Chapter 36: Yaron

“I missed this,” she whispered.

I traced the areola of her nipple. Her fingers were running through my hair in a constant motion; back and forth.

“Me too. But that wasn’t the only thing I missed.”

“What else did you miss?” she asked, against my hair.

“Everything, Vee.”

“Yeah...”

I slid my hand between her legs and she moaned. Vee arched when I tickled the inside of her thighs. Then, she giggled like a child being mischievous.

“Do you remember all the adventures we lived together?” she asked, kissing my chin.

I smiled at the rush of memories. Vee and I running through the woods. Making up stories. Playing superheroes. Helping her make useless gadgets that came to life only through her magic eyes. Giving each other our first kiss. Making love for the first time.

I absentmindedly placed a kiss on her bare skin and sat up a little.

“How could I not remember? You were crazy.”

She pretended to be upset and started tickling me until we burst out laughing; I grabbed her by the wrists and let her fall on top of me. She looked at me, with that familiar intensity that always left me breathless. She was beautiful in her unique way.

She was going to succeed. I knew it. She would take the world by storm and would take no prisoners. She was unstoppable. A hurricane. And I held on to the hurricane as long as I could because, sooner or later, it was going to run its course away from me.

She leaned on my chest and kissed the edge of my neck, while I remembered us as two curious children who adored each other without limits.

“Without you, I would never have dared to pursue my dreams. You made everything magic, Vee. You saw lions in the hay bales and mutant bears in the woods. You made everything possible.”

“Without me, you would have become an adult at eleven.”

We laughed because it was a true truth.

I had always worried too much about things. That’s what growing up with a Jewish mother did to me. I was always looking inward, too thoughtful, asking myself questions that I didn’t know how to answer. Until Vee came along, and, filled my childhood with games, adventures and magic that made me feel lighter.

I hugged her naked body tightly. With her in my arms, I forgot everything else for a few moments. I hugged the brave girl who I still saw in her, even if they were only remnants, and I let out the questions that I had been asking myself lately; a doubt that was eating me inside.

Vee and I reconnected in no time. The attraction between us was so strong that neither of us could resist it. We were two parts of a whole. Our souls, our hearts, our bodies belonged together. We were linked in ways I couldn’t understand, but felt.

A dangerous, dormant feeling resurfaced in me— the hope that our relationship was possible.

It was only three days, but we lived them intensely, even though that there was something inside me that had me like anesthetized.

Vee and I were a fleeting love, one of those that had an expiration date marked on the calendar. And you know what? Those are the ones that hurt the most.

The ones that are confused with much more. The ones that end before you are aware that their end has come.

Despite all the emotions associated with her return, at the same time, it felt strange to have her by my side. I had become accustomed to a life without Vee and, deep down, I liked it.