“Hello,” he said.
“I’m so happy that you could be here at such short notice. I am the proud owner of this house. The transfer went through today, and I needed to celebrate! The only person I could think to celebrate with was you,” she babbled. She had completely lost her nerve on seeing him.
“Well, I must’ve known, because I bought flowers for your new acquisition.”
He handed her the biggest bunch of roses she had ever seen.
“They’re beautiful. Thank you.”
He couldn’t help himself, “You’re beautiful, Jen. You are even more beautiful than when I last saw you.”
The roses never ended up in a vase. They lay on the floor at the entrance as Myron and Jen reached for one another, hungrily and longingly.
This time, they got past the front door. He took her hand and she led him to her bedroom. There, he kissed her, undoing her hairband and allowing her hair to cascade around her shoulders.
He kissed her again and helped her remove her dress.
“Did you not read the invitation?” she asked. “It clearly stipulated that you were to wear nothing.”
“No problem,” he said as he removed his shirt, revealing a strong torso and a flat stomach. She ran her hands along his chest and down his abdomen. “Very enticing you are,” she said.
She kissed his navel and ran her tongue down towards the waistband of his pants. She slowly unbuttoned his chinos. Myron gently held her chin and tilted her head, so that her eyes met his. The longing she felt was tempered with a kiss that was deep and penetrating. She shuddered as he kissed her shoulders and eased the straps of her body suit off, exposing her breasts. He lifted her to her feet and slowly slid off the rest of the clothing that remained between them, moving his hands down the sides of her body as he did so. The feeling was excruciatingly exciting.
Their eyes were still locked. They didn’t speak. Jen was swimming in his gaze. He pushed her gently back on to the bed and her legs parted as he lay between her open thighs, enjoying the feeling of him and the anticipation of their long-awaited union. He cupped her breasts. It seemed to pain him to unlock his eyes from hers as he slowly caressed each nipple with his mouth and his fingers. She groaned, and her hips moved, coaxing him. But he resisted.
His head moved down her body, eventually reaching her with his tongue, hands still caressing her breasts, before finding her with his mouth. She arched her back and her thighs clasped him as she felt his tongue and his fingers perform tricks on her she hadn’t known were possible. She groaned again, her pelvis bucking as he made her climax with abandon. He then entered her and moaned deeply as they rocked in unison, her legs pointing up like a yogi. He flipped her over and under and every which way he chose as they danced their tantric dance. And all the while she was aware of only one thing, him. Her hands were all over his body, as were his on hers; their mouths explored every part that was physically possible to explore.
Jen remembered the last time she had felt this way. It was a long, long time ago and she had allowed that person to slip away from her. This time, she knew the value of their connection◦– that you run with it and not from it.
That was three months ago, and since then, she and Myron had been an item. When Jen looked at him tonight, she felt a familiar stirring. Her desire for him was so intense. As was the thrill of knowing the feeling was mutual.
Once Jen told Pete that everyone had arrived, he tapped on his wine glass to attract the other guests’ attention. “Hi, everyone. I don’t know why Ma does this to me, but she insists that I speak, knowing full well that speaking publicly is my worst nightmare. Having said that, because you have been the most incredible mother, I will do anything for you, including speaking at your fiftieth. For most people, it’s downhill from fifty, but not for this incredibly beautiful person standing here. Most of you have travelled the journey with her that took her from heartbroken housewife to strong and sexy career woman.”
Her friends whooped appreciatively.
“I don’t have anything much to say other than thank you for being here tonight. It is her wish that I tell you to drink, eat and be merry. I now hand this microphone, gladly, to my gorgeous sister, who will present a slideshow of our mom, depicting a life that spans five decades.”
Jen hadn’t been happy about a presentation that would include pictures of her ex-husband and her estranged friends. But, during discussions with her psychologist, she had acknowledged that she had a past, and that it included the people who had played an important role in her journey. Jen knew that if Sharon had explained this to her in consultation, the two of them would have had a good chuckle.
The presentation started with new-born Jen in the arms of her mother, whom she had loved and had learned to forgive and appreciate over this past year and a half. There was a portrait of her small family◦– her father looking stern and full of self-importance, and a tiny scowling Jen sitting on her mother’s lap. Brig had included pictures of the farm on which she had been raised. There were photos of her school friends, although Jen had lost contact with every one of them.
There was the image that Jen had dreaded seeing, but had agreed to when Brigit had asked, of a handsome John and a very pregnant Jen on their wedding day. Jen had looked excited and radiant. Oh yes, she had loved him. And they had included a recent picture of Lee wearing a t-shirt that read, “I’ll be back”. Oh, how Jen wished that were true, and how she knew Lee would have loved the irony were he alive. There were photos of Jen and Frankie on various overseas holidays and of her book club friends lounging in colourful nineties swimming costumes wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses with their hair pulled back in banana clips. How beautiful they all were. They had been happy together, and they were a part of her past, a part of the person she had become.
These were followed by the pictures of her two children, showing them from birth to toddlerhood, from their first days of school, to their gawky teenage years, to the independent young adults they were today.
There was one she’d never seen before of her and Claudia at the spa where they had met. She remembered Claudia asking Gerard to take a photo of them at the pool in their swimming costumes, eating slices of pineapple for breakfast. There was another of Sharon, Claudia and Jen at the game lodge, bent over, just about peeing with laughter. At what, she couldn’t remember. Next was a picture of Patty and Jen having drinks at Café Caprice in Camps Bay◦– Patty soliciting gawks from the arbitrary men in the background, as usual. This was followed by Gerard and Jenny, hamming it up at the spa, serving their day guests, Claudia, Sharon and Jen. And finally◦– Brig had kept Jen’s new love for last◦– Myron, looking lovingly into Jen’s eyes, captured by one of his friends at a party; Myron and Jen, laughing uproariously at being sprayed with champagne at a cycle race; and finally, Jen, happily tipsy on that same evening, being carried to the car, her arms hooked around his neck, their lips locked in a kiss.
Despite her reservations, she loved what had been put together. The slideshow had helped contextualise her life, not only for Jen but for all her guests. It was an overwhelmingly moving and happy display of love, friendship, life and time, past and present, hinting at joy and anticipation for the future. Looking around, wiping her eyes, Jen noticed that pretty much everyone around her had been moved to tears as well.
And then it was her turn to speak. She stood there, clutching the microphone, looking at her guests, taking in the beauty of her children and her new man and her beloved new friends.