Thirteen

The light in the room was crisp, clean and white. As I lie upon the wide round bed, linen sheets as clean and white as the light strewn casual about, I look down at the woman sleeping in my arms and I am content. We had been through so much to get to this point, and it is all worthwhile in the end.

She is breathing deeply and regularly, her naked flesh spooning with mine, our lovemaking over, for the time being. I stroke her hair gently and she coos softly, then snuggles even closer, our bodies melding into one. Looking up at the wall of windows I see the bright blue sky over the Mediterranean filled with clouds scudding leisurely across the horizon. The air smells of summer, sea and salt.

In a few days it will be time to return to our home in the forest, our European tour completed with this final stop in our villa. We had once dreamt of a time like this, when money was plentiful and time was ours to use. Now it is here, I am thoroughly enjoying it. A lot of pain led me up to this point; knowing what I know now, I would have welcomed the pain.

The afternoon is ours; there is an interview we have to attend later this evening, but looking out at the jewel-like water I think we’ll do some scuba diving first. Of course, knowing us, once we get our energy back we may never even make it out of the bed.