How many times have I said to myself in the last year, "If anyone would have told me this a year ago, I would have said that they were crazy."
I reflected on how it all began ... again.
It started with a computer. About a year and a half ago, my ex-wife decided to buy our granddaughter a computer. Our daughter called me and asked if I would be willing to teach them all how to use it. The computer would be at my ex's house. I told her I wouldn't mind if my ex-wife felt comfortable with the situation.
You see, my ex-wife and I had been divorced for nine years. To make a long story short, when our youngest, the daughter, left home, our troubles came to the surface. Throughout our marriage, we agreed on little, from raising the children to handling money. We rarely talked, unless it was to express anger about something. Though we had an active sex life, it didn't have any real passion. We just went through the motions. After a year or so of difficulties, we divorced. It was not a friendly one, and much was said and done that left lasting anger and resentment.
During the nine years of our divorce, we had virtually no contact. However, that all changed with the purchase of the computer. The first evening I went to my ex's house to set everything up, tension and awkwardness was thick. But we made it through the evening.
I began going up to my ex-wife's house once a week. Usually my daughter and granddaughter were there. Sometimes they were not. Gradually the tension lessened and my ex and I became comfortable working together on the computer. After awhile, we became more than comfortable.
On the occasions no one else was there, we talked about our past. We both said our "I'm sorry's" and forgave ourselves the past. We had both changed and grown over the years and found each other to be interesting conversationalists.
Though we didn't realize it at first, as we became more comfortable, we began calling each other by affectionate names. We began sitting closer, sometimes touching knees and legs. When I would lean over her to point out something on the screen, my hands might rest on her shoulders. A new tension began between us, but this one was not based on the past.
One evening, as I was leaving through the garage, we brushed against each other. We stopped and looked into each other's eyes. The next thing either of us knew, she was in my arms, our lips locked in a kiss that carried more passion than we had ever expressed before. We broke off the kiss. We both were flustered and apologized, agreeing not to let that happen again. But of course it did.
My regular visits continued. On the occasions we were alone, we seemed to have a hunger to touch one another. We did our best to keep the expressions of our growing feelings limited to that. As the tension grew, we gave into our feelings, and began kissing passionately when I left.