Melanie's eyes made their way back over to the clock... 15 more minutes to go. Would he be early? Late?
Hey! Maybe Robin wouldn't even show up. For all she knew, he might have forgotten entirely all about the arrangement made a week ago and she'd been agonizing for days for absolutely nothing.
This whole stupid, STUPID thing had started with that damned cookbook his wife wanted.
Apparently Jennifer had tried some banana bread at a party and became enraptured by the recipe. Their hostess mentioned it was from an out-of-print Paul Prudhomme cookbook, and Jen latched on to the idea of finding a copy for herself.
All it had taken was one idle post on her Facebook wall and golly gee, there was Mel to the rescue. Chirping out that sure, she happened to have the very one herself and would be happy to loan it out. A rapid fire exchange began and before she knew it, she was being told that Jen would send her hubby to come come by on his way after work. And now today was Saturday, D-Day. Disaster Day? Demented Day was more like it.
She had flipped the sign on the front door and closed the store up an hour early because...
Because...
20 years was long gone yet still somehow, sometimes, still there lurking below the surface. A connection she had never quite been able to shed, like a too tight skin that occasionally cropped up, threatening to choke her.
Melanie shook herself briefly. She hadn't realized she'd been idly toying with her nipple through her blouse. Lost deep in reverie, thick with erotic memories of their two brief months spent as lovers. Of course things would be completely different now, would have to be when they finally reunited. There was no remote chance that the electricity which bound them so powerfully could possibly still be present. Right?
Honestly, it was more than a little ridiculous for her to even be contemplating it! Marriages, children, work, aging bodies...everything that had been built up in their separate lives would have already taken care of that. She was just being a silly goose, caught up in an overwrought fantasy sprung from an excited libido. Nothing but a horny old lady was she.
If she was realistic in her thinking, she'd been little more been a college-years fling for Robin. Probably someone he never really thought of "in that way" since, except perhaps in a fleeting moment or two. And that was only if she was lucky.
They *were* lucky, now that she thought on it some more. Jennifer had never learned of them, and he'd managed to keep their affair a secret all of these years. Whatever else had transpired in those crazy days of stupid risk-taking and frantic couplings, they'd made sure to keep themselves apart whenever Jen was around. Melanie knew that such all-consuming lust could easily have driven them past the point of lunacy, the sexual equivalent of walking a tightrope across the mighty Niagara with no safety net in place. It was an unabated hunger she'd had for him, and she now realized belatedly that she'd had never experienced the like since.
The tentative knocking on glass startled her, and she whirled towards the sound. Oh shit. He's actually here.
A foolish giggle escaped her lips, heart beating madly in her chest. Ohmygodohmygodohmygod.
She made her way to the door on shaky legs. Recognizing his form through the tempered glass, she swung the door open, stepping aside to let him in.
"Hey, stranger. Come on in!" she said, striving to turn her head aside naturally so as to not stare at him.
Melani felt rather than saw him move past, his lips suddenly brushing her cheek in greeting as he did. He made his way in to the store and she busied herself with locking the door up behind him, making sure the sign was still flipped in the "Closed" position.
"Wow! This is great, Mel. I love it!"
Turning back, she tracked his voice and found him standing by one of the large bookshelves, gingerly touching the delicate glass paperweight before him. His head swung towards her and they made eye contact.
"He's the same," she thought in wonder, the nerve endings between her legs wildly responsive. Un-fucking-believable.
"Um, thanks. Thanks! Yes, look around, please tell me what you think," she babbled inanely.
She watched Robin as he prattled on, picking up and replacing objects as he meandered through the store. She knew she must be keeping up her end of the conversation, because they both tripped over the other's sentences with light laughter. She couldn't take her eyes off of him and felt compelled to watch every movement, her fascination quickly morphing into an uncomfortable hunger.
He seemed to have finally looked his fill and turned back towards her, causing Melanie to sidestep and move behind her sales desk. It felt safer somehow if she put some physical distance between them both. She leaned forward a bit, using the counter to support her weight and steady her trembling hands.
Robin moved in to the opposite side and just stood there, body silent and still as his eyes roved over her.
"You look amazing, Mel," he stated quietly. "Those pictures you've posted over the years don't do you any justice. Then again, photos never could quite capture all your qualities."
Melanie tittered at his words, a deep flush moving up her neck.
"Oh, shut up already. Don't be stupid!" she growled, rolling her eyes dramatically, a silly mock anger flashing through her words.
She had said it that way wanting to hear him laugh and break the tension, but instead he reached across and gathered her hands into his. Alarmed, she pulled her fingers back as from a hot stove and saw he was staring at her, a serious mien to his face.
