You would be surprised but I don’t have that much experience opening champagne bottles and as soon as I pop the cork, the foam spills onto the floor, adding to the celebration. My mom laughs as I try to catch it into our glasses, rather unsuccessfully.
“This is the best news that I could get,” I say, raising my glass to hers. “You are a wonderful mother and you have always been there for me. I just wish that I could be there for you.”
“You have been,” she says. “I love you, son.”
Her voice cracks at the end and when I say I love you, too, mine does as well. We wipe our tears, slightly embarrassed by them but not enough to actually pretend that they’re not coming.
“Let’s make this glass the beginning of something wonderful,” I continue. “A new life, for both of us.”
“I want to say something, too,” she says as I’m about to put down my glass. I raise it back up.
“You’re the best son that any mother could ever hope for,” she says. “You have always been there for me, even when you probably should not have. I never wanted to be a burden to you. I just wanted to raise you and watch you become the man that you are, the man that I always knew you could be. Now that I’m better, I want you to stop worrying about me. I want you to promise me that. I want you to stop worrying and I want you to focus on you.”
“Me?”
“You have a lot of things going on in your life and they need a lot of figuring out. Mainly, it’s that woman that you’re in love with that you can’t get out of your head.”
I swallow hard and look down at my feet.
“I want you to make it right with Aurora,” Mom says. “I know that she can make you happy and I know that you can make her happy. I just hope that you two can figure things out before it’s too late.”
23
Aurora
The following afternoon, Henry and I make the arrangements to meet up through a burner phone that I bought at Walmart. If Franklin catches me with it, I know that whatever trust he has in me will disappear immediately. But I have to have a way to talk to Henry, for real and in private.
On the way to the hotel, I make sure that no one is following me by examining every unknown face. I had promised myself that if I suspect that I am being trailed by anyone at all that I’m going to call this off. I don’t think I can handle the wrath that Franklin would impose on me if he were to find out the truth.
Henry paid for the room and I take the elevator up to the third floor. It’s a nondescript, three-star hotel that caters to business travelers. They only allow check-ins after three in the afternoon and I get there a few minutes later. I can’t stay out too late. I have to be back at the apartment before Franklin gets back.
Henry pulls me into his arms as soon as he opens the door. He presses his lips to mine and my whole body starts to shiver. I drop my bag onto the floor and wrap my arms around him.
His hands make their way up my shirt and unclasp my bra. He pushes me against the wall. I kiss him, desperately searching for his tongue. His hands make their way around my stomach, cupping my breasts. I turn my head back when he squeezes. A fire is ignited in the middle of my core, the kind that I have forgotten that I still have.
“I’ve missed you,” he mumbles through his sloppy kiss.
“I’ve missed you, too,” I whisper.
He leads me to the bedroom, holding my hand firmly in his. He’s wearing a tight, white T-shirt that accentuates every protruding muscle in his torso.
I watch the way his six pack moves up and down with each breath. When he throws me on the bed, I lick my lips in anticipation and pull off his shirt. The room is dark but there is candlelight streaming from the hallway. It’s not a real candle but it flickers and behaves like one.
I stare at it as he kisses my lips and my neck. I arch my back as he pulls off my shirt and my bra.
Finally, we are flesh to flesh. I glance at him and run my fingers down his hard body. His abs are a perfect six-pack, almost as if he is photo shopped.
“How do you have this…body?” I ask, letting my fingers go up and down his torso, around the sides of his stomach, where his muscles form the letter V, as if they are an arrow directing me to his beautiful cock.
I tug at his belt buckle and let it fall open on to my stomach.
“I tend to lift weights when I get frustrated,” he says, kissing behind my ear. “Recently, I’ve been frustrated a lot.”
“So, when we’re finally together, you’re going to let yourself go?” I ask.
“If you want,” Henry says, pulling away from me just a little bit.
“I want you any way I can have you,” I say.
He smiles, kisses me again, and flips over on his back.
“Come lie on top of me,” he says.
This feels good. Powerful. But then he pulls down on me, folding my body in half.
He kisses me again and again, fondling my breasts. Even with me on top, he’s in charge. I like that.
I don’t like that in most of my life, but right here and now, it feels beautiful just like him.
I trust him.
He won’t hurt me.
In fact, he’ll make me feel the kind of pleasure that I can only dream of.
Pulling off my pants, I lean on top of him as he kisses my neck, my breasts, and my stomach. He keeps pushing me further and finally I don’t want to say no.
He pulls me up to his mouth, I sit on him and he buries his fingers and his tongue deep within me. I grip the headboard and lose myself in the moment. His fingers move expertly around me quickly getting me to that place from which there’s no turning back.
I start to moan. I feel a wave coming over me and before I realize what’s happening, he gets behind me and thrusts himself inside. His dick is hard and thick and fills every aspect of me, finally making me feel complete.
“Henry!” I whisper his name, unable to create an audible sound.
One wave crashes followed by another and my body seems to take over. We move as one, together as if we were made this way. With each thrust, he goes deeper and deeper inside and I consume more and more of him.
The final wave comes and I curl my toes. It’s warm and soothing as it explodes from the center of my core, reverberating all around.
I shake, moving myself up and down harder and harder to try to make it last longer. Somewhere behind me, I hear him moan my name and thrust one last time.
We hold each other for a long time after that, grasping to one another, breathing deeply but unable to catch our breaths.
“I really miss you,” Henry says, staring at the ceiling.
He’s somewhere far away and so am I, but in a good way.
“I’ve missed you, too,” I say, squeezing his hand.
“I have to tell you something,” he says.
I shake my head no and say, “I don’t wanna hear any bad news right now. I just can’t…”
I know that I’m being selfish. He probably wants to tell me about his mom but not just yet. I will be here for him and I will hold him and I will tell him that everything will be okay but I can’t do that just yet. I need this moment to last a little longer to replenish my dwindling supplies of optimism.
“It’s not what you think. Her cancer is in remission.”