Irreconcilable

[Continued from Hell, And so it ends, and A new friend]

The day was drawing to a close. Through the balcony, the evening sky cast a soft glow across the room. A figure draped in oversized shirt was leaning against the frame. He could slightly register a slight outline of her body, the contours of which he has only explored last night. It began with an embrace – an opportunity long missed since the two separated after high school. Now married, each with a promising career, they looked ideally as a couple. And last night proved just that. As they kissed, their lips and tongues fell into matching rhythm. His hands slithered from her side to her back, feeling the arch of her body and the passion in her spine. It was only then did both of them realize just how perfect they were for each other, like some hidden truth has finally dawned on him. If he was ever sure of anything, this was beyond doubt.

“Do you have to leave now?” her soft voice was more than audible in this quiet room.

“Sorry, I’ve got to,” Dennis replied. He knew that he could do something to stay longer; a simple phone call with some cooked-up excuse will give him another night. But that just won’t do, somehow.

She turned to stare at him. She had the kind of look like she knows the things that are being weighed in your soul. Maybe it’s the familiar eyes that he has fallen for for so long. Or maybe it’s the guilt that only just began to register.

No one has to know, he told himself. He dropped his coat, and slowly made his way to her. This time it wasn’t the sense of discovery that they felt last night. It was pain, with an awful tinge of fear, that they were beating too many odds when fate had decreed that they were not meant to be together.

“I love you, Dennis, just too much for me to bear,” she cried.

“I’m not letting you go, I promise.”

___________

Now with the door closed, he was brought back to the other side of his life, one which is irreconcilable with the other. Here, in his house, he‘s a family man, with a loving wife and two kids, but the other side is where his true passion lies. The family business was a niche that every grown man is expected to fill in, a job at home he has to take up.

There was a sound coming from the kitchen. He could tell that Risha was there. And true enough, she was standing there preparing dinner with her back facing him, not aware that her husband has just returned. Quietly, he approached her, slid his hands around her waist, feeling the tenderness of her body. He moved his lips close to her ears, whispered, “Miss me?”

He could tell that she had just bathed, a way to welcome him from a long trip. Turning around to face him, she wrapped her arms around his neck, bringing his height closer for her reach. With a kiss she said, “too much for me to bear…”