We left for the airport without having our catch. Our conversation on the drive was mostly about the ‘experiment session’ we’d had earlier. The discussion made me want to go right back to my house and get into my big bed again. I reached over to him and put my hand on his arm. I needed contact and if I had to pull the car over and park to get the needed reconnection I’d do it. Michael removed my hand from his arm and held it in both of his.
“Thanks, Michael,” I said seeing his sensitivity to my needs.
“Helen,” Michael said.
“I feel your need and promise you one full-body reconnect when you stop the car.”
As soon as his words were out of his mouth, I was pulling over. I got out of the car after I parked along the freeway well out of the traffic. Michael got out too and was ready for me when I got to him. He picked me up and crushed me to him in an effort to garner as much of the reconnect as we possibly could. Not caring if anyone saw us or not we held each other tenaciously until we were calm.
“Thank you baby,” I whispered.
For about 15 minutes we appreciated each other along the side of the freeway close to the airport. As a California Highway Patrolman pulled off the freeway right behind us, we got back into the car and I immediately pulled onto the freeway to continue our journey to the airport.
“Helen,” Michael chided me.
“Won’t he just follow us?”
“No,” I said.
“He won’t. He had no good reason to stop in the first place.”
“This is a new side to you, defiant of the law.” Michael chuckled.
“Please don’t think of that man as the law, merely because he wears the uniform and drives a vehicle with colorful lights.” I countered.
No, the cop didn’t follow us as I knew he wouldn’t. Michael was relieved.
Michael’s flight was delayed for a few hours and I nearly cried with delight. What to do with our new found time together? Michael was way ahead of me as he pulled me along to get a taxi. We ended up at the Embassy Suites for dinner.
After we had ordered our food Michael broached the subject of my search for a committed sex partner.
“Hellie, I was wondering if you would hold off on the search for a partner until after your visit with us in London?”
“Absolutely not,” I said forgetting to temper my response with kindness.
“If an opportunity arises, I’m going to take it. Michael; you have to understand that opportunities don’t come my way that often. Remember who your talking to, I’m not Lu or Denice; I’m not the desired one. I’m not symmetrical. It’s hard enough to even recognize when someone might be interested in me.”
“Then why am I so damn worried that someone is going snatch you up and you’ll go off and leave me like I did you?”
Michael got to the center of the issue immediately.
“You’re worried that if I had someone in my life I wouldn’t need or want you?”
My question was just to clear up what he was saying to me. Michael looked down at his hands and quietly spoke.
“Yes, partly.”
“Truthfully Michael, I can’t tell you what the future will bring but I do know how I’ll behave in it. If it will help you, I’ll make you a promise, something I don’t do very often. I promise you, my sweet Michael, that no other man will take priority over your needs.”
“Helen,” Michael’s use of my name had a lovely soothing effect on me.
“I have deeper concerns around this issue but they are based on safety. You could get yourself in trouble and maybe even hurt.”
I wasn’t afraid of getting hurt by anyone or anything other than Michael. I still wanted to give Michael more comfort around his worry.
“How about if a situation does come up, I give you a call and discuss it with you.”
I realized that doing so would decrease my chance of having sex with that particular person because Michael would find some reason for it not to be safe.
“Ok, that would be better but I’d still rather you wait until after you come to London.”
“This talk about sex has made me wish that we had a room here so we could hold each other and invite the wave a couple more times before you leave.”
I lowered my voice to a whisper. Simultaneously we stood and embraced. We held our position until we each sighed deeply and were sated by the reconnect.
With another hour to wait for his plane, I suggested.
“Michael, how about a catch while we wait?”
The words were barely out of my mouth before we were calculating where and how. We found a place that was kind of deserted so we set up a couple of chairs and I handed Michael the little ‘Hebly’ that I carried with me all of the time. Michael took ‘Hebly’ from me and a look of melancholy crossed his face. I could nearly hear his thoughts about the little object. ‘I have one of these, I wonder where it is.’
Michael presented ‘Hebly’ and praised me as the Greater Player and then hurled ‘Hebly’ to me in a curved side arm with speed. Catching his pitch and returning it to him in the exact same pitch, he laughed but caught it and sent it back with greater velocity and more spin. I let out a squeal of delight at the speed but saw Michael’s frown.
“Remember where you are, Helen.”
For the rest of the delay we played a fast-paced catch, one game. We would never allow that object to touch the floor and we dove for every pitch and let nothing get by us. After we’d been playing for about 30 minutes, an audience formed and we heard applause from them when we made catches that didn’t seem possible. I could hear people speaking Michael’s name so people recognized him. Not giving fans a chance to ask for autographs from Michael we played right up until we heard the last call for his flight, laughing all the time.
At the very last minute possible Michael caught ‘Hebly’ and came to me quickly for our reconnect – a bit sweaty but sweet just the same. I whispered in his ear just before we released each other and he boarded.
“I love you, Michael and it looks like I always will. Please, baby, give my love to Lu.”
I kissed his neck and squeezed him tight. Then he was gone, again.
It was very late and the drive home gave me time to reflect on our days together and to make plans to fortify myself with the power of the reconnect in every object that carried his residue, his flavor, and his reconnect that I’d access to. When I was able to put the connect in a hibernation state I still couldn’t remove Ricky from my pinkie finger and put her away with everything else indefinitely.
Back at home, I went into action, knowing that soon I’d be hurting for Michael. I brought everything I could think of that would help me to reconnect and stay connected. Michael had given me his ‘maple leaf’ baseball cap which I put on as soon as I found it for a different kind of reconnect, kind of cerebral but way good! The overcoat that Michael had worn that very day carried the power. I put it on and wrapped my legs in the blanket that he used to stay warm.
When eventually I crawled into bed for the night I felt him in my big bed. Without any clothes the reconnect was particularly lovely. I’d fortified me in every way I could think of to increase my chances of making it two weeks without a physical reconnect. When I fell asleep even my dreams brought me more of the reconnect. My last thought before sleep took me was, ‘the connect wants me to reconnect and is helping me. Thank you to the power that has given me another opportunity to get