3. Michael
Sarah’s lips brushed over mine, tantalizing my taste buds and fueling my passion. She was perfect in every way, and our bodies were one in the moment. Her hair, wild and untamed, fell over our faces, creating a private world only for us. She rode me, grinding on my body, and the rhythm of her movements shook the bed. For that moment of time, she was mine and I was hers. My hands traced her lines, feeling every curve on her.
A tangle of limbs, sweat, and sweet sighs. She leaned on my bare chest, her hot breath tickling my skin, whispering tales of desire into the silence of the room. Her nails traced labyrinthine paths across my arms, adding fuel to the raging fire within me. I watched as her body undulated above me, breathtaking in its raw passion and simple beauty. Her tits bounced as she moved, our bodies in sync now, drawing me ever closer to the edge.
I found her center, pressing my thumb into the apex of her pleasure and massaging it, and Sarah groaned in response, her body trembling with the onset of pure bliss. Her eyes were half-lidded, glazed over with lust and adoration, and they were looking straight into mine. It was as if we could see into each other”s soul in this intimate moment, stripped bare of all pretenses.
Her hips began to buck harder, responding to my touch, trying to draw more pleasure from me. We were on the edge now, both teetering dangerously close to our peak. I could feel her muscles clench around me as her body moved in rhythm with mine, anticipation making my own body shudder in response. With another low groan, she arched her back, head thrown back in a silent scream of ecstasy. There was nothing she held back from me, all the raw passion and unrestrained pleasure that was echoing inside her.
But that scream of pleasure turned into the wail of my alarm, pulling me out of my dream and into reality. My head throbbed with a dull headache as I slapped the alarm button, shutting it off. I felt disappointment seep into every cell in my body at the realization that it was only a dream. A dream I’d had a lot of times years ago, one I’d wanted to come true ever since, but one that had since vanished into thin air when I believed my shot with her was over.
Forcing myself to sit up, I let my feet drop to the floor at the side of my bed. That night, replayed so many times in my dreams, had never left my mind. Sarah and I spent hours talking while everyone else was getting drunk. And while we”d both had something to drink, we were both aware enough to know what we were doing. For me, it was love at first sight—well, not exactly first sight. I didn’t realize I was in love until days later, when I missed the conversation and her smile.
But she never called me, never sent a message. She vanished into thin air, and even my buddy who’d invited her to the party couldn’t reach her for me. I put off that promotion which would’ve taken me to Southern California thinking she’d come around, but she never did. I doubted I’d have been any good there, anyway, not as young and green as I was.
My feet carried me to the shower to get ready for my day. Since last week when we first interacted, I’d looked her up. It turned out she”d spent time at a children’s hospital before coming to St. Anne’s. She’d only just been hired, too—insisting on perioperative nursing, not the typical assignment of registered nurse to start with. And she was good at it, if the one surgery we’d had together was any proof of her talent.
Based on what I’d seen, it looked like we were slated for several surgeries together over the next few weeks. Then, of course, there were times when we were both listed as “on call” in case emergencies came in that needed my attention. I knew our paths would cross again, and probably frequently, and I wanted to be ready for her when they did. I wanted an answer for her when she asked how I was or how I’d been. I wanted to tell her how I’d passed on that promotion thinking we might have something years ago. Though, in my gut, I knew she wasn’t the only reason, but what happened between us tipped the scale at the very least.
After my shower and several more long minutes of thinking of her and how strange it was that we’d just run into each other again serendipitously, I dried off and dressed. My yoga mat was still stretched out on the living room carpet after yesterday’s workout, so I stretched out on it, beginning this morning’s routine. But my heart just wasn’t into it. I wrestled with frustration over why she”d never contacted me. I thought we’d had an amazing time together that night, and it was more than just the sex. Even if the night had ended without even so much as a kiss, I’d enjoyed every second of it with her. She made me feel unlike anyone else in my whole life.
It just niggled away at my brain until I couldn’t take it. Before I was even halfway through my workout, I headed for my bedroom and dialed Jacob Riddle’s phone number and sat on the edge of my bed. He was friends with her back then. He had to know something, or maybe I was just grasping at straws.
“Hey, Mike! It’s been a long time. What’s up?” I heard the hiss of a coffee maker in the background and figured he was on his way to work, stopping by a café to get his morning caffeine fix, the way he always did when he was my resident.
“Jake, you’re right. It’s been what, two years?” Jacob and I never lost touch, though we didn’t really talk. Mostly, we sent each other stupid memes and videos via Facebook Messenger, but we hadn’t spoken on a call in a long time.
“Yeah, something like that… No black, please,” he said, and I knew I was right. I’d interrupted his morning commute to work.
“Look, I don’t want to keep you or anything, but I wondered if you’d heard from Sarah Bennett lately?” It was the same question I’d asked him only a week after his bachelor party, which had been combined with his fiancée’s bachelorette party, which is how Sarah had been invited. Except back then, he didn’t have her number or know where she lived either. She was just a ghost in the wind after he finished his schooling, and he’d invited her on a whim on his Facebook event.
“Uh, not really. She sort of dropped off socials a while ago. Why?” he asked, and I knew I had his attention. I’d confessed to feeling like I had fallen in love at first sight years ago, and he told me I was probably just trying to escape from reality, given the pressure I was under here at St. Anne’s and with the promotion up for grabs in California.
I stared at the map on my wall, covered in thumb tacks located on all the places around the United States I’d traveled to. In all of those places, all the travels I’d done over the years, I’d never met another person like her. Not a single one came close to matching her zest for life or passion for helping others. I was hooked the instant I met her, and I didn’t think anyone else would ever measure up.
“Well, fate might just be giving me another chance with her.” I smiled at the map, thinking how much I’d love to take Sarah to all of those places and even more. I wanted that map full of thumbtacks holding a place for where I’d been—where we’d been. “She got hired at St. Anne’s, and I think I’m going to ask her out.”
I knew hospital policy and that I wasn’t supposed to be dating a coworker without announcing it, but I hadn’t even spoken to her. If there was a chance we had a shot at a relationship, I’d go through the necessary channels. If not, there was no point in getting anyone riled up about it.
“Wow, that”s crazy. It’s really her?” Jacob was years younger than me, but we’d bonded quite well when he worked beneath me and I mentored him. I didn’t have a lot of friends, so it was good to have someone cheer me on, even if it was just a former mentee.
“Yeah, it’s really her. I feel like it’s destiny or something. She could have been hired anywhere.”
“Well, she always did want to work there, and you just never left. I think it’s more of a nice coincidence than fate or destiny. You know she had a kid, right?” He chuckled, and I heard him slurp his coffee. I disagreed, though I wasn’t one to argue.
“Either way, I’m happy about it. I didn’t mean to hold you up, but hey, let’s stay in touch. I’ll let you know how it goes.” I stood, feeling the wind catch my sails and propel me toward my closet to dress for work, even before I’d had my dose of coffee.
“Sure thing. Maybe you’ll have a bachelor party of your own!” Jacob said his goodbyes, and I hung up and dressed with a little more spunk in my routine than normal.
It didn’t matter that she’d been with someone else and had a child. Someday, I wanted to have kids. I wanted a big family, too, a home full of love and laughter, and though I’d gone out with a few women over the past few years, none of them had seemed like the right fit.
Sarah Bennett had captured my heart, and while the years had helped that emotion fade a little, seeing her all over again made it reignite. I had no way of knowing how she felt about me or if she’d even thought of me once this entire time, but I wasn’t going to wait for things to figure themselves out. I intended to make moves now. I wasn’t letting this opportunity pass me by ever again.