Jim and Christina met after college graduation. A friend of a friend invited them both out one night and, after a couple of drinks, they hit it off while the friend of a friend left them to it. Time slipped away from them like water through open fingers. The shitty music, the piss and hops aroma, the congested room and the smoke gathering above everyone. They talked and talked, shared and shared, and soon it was closing time and they were told by the barkeep to leave.
Neither wanted to depart each other, so Jim went to Christina's studio apartment downtown above a bakery. Even when the store was closed, her apartment smelled like sugar and warm dough. The night continued on seamlessly, like their history was the most thrilling, enticing book they couldn't tear their attention from.
Night gave way to twilight, and twilight into dawn. Sunlight lanced through the window above her TV, filling the room with radiance. Both were exhausted. Eyes red-rimmed, heads heavy, the alcohol from the night before working its way through their pores. When Christina asked Jim: "Would you like to a take shower?" as though they hadn't been strangers twelve hours ago, he quickly said: "Absolutely."
The tub was small and short and Jim bumped his head against the showerhead when he tried to wash his front, but they laughed and giggled and made small jokes throughout the debacle. Their first time being nude together yet it felt like their thousandths. They both got a good look at each other once they were done and out of the bath. Christina was short and brunette, her hips were wide and breasts were heavy, and Jim was tall and lanky with short dark hair and hardly had muscle at all, but Christina thought: What muscles he doesn't have is made up down there.
Then what came next was expected, as if they knew from the first moment they met. Their bodies melded together, two pieces lost and now together. Hands roved and groped skin, lips and tongues ran up necks and sucked nipples, they stumbled as one from the bathroom into Christina's bedroom. She was wet and he was erect by the time she was beneath him, grabbing the comforter and pulling herself further onto the bed.
And when he slid his cock into her it was smooth and warm and both felt like they couldn't have found a better match. He was gentle when she wanted, but rough when she demanded, and as their sweat coated bodies ground against one another, Christina's hips pivoted up into Jim's pelvis, they both shuttered and moaned as Christina was filled with Jim's seed.
Afterwards, they lied together, nude, on her bed in silence. No talking was necessary. Just being at the same place was enough for them. As the sun raised, they knew their time must come to an end. Jim had work in two hours and Christina tutored at the elementary school in three. Slowly, dragging out what they dreaded the most, they got back into their clothes, exchanged numbers, and departed.
I
Days together gave way to weeks, weeks to months, months to years since that fateful morning. Life and its routine went by faster than either would've liked, moments fleeting like fireflies in the night. One minute they were a couple, the next they were living together, then engaged, then buying a home and getting married. Marriage breathed new life into the flames of their love, as if their fire needed more to burn.
They didn't have much money, spending what little they did on the wedding, so they spent their honeymoon at home, unhooked and unhinged from the outside world. Spending their days like teenagers discovering the opposite sex for the first time. Each room became another place they shared spit and fluids; the couch and chair, dining and kitchen table, the stairs to the second story and the steps down into the cellar... The one section of the home they didn't use, for it was too damp and creepy for Christina.
After what felt like years, the honeymoon came to an end and they slid into routines that matched one another. Christina waking up early to start the coffee, Jim getting in the shower and letting it run so Christina would have warm water when she first stepped in; they both left and come about the same time every day. Nights were spent on the couch watching TV or playing board games on the living room floor, or if they were feeling energetic, a walk in the park a few blocks down. Weekends were a mix of socializing and vegetating, sometimes they wouldn't leave the house, other times they would be gone majority of the time, but at the end of the night, no matter what, they would be in bed together, cuddling, soon to sleeping or making love.
It wasn't spoken about but it was always known they both wanted to be parents. Jim wished for a little boy and Christina wanted the same, though she wouldn't be upset if they had a daughter. As though all their love making up until now had been practice, they took to consummation as seriously as their marriage. Days marked on the calendar hanging in the kitchen, alerts programmed into their phones, ensuring nothing conflicted with her cycle because a child was paramount in their next step together.
But no matter how much they tried, how much they made love, how much they researched the best things to do for procreation--foods, exercises, weight loss, weight gain, specific blocks of time during the day or night--Christina could not become pregnant.
They considered adoption but they wanted their first to be a little bit of both of them, though it wasn't off the table for their second... or third; they considered going to the doctor but that felt like it must be a last resort, plus they weren't wealthy and the cost alone was jaw dropping; they asked for advice from friends who had already given birth, even twice, and followed everything to the letter... Yet, it still wouldn't happen.
II
They sat in car at the intersection, a red light facing them. Christina stared out the window at the cloudy blue sky while her hand rested on Jim's leg, bobbing impatiently. Some song they didn't now played quietly on the radio, in sync with the turn signal clicking noise, and cold air blew through the dashboard vents. It was going to be a nice outing, a break from the baby talk and their futile attempts. Walk around the mall, go to dinner, catch a movie, then head home to give it one more try.
The light turned green and Jim's foot left the brake, pushed onto the gas, and turned the wheel to the left. The opposing traffic had a red light, the sun glaring on their windshields, obscuring the drivers and passengers.
Christina faced her husband and went to ask a question when Jim's eye went wide and his mouth open in a scream and Christina turned back to find what her love was terrified of to only see a semi-truck filling the entire window, the entire sky, the entire world and before she could scream herself, they were hit head-on. There was crunching and screeching, metal bending and breaking, glass shattering and spitting, the tires burnt black marks across the pavement as the semi continued on, ignoring the metallic shrieking, pleading to be saved. But eventually it did, and eventually, people gathered, and finally someone called 9-1-1 and sometime later, help arrived.