I Believed

His dark, callused hands expressed his impatience. His clean-cut nails dug into his skin and clothes as one was placed on his hip, the other in a tight balled fist to his side.

                I came up from behind and asked, “What up with the sassy stance?” He turned a quick 180 on his toes and answered, “Salsa dance? Do you see me rocking my hips? I think not!”

I shook my head. He was never a good listener anyways. I walked past him to a nearby tree stump, smoothed down my skirt in the back, and sat down. I picked up a piece of grass, twirling it between my fingers and sighed, “Why am I here?” He leaned against a tree across from me. “You know why,” he said,”Why have you been avoiding me?” I looked around for an escape. I don’t want to have this conversation again, not now. But the trees surround us, creating a jail cell. The trees were the bars of my cell. If I could just slip though…

                “Answer me,” he yelled, making me jump. I started to cry into the blade of grass in my palm. Why Lord? Why?!  I felt an arm around my shoulder, a body next to mine on the stump. I tried to resist, but he was so warm. My walls all broke at that point. He was too familiar, too welcoming, too sensual, too warm, too there to ignore.

I put my head on his chest and cried, for what seemed like hours. He was the source of my tears of course, but it didn’t matter at this point. Right then, if only for the next few minutes, he loved me. Later he would go back to her and go back to ignoring me, but right then, he was mine...if only for a few hours. I felt his other arm wrap around my waist to pull me closer and his lips gently touch my neck.

“You know I love you, right?” he said against me neck. And for the moment, I believed him.