Sunset
“We shouldn’t be meeting like this.” She whispered the words into his ear seductively. Arms wrapped around his neck, she nuzzled with her lips, painted a deep red, like the sunrise under which they stood.

“No. You’re right. We shouldn’t. I’ll go.” He drew back and laid his hand on her cheek. 

Her body registered his motion and instantly tensed.

She hadn’t meant it. She said it every time they found themselves in each others arms. It was wrong, she knew, but it didn’t matter. He’d promised.

“You’re leaving?” Her question hung between them. She withdrew her arms, returning them instead onto herself, her own measure of comfort.

“Yes.” He hung his head and kicked at invisible dirt with the toe of his shoe, an oddly childish habit she’s grown fond of over the years.

“But -” She couldn’t finish. Her eyes filled, a single tear slid down her cheek. “Why?” Her voice nothing more than a whisper, full of tumultuous passion.

They’d agreed, long ago, to their arrangement. She wondered how, after all the years passed, he could just walk away.

“Because it’s time.” With one final gaze into her eyes, her turned away.

His words hung in the air. Like a distant fog, they drifted to her ears and burned away under the heat of the morning sun.

She stood motionless and watched him walk. The only man she ever loved. The only man she could never have.

—–
Photograph provided by Pure Expressions Photography