The Beat Goes On

Reaching for a couple of mugs, I watched Abbey out of the corner of my eyes. As if I wasn’t already aware of how ridiculous I had been over the past several months, I was reminded again. It was unexplainable. Had I been chasing something? Because, frankly, what could I have possibly wanted that I didn’t have right in that apartment?
Abbey stood over the stove at three in the morning. Hair mussed and glasses awry, wearing nothing but a thin robe over her tank top and pajama shorts, she fixed a pot of tea. Her belly had become a lot more prominent since I’d left, but it fit her well.
God, was she beautiful.
Abbey watched me over the brim of her decaffeinated green tea (per doctor’s orders). I raised my mug to my lips, grimacing. A smile crossed her lips for the first time in a while.
“You don’t have to drink it, you know?”
“I hear it keeps the skin young.” I held up the mug in a subtle celebratory cheer.
We stared at the floor for the next several minutes, eyes occasionally darting to one another’s face.
“Did you sleep with her?” Abbey’s voice was so soft I could barely make out a word. Her teary eyes and knitted brow did the rest of her talking.
“No.” This simple, honest statement seemed to lift loads of tension.
“Really?” Abbey looked slightly more positive then she had moments ago.
“That wasn’t why I went out there.”
It became quiet again. We were unable to fight off the silence with all of the words we needed to say. I looked up at her as she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She sighed.
“I am so sorry.”
The minute she started sobbing I took her in my arms. It felt so good, despite the situation.
“I’m sorry.” She cried into my chest, grabbing fistfuls of my shirt. “Sorry.”
“Shhh.” I smooth back her hair and pressed my lips against her forehead. “Hey.”
Instead of finishing my sentence, I just held her. Once against, I felt like my feet were firmly planted on the ground. She was holding me there.

Abbey

My body ached. I felt so heavy, like I was weighing him down. Yet, he’d never let my feet touch the ground. Sure, we’d gotten pretty close—he’d stumbled, I’d nearly fallen—but he’d never let me down. And I knew that, I really did.
“Rob?” I inhaled deeply, wrapping my arms more tightly around him.
“Hmm?” His face was buried in my hair. I felt his lips across my forehead.
“Forgive me?”
Rob stepped back, holding my face in his hands, and stared at me.
“Silly question.” He frowned. “I’ve already forgotten. And I should be asking you.”
“There is nothing to forgive.” I kissed him tenderly, savoring it. “We’re both idiots.”
I pulled out of his embrace and laced my fingers with his.
“I’m not quite ready to let go of you yet,” he whispered. “No matter how much of an idiot you are.”
Rob silently led me to the couch, keeping his fingers locked around mine as he pulled me tightly against his chest. We nestled into one another, his arms around mine. Sleep could never take me now, I was his.
It wasn’t until sun began cascading through the windows that I realized we’d barely moved an inch, like we had been welded together.
I felt the tips of Rob’s fingers swirl across my arms as he delicately kissed the side of my face. I turned my head, stealing his lips.
“I never knew I could feel like this.” I smiled like he was the sun and I was basking in his rays. “And I thought I loved you before, but this…”
“This is madness.” He smiled into his kiss, shifting his body to face mine.
It may have been one hell of a decade, but how many people could say that they’d fallen in love with the same person a dozen times over?