The Arrangement

They were in between again, but that’s just how it had been lately. Not fully committed, not really broken up, typical of a modern day long distance relationship. Heather would chat with Ron during the week, and she always kept Saturdays free just for him; but she also kept her options open with other men. That way she could live a pretty normal life in her city, flirting a little now and then and seeing any cute guys she liked, and Ron could of course do the same in his city.

She had tried the commitment route, but waivered when she started her new job with a group of older, more sophisticated women, who had made a point of boldly ridiculing her for being loyal to a man in a distant city. As she immersed herself in her new career,  she found herself listening more to the relationship jibes these women made at the office, socializing with them after work, and thinking about their words and life views when she was home alone. She slowly became more like them as the weeks passed.

“Sweetie,“ Allie had teased, “If you live in different zip codes, it’s not cheating!“ Heather eventually yielded to her workmates pressure and soon found herself enmeshed in a potentially harmful affair, while managing to keep the far away Ron in the dark. She essentially became two people, the loyal and loving woman Ron knew so well, and the bold flirty woman who would set her sights on a good looking man and do whatever she needed to get him. She had sadly learned in her affair that a man can look sexy and act as if he really cared, without actually being sensual or caring at all, a strange contradiction but a true one, and a lesson well learned. The fantasy not quite the reality, the wanting not quite the same as the having.

Her house of cards eventually fell apart, and had nearly ended in disaster. Heather and Ron actually broke up after that, but could not stay apart for long, and gradually began talking again. They had barely survived and he was very slow to start opening up with her again. She was not sure if the glue binding them together was the love they felt, or just the bond of time spent together, their shared history. It could easily have been the sex. Their chemistry was always good, in fact he made her feel things no one else ever had, and when they made love the results were almost incandescently hot.

After the affair though, he was slow to pick up her cues, hesitant to show the physical affection she craved from him, and she found herself deliciously torn between the competing desires of desperately needing his touch, and having to treat him almost as a new lover, while he slowly explored her body and reclaimed what had once been his alone. When the moment finally came, it was more explosive than she remembered, and she felt she was actually outside of her body, floating in a sea of pleasure. She cried on his shoulder, unable even to speak.

Heather promised Ron honesty from then on, and had even gotten him to agree on a set of rules to keep the relationship viable. Rules she hoped her workmates would not ridicule.

Rule One -Each partner can and should date outside the relationship

Rule Two –  Neither partner will feel guilty over dating.

Rule Three – If a partner becomes intimate outside the relationship, then all contact ceases and the relationship ends immediately.

It was Friday and Heather was a day early for her visit, but she knew he would be happy to see her. She stopped for lunch at the little coffee shop near his apartment, and as she sat in the far corner using her laptop on the wireless connection, she looked up to see Ron enter with another girl. He held her chair as she sat down and then went to the counter to order. She frowned as she inspected  the other woman, noted her sense of style, the fit of her clothes, her shapely figure, even her makeup, and instantly started feeling insecure. The girl was not just pretty, but classy as well, everything in good taste and well chosen to subtly enhance her femininity.

Ron had never mentioned this girl, even though Heather had told him of each man she was interested in, the advertising writer, the photographer, and the fellow she had met online.

Ron returned to the table, the woman gave him a welcoming smile, and soon they were deep in conversation. The woman would lean forward and touch his arm as they conversed, and Heather wanted to walk up and snatch her hand away. Hidden safely in her corner, she  observed him. He was wearing the shirt she liked, the blue one that fit his shoulders so well, his ‘good’ jeans and his new hiking boots. "He looks nearly the same as when we are together" she thought, and it scared her. If he was with a different woman, he should look  different somehow, but he appeared natural and comfortable.

As she sat watching Ron with this other woman, she realized that, if she were indeed seeing him for the first time, he would be one she would remember, one she would wonder about at home by herself as she read  love poems, a man she would want to meet. She had never before seen him so clearly, and never been so much in love.