Rob and I had broken up when he was posted to Japan and I simply couldn't leave my job for seven months. I seem to remember we intended to try to keep it together but that had lasted all of six days when he e-mailed me to say it was all over. He'd met someone else (on the flight over, I later found out!) and he didn't think he'd be able to stay faithful to me for the months it would take me to get organised to come and see him.
Those weeks and months hurt like hell, but I refused to write back to him and basically cold turkeyed my way through it. By Christmas - about three and a half months after the e-mail, I was thinking straight again and a while after that I was dating again.
I never heard from Rob directly, but last year I contacted him via a business website that links professionals. He wasn't hard to find. His job is pretty unique, and there are only a few advertising agencies working in his specialist field in Japan. I wrote to him suggesting we reconnect and mentioning I was getting married and I would like him to consider himself invited to the wedding.
Steve and I had met almost a year to the day after that e-mail had changed the direction my life was going in. He was funny and confident and he made me rediscover my love of dancing and of the outdoors. We hit it off quickly and he proposed during a surprise trip to Slovenia he sprang on me for a birthday present two years later. I said yes and we celebrated by making love in the open air on the shore of a lake. It was beautiful and I thought I'd found my life partner.
It was a bit of a shock to gauge my own reaction when I saw that Rob had responded to my message. I could feel my heart pounding as I read his reply. The years rolled away and I found myself going back to his profile page again and again. A girlfriend later told me that on that site you can tell how many times a contact had clicked on your profile, so he would have seen how interested I was. In fact, he changed his profile picture to a much sexier looking one after about three hours, so I'm damn sure he was aware.
We met up. It was at a children's soft play centre. Neither of us had a kid in tow, of course, but we blended in with all the other parents in the large coffee area by the indoor climbing frames, and no one paid us any attention because they were all looking after their children. We hugged and I let him kiss me gently on the lips. We caught up over three consecutive macchiatos, and as we left he said "So, what colour are they?"
This was an in-joke that hung over from our days as a couple. He was obsessed with my panties, and I'd often have to tell him what colour I was wearing or whether they were lacy and so forth. It was a bit of harmless fun.
"Black," I said.
That was it for a while, but like a drug I kept going back to him. We drank more coffees and hugged a little closer each time. Once, when I was meeting him at Paddington station before he went to Wales for a conference, our kiss was a little closer than before. His tongue gently ran over my lips, and my tongue reached out to touch his.
The next time we met I decided to be more businesslike. I was getting married in a month and he had said he thought he could be there for the big day although that night he was attending a shoot in Cornwall where the combination of a full moon and predicted clear skies was perfect for the ad they were creating. I told Rob it was important he was there even if he missed the service. He said he could probably visit me on the morning of the wedding to wish me luck, but he'd have to hit the road by noon or he'd never make it to the shoot. The wedding was at 2 PM, so that was the best we could arrange.
That morning at 9:30 I opened the door to my hotel room. Rob stood there looking as sexy as ever. In his hands he held an expensive bouquet of hyacinths. I let him in and he kissed me chastely on the cheek.
"Let's see it then." was all he said, taking a seat and looking up at me expectantly.
I disappeared into the adjoining room of the suite and reappeared ten minutes later in my wedding dress. In a few hours I'd be wearing this to wed Steve, but right now the man I had once thought would be mine forever was getting the first viewing. Our break up had always seemed cruel. This was a small recompense against the Fates that had driven us apart.
I hope you're not wearing a bra." he said.
"Of course not." I replied.
"Good," he said. "Strip for me."
"What??!" I said. But I'd heard him clearly enough. And I knew I wanted to.
He got up and walked towards me. He put his arms around me and kissed me on the mouth. My mouth opened and our tongues fought each other in a passionate kiss.
