The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 5 by Maxim Jakubowski Page B

remembered the tension, so thick in the quiet gym that he felt hot even though it was goosebump chilly. Everyone looked at one another in complete silence. He remembered Tyler. He had never seen so much of her long legs. Her towel, like most of the girls, barely covered her from her armpits to just below the cheeks of her ass. It was
so
sexy.
    He remembered her smile. When the coaches came back in and barked their orders for them to go back into their respective showers, Tyler’s eyes met his and she smiled at him, warmly, a hint of naughtiness in the lively green of her eyes.
    She looked at him with a similar look as he poured her a fresh cup of coffee. Staring at her face as she reached for her coffee and took a sip, he realized just how much he adored that face.
    The Little Blue River was partially frozen with clumps of snowy ice along its banks, and mini-icebergs lodged in its shallow stream. Sam led the way down to the edge of the bank, Tyler’s gloved hand in his. Wrapped in their overcoats, the couple stood on the bank, arms around each other’s waists.
    Tyler turned to watch Sam’s face as he gazed at the river. She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. It was cold. He pulled her closer. Their breath came out frosty and mixed in the frigid air.
    “I just wanted to see the river again,” Sam explained. He could feel Tyler trembling. He looked at the icy water for another long moment before pulling Tyler away from the bank, and walking with her back through the trees and across Pawnee Park toward their hotel.
    They snuggled as they moved, which slowed them, but felt so good. Sam always wanted to walk with the woman he loved across Pawnee Park. He’d dreamed of it. Only, in his dreams it was always summer and Tyler was in a light dress.
    Tyler had a similar dream, a dream of walking arm-in-arm with the man she loved through the park. In her dream it was always autumn and they would stroll through the crisp red and yellow leaves. They would even kick the leaves, like high schoolers. Now, as they approached Washington Avenue to cross to get back to the hotel, Tyler noticed that the leaves that weren’t covered in snow were soggy and black.
    Pausing before they crossed the street, Sam looked back in the direction of the river. He let out a long frosty sigh.
    “It’s lonely, isn’t it?”
    “What is?”
    “The river. It’s such a lonely river.”
    Tyler felt an immediate heartache. They had made love for the first time on that very bank they had just stood on, all those years ago. She reached up, placed her hand on Sam’s chin and turned his face to her. She looked in his eyes and could tell: he had no idea. Of course. . . he was right. The Little Blue was the loneliest place on Earth. Sam leaned forward and they kissed.
    She felt her eyes watering up again. “No,” she told herself. She wouldn’t let it happen yet. She would fight it. Tucking her arms around Sam’s arm, she walked with him across the street.
    There wasn’t enough time to get depressed. Later, there would be plenty of time, plenty of time for that.
    They had a quiet dinner in their hotel room. Tyler had changed into the new dress she had bought after Thanksgiving, a gold strapless that fitted around her breasts and then full below the waist. She knew it would accentuate her coloring perfectly. She was thinking Sam never looked better in his light gray suit and a blood red tie.
    He loved her sculptured shoulders, the fine lines of her neck, the way she smiled at him. She had never looked more beautiful than that evening, in that strapless dress, her hair fluffed out and curled, the soft makeup above her eyes, the deep brownish-red lipstick.
    As they dined on veal and baked potato and rich Burgundy wine, Tyler felt it again, that wave of emptiness, that sinking feeling in her heart. “I won’t let it happen,” she told herself. “Not now.”
    But it happened anyway. It came to her while they made love. Like a rush, it filled her heart