by K. S. Adkins
“I wasn’t going to help,” he says smugly. “I just wanted to watch.”
“Ass,” I laugh focusing on the red of the strawberries first. With those back in the bowl, I focused on yellow for the pineapple. I’d never know because he would never tell me that he put the blueberries in a group where I could find them. This wouldn’t be the last time Drum paused in his day to make mine easier. Little did I know, he’d dedicate his life to doing it.
“After you wash the juice off I’m taking you someplace,” he says sucking on my finger. When my mind blanks, he bites down which wins him a moan from me. “Are you good with that, Time?”
“Uh huh,” I know I said it but, I was too focused on his face to say more. Reaching forward I run my fingers over his brow, then down his temple finally resting on his lips. “You are the most beautiful man I have ever seen,” and he truly was. “It almost hurts to look at you.”
“Then you understand how I felt when I walked in and saw you in my office. All these eyes see is, you. You opened them for me, Time.”
“Wow,” because that summed it up.
“Now about that place I wanted to take you? We’re burning daylight, let’s go.”
Pulling me up from the floor, we wash our hands together in the sink when suddenly he takes me by the back of the neck and kisses me sound on the lips. “You even taste colorful,” he says licking the bottom.
“Either get me in the car or take me upstairs,” I warn him. Drum has been a fixture complete with touching and flirting but we haven’t had sex. Every part of me wanted to have sex and the kitchen was as good a place as any. I was losing my sight but the only thing my vagina was losing was patience.
Obviously we didn’t go upstairs because the next thing I knew I was at the airport with nothing but my bag on my shoulder and a ticket to St. Vincent in my hand. “How did you manage getting me a ticket without my information?” I asked once we made it through security.
“I checked your chart.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s a HIPPA violation,” I point out.
“Are you going to turn me in?”
“Maybe when we get back.” I threaten but he just laughed as he guided me through the airport. Normally I shied away from crowds for fear of tripping, falling or getting disoriented but with Drum holding my hand, I barely noticed.
The plane ride was long but we didn’t mind. We took that time to talk, to laugh and to look at each other. There were no awkward silences, nothing forced. Later that night when we landed, I decided it was the best flight I’d ever had. Surely, it was probably the last one too but I chose not to focus on that.
Each time I asked Drum what we were doing, he’d shush me then kiss me, telling me it’s a surprise. And because I liked the results, I asked him constantly. Stepping out into the night, it was the smell in the air that took my breath away. It was floral with a hint of spice. The spice, I realized, was Drum, it was also my new favorite.
A colorful bus picked us up to take us to our hotel, only it wasn’t a hotel, it was a resort. Someone, likely several someones designed this place. They made a miracle that began in their minds then was put to paper and one day became this. I was content to stand here indefinitely to study it. I’d never seen anything like it lit up so perfectly before. It took him ten minutes of begging and the promise I’d see it again to get me to move from the entrance. I couldn’t help it, the beauty rooted me in place and I was memorizing every detail.
If possible our suite was even more luxurious than the exterior. Our bed had a sheer canopy that felt like spun silk, the floors although wood felt plush under my feet. Then when Drum opened the door wall and escorted me out onto the patio my heart skipped a beat. Paradise, pure untouched paradise. Although I couldn’t actually see it because it was dark, I could feel it and I could taste it.
“Wait until sunrise,” he says wrapping his arms around me.
“Tell me what you see,” I needed him to share it with me, through his eyes.
“Off in the distance I see tiki lights, countless trees and the stars are bright tonight.”
“Are the trees tall and full? Is the moon out?”
“Some are tall from what I can tell, the moon is full tonight, Time. You look beautiful in it.”
Speechless, I turn into his chest tucking my face near his shoulder. I didn’t know why he was doing this for me or what he had planned next but, I did know saying thank you wouldn’t be sufficient.
“Are you tired?” he asks kissing the top of my head.
“Yeah,” I whisper. With so much sensory overload today, I wore myself out trying to see the objects my eyes tried to hide.
“Me too,” he says taking us back inside. Turning on the bedside lamps first, he preps the bed for us while I just stand there watching him. Drum could be pegged for a lot of things. Laborer, cop, or even a construction worker but not an eye doctor. Although, one look at him changed the way I’d view doctors in the future because my doctor was delicious. “What are you looking at?” he asks.
“You,” I answer simply.
“May I?” he asks coming over and reaching for my jeans. Nodding to him, he releases the button and pulls the zipper down. Running his finger under the band of my panties causes my stomach to dip. When he slides my jeans down, I step out of them and reach to do the same for him. “No, let me,” he says while pulling my shirt over my head. Leaning down he kisses the top of my breasts then with one hand unhooks my bra. “Perfect,” he rumbles and I knew that he meant it. I wasn’t shy about my body, I’ve always embraced its imperfections but this was different. Drum was different because he saw me like no one ever has before.
Setting me down on the bed, I watch him undress quickly before he climbs into bed pulling me with him. “Tomorrow is a big day,” he whispers into my ear. “You need to rest.”
“I rest better after an orgasm,” I announce before rolling over to straddle him. When his hands cover my breasts, I place my own over his and squeeze. “I bet I even sleep like the dead after two.”
When he groaned I knew he didn’t want to sleep any more than I did but, he was set on his path and not even my naked body was going to sway him. When a yawn escapes me, he sits up, which I loved because I was able to see his stomach tighten. When he kissed me so deep I forgot my own name, I went all in. Tackling him, I shove my breasts in his face hoping he’d take the hint. Tearing himself away, he curls me into his side where he buried his face in my neck and ordered me to sleep.
And because he said so, I fell asleep immediately.
I wasn’t the guy who lived in the gym or embraced Crossfit. Genetics was how I acquired my size and even then I wasn’t much for maintaining it. I was big, I was strong but I wasn’t as solid as most men my age. I could think of about two hundred other things I’d rather being doing than crunches or dead lifts. When she looked at me, she liked what she saw, that was enough for me because Time did not bullshit. She didn’t shy away when I undressed her and I wasn’t going to suck it in for her benefit either. We were beyond that superficial shit, bypassing the surface and going straight for the soul.
This woman, I couldn’t get enough of her. Just the simple stuff changed my life and we haven’t even fucked yet. As much as we both want it, even know we’ll get it, it’s these other moments we have together that makes me want to wait. Time, not so much… She’s running out of patience but I promised her patience would be rewarded.
She talked about me in her sleep, she could never get close enough either.
As tired as I was, I stayed awake not wanting to miss a second of it, wanting her close too.
Getting her here wore her out as I knew it would. My patients have complained about the fatigue when they over worked their eyes. Time didn’t just see the world, she dissected it and she memorized the beauty of it. Her eyes were failing her, yet she pushed herself even harder refusing to let her limitations slow her down. Unfortunately the drawback to that was constant squinting, headaches, and fatigue.
The tour I set up this morning was private. I wanted her to myself without the usual distractions. She would have enough to focus on without adding throngs of people to it. Time hasn’t admitted it, but the signs were there that she struggled with social anxiety. She wasn’t debilitated by it yet but as her disease progressed she easily could be. I promised myself that it wouldn’t happen to her if I could help it.
While she showered, the concierge dropped off the items I requested, especially the one in my pocket. When Time came out in a towel, with damp hair and pink cheeks my dick started keeping time with my heart. We wanted each other, no question; but I didn’t want to rush her, I wanted the timing to be perfect.
If all went well, tonight it would be.
Smiling at me she looks at the clothes laid out, the barely there suit she’d wear and the shoes she’d walk in. Picking up the bikini, she turns it one way then the other before saying, “Are you sure you aren’t the one going blind?”
Personally, I didn’t find the blind jokes funny but she certainly did. “It’ll fit,” I tell her. “Put it on under your clothes, we have ten minutes before our ride is here.”
“Drum?” she calls out. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t like blind jokes, Time.” When she bites her lip, I close my eyes and walk over to her. Tipping her chin up, I see I’ve upset her and wished I could take it back. “Forgive me,” I ask her. “I know it’s a coping mechanism and it’s a good one, I just hurt for you.”
“Forgiven,” she says easily and with Time, I knew she meant it. “I know you’re coping too,” she says softly. “And I’m sorry that because of me, you have to.”
“Don’t you ever be sorry, being with you is a fucking privilege.”
“You know, for a doctor you have a foul mouth,” she smiles.
“Yeah well, I’m not a real doctor, now am I?”
“You’re real to me,” she says heading for the bathroom.
“You’re real to me too.” And I wish she knew how much I meant that.
Once she dressed, I escorted her down to our car that would take us to the boat for the first part of our day. With anyone else, spending an entire day in a boat would be boring at the very least. Not true with Time. The woman was laughing, pointing and the most entertaining person I’ve ever been around. Time loved life.
She started to blink when the sun hit her eyes and without drawing notice, I turn her to me and instinctively she leaned back so I could look at her pupils. The straining was causing them to dilate. “We’re almost there, close them for a bit. Give them a rest.”
Resting her head on my shoulder she did exactly that. With my arms around her, I looked out at the water, the plants and the trees knowing I could never understand their beauty like she does. Then, like she was electrocuted, she sits straight up and like the adorable creature she was she still had her eyes closed.
“Is that a waterfall?” she asks breathlessly.
“You can hear it?” I ask her because I certainly didn’t.
“She has a gift,” says our captain. “We are getting closer.”
I noticed her hands were shaking and she was having trouble containing herself. “Are you okay, Time?”
“You…” she starts but had to wipe her eyes. “You brought me to a waterfall?”
“Well yes, you said it was important to you.”
“But I get to see it,” she whispers.
“That’s the idea,” I tell her.
“No, Drum,” she says firmly. “You don’t get it, I actually get to see it,” then I got it. The mural on her wall was no longer a dream she painted but a reality, now it will be a memory. “And I get to see it with you.” When she throws herself in my arms, I hold on to her until we arrive. The captain signals us to step off the boat carefully and I went first to make sure she was safe.
“We have to do some climbing,” I prepare her by taking her hand. “Are you alright with that?” she knew I was referring to her sight and when she smiled up at me and squealed,
“Hell yes!” I couldn’t help but laugh too.
When we reached the top of our climb and cleared the brush, I saw it. If Drum hadn’t been holding my hand I might have dove in and broke every bone in my body in the process. God, it was so loud and wild and…
How do you explain a waterfall? You don’t, you experience it.
So I touched everything.
Plants, trees, bugs, but mostly Drum.
An hour later when we reached the bottom, he found me the perfect spot to enjoy it from. How long I stood there, I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t want to move. Lucky for me, Drum didn’t mind and stood there with me. “Swim or have lunch first?” he asks.
“Swim,” I needed to get in that water, to be a part of it.
Pulling me to the edge of the heavy grass he kicks off his shoes and I follow. We both undress down to our suits, well he had a suit. I wasn’t sure what I had… Drum went in slowly then put his hand out to help me which was sweet but, I backed up several feet before I recounted the steps to the edge and cannonballed that shit. I came up squealing and sputtering with my bikini all but off and I’d never felt more alive.
“You could’ve been hurt,” he says getting in my space.
“I know,” shrugging it off I splash him to snap him out of it.
“Time…”
“You could get hurt too,” I remind him. “There are snakes in this water bigger than both of us, just sayin’…”
Scooping me up and securing me to his side like a kid’s raft, he hauls ass out of the water with a look of pure fear on his face. Laughing so hard I fall to the grass where he follows until he’s covering me.
“You think you’re funny,” he says dripping on me.
“No,” I smile. “I think you’re funny.”
“Are there really snakes?”
“Yes, but they don’t like fake doctors.”
After helping me up, we sit on our blanket to have lunch in the sun. Drum produces a hat for me so the light wouldn’t hurt my eyes and I went from loving him a whole lot to loving him more than anything. I wasn’t sure how long I’d have him in my life, but I prayed that I could keep him until I lost my sight completely. When it was gone he wouldn’t have a reason to stick around, he wouldn’t be my doctor anymore.
“Time?” his voice was different, like he was nervous which is strange.
“Hmm?”
“I was thinking,” he says coming to sit in front of me. Nothing would ever be as beautiful as his face in front of mine with a waterfall as the back drop.
“About what?” I ask touching his face softly.
“I was thinking that until you, I hadn’t ever lived in the moment. My life wasn’t spontaneous; I had nothing I ever needed to do. Until you, I never considered those things, until you I never had a reason to. Now I have you and I want all of it. I want everything.”
“Drum,” before I could finish he was on his knees with my face in his hands. His eyes were burning into mine; I knew he needed to say something big I just didn’t know what it was. For several seconds, I figured he brought me out here to let me down easy, giving me something to remember him by but, I was wrong.
“Marry me, Time.”
Like the slides of photos that represent my life so far, a new set of images flashed in my mind and they were of us. They were of our children, our home, and our happiness.
Our future, together.
Moments ago, I told myself to be thankful I’d have him for a short time, but to have him for all time? Man, did I have him pegged all wrong. “Okay, Drum,” I smile reaching for his face again. “I’ll marry you.”
“You’ll love me one day,” he says hugging me. “But until you do, I’ll—”
Pushing away so we were face to fa
ce, I place my hand on his chest and tell him, “Drum, I love you now.”
“You do?” he asks looking relieved. “What did it? It was the suit wasn’t it?”
“No,” I laugh. “It was when you showed up to the bus stop.”
“Time?” he asks.
“Yes?”
“It was when I opened the door to my office and saw you.”
Wiping my eyes, we kiss a little longer before lounging in the sun discussing our future adventures. Looking around us, taking it all in, it was him I kept coming back to. Lying on his chest, listening to the steady beat, I hear the echo in my ear. “I love you, Time.”
Sitting up on one elbow I pull him on top of me and let him know I feel the same. “I love you too, Drum.”
“Yes, but I loved you first,” he announces as he climbs off of me. “Remember I said that in about ten seconds.”
“Huh?” was all I managed because in a blink, Drum hoisted me into his arms and then chucked me into the water.
Some would say this was careless. That you don’t meet ‘the one’ inside of a sterile doctor’s office. Many may even assume I felt sorry for her, that I was doing her a favor. They’d all be wrong.
This wasn’t careless, it was necessary. I met the one for me when I opened the door and caught her staring at the white wall. I didn’t feel sorry for her, I envied her. Time was brave, she took nothing for granted. When she agreed to marry me she did me a favor. For me the world had been stark white. But Time was my palette and through her, she would teach me what seeing meant, hell she already was.
I was driven by a clock I couldn’t see. I needed her to see it all before her sight failed her forever. No, she hasn’t voiced it, but every woman wants to see her husband when she says I do. She wants him to see her. I could give these things to her. Down to my soul, I knew I was the man to do it. Fuck, I had to do it. For both of us. I had to do it now. I could not explain why this was, but it felt right and I trusted what my heart had led me to do. Considering this was the first time it’s ever beat for someone else, I didn’t question it.
