The Road Trip (Part two)
It had been a week since Emma and I met and we had spent every moment of that week together. During the day we traveled and visited various tourist sites as well as a few buildings on my list of unusual architectural projects. At night we made love until we were exhausted. I had never tried so many sexual positions before, Emma seemed to have the Karma Sutra memorized and she had an insatiable energy that only seemed to wain once she had orgasmed half a dozen times.
Every morning I would go for a run to try and stretch out my sore muscles ... not that I was complaining about how they got sore.
It was now Friday and we were heading back to the city so Emma could meet her friend Sam at the airport. We’d talked that morning and decided that I would drop Emma off at the terminal and she and Sam would start their world trip. It was pretty clear that both of us wanted more time together but we also knew that Emma’s relationship with Sam was important. Having not seen each other for over a year they needed time to reconnect.
I pulled up in front of the terminal at 2pm that afternoon. We had already been to a nearby hotel and booked a room for the girls for the night. Emma assumed Sam would have some jet lag to get over after her ten-hour flight from London.
Sitting in silence for a couple of minutes neither of us wanted to say goodbye. Finally a parking warden came over and spoke through my open window.
“You can’t park here sir. This area is for drop-offs and pick-ups only.”
“Be gone in a minute, just dropping off.” I replied with a nod.
I got out of my seat and went back into the camper, Emma followed. Opening up the side door we stepped out with Emma’s backpack. Dex sat in the open door and looked up at Emma with sad eyes. They had become firm friends over the last week.
“Oh don’t be like that boy,” Emma frowned at the border collie and gave him a scratch behind the ear. “I’m going to miss you too.”
“Well, I guess this is it.” I said with more than a hint of sadness in my voice.
Emma reached out and we hugged, holding the embrace for a long time before stepping apart.
“We’ll see each other again.” Emma said smiling half-heartedly.
“I hope so.” I smiled back.
“TJ, I wish we could ...”
“I know, I do to.” I interrupted. “But you go and have a good time with Sam. See the world, enjoy yourselves. I’ll check your blog to make sure you’re doing OK.”
“I’ll read yours as well. Just to make sure your unusual house search is living up to its name.”
We embraced again before Emma picked up her pack and headed for the nearest entrance door. She turned before going in and blew me a kiss. I smiled and pretended to catch it.
The parking attendant started towards me again but I caught his eye and acknowledged I was leaving before he had to say anything.
I drove out of the airport and headed back north. I felt miserable and my eyes were damp with tears. I’d only cried twice in my life that I could remember ... both over members of the fairer sex. The first time was a result of my crush on eleven-year-old Julie Simpson in sixth grade. A week after pledging our love to one another she told me she was dumping me for Toby Bolt, a skinny freckly seventh grade kid. Evidently his family had a beach house and Julie had been invited to go and spent vacation there. I cried myself to sleep that night believing the whole world was against me. I’d thought at the time that I would never feel so broken hearted again and vowed never to trust another girl in my life.... I was very wrong on both those counts.
Years later I fell in love with Kelly, and that’s when I realized what true love really was. We shared ten years of great marriage together and when she passed in the accident I realized what a truly broken heart really was. I had cried for a long time after I woke from my coma to find out she was no longer going to be at my side. Naturally over time my physical wounds had healed but the emotional wounds took far longer, in fact they were still present four years later. I had believed I would never love again. However this last week with Emma had me wanting to believe again.
I drove aimlessly north not thinking about where I was going. Finally I pulled the truck into a road-side layby and sat staring out the window. Dex, sensing my despair, laid his head on my lap in a comforting way.
“What are we doing boy?” I said sighing, patting him gently on the head.
Eventually I made my way back into the camper and pulled down the bed. I lay back against the pillow and stared at the ceiling. My thoughts were all over the place. I pulled out the drawer beside the bed ... reaching in I found what I was looking for ... a picture of Kelly. It had been taken at friend’s beach wedding, Kelly was wearing a white summer dress and was smiling at the camera. We had been together for nine years when the picture was taken ... she looked just as beautiful as she had when we first started going out. I closed my eyes and remembered when we first met ... I smiled as I thought about it.
I had known Kelly since high school, and even though we had a number of classes together we had not spoken more than a dozen times in over four years of school. She was the girl that every guy wanted to date but no one did ... that’s because everyone thought she was gay. Kelly was best friends with Andie Jacobson, and Andie made no secret of the fact that she was a lesbian. As a result of them being together all the time the assumption was Kelly was lesbian too ... although she never confirmed or denied it. The fact that she never dated seemed to seal her fate and so guys stayed away. Of course like all the other randy high school guys I’d wondered what it would’ve been like to get it on with Kelly but like the others I never thought of actually asking her out.
That all changed on my first week of college. I’d gone to a community college in a town about 100 miles from home. My Mom was a solo parent and we didn’t have money for a fancy college, and I had to get a part-time job to make ends meet. As far as I knew nobody from my graduating class had chosen the same school. After a week I was feeling pretty alone, so I went to a local student hangout called ‘The Plague’ for a coffee. I was hoping to meet some of my classmates. The place was very busy and the only spare seat was at a small table in the corner. I could see the back of a blond headed girl sitting at the table alone ... I approached and asked if I could sit down. The blonde was Kelly.
“Hey Kelly, mind if I sit here?”
“TJ! What are you doing here?” Kelly asked with wide eyed surprise.
“I could ask you the same thing?” I replied smiling.
“I’m studying here, taking courses to become a radiologist. What about you?”
“I want to be a draftsman and they have a good course here for that.” I said sitting down.
“It’s really nice to see someone I know.” Kelly said smiling.
“Yeah, I know how you feel.”
We got to talking and before we knew it an hour had passed. A waitress asked us if we had finished our drinks ... her voice implied that it was time for us to vacate a needed table. We left and made our way back to the campus. On the way Kelly asked if I wanted to go out to the movies sometime. I was a bit confused and it must have showed in my reaction.
“I’m not gay TJ.”
“Oh ... I thought you and Andie ...”
“Andie is my best friend but that’s all.”
“So, you’ve never been gay?” I asked still a little confused.
“Well, I can’t say I haven’t done a little experimenting ... with Andie around it was hard to not to. But I’m into guys more.” she shrugged and smiled.
“OK.” I was a bit shocked at her openness. “Why didn’t you date in high school? I mean almost every guy there had the hots for you.”
“In the beginning I didn’t want to get involved with all that dating stuff, so when the rumors about Andie and me started I just let people believe it ... it kept the guys away. By the time I was ready to date most of the good guys were in relationships, so I just decided to keep up the pretence rather than go out with boys I didn’t like.”
“Fair enough.” I kind of understood what she was saying. Thinking back to my dating life in high school ... I hadn’t been exactly successful. Mostly short-term relationships that ended with me still a virgin.
