It's a few days before Christmas as I wait in the arrival lounge at Manchester Airport, here in New Hampshire. I watched on as other families and loved ones greeted each other as they came into the lounge from their short flight from Boston. I'm waiting for my wife, Dr Emily Walker, to return home to me. Emily's been working in Puerto Rico for the last six months and I haven't seen her for about a month, since Thanksgiving.
My name is John Walker, my friends and work colleagues call me Johnnie, for obvious reasons. I'm the same age as my wife at twenty-seven, but where she's a Doctor, I became an Engineer, working in town here in Manchester. I'm 6'0 feet tall with dark brown hair and brown eyes. Emily and I were high school sweethearts, we were both each other's first love, and first lovers. We both then went to college together; however, I finished earlier as Emily was still studying to be a doctor. We got married shortly after I graduated, almost two years ago now and we've been renting a nice three-bedroom house in the northern part of Manchester for a few years as well.
Emily's first job after completing medical school was to work with an NGO (non-government organization), Doctors Without Boundaries. They provide six or twelve-month contracts for doctors to work in 'third world' or struggling countries where medical assistance is at a premium. Many young doctors like Emily take up the opportunity to gain experience, also working in humanitarian aid always looks really good on a resume.
Emily is halfway through her twelve-month contract, first leaving for Puerto Rico back last summer. It's hard having a long-distance relationship; we've been so close and done everything together since we were just sixteen. These periods in between her trips home are easily the longest I've gone without her in over ten years now. I've missed her so much.
As I looked past the other passengers, I could see the wavy blonde hair of an attractive woman, it's my Emily. She stands at 5'7 tall, with long wavy blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes. Emily also sports a knockout body, she's lean and fit, which makes her large breasts stand out even more. I'm used to guys checking her out ever since her breasts first blossomed in high school, it's just something I've learned to deal with.
Her smile grew as she saw me waiting for her, approaching me with arms out to embrace and kiss me once more.
"Hi darling, it's so good to see you" Emily said as we embraced and then kissed on the lips.
"Hi to you too gorgeous, you're looking even better than a month ago, you've been working on that tan again, haven't you? You look amazing." I replied.
"Thanks, I try to catch some sun every day when I can. There's not much else to do there apart from working." Emily responded as we made our way to the luggage collection.
We spent the next hour or so catching up on everything Emily's missed out on over the last month, although I'm not that good at the gossiping side of things. She didn't have much to tell me about her job, just that it was business as usual from the last time she was home. While Emily was in the kitchen calling her mom, I helped by taking her suitcase upstairs to our bedroom, unzipping and opening it so she could begin to unpack when she was ready.
A piece of clothing on one side of the suitcase caught my eye after opening the lid. I pulled it out to look at it, it's a sheer red teddy, a very sexy little teddy indeed. I've never seen her wearing this before, maybe she bought it to surprise me as it looks like it's brand new, so I packed it back away where I'd found it and closed the top of the suitcase.
After we had dinner that night, I was looking forward to having sex with Emily once again, it's only been a month, but even that's way too long. I was half expecting her to come to bed in her sheer red teddy I'd seen earlier, but she came out of the bathroom in just a long t-shirt instead. Maybe she's saving it for a special occasion.
The sex was good, although nowhere near as good as what I'd imagined in my head thinking about it for the last four weeks. It was more like when you have sex every night, and this was just one of those nights. Not the passionate tryst of two lovers reconnecting after missing each other for a month. But she's probably tired after her three connecting flights to get home, and I've got five days with her now for us to enjoy ourselves.
We spent Christmas day at my parent's house, as Emily's parents had moved to Florida a few years ago. On day three of Emily's visit, I was still feeling that something was missing, that spark we usually have. I remembered back to Thanksgiving, and I'd have to say those two nights that Emily were home weren't the greatest either. I'd put that down to her being tired from the travelling as well, she also told me that she'd been working her ass off too, that she needed some well-earned rest while she was here.
But what about now? She doesn't seem tired or worn out now, yet the spark and enthusiasm is simply not there like it was before she left in the summer. Maybe I'm just imagining things, maybe I'm remembering how we used to make love as being better than it actually was. But I don't think so.
As her final day rolled around and then the night, I was still waiting for her to bring out the new sexy red teddy I'd seen in her suitcase, if there was a night for it, it's tonight. Emily flies out in the morning, so tonight is our last night together until she returns for a weekend at the end of February before spending a week here at Easter. I was disappointed when she again came into the bedroom wearing just a large T-shirt, one of my old ones. I was tempted to ask her about the red teddy but didn't, I was now more focused on giving her the good loving she deserves.
After taking Emily to the airport in the morning and saying our farewells, I watched as her plane lifted into the sky to take her away from me again. These are the days that suck the most, with the long countdown until she returns starting all over again. But that wasn't all that was eating at me, I'd never felt more disconnected from Emily than I've felt during these holidays. It's like we were just going through the motions, even though I've been doing everything I could to make her trip memorable. I didn't get the sense that Emily was trying anywhere near as hard as I've been, and now I'm finding it hard to shake that feeling.
Is it her job? Is it me? Has she found that with travelling and meeting new people, that she now wishes that she wasn't married? Is she getting tired with our marriage or am I just seeing things that aren't there? I shook my head as I made my way back to my truck, I had to get to work.
On my drive to work I couldn't help but dwell on my thoughts further. When Emily first left for Puerto Rico last summer, she would call me every day, sometimes twice. We would have sexy video calls every few days when she was alone in the apartment that she is staying in with another of her colleagues. But even those have been non-existent since about September, and her daily calls are now just weekly. I tried to call her more often, but every time they'd go straight to her messages, she told me later that she doesn't have her phone on while working. Doesn't explain why it does the same after work hours too.
Anyway, she'll call me when she lands back in Puerto Rico. Almost two months of phone calls now is all I have.
After I got home from work later that day, I realized that Emily still hadn't called me, she should've landed in Puerto Rico some time ago now. I tried calling but went straight to messages yet again. What the hell? She doesn't start back at work again until tomorrow. I got changed and hit the gym, we have our own setup in our garage to save money. The workout helps me to forget about the stresses of the day, to also forget about the niggling concerns I was now feeling with Emily.
