told me some of the details of her plane, but I was so engrossed in the scenery and excitement that I don’t remember a word of what she said about it, other than her excitement and love for her plane and flying. We flew for about an hour North, over Dry Falls. Michelle and I had been there a few years before. It’s where the ancient ice age Missoula floods had washed out a gigantic waterfall about four times bigger and over twice as deep as Niagara. She flew down lower so we could see the tiny trickle of a stream at the bottom with people fishing. Even all the water that flows over Niagara wouldn’t make much more than a trickle. During the flooding when it was formed, it was completely under water, not much more than a ripple in the giant flow.

The floods were a result of ice dams during the last ice age, in what’s now Montana, that built up over forty to fifty year periods, then broke. They’ve estimated that the water flow would have been equal to approximately ten times the flow of all the world’s rivers combined. It’s truly fascinating. Look up Dry Falls, Washington on Google. Seeing it from the air was magnificent!

She turned around and we went home over a different route, past Moses Lake and the potholes areas. That’s where the floods gouged out little potholes up to a mile or so in diameter and several hundred feet deep. Still, they were tiny in comparison to Dry Falls.

On the way home, she asked me if I’d like to fly her plane. I looked at her a little askance and she assured me it’d be okay. She showed me how to control the plane and let me use the wheel (not really a wheel but I don’t know for sure how to describe it). It was incredibly exciting! I banked one way then the other several times, flying higher and lower over and over again. I could certainly understand why Diana was so excited about her flying.

When she decided it was time to return to the airport, she took the control away from me. Darn, I wanted to land it!

Maybe it was just as well I didn’t. It did look a bit more complicated than going up and down or back and forth. Plus the minor fact that with her doing it, we’d actually survive. After we landed and rolled to a stop at her little garage area she shut down the engine and went through another checklist that was embedded in her mind. She said she’d come out the next day and re-fuel it.

We were quiet on our way back to her house. Her house was beautiful. It’s two stories with a big yard in one of the nicer neighborhoods of Richland set fairly high on a hill where it overlooks the town and the Columbia River. She has a big picture window in her living room with a magnificent view of the river. I could tell she was nervous, definitely not the confident woman she’d been in her plane a short while ago.

She showed me her kitchen and asked if I’d like something to drink. I told her I’m not much of a drinker, but maybe a glass of ice tea would be good if she had it. She laughed a little and said, “I think I have something better than that.” She went to the kitchen and poured some vodka, orange juice, and ice into her blender. “It’s whipped cream vodka. Mixed like this, it tastes like the Dixie cup orange ice cream we used to get when we were kids.”

It actually did taste good and just like she said, like the mixed orange ice cream. We sat on her couch, at opposite ends. Her hands were shaking when she drank, so I told her, “Diana, it’s okay. We don’t have to do anything else tonight.”

“No, I really want to. It’s just that it’s been so long, and I’m a little scared.”

I think I understood what she was thinking. I remembered my first time with Jacqui, how scared I’d been that night, but also how good it had turned out. “Do you want to just sit and talk a while? Maybe tell me a little more about Phil?”

She closed her eyes like she was trying to remember. “We met in college at Oregon State. We were both taking a business class. I guess it was pretty typical, ‘girl meets boy, girl falls in love’. We were kids. It was winter. We dated the rest of the semester. When I went home for spring break, I realized how much I missed him.” She paused a little bit and when she started talking again, it was barely a whisper. “The first time we made love, it was March in Corvallis. It’s so pretty there in the early spring that we just took a walk through the park and held hands. We sat on a bench with the moon shining on us.” She laughed a little, “It seems like such a cliché, but it was special to us. He kissed me and asked if I wanted to go back to his apartment with him. How could I say no when I wanted to so badly?”

“We made love that night. It was the most special night of my life.”

I couldn’t take my eyes away from Diana as she told me her story. I think she was very close to tears, remembering and telling me about something so special to her.

“We got married that summer and our happiness never died down.” She wiped her eyes a little, “Until Phil got sick. We went to the doctor about his headaches and after some tests, he gave us the news, brain cancer. It was too far gone, inoperable.”

I scooted over to her and held her hand. She wasn’t crying but was very close. “It was four months. He was in and out of the hospital but all they could do was control his pain a little. Before he died, he told me he wanted me to be happy. He died in his hospital bed a little over a year ago. I wanted to bring him home but he refused. He said he didn’t want me to remember our house that way. He wanted me to remember all the happy times instead.”

I was sitting next to Diana holding her hand totally amazed at what she’d gone through, and what a strong woman she was. She took another drink, smiled and asked me, “What about you? How did you and Michelle meet?”

What could I say after the heartbreaking story she’d just told me? Diana was smiling again and acted like she really wanted to know, so I told her about meeting Michelle at a basketball game while I was home on leave from the Coast Guard for my grandma’s funeral. “I loved my grandma and always felt that I owed her everything. I’d never have gone out with Michelle or had the life I have if it wasn’t for her.”

 I told her about our first date after the game. “We were going to a movie when one of us mentioned how much we like the mountains at that time of year. We both laughed, and I turned the car around to borrow my dad’s four-wheel-drive Toyota Land-Cruiser and we spent the evening playing in the snow instead of watching a boring movie. We dated until I left for New York and the Coast Guard, then wrote letters each other every day. “After radio school, I was stationed at a small, secluded station in Sitkinak, Alaska for a year’s tour of duty. I still remember that airplane trip when I left her, thinking it’d be a whole year before I saw her again.”

I told her about the lake at the base, how the mail plane would land on the lake, then quite often the wind would shift directions. “With the wind blowing the wrong way, they couldn’t take off along the length of the lake, so they did the short direction…straight into a fairly tall bluff at the edge. With the wind, the plane would get in front of the bluff and literally lift like a helicopter to clear the bluff.”

She laughed and said she’d have hated to be the first one to try that little maneuver!

“Then, unexpectedly, they transferred me to Kodiak after four months. I went home on two weeks leave and we got married in Reno. I went back to Kodiak, found us a tiny apartment and a couple weeks later, she flew there to meet me.”

Diana looked at me a little quizzically, “Why are you here, with me? I don’t understand. I know you love Michelle, so why did she set up a date between us?”

I took a deep breath. How the heck do I explain our situation? “Michelle told me that she’d told you a little about our open relationship. It’s such a long story. It started in Kodiak when we had a rather erotic night with her sleeping with another guy. I discovered that night I was kind of a voyeur and liked her being with someone else. We never did anything like that again, until a couple years ago. She told me about a lover she had in college and to make a long story short, I encouraged her to meet him again for a weekend alone.”

Diana’s eyes were wide, totally engrossed in the story I was telling her. “Michelle knew how bashful I was with girls, and hadn’t ever been with anyone but her. I told her about the sales girl at Victoria’s Secret when I was buying her clothes for her date, so she literally dragged me there and forced me to ask her for a date.”

Diana’s face had lost that sadness from earlier and was grinning ear-to-ear. “Did you sleep with her?”

“Mmhmm, but not until after watching Michelle make love with her boyfriend that night.” That got a huge giggle from Diana. “And it was so perfect. It was the first time I’d even kissed another girl. I’d never imagined what it could be like.”

“Did you see her again after that?”

“We had an affair for about a year until she moved away last year, but we stayed close friends. She just got married not long ago. Michelle was one of her bridesmaids.”

“Was that a little hard for you, seeing your lover marry another man?”

I paused a little, thinking back to that day, “It was. I’ll admit I was still in love with her. We both knew from the beginning that we couldn’t ever be together, though. I was pleased to see her so happy with her husband. I think we’ll always be close.”

“Is Michelle still seeing the guy from college?”

“No, they dated for several months, but he got too serious and wanted her to leave me and move in with him.” I hesitated, wondering how much more to tell her. I smiled, thinking about Shaun. “She’s seeing another guy now, a real hunk that she’s madly in love with.”

“Aren’t you afraid that she’ll leave you?”

“I guess that’s where it gets a little weird. Well, maybe weirder is a better word. I know she won’t, but at the same time, I’m not positive. I like for her to have affairs with other men and I guess never being certain makes it more exciting.”

I could almost see her thoughtful mind working. “I couldn’t ever have done that. I couldn’t have seen Phil with another woman or me with a man while he was alive. I guess it would be exciting, though.” Then she asked me, “Where’s Michelle now?”

“She’s spending the night with her boyfriend.” I didn’t mention that she was very shortly leaving for a month-long date with a very rich and sexy guy.

Diana looked me straight into my eyes. It seemed like I could see into her soul. I hadn’t ever met anyone like her before. She asked me, “Will you kiss me?”

I was already beside her, still holding her hand. I leaned my head toward her and she did the same, closing her eyes when our lips met. Her lips were soft and I tilted my head a little so our noses didn’t bump. She was tentative at first but after just a moment her hand went behind my neck and her lips opened a little. I let her lead until I felt her tongue probing my lips. I opened my mouth and met her tongue with my own. I was on fire with this woman’s lips on mine and felt the fire building in her as well. Our arms wrapped around each other and we leaned back onto the couch, our lips never parting.

She finally pulled away from me, her eyes still closed and whispered, “Make love to me.”

I was ecstatic. I wanted her so badly! “Are you sure?”

“Please, I want to be loved again.”

She scooted out from under me, took my hand and led me up the stairs to her bedroom. Once inside we kissed again. I led her in front of her dresser mirror, turned her toward it away from me, and started to unbutton her blouse. Her hands were shaking as she helped me unbutton it while our heads nuzzled each other. When her blouse was open, she let me slip it off her arms. We stood in front of the mirror, my arms wrapped around Diana, her standing in her white bra. “You’re beautiful, you know,” I told her.

Diana unsnapped her jeans and pushed them to the floor while I released the hook of her bra. When her breasts were free, I couldn’t help but caress them with my fingers, feeling their softness and the hardness of her nipples. Diana moaned and I felt her fingers intertwine with mine over her breasts as I squeezed her nipples.

She turned and with shaking fingers started to remove the buttons from my shirt. She started with the top buttons, and I started at the bottom. When she pushed open my shirt, she kissed my chest, sucking on one of my nipples driving me crazy. My hands were shaking, as I worked to release the button of my pants. I finally managed to push them and my boxers to the floor.

I gloried in the feel of her breasts against my bare chest while we kissed once again. Diana slowly backed us up toward her bed and I fell backward on it with her on top of me giggling. Her giggles only lasted a moment until I caught her lips again with mine. We rolled over, side by side and I kissed down her neck to her nearest nipple. Diana groaned when I took it in my mouth and sucked, saying over and over, “So good, feels so good!”

Our hands roamed each other, and I found her panties still in place. She lifted herself slightly off the bed, allowing me to push them down. Diana rolled over onto her back and pulled me on top of her, spreading her legs apart. We kissed as my cock found the entrance to her heaven. She was wet and slippery as I pushed inside her slowly, only an inch or so at a time letting her adjust and fit around me. She was so warm and tight, so incredibly good! When I was fully impaled inside her, she finally let out her breath, saying, “Oh…My…God!”

We lay like that, holding each other tightly, reveling in the experience of new love. When I started withdrawing a little, Diana held me tightly and said, “No, stay inside me.” I pushed myself back inside her as far as I could, her pelvis coming up off the bed to meet me and drive my cock deeper. “I like this, it’s been so long,” she whispered.

It felt glorious being inside her as I was, but I didn’t know how long I’d be able to stand it without fucking her. I could already start to feel that rumble deep inside me and my cock growing bigger and harder.

Diana’s hands were on my butt clawing at my skin. When I knew I couldn’t last even a moment longer, I pulled out and rammed back inside her, trying to extend my reach. Over and over again I plunged into Diana, oblivious to her screams. Her body convulsed and her pussy tightened and released around my cock with wave after wave of her orgasm. I felt her fingernails scratching my back and couldn’t hold back any longer. My body exploded, and I spasmed deep inside her with stream after stream of my cum.

Afterward, we were both sweaty and hot. We lay on top of the covers holding each other. I awoke the next morning to see Diana looking at me with tears running down her cheeks. I was instantly awake. I brushed away the tears with my fingers and asked what was wrong.

She was still crying, barely able to talk, “I can’t do this. Last night was so wonderful. But I can’t love a man knowing he isn’t mine. I thought I could, but I can’t.”

I didn’t know what to say. I felt about an inch tall, maybe less. After what she’d endured with her husband, I’d caused her this much pain. I could barely speak, “I’m sorry,” was all I could think to say.

She put her finger over my lip, “No, don’t be. You showed me I can love again. You gave me a wonderful night.” Now I was crying with her. “But I can’t do it again.” Then her mood seemed to lighten a little, “Can we still be friends, though? I’d love to take you flying again. We just can’t do…this, again.”

I smiled at her. I didn’t know if we could be platonic friends. I really doubted it but told her, “I’d like that. You’re a wonderful woman. Some man’s going to be very lucky.”

“Can I make you some breakfast?”

She put on a pair of panties and a t-shirt to cook breakfast. I think she was oblivious to how sexy she was with her nipples poking through her thin shirt, but I tried to keep my mind and eyes occupied elsewhere. We talked about lots of other things. She told me about her experience buying the plane and some of the places she’s been with it. I couldn’t help but think how much more she’d enjoy it with someone she loved to share it with her.

After breakfast, I kissed her on the cheek, thanked her for the flight and especially the wonderful evening, then left. I simply couldn’t help but revel in what a wonderful woman Diana was! Before I left I asked her if she’d do me one favor, “If you talk to Michelle, please don’t tell her we’re not going to sleep together again. I want her to think we’re going to be ‘an item’.”

She grinned at me and swatted my bottom. “Nasty man! Okay, for Michelle, we’re madly in love and going to sleep together every chance we get!”

I grinned, “Thank you. I’ll explain it to you later.”

Michelle wasn’t home yet when I got there. I hoped she had a very wakeful and frustrating night with Shaun. Cruel of me wasn’t it! I had one more week to torment her, and I was going to take advantage of it. I think what I was really trying to do was distract my mind from what could have been with Diana. I know I couldn’t have left Michelle for her, but what fun we could have had.

Puttering around the house waiting for Michelle, my mind started to wander back toward Diana and what, if anything, I could do for her. A stray thought entered my mind and wouldn’t go away. I’d just have to think about it…a lot, before doing anything.

Michelle finally arrived home about nine that evening. She said they’d slept in, went on a drive, then had a nice dinner. I was mostly curious about what they’d done the night before, so I asked her, “How’d your night go? Did you wear the nightgown?”

Her face got a little red with a blush, “No,” she said. I frowned a little like I was going to chastise her when she added, “I didn’t wear anything. Neither did Shaun.”

That brightened me. I raised my eyelids at her and asked, “Did you?” She knew what I was asking.

“No, we both knew it was off limits. We lay in bed all night with the light on looking at each other and wanting to make love so bad, but we didn’t even touch. Neither one of us went to sleep until early this morning.” Then she asked me, “What about you and Diana?”

I wanted to tell her everything in intimate detail to make her squirm even more. Well, almost everything. I wasn’t going to tell her that we weren’t going to see each other again. I knew that part of Michelle’s plan was to keep me occupied when she was gone with Brett for a month. She’d enjoy her time more with him if I was in the very capable hands of one Diana Fulbright! I wasn’t going to burst that bubble and put a damper on her month away.

When bedtime came, I suggested to Michelle that she wear the black teddy from Maurice’s. I wanted sex to be the foremost thing on her mind when I was telling her about my night with Diana. Usually, when we tell each other our sexual tales, we do it while we’re making love. After the fantastic orgasm, I’d had the night before, I knew I could be much more graphic with her without it bothering me nearly as badly as her.

She’d made it a point to put on her nice perfume and makeup before she came to bed. She looked so incredible, I wasn’t sure if I could do what I’d planned. My carefully thought out intentions and assumption went straight out the window when that gorgeous creature climbed into bed beside me.

I rolled onto my side facing her and ran my fingernails along the underside of her boob over her nightgown. This was going to be such fun! I couldn’t touch her intimately, but I thought I could teasingly touch her while I told her about how good it’d been with Diana.

“Diana’s a sweet girl. How long have you known her?” I asked

“I’ve known her for a couple of months. She looked lonesome when she came into our office, so I asked her if she’d like to do lunch together. We’ve been friends since then.”

“Did you ever notice how soft her lips are?” I closed my eyes and ran my fingertip over Michelle’s lips. “Never mind. You probably don’t want to know how soft her lips were and how good it felt when our tongues met.”

“Did you know that last night was her first time in over a year?” I was trying to barely touch the tips of Michelle’s nipples just enough so she’d feel it. “It reminded me of that night with you and Alec when he hadn’t been with a woman for so long. That was a fun night. Didn’t you think so? You know, it’s only been about a month since you’ve had sex. Imagine what it was like for Diana, over a year.”

Michelle was moaning. I knew she wanted me to touch her pussy. I suspected that just a slight touch in the right spot would likely maker her come. I wasn’t going to give her that satisfaction, though. I did caress the outside of her hips, occasionally moving my fingers so that they would stray to that magical spot on the inside of her thigh.

“I undressed Diana. When I took her bra off I couldn’t help but taste those beautiful nipples.” My finger was back to teasing the areola around Michelle’s nipple. “Oh God, when I sucked her nipple into my mouth I thought we were both going to die from ecstasy. You remember how good that feels, don’t you?” I didn’t let her answer. I just wanted her to think about it. “She sucked on mine too. You should do it more often.”

“I’m curious sweetheart when you made love with Brett, did you suck his nipples?” Michelle was holding her legs tightly together and groaned in response. I think she was trying to cheat with a little pressure on her pussy to relieve some of her tension. “I bet when you see him in a week or so he’ll want to suck your delicious nipples into his mouth. You have such beautiful breasts and nipples.”

“Last night when you were at the Branding Iron, I bet every guy there wanted to see your nipples. Did it drive Shaun crazy that he couldn’t taste them last night? I know it’s driving me crazy right now. I want so badly to pull your little teddy up and suck you into my mouth!” Both her hands went to her breasts to knead them and I had to stop her. She groaned in complaint.

“I’m sorry, I got distracted. I was telling you about Diana, how good her nipples tasted when I sucked on them. She seemed to like it too with her hands in my hair pushing my mouth tighter around them. I discovered that her breasts are a little too big to suck in my mouth, but I tried.” I wanted so badly to pinch Michelle’s nipples then, they were so hard and engorged. I pulled a strap down so I could brush a fingertip across her nipple. I think Michelle appreciated that the way she arched her chest up to my finger.

“After we were both naked and on her bed, we kissed some more. Her bare breasts against my chest felt so good. I made it a point to tell her how beautiful she is while we explored each other’s bodies with our hands. Her skin is so soft. I loved feeling her bottom, her nice smooth tummy, and hips. I think she enjoyed it too.” My cock had gotten rock hard from telling all of this to Michelle. I wanted to make love with her so damn bad!

“When we finally made love and I slipped inside her, she was so tight around me.” I took a gamble and brushed the edge of Michelle’s pussy with my fingertips. Her hips bucked up to meet my touch but all I gave her was the tiniest feel through her black, transparent panties.

“When I was all the way inside her she wouldn’t let me move. She just wanted to feel me inside her for the longest time. Oh God, she felt good. By then, she was so hot and when those hot, wet pussy lips enveloped my cock it was a feeling of heaven. I Imagine that’s how it’ll feel to Brett too when he makes love to you. I hope it feels as good to you as it did to Diana. She didn’t want to let me go.”

I closed my eyes a moment remembering that exquisite moment when Diana had come with me inside her, trying to think how to relay to Michelle how good it’d been. “When she finally came, her pussy was almost like a vise, tightening and loosening. I think she screamed, but I wasn’t sure because I was coming inside her at the same time. Not much else seemed to matter at that moment. The only thing I really remember is our bodies shuddering and that pussy tightening its grip on me. I came so hard inside her!”

Michelle had rolled over and was humping a pillow while she moaned. My rock hard cock was close to ejaculating all over the bed as well. Michelle might have enjoyed that. After I finished and Michelle was whimpering next to me, I told her, “Now it’s your turn. Tell me about your night with Shaun.”

She looked up from the pillow she was clawing at, took it in her hands and beat me all around my head and shoulders. When she assumed I was properly chastised, she buried her head in it and whimpered a little more. I guessed she was through with the story telling for the night.

The rest of the week was stressful, as Michelle was leaving the following Sunday morning. Every night was a challenge to get through because we were both so highly aroused. I told Michelle quite a bit more about my night with Diana, including the flight she took me on. I fibbed a little when I told her I expected to see a lot of Diana while she was gone.

Thursday Michelle went to dinner with Shaun one last time to say goodbye to him but came home afterward. Saturday, I suggested she wear something nice, like maybe her Christmas dress, to go out to dinner and maybe dancing or something afterward.

Michelle looked absolutely gorgeous when she was ready. Her dress is a turquoise leather, with Indian beadwork, that came to about mid-thigh. It’s very form-flattering and sexy. She’d only worn it a couple times since I gave it to her as a Christmas present. The last time was the dorm dance with Jeremy. That had apparently turned into a pretty spectacular night…the last time she’d had sex. I looked at my beautiful wife and couldn’t imagine how I was going to survive a month with her gone!

We went to our favorite restaurant, the Black Angus. I hoped Trisha was still working. She’s the pretty waitress that I had a brief affair with last summer and fall until she went back to her husband. That time of the evening you nearly always have to sign in and wait for a table. When I did, I asked if Trisha was working. She was, so I asked if we could be seated in her section. The hostess told us it’d take a little longer, but it was worth the wait to Michelle and me. She really liked Trisha too.

They give you these little light thingies to let you know when your table’s ready. We waited in the lobby for about a half hour or so until our light flashed. The hostess seated us and Trisha got a big smile on her face when she saw us and asked what we’d like to drink. She told Michelle how beautiful her dress was, so Michelle had to scoot back out of the booth and model it for her. I was beaming, proud of myself for finding and buying it.

Every time Trisha came to our table we talked a little. Michelle told her that she was going to be taking a vacation to visit friends and planned to be gone quite a while. I suggested to Trisha that after Michelle got home we’d love to have her and her husband to dinner some night. No, I didn’t have any ulterior motive like seducing Trisha again. I just thought that since we’d been partially responsible for them getting back together, it would be nice to get to know them both a little more. We’d never met him. Trisha beamed and thought it sounded like a wonderful idea.

We had a wonderful dinner. Michelle had a chicken salad with blue cheese dressing (UGH!), and I had a wonderful ribeye steak. Our food was good; the atmosphere was fantastic and we had a wonderful waitress. What more can you ask for in a nice, last dinner with your wife?

I left out the part about my longing glances toward her all evening. Realizing that this would be our last dinner together for a month certainly put a damper on the evening. When we left, I had intended to take her to the Honey Bunzz exotic dance club for the rest of the evening. I knew it’d be the ultimate turn-on for her. She wouldn’t be able to resist the sexy allure of getting on the stage and slowly stripping out of her clothes in front of the roomful of horny men.

In the end, I couldn’t do that, though. The time for teasing had passed. That night was the real thing; the last time I’d see her for the next month, the last time we’d sleep together for a long, long time.

When we went to bed, Michelle wore the nightie that I thought she was going to wear with Shaun that night, the sexiest one she’d bought. We lay in bed, just looking at each other most of the night. I was very nearly in tears from wanting to hold her and caress her so badly, much less make love with her that last time. Emotionally, it reminded me a lot of my last night with Jacqui before she left for Montana. The big difference was that Jacqui and I had made love several times during the night.

Our last day together was horrible. I felt like crying almost constantly but tried not to show it. We slept until late morning, then I made her sourdough waffles for breakfast. It seemed like we’d barely finished eating when it was time for us to go to the airport. Her flight left Pasco at two-fifteen in the afternoon. The first leg was to Seattle, then a three-hour layover until her six-hour flight to Miami. We drove to the airport in silence, both of us lost in thoughts about the month ahead. I knew I could trust my wife, but this trip was more than either of us had ever imagined. I parked the car in the short-term parking lot and went to the trunk to retrieve her luggage. It wasn’t until I’d opened the trunk that I remembered there was no luggage. Nothing at all, except the clothes she was wearing and her purse.

I’d love to say that we walked through the terminal holding hands with our fingers intertwined, but we were still bound by that damned agreement. We hadn’t even held hands for the last month and weren’t about to break it then, as badly as I needed the physical contact with her. Even though I had fun teasing her, the last month had been the most difficult in my life, and I knew the next one wasn’t going to get any easier.

The Pasco airport is small compared to most, but the security rules are still stringent. She needed to check in early and after going through the metal detector, we couldn’t be together while she waited for her flight. We stood in front of it a few minutes gazing into each other’s eyes, with tears on both our faces. “I love you,” I told her.

She wiped her cheek, “You too, I’ll call you when I get to the hotel.”

We couldn’t even embrace. Michelle turned and got in the short line for the security check. I watched her go through the metal detector without incident, she turned back toward me and we threw air-kisses at each other, then she was gone to the gate waiting area.

The trip back home from the airport was the longest twelve-mile trip I’ve ever been on. The house was cold and lonely when I got home. I sat on the couch at least a good hour staring at the television before I realized it wasn’t turned on. When I found the remote and actually did turn it on, I have no idea what might have been on. It didn’t really matter, it was just noise in a lonely house. I had no idea how I was going to cope with this for a month, especially when I knew my wife would be spending that month in the arms of another man.

She called me during her layover in Seattle. I don’t think I’ve ever heard such a sweet voice. I have no recollection what we talked about, it didn’t really matter. It was just her voice that I needed to hear. We were on the phone for probably forty-five minutes until she said her phone was going dead, and she was going to find something to eat.

I wandered around the house and finally drove myself to McDonald’s for something to eat that evening. She wasn’t scheduled to get to the hotel until around three in the morning. I turned the TV on in the bedroom and climbed into bed, hoping to doze a little. No such luck, I was sleepy but couldn’t sleep as the clock ticked the hours slowly away. I kept my phone in my hand, hoping she’d get an opportunity to call, even though I knew she couldn’t from the plane.

It was three-fifteen in the morning when Michelle finally called again. She said she was at the hotel check-in counter. She hadn’t had to find a taxi. Brett had a car waiting for her and escorted her to the hotel, which she said was near the airport. I lied to her, telling her I was fine and had been sleeping before she called. She said she slept a little on the plane. I suspected she probably wasn’t telling the truth either.

We talked a few minutes until she said she had to check in. We both knew this was going to be our last conversation, so both our tears were flowing pretty freely when we said goodbye and hung up. After disconnecting with her and lying there about another minute thinking I wouldn’t hear from her for another month, I realized I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let her go with him, the money be damned, all of it! We could reimburse Brett for his flight expenses, but I needed her to come home!

It instantly hit me that it was entirely possible I’d never see my wife again. I’d tried to convince myself how much I trusted her. I did, but this was too much. The fear hit me like a ton of bricks, finally knocking some sense into me. It couldn’t have been more than two minutes after we talked that I called her back to tell her to come home tomorrow. Her phone went straight to voicemail, “Hi this is Michelle, I’ll call you back.” I remembered that she had to give her phone up at the hotel and apparently had already done so!

Panic hit me broadside! I knew I couldn’t do it, couldn’t let her go through with it. I scrambled to my desk computer and looked up the phone number for the Hyatt in Miami. There was only one. My fingers were shaking, in full panic mode. It took me three tries to finally get the number right. A very friendly female voice answered, “Hyatt Place, Miami, may I help you?”

Undoubtedly my panic came through clearly in my voice, “You have a woman checking in right now, Michelle Fields, I need to talk to her, please!”

“I’m sorry sir, there’s no one here by that name.”

My hands were shaking, my voice breaking, tears running down my face, “Then I don’t know what name she might be using, maybe Amber, but please, I have to talk to her!”

“Sir, there’s nothing I can do to help you.” The friendly voice had changed considerably. She was still being polite, but firm. “Sir, all I can do is tell you that yes, she’s here. She’s already checked in, but we have specific instructions that she’s not to receive any calls.” With that, she hung up. I looked at my phone in disbelief. I was too late! I’d just been told there wasn’t any way I could contact her. My wife was gone! My panic turned into full sobbing, there wasn’t a damned thing I could do. I felt utter hopelessness like I’d never had before. For a long time, I had a hard time catching my breath knowing I was totally helpless, and it was compltely, a hundred percent my own fault!

If you’re lost in the woods and panicked from the fear, at least you can run, try and find your way out. There wasn’t a thing I could do, nowhere to run or hide from my emotions. The sudden realization that this fear was to be my life for the next month was almost too unbearable to comprehend.