Departure

Emily rolled her suitcase into the kitchen this morning; it was early, 6 am. She'd already been upstairs to kiss our daughter goodbye. She was wearing short, tight sleeveless dress, too cold for where we were, but probably okay for Texas. "You're going to be chilly on the plane," I said.

"Probably," she said, "but I have a jacket and a blanket in here. Evan's flight lands just before mine, so we're meeting at the airport and I want to make a good impression."

I felt my penis twitch in my panties. "You'll make an impression alright," I said.

She walked over to me, kissed me gently on the lips. "This is quite the Valentine's Day present, you know."

"What is?" I asked.

"Letting me spend it with him," she said. "He gets it. What it means."

"Does he?" I asked, maybe skeptical.

"You've used the word."

"Boyfriend?" I asked.

She nodded. "He get it. The significance. Of being a boyfriend. But he knows the limit, too. He does. What it means, what part of me he can have, what part of me he can't."

"I know," I said. 

"I love to be with him, sweetie, but I'll never love him. I'll be with him today, all week, but this stays here."

She set a small, red glass heart on the counter; I picked it up. It was warm from being in her hand. "You mean it."

"Always," she said. "I'll be with him this week, I'll be his this week, I'll do things with him we don't do, things a wife shouldn't do, but I'll do them, I want to do them, I need to do them. I always have, you know that. I'll be his girlfriend for the rest of the week in every way I can. I'll feel him touch me, I'll feel him inside me, I'll be his in ways I'm not yours. But that stays here, always."

I thought of the ways she'd be his, the things he'd do, the things she needed him to do. I knew he gave her things I didn't, couldn't. But I held the heart, knew it meant everything. "I'd say behave, but..."

She laughed. "I'll behave...just not that way."

"Always mine?" I held up the heart.

"Always."

"You think of him as your boyfriend?"

"Yes," she said, "like no one else was. It's different with Evan...the history. Like we were meant for this kind of relationship, but no more."

"He must think I'm..."

"A sweet thing that I love with all my heart," she said, kissed me. "And everything else, of course. It makes it work, you know, he knows he has his place and you have yours."

"I love you," I said.

"Same," she kissed me again. "Don't wait up tonight, I don't know what time we'll...you know."

"I'll be thinking about it all night," I said.

"I hope you do."