Just a quick little ditty that will hopefully grab your interest.

As usual there are no graphic sex scenes in my work.

Thanks for taking the time to read and hopefully constructively comment on this latest piece. Please enjoy.

Alyssa was dancing with another man. The love of my live was dancing with, hugging, and kissing another man. She responded eagerly to his romantic overtures; in fact Alyssa instigated some of the kisses and hugs. Watching Alyssa and her new man I knew it signaled the end of my way of life. Everything would change now but the most important change, the one that would be hardest to take, was that after tonight I would be alone.

Susan, my wife of four years left me. No good bye, she just left me all alone. For that whole day after she left and that night my emotions ran the gamut from hurt to sadness to depression and finally to anger. I was angry with everything and everyone, especially God. How could a benevolent, loving God allow this to happen to me, to us?

I met Alyssa for the first time the day after Susan left; it was love at first sight. She took my hand and I looked into her bright blue eyes and I was hers from that moment on. That meeting destroyed my depression, eased my hurt, and in large part erased my anger. Only the sadness remained but it was a shadow of what it had been; with Alyssa front and center I had no time to be sad.

For close to twenty years, we spent almost every day and night together. The evenings that she went out with friends were hard on me. I would pace back and forth like a lion in a cage until she came home. As I heard her at the front door I would sit in my big overstuffed chair and pretend I was interested in the newspaper or a book. Alyssa would tell me about her exciting evening, kiss me goodnight, and go to bed.

The few weekend or sometimes week long trips that she went on were the worst. I constantly worried about where she was, what she was doing, and with whom. Alyssa's almost nightly phone calls while she was on these trips were welcomed but they just reminded me that she wasn't at home. It's a good thing that these trips were few and far between; I don't know if I could have taken many more of them. I never let her see how her being gone affected me.

During our time together I taught her many things and even learned some from her. I introduced her to the great outdoors. Fishing became a favorite of Alyssa's; I still laugh when I think of her first attempts to cast a baited line with her fishing pole. The picture of her with the line wrapped around her like a shawl was priceless. I didn't let her see me laugh but it was the funniest and cutest thing I'd ever seen.

I took her with me one weekend when I rode my dirt bike in an Enduro race. She fell in love with dirt bikes and learned to share my love of the sport. I bought her three different bikes as her skills improved. Alyssa also likes to go camping. In the evenings we would sit around a campfire eating s'mores and talk about the birds and animals we had seen on our hikes.

My idyllic life began to change a little over a year ago. Alyssa's one or two nights a week out with her friends turned into two or three nights a week with just one of her friends; Justin Reynolds. She always came home at a reasonable hour except for one or two times; special occasions she called them.

Once again I paced and thought and worried until she came home. On those 'special nights' she always told me what time she expected to be home and not to wait up. Like that was going to happen. About an hour before she was due home, I would turn out the lights downstairs and sit in the dark at the top of the stairs until I heard Alyssa saying good night to Justin and would quickly adjourn to the bedroom.

I could have told her not to go; I know she would have honored my request. But if I did that Alyssa would have began to resent me and maybe love me less. I couldn't take a chance on losing her so I didn't say anything and sort of suffered in silence. The only hope I had was to let her interest in Justin wither and fade.

Instead of fading her interest grew and intensified. I finally realized that I had lost her. It was just a matter of time before she left me.

So now I watch as Justin and my love, my life, dance; so absorbed in each other that the rest of the world doesn't exist to them. It's just the two of them with no room for anyone else.

Alyssa smiled at him and then looked around. As the song ends she walks over to me and takes my hand, pulling me onto the dance floor.