And her body responded in kind, climaxing again and again with thundering contractions that exploded inside her like mortar shells, each detonation leaving her weaker than the one before, her body finally reaching the point of exhaustion. At last she lay her sweat-soaked body onto Trevor’s, unable to speak, her head nestled on his chest, listening to a heartbeat as ragged as her own. Mark covered them both with his body and Melanie dozed, snug and relaxed and completely sated.
###
The airport reopened the following afternoon and, as Melanie sat staring out the window of jet that would take her home, she thought about the previous day. In her heart she knew, somehow, that it wasn’t just a random event, a fortunate meeting between strangers. No, what happened was like a second chance for her; an opportunity to experience something that could have taken place a year earlier. She hadn’t been ready for it then. And now, for the first time, she thought she understood why.
She asked Mark at one point the same question she’d asked her husband and in her mind she listened again to his response.
“What am I?” His laughter was rich and full. “Oh, man, what a question. It makes me feel like I’m some two-headed beast or something. I suppose,” he went on, “if I have to be called something, it would be bisexual. But I’m not a big fan of labels. We need to learn to accept people for what they are, not for what we want them to be.
“I like to think that I’m just a person who is in touch with his sexuality, who is comfortable with it, without the need to put it in a box and tell the world, ‘This is who I am’. I want to stay open to the possibilities that life offers me.”
Possibilities, Melanie thought. That was a good way of putting it. She realized now that she had some unfinished business to deal with. And the possibilities it presented brought a smile to her face.
FIN