Dear readers,
It's been quite a tumultuous year, since I posted my last story. Thank you so much for your comments and messages of encouragement. I hope you enjoy this new series.
If you've read any of my previous stories, you'll know there will be some plot and character development before we get to the juicy parts -- but we WILL get to the juicy parts! That being said, if you're looking for a quick stroke story, you may want to move on now.
I'd like to thank my beta readers who provided feedback on an earlier version of this story and helped it develop into what it has become.
Finally, a great big THANK YOU to aussie_101 for his fantastic work editing the final piece. Any errors you find are purely a result of my fiddling after he was done with it. :)
***
'
Tortuous
', thinks Keira. Yes, that's the right word: tortuous. But what she is experiencing right now is a delicious kind of torture; the torture of anticipation, the torture of longing. She can't remember when she's been so excited. The anticipation is overwhelming. She keeps fidgeting and can't seem to sit still. Either her toe is tapping or her knee is bouncing. Thankfully her distress will soon come to an end.
After fourteen years, she's finally going to see Nico again.
She has tried to sleep. Usually she can sleep on planes and it helps to make the flight go faster, but that is simply impossible today. She has tried to read, but she can't seem to make her eyes focus on the words in her book. She has even tried to meditate, but of course she can't stop her mind from whirling.
She could barely believe it was really him when she got the Facebook friend request two months ago. His name popped up on her screen and, of course, she recognized it immediately. A shiver ran through her instantly at just seeing his name. For her, he'd always been the 'one that got away'.
Of course, she had thought about him often over the years. After all, you never forget your first. But she had long ago resigned herself to the fact that he was in her past and she would likely never hear from him again.
Then out of the blue: the Facebook friend request. Just seeing his name had brought back a rush of memories and sensations. She accepted his request without hesitation, and immediately began to stalk his Facebook page to find out everything she could about his life. Fortunately, he seemed to be an active Facebook user, so there was a lot of information for her to peruse.
She looked for his relationship status. It was single. '
He's single. Hallelujah!'
Then she looked for his current location. It read: Vancouver. '
Damn. Still in Vancouver. That's a hell of a long way from New York,
' she thought.
She read through his status updates and enjoyed seeing the camaraderie between Nico and some of his friends. He was as smart and funny as ever. As she read back through his profile, she found that his relationship status had changed from married to single about eleven months ago. However, looking at some of his status updates and comments from friends, she could see that he had gone from "we" updates to "me" updates quite some time before that.
Next Keira began to peruse Nico's pictures.
'
Oh god, he still looks so hot
', she thought.
Fourteen years had somehow only made him sexier. His dark eyes, that had drawn her to him, were wiser and revealed perhaps a bit of sadness or cynicism, but they still had that mischievous twinkle. There was just a hint of laugh lines around his eyes, and some of the pictures showed that he still had that roguish grin she had loved so long ago. He was in great shape, and she was pleased to see more than one picture of him in a bathing suit or shorts.
She got more and more excited as she looked over his profile and then sent an email to him through Facebook mail. She waited on tenterhooks for his response.
Thankfully, he responded a few hours later, and they quickly moved the conversation over to their regular email accounts. Their correspondence started tentatively, giving each other general life updates, asking typical 'catching up' questions, but the depth of the questions quickly went beyond small talk.
Within days, the intensity of emotion infused within their exchanges had escalated. They wrote increasingly long emails to each other, asking deeply personal questions and providing more and more depth and detail in their responses.
Nico told Keira all about how he met his wife, Melissa, during his last year of university and fell head over heels in love. They were married soon after they graduated. For the first four or five years, things seemed pretty good, as their relationship was new and they were establishing themselves professionally.
Then Melissa became so focused on her job that she worked all hours. Sure, he was working hard too, but not like her. She seemed obsessed. It got to a point where he hardly ever saw her. It went on like that for a few years. He started to have serious conversations with her about where their lives were headed, plans for the future, having a family. She kept putting him off, saying they would have a family "when things settled down at work".
He had also tried, on many occasions, to talk to her about how they hardly ever had sex anymore, because she was so busy and when she came to bed she was so tired. In the beginning, they'd had a very active -- though not very adventurous -- sex life. He lamented that she seemed to have lost interest in sex altogether.
With her constantly deflecting and not taking his concerns seriously, plus her being at work all hours of the day and night, he began to become suspicious. Finally, he confronted Melissa, and asked her if she was having an affair. She was silent. Her silence was confirmation enough. He pressed her and she admitted she'd been having a relationship with a client. He asked her how long, and she admitted it had been a couple of years. Years! He felt like he had been punched in the gut.
He had asked why she stayed with him, why she didn't just leave him. After all, they didn't have kids or anything really binding them together. Melissa had shrugged and said it was because 'he' was married too, and didn't want to leave his wife. She said it was just 'easier'. He was floored by her callousness, her heartlessness. He felt like such a chump; for not seeing it sooner, for not confronting her sooner. He was so angry about the years of his life he had wasted with her, when he could have been with someone who actually cared about him. Of course he had left her immediately and they were promptly divorced.
Keira cried a few tears and her heart went out to Nico as she read his long, emotional account of what he'd been through. She was amazed and touched that he was sharing so much deeply personal information, so much emotion with her.
Of course, Keira started off by telling him all about moving from Ottawa to Toronto to go to university. She had started a tiny event and promotions business out of her apartment after she graduated. Eventually she got more successful and hired an assistant, and with more success came an actual office and then staff. Her business kept growing, and when she got successful enough, her company was bought by a big PR firm from New York. She'd moved to join the firm and had now been living there for five years.
He asked her about relationships, and because he'd been so forthcoming with all the details about his marriage, she admitted that she'd had a lot of lovers, and she'd been hurt many times. Sometimes she'd end up with a man whose only focus was to take his own pleasure, not caring about hers. Other times she'd realize she'd like to see the guy, but never heard from him again. Thankfully Nico never asked the actual number of men she'd been with.
She told him about each of her four long-term relationships, all of which ended around the two-year mark. Two of these relationships just kind of ended organically, mutually. However, two had ended because the guy wanted to get more serious, get engaged, plan for the long term. But she just knew that none of them were "Mr. Right." She laughed at herself for even writing that and admitted how corny it sounded. But she elaborated by saying she just couldn't picture spending the rest of her life (or even a large portion of her life) with either of them, and she didn't want to settle, or string them along, or waste their time.
However, now at 32 she was starting to wonder if she ever would find the one she was supposed to be with. She admitted that she sometimes wondered if she'd made a mistake; maybe she should have settled for one of the guys who wanted to marry her. Most of her friends were getting married and having kids. She was starting to get tired of those pitying looks from smug couples who wanted to set her up with every single guy they knew. She'd long since gotten tired of being set up by well-meaning friends.
Somewhere toward the end of the second week of their long email conversations, they connected live on chat one evening. During the chat conversation, Nico told her he was so glad they'd reconnected. He tentatively admitted he still thought about her; that he'd always remembered her and thought fondly back to that summer when they had met.
Keira said she was glad they'd reconnected too, and admitted the same. She added that often when another relationship had failed or a guy she was dating just didn't measure up, her thoughts returned to him and she wondered where he was, what he was doing.
Nico upped the ante by admitting that he'd often fantasized about her over the years, and since they'd been conversing again he'd begun fantasizing about her every day.
After a pause, Keira admitted she'd been doing the same.
"
Do you touch yourself when you fantasize about me?"
Nico had typed in the chat window in response.
Keira gasped, and a shiver went through her. Of course, she had, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to admit that. She debated her answer for a moment. But everything had flowed so easily between them so far. They'd been so honest with each other up to that point. The fact that he was even asking meant he probably did too. Right? At least she hoped so. Part of her desperately wanted to know. She took a deep breath and typed her answer.
"
Yes."
Nico responded, "
:-D".
Keira typed, "
