Under Seattle

A couple discuss how the other has a secret, but won't tell each other.

Under a Seattle sky, where dryness is uncommon, two hearts bound together sit in a warm room, heated by their breath, from talking, speaking, sharing, never stopping the communication from tongue to tongue, only breaking conversation to mix fluids in their mouths, some call it love, some call it lust, they call it freedom.  

He kisses her once more and says, “I love you.”

She replies with the same three words, then pauses.

“What?”

“It’s nothing,” she replies.

He now relishes to find out.

“No, tell me,” he sits up.

“It’s nothing really.”

He knew that unspoken words existed within her throat, she hesitated, tried to change the subject, but his mind, it was entertained, curious, too curious to allow that brief pause to go unanswered.

“Come on, it has to be something.  You wouldn’t just pause the way you did.”

“Listen,” she brought her face closer to his, “it’s nothing.  Don’t worry about it.”

“You’re not telling me something.”

“Why would you think that?”

Their love was on pause, it still existed, but now a problem arose, one she tried to avoid, one he paid too much attention to.

“I don’t know babe.  That was weird.”

“It’s nothing really.  Leave it alone please?”

“You can’t say something like that and expect me to leave it alone.”

She sensed the tension, one she did not like, one they rarely shared.  She parted her cherry red lips, licked them moist, kissed him, to symbolically tell him to ease up, to relax.  They locked glances, smiled briefly, then became serious once more.

His attention, for a moment, left her eyes, and went to his phone, she noticed the light illuminating the screen, she wouldn’t have questioned it, but his face, it too lit up as the phone did, then almost unnoticeably his face altered color, becoming the same cherry red as her lips.

“What is it?”

“What is what?”

“Your face, you look nervous.”

“I’m not nervous,” he gave an assuring smile, followed by a biting of his lip.

“I know that expression Dave.  Who just messaged you?”

“A friend.”

“What friend?”

“Do you really have to know all that?  It’s not important.”

He swallowed a breath that was never meant to be surfaced, then smiled to assure that everything was fine, she didn’t give into the whiteness of his teeth, she stared, like a hawk, focused on his eyes, and how they swarmed the room, seemingly looking for an escape.

“Seriously, what the hell is wrong?” She emerged.

“Woah, why are you getting so hostile?”

“Because you look guilty, like you’re hiding something.”

“Well I’m not, just leave it alone please?”

She seemed taken back by it, confused by her very same words being spit back onto her face like a well deserved insult.

“I’m going to sleep.”

“What the hell?  We were having a great time, what happened?”

“You’re not telling me something, I can tell.”

He broke out abruptly.

“I’m not telling you something?  What about a couple of minutes ago, when you didn’t tell me why you paused.”

“It was nothing, really.”

“No it was.”

“Whatever.  It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Are you really gonna avoid this Sherry?”

“I guess so.”

They bounced the anger off of one another, absorbing negative energy, and releasing it to no one but each other, the night had been ruined, like the Seattle ground, her cheeks were wet, he remained in shambles, but neither of them told their secrets that night.  She walked to their room, he slept on the couch next to the floor they laid on moments ago.  

They both went to sleep, knowing something that the other did not.