Their chests rise and fall almost in unison with deep breaths, slowly calming. Collapsed onto his chest, Sarah feels the warmth of an embrace. Loving. Meaningful. From the outside looking in, a young couple, melted atop one-another following the throws of passion. The reality, instead, perhaps even more romantic as two gently aged souls, seemingly as if carefully curated for eachother, lay blissfully together as one, with the slowly calming labored breaths brought on only by excitement and subsequent relief afforded by this reality. Not two youthful vessels of perfection but rather matured life travelers in need, perfect for the moment. The air, in the sense of the stage on which their souls have met is one of relief, of resilience, for enduring the challenges thus far in life to be joined at this juncture in time. The air, in which they take in and share in such close proximity, the blend of a pine filtered freshness carried in by whispering winds prancing about the walls of the small cabin where they lay, highlighted by the earthy scent of rains now passed in symphonic blend with the musky tones of a man and woman wrapped tightly.
They have yet to speak a word. The care and encouragement they have shared for months, all through their keyboards which provided safety and discretion, now was offered by the body, the mind and the heart. Oh, most definitely they heard the other, again and again, he, her trailing beautiful accent lingered in his mind as he absorbed her prose, and for she, his soft spoken language of love he diligently penned.
But now, no doubt by chance, but also of necessity, Sarah now finds herself curled and tucked into the arms of not a partner of passion, though in an earlier life they appear as if that may have been been, if only, but instead the embrace of a loving friend. Their mutual need for touch, beginning worlds apart, from the continental divides of their upbringings to the many miles between them when first discovered, has brought them here. To this moment, now.
Though their stories differ indeed...the how, the why, and perhaps even the sought after outcome, they have now taken on new meaning to eachother. Emotions extend a tear slowly down his cheek to find her forehead as she nuzzles into his neck. A feeling of being loved. Needed. Tantalized by the warmth of her inhales and exhales of his cologne, he lightly scratches down her back in a return of senses. Not the feeling of flesh, instead, the softness of cotton nightwear, their agreed upon barrier of platonic boundary. Her soft scent and bodily warmth so too brings an excitement to air, a boyish excitement he finds unrestrainable following years of hunger, desire, need. Shielded only by his mutual choice of a thinly woven undergarment, his presence is felt. His reward is not an action of sensual response, but more, the quiet lack of recognition followed by the gentle rustling of their legs, drawing them together, sharing that special bond of two pressing bodies as if to say it is okay.
Their pulses again race, the warmth between them again grows. Their lips softly brush the flesh of the friend with whom they are tightly wound, without meeting. This silent gesture for her was too a loving response to what she knew to be a meaningful reaction, as he had acknowledged the struggles age had put on his body, the embarrassing inconsistencies which brought him pause and hesitance to pursue climbing back into an arena of the physical bonds of passion. For him, a reassurance that he now held tightly not a woman solely seeking a one-off thrill or meaningless engagement to be forgotten upon parting, but instead, a caring person, a friend, looking for the mutual and meaningful memory that their embrace will forever etch into their minds.
