Bringing Up the Past

 He kissed her. He had kissed a lot of women, but he kissed her and she kissed him back. 

 All his adult life, when he had kissed a woman, he did the things he saw in the movies : the outlining of the jaw with the hand, the small bites on the lower lip, the almost inaudible moaning. This time, however, he was doing these things on his own. No coaching, no thought, just action. 

 They had spent the day arguing about whether or not red wine gives you hangovers, or some such nonsense. They had spent the evening drinking said wine and learning things about each other's childhood. They had spent the better part of three months together and tonight was the first night he had actually kissed her. 

 She undressed in front of him and he undressed in front of her. The street lights from outside highlighted certain parts of her body : her naval, her upper thigh and her left hand. A breeze was carrying its way into the room, bouncing off the far wall and making its way up to the ceiling. For a moment, he felt like he was, too. 

 She approached him slowly, grabbing his hands in hers and kissing his forearm. He held her close and whispered in her ear that he loved her. She bit his right shoulder. 

 He would later describe the sex as, "Slow. Romantic. Every sensitive part of my body and skin being aroused by the slow movements of hers." He wrote thousands of notes based around this one occasion. Trying to not forget even the smallest detail. "She sighed at one point. Not any kind of sigh I have ever heard before. I don't even think she knows she made it. But I felt her breath travel down onto my chest and seep into my pores. She may not even realize that she will always be a part of me." 

 The following six months were trial-and-error. He would buy her a dress, she wouldn't like it. She would decorate the apartment and he hated the colors. He would kiss her right before she fell asleep and she would turn away from him. She would undress in front of him and he would close his eyes. 

 Their love had in no way died. They just didn't know how to deal with it. And so it hid from them. He thought he had spotted it out of the corner of his eye one evening, but she was smiling because of a thought she had had. Not because he had touched her leg. She had chased it down the hallway at one point, catching glimpses of it as it turned each corner. She followed it all the way to the bedroom but he had already fallen asleep. 

 He didn't quite understand when she had packed her things and told him of her new apartment. She wouldn't tell him where it was because she said he would just end up there when he would begin to miss her and that wasn't healthy. 

 He assumed she had a new lover. She hoped he would keep her from leaving. His heart broke as she left and her scent lingered in the air. Hers dropped when she saw him in the window as she got in the taxi and then watched as he retreated further back into the apartment. 

 For three days, he sat in the cold apartment. Loving the colors she had chosen. Thinking he heard her laugh when he was in the shower or thought he heard the front door when it was just the wind pushing against his window panes. 

 He was on the couch, thinking of only her and staring at the wall, when his stomach growled from hunger pains. He realized he should get something to eat. It was the first time he had actively thought about anything other than her and he realized moving on was an option. 

 She eventually found someone else. Got engaged and then got married. She had three children who were all healthy and her husband was a good man with a decent job. Their lovemaking was nothing special. But it was good enough. She loved him and he loved her. 

 They had gone to a movie on one evening. A show she couldn't recall much of once they had stepped out of the theater. They went home and, with the kids at their Grandparents', made dinner. She lit candles and placed them on the dining room table. After dinner, she sat in the chair, thinking about her life and how happy she was. Her husband brought her a glass of red wine and she thought about her ex for the first time in a long time. 

 Pushing the memory out of her head, she kissed her husband and told him she loved him. 

Reviews

[jenniewren (J.W. Bouwma..]

damn. this is heartbreaking and yet, as you get to the end, it feels just, well, like life! incredible, delicious beginning, trailing into such a wisely written ending it made me want to cry. i wanted them to find one another again, but.. it doesnt often happen that way does it? genius ending. just.. damn this is good..

p.s. the title is absolutely brill.

[Miss Coral]

Really love this- it's simple, but real. Really real. :)

This is heartbreaking in a way, but in another, I feel like it needed to happen. It needed to be like this. I am kind of curious though, what happened with him? You sum up her life pretty well, and I know it'd be weird to do her life and THEN go to his, but could you give at hint to his life as well?
Overall, really well done- I love the descriptions, and the story as a whole is wonderfully balanced. Excellent job!

-Coral-

[Brittany]

This is so heart breaking. "Their love had in no way died. They just didn't know how to deal with it." I love this line. Everything is in its' right place. Like the one that got away, is always going to linger on in the heart. What I get from this is the romance that intimidates- merely because in the begining it's the pinacle of all things great and wonderous. But then there's the depressing realization that we've some how created a pedestal, and now we fall short of our expectations of one another. And in the end we'll follow our own paths but those single, breath-taking moments will always be following us.

[D.R. Wilsey Jr.]

Simple, honest scenes like this always tend to carry the most depth. There's a lot here that I like and there is great potential. I'd love to see it expanded upon a bit, but that's really up to you. Your descriptions are great. Some grammatical cleaning up needs to be done, but not a whole lot. Definitely a good read, though. Thanks.

[Leap]

So beautifully cinematic, my friend. I now kind of wish I would have read it last night instead of watching such a terrible movie. Your snap-shot sentences are constructed really well. To where they show themselves in, what feels to me, like a relatively even format. Many of the sentences are actually close to each other in size and syllable count. Fast paced narrative in general, and nameless story telling that any one could identify with to a certain extent. On a personal note: gives me f*****g chills man. Realistic in its natural surrealism. Beautiful imagery as usual, but each quick flash somehow gives it a lot more power. This makes me think much about what would happen if Kels ever left me. Heartbreaking. Very, very effective, Davey. Life is talked about here.

[Devons]

This is really nice to read, engaging, and neatly written, and is a perfect example of how a short story can be written. Most 'flash fiction' (as they call it) is this long and contains much less. I think the charm of the piece is the anti-climax of the story: plausible and real, unlike the usual 'black and white' fairy tale romance that readers come to expect from such work. Even I (I must admit) was expecting something along the lines of 'the old flames reunited' concept, and it would have still been a good story, but it's made memorable by the simple poignancy of the love affair's ultimate insignificance. And yet it is a small thing made very significant by its telling. These memories hidden away in corners of the mind throughout people's lives; the almost forgotten experiences that came to naught...anyone who has been alive long enough will have had such a relationship, and the memory raises its little sorry head every now and again throughout time, for whatever reason, even if the pain has long-since worn off. I, myself, was reminded of a love affair I once had some time ago, which needn't have gone wrong but it did, and every once in a while one wonders....
In reality, it is generally a universal truth that people move on, but the event did occur and will -like all things- be remembered again some day, whether we are happy or sad. This story captures that tiny forgotten element of lifetimes with a genuine understanding and deft touch, presenting the situation simply and sparingly, creating all that is needed to evoke the necessary feeling in the reader. This is encapsulated perfectly by the closing lines. Very well done.