"Poor guy. I feel sorry for Ephraim," Mike said, Ephraim's old boss.
"Poor Ephraim. What about me? I have to put up with him," Jennifer replied. "He can be a real devil!"
"Ephraim loves you, he respects you, he goes to great lengths to see you and has never said anything bad about you," said Mike.
"I know, Mike. I realized how much Ephraim loved me this weekend. He'd do anything for me," Jennifer confided. "He's the only one I have ever shared nicknames with or a special song," thinking Ephraim was the only one I ever lived with, too.
"So, Ephraim is a bit emotional. No one is perfect. I make a thousand mistakes," confided Mike, an older and wiser gentleman who knew Ephraim for years, too.
"Well, I'm perfect," Jennifer giggled. "I told Ephraim I'd finally marry him. But, he needs to put all his ducks in a row before that happens."
"Ephraim's a good man. He's honest, hard-working, intelligent and...," Mike went on.
"By the way, how's the sex?"
"That's none of your business and another sensitive subject," thought Jennifer deeply while saying so out loud.
***
Jennifer and Ephraim knew each other for over ten years now. They weren't getting any younger. Ephraim had left for a couple years going back to his homeland in Mexico, not wanting to return again to the American culture. But, now it was necessary.
Ephraim couldn't find enough work in Mexico. He used up his savings. He missed my love. He missed the United States although it was economically necessary to return.
Jennifer was thinking that their love surpassed years in between, residing in different towns and even countries. They had a special bond, an unusual bond, a bond between only a man and a woman could have; lovers, surpassing cultural differences, language barriers and family influences.
Jennifer's family grew to love Ephraim as she did. She knew from the beginning Ephraim was a good man and she went with her instincts.
Ephraim was a better man than she had thought in the beginning of the relationship. He was sincere, compassionate, empathetic and giving, unlike a lot of American men.
Jennifer was right. It was time to marry Ephraim. She did love him, more than she ever realized. She always would love him, till death.
***
From the moment Ephraim and Jennifer met, sex was immediate and insatiable. Ephraim had such a strong sex drive in the beginning of their relationship. He was virile and in his late thirties to boot. He'd complain if they only had sex four to five times a night.
Jennifer was plainly exhausted with all the sex. Eventually, sex became a chore.
Ephraim was hot-blooded. That's all there was to it. Jennifer was getting the attention and sex she needed, happily complying with his wants and desires in the beginning.
Then the sex got rather boring, as in the case of a lot of couples. Foreplay died or lack of foreplay existing. But their love grew to a deeper level in spite of sexual conflicts.
Well, reminising - there was that time they did it in front of the living room window in daylight with people outside. There was the time; Ephraim fucked her leaning on the back of the car in front of someone's house after they went out drinking. There was the time Jennifer's mother walked in on them.
Those were the good old days. Days to remember. Days to cherish. Days to relish. They were younger then. There were more important issues now.
***
In the years in between when Jennifer and Ephraim weren't living together, led separate lives, or lived in different countries, the sparse reunions were always erotic and spicy till they started quarelling again and then sex went out the window. There was the familiarity and the love and the lust they shared for each other. There were also the emotional attachments that only a man and woman could understand between each other. There was the intimacy, a special intimacy, the intimacy they only shared.
How many couples still embraced each other all night long, angry or not? How many couples lying in the spooning position, can be farted on and a word is not shared? How many couples fall into the daily routine and caring about each other after years of lapse as if not a day had passed?
There was a fun and loving bond between this couple. Would Jennifer and Ephraim ever really come together? Jennifer wasn't sure herself. Time would tell.
When Jennifer went to pick up Ephraim at the airport last weekend, she was livid before she even got there. Ephraim's flight had arrived two hours earlier. She had to park in a foreign country in a crowded parking structure while Ephraim was waiting inside and not in front as he had told her.
'Men,' Jennifer sighed. "You can't live with 'em and you can't shoot them." She accepted these frailties in Ephraim as she did the language barriers.
Now, there was the nervousness they were both feeling apprehensively wondering what was about to embark between them next.
***
As Jennifer entered the airport, Ephraim stood up immediately. He was always her magnet. He could spot her at a traffic signal, a block away, in the supermarket, wherever and whenever.
Ephraim looked good. He was tan. He was dressed nicely, as usual when he wanted to look nice out of grubby work clothes. He looked stressed by his travels, his worries and his life without her. He loved her. He showed it in his eyes attentively attracted only to her eyes, not caring that she had traveled hours waiting to meet up with him. Appearance never mattered to Ephraim. There was a glow in the room. There was a glow in both their eyes, apprehensive, worried and scared.
"How are you, Ephraim?" Jennifer asked. Jennifer always spoke Ephraim's native language and he spoke to her in English. This bilingual language was unique to them and them only. Ephraim understood the words Jennifer could speak and visa versa. It worked. In all the years, there had NEVER been a second of silence between them (except when Jennifer threw Ephraim out of her bedroom, of course).
Jennifer laughed to herself about how she learned Ephraim's language.
He could make her so angry in the beginning years, she would vehemently grab a dictionary and translate a note pasted onto the bathroom mirror for him to wake up to that usually inferenced, 'Get out of my life. Get out of my house now and forever.' Of course, that strategy never worked.
Ephraim was the only man that could make Jennifer forgive him instantly until the next fight. He was the only man that could communicate with her non-verbally and the two always knew what the other one was thinking. It was love. A special love.
This is stupid but Jennifer was remembering when they first met. She had bought him a pair of Nikes and he kept calling them 'Exorcist shoes,' intentionally instead of exercise shoes.
Jennifer and Ephraim could both be silly and cute, angry and angrier, tearful and tearfully crying in each other's arms, sad and sadder, mad and madder ... the list went on.
***
"You got fat," Jennifer said rubbing Ephraim's tummy. She could see the stress in his eyes. "What about me?"
"You're fat, too," he responded.
"Really?" I asked.
"No, you're the same, 'Mamasita!'" said Ephraim. He used an endearing term that in Spanish described a beautiful, sexy and desirous woman.
"Did you have a good flight? How many beers?" Jennifer asked.
"Only two," and Jennifer knew that probably meant two times two equals four. "Let's go. I have a special place we're going I've chosen for us."
Ephraim gave her a sexy look. He was sexy, even at mid life. The years had aged him, and positively matured him.
She could see the ascertainment in his eyes.
Ephraim unknowingly would mimic her expressions she always playfully showed with eye expressions.
