Reviving Sage

[Chapter 14:]

It had been almost a week since we began what Ansel liked to call our 'agreement'.

I cringed outwardly, stopping to take in the scenery around me. Colorful playground, vibrant and vivid colors and hues of different skin tones co-existing almost peacefully. Small children, adults, the elderly, playing and laughing. I loved this park, I would bring Ella here almost every weekend, but I couldn't fully enjoy it due to a nagging feeling in the back of my head.

It took me a moment to conclude what it was, but when I finally realized it I sighed. I absolutely hated the term 'agreement', it sounded so sterile and clinical. I liked to keep it short and simple and call it like it was.

It was sex, raw and undiluted by any other heavy emotional drama.

I definitely didn't need any emotional ties to him...

The day after i'd slept with him, was off-putting, to say the least. He'd driven me home, not before pressing another dizzying kiss to my mouth and had told me to call him later, and only minutes later Ella was home again which was a welcome comforting surprise. I fell back into the routine of how a normal day of mine would go. But, I still couldn't shake the giddy, tingly feeling in my stomach.

I had needed some normality at the moment, the night and morning before had been surreal. Later that night, long after Ella had been put to bed with her favorite bedtime story, I sat awake preparing a presentation I had to give the following day. As I was about to lay my head down to sleep he'd called stirring up trouble, and causing me to laugh.

Another welcome surprise...

We'd talked everyday since then, late into the night, even into the early morning hours when dawn approached. We'd talk about seemingly everything and nothing at the same time. But, i would never bring up Noah or any of the heartache there, and he, strangely, wouldn't talk much about his family except for his brother and sister, which was fine with me.

My days were not only filled with the love and adoration of my child, but at night the titillating conversation of another adult besides Kim. We had built a stable, but budding friendship. Something that I was actually happy for.

Life seemed to take on a breezy atmosphere. Ella was happy, Kim was deliriously in love with planning a wedding along with my help, and I...I was content..very...content.

I smiled to myself and continued to read and watch Ella play from the park bench I sat on. She played happy with a myriad of other children from our neighborhood. She had about thirty minutes before we had to wrap this up to go home and get changed. Kim had scheduled a dress fitting, and flower selection meeting at three, which Ella and I were required to attend.

The whole ordeal would prove to be quite interesting. I knew Imani, and Marissa, and Jay(who was an honorary "bridesmaid") but I would be meeting some of the other bridesmaids for the first time, and was skeptical of the other women she had picked.

I was stirred from my thoughts as my phone buzzed from down in my lap. I looked down to see Ansel's serious, but handsome face on my screen with a text floating below it.

I need you.

My face grew hot. The text was a tiny beacon, and over the last two weeks those three word had become our own special code for 'let's have sex!'

And how effective those words had become...

I read the three words over again, and my mouth quirked into a small grin.

Two days ago while working on a slow day in my office he'd sent me those three little words telling me he was waiting outside in his car and that he needed to be be inside me immediately.