Before We Say Goodbye

by JN Welsh

  Chapter Fourteen

  Nigel and Olive followed the guide, a thin but muscular man whose limber body scaled the rocks like a spider. The guide's movements made even more impressive by the large lantern and gear he held. He and Olive also held candlelight lanterns that lighted the dusky path of the hike.

  Nigel enjoyed being active, as did Olive. He shadowed his wife in her red Dashiki harem pants and black tank top over her white tankini. The rich blue, purple and gold prints scattered across the material of her red pants, making her a bright vision traveling the path of brown rocks and falling darkness. Olive loved hikes like this.

  The last time they took this hike they were with a pretty gnarly group who played drums and danced around a bonfire when they got to their destination. Now it was just the two of them. As they walked with the guide, Nigel wondered if they would be able to continue chipping away at their walls or would they retreat behind them?

  They traveled for about half hour before their guide led them to an open area with a bonfire pit and stone benches. They helped the guide collect wood to build the fire and cleared any debris from the surrounding area. Once the fire was ablaze, warming them from the cool ocean air, their guide pointed to the cooler, large sleeping bag, and a few blankets.

  "You have everything you need for the night. The candlelight lanterns will last for another hour or so, but you have your headlamps and plenty of firewood and snacks to last you 'till morning. That'll be the best time to make it back."

  "We're sleeping here?" Surprise engulfed her question.

  "Yes ma’am. Those were my instructions. There's a composting toilet with a great view just over yonder." Their guide started to make his way back. "Y'all have a good night."

  "I was wondering why we were carrying so much gear." Nigel feigned surprise. Soon as he saw the gear they carried he'd known that they'd be camping. He started to take inventory of what was left. Once he made sure they had enough to survive the night in outdoorsy comfort, he inspected the cooler bag. "Wine, beer, water, cheese, cold cuts, fruit, crackers, trail mix and…cake?"

  "Is it chocolate?" Olive asked.

  "Yeah." The chocolate cake was an obvious clue. Nigel checked the side pockets of the cooler bag and there it was. "Well, what do we have here?" He dangled two rolled joints in a plastic baggie. "Flor."

  Olive smiled. "She even packed us munchies. She and Riley know us too damn well."

  He opened the bag and sniffed. "Oh. Smells like she rolled Cherry Pie."

  The hybrid strain was known for its happy and euphoric effects, something he used to experience with Olive daily whether he was physically with her or not.

  "That's probably Riley's choice." Olive leaned over him and smelled into the bag.

  Back when they were younger, Riley used to be their go to person for marijuana strains. Now her bestie worked with at risk youth and advocated a drug-free life. However dynamic, on blue moons, Riley still enjoyed a smoke.

  "Gosh, when was the last time we even smoked together?" Nigel's lips were inches away from hers as he peered over his shoulder. She smelled like coconut, lavender, and the outdoors. He may as well have been jolted by a stun gun because he was super charged by their closeness. He wanted her to lean her head against his shoulder and wrap her arms around his torso.

  "A long time," she finally voiced. He noticed the seductive drop in her voice.

  "Let's get set up." He unrolled the couples sized sleeping bag and two large flannel blankets. They weren't ready to sleep but he needed to occupy himself and his thoughts. Soon there would be nothing left for him to do and he and Olive would run out of small talk.

  "I'm glad we called the kids before we came out for the hike. They sounded settled with your parents and Luna wasn’t as sad from her injury." Olive perched on the small bench and the crackling of wood popped into the quietness of the night.

  "Luna had an exciting day. She’d have kept me on for another hour if she wasn’t so sleepy from her medicine." Nigel had listened to his daughter go over the day with him from making breakfast with Grandma Cutie, slipping in the pool, and the toys she got at the hospital. She even boasted about reading The Magic Bus series with her sister before bed.

  "She was super cute," Olive beamed even though he was sure she still worried about Luna.

  "Yes, she was."

  "She misses you." Olive announced. "They all do."

  Nigel finished what he was doing and sat down next to Olive. "I miss them, too."

  He noted that she didn't include herself.

  "How’s work? Was it hard to get this time off?" There was a familiar bite to her question. His constant travel for work had been a catalyst in the deterioration of their relationship.

  "Things are good. I have two more assignments overseas this year and then I'll be moving into a Senior Field Project Manager position," he confessed.

  "That's great Nigel! Way to sneak in a promotion." She nudged her body against his. "Congratulations!"

  "Thanks." He rubbed the back of his neck.

  "Are you excited?"

  "Yeah. It's a natural progression for me. After all the years I've invested being in the field, I'm ready for this change. I have been for a while. It'll cut my travel down from eighty-five to maybe twenty percent. I'll only personally manage about one to three contracts a year, so I can use all that banked vacation and actually spend time doing normal things."

  "Wow.” She seemed not to know what to do with the information. “I'm really proud of you." Even now, Olive was his biggest fan and ultimate supporter. With her, he'd always felt like he could conquer the world. Together, they'd spend many years doing just that and if she let him, he’s spend the rest of his days doing that with her again.

  "How about you?"

  Olive sighed. "Things are going well. The company would love it if I did more and I’m trying to figure it out because I want to get back to the bigger conventions. Travelling to various locations is a vital component. Julia and I are discussing how to make it work. She really helps me out when I need to drive to Cupertino every once in a while."

  Olive was a pretty coveted operations coordinator doing everything from high profile CEO events to large conventions. She'd been happy to be a mother, take a less active role and manage her street team remotely. However, she was naturally social. Every once in a while, like clockwork, she'd have to get out to a location and be a part of things. Sometimes she'd take the kids but other times Julia, their amazing baby sitter would help her out with a late night.

  "Well, with my job changes, I'll be home more. You know, if you wanted to take on more responsibility," he offered. Home. Where the hell was that gonna be?

  "Yeah. Maybe." Olive shrugged. "Right now, things are manageable, but it's nice to have the option."

  "Whatever, you need, Olive. You can count on me."

  Her body stiffened. He waited for her to say something, anything that would affirm her faith in him but she didn't utter a peep.

  "What? You don't believe me?" he asked.

  She met his gaze. "I believe you, Nigel. I'm happy for your promotion and that you'll have more time for u...for the kids." The biggest 'but' hung in the air, gnawing at him.

  He turned his body to her, straddling the bench in one motion. His form open to receive whatever she needed to express to him. "Say what you want to say to me."

  "I wonder," her words tentative, "if things would be different if you got this promotion sooner. You were traveling so much. When you were away, our nightly calls were becoming optional instead of mandatory. And when you came home and we barely touched each other, I knew things were changing then, too. The distance was growing, straining our marriage. I didn't know how to stop it. I don’t know what this means for us, now."

  “My job was going so well,” he sighed. "I should've pushed harder to get this promotion sooner.”

  “Nigel—“

  “I should have fought for us to take time for ourselves and stick to the promises we made. I thought
we'd figure it out and that things would just get better on their own because we loved each other so much. But, we had to do the work. That's my deepest regret, cookie—not working hard enough on our marriage."

  There was a time when talking to Olive before he went to bed was his priority. He also remembered when either she or he was too tired to talk, and how the exception became the rule until they barely chatted when he was away. When he returned, Olive quickly passed him to the kids who'd cried for him. Exhausted from travel, he'd tire easily trying to seduce her into bed and soon rest replaced making love to her.

  “That’s on both of us,” she delivered so quietly he wasn’t sure she’d spoken the words.

  He rubbed his face. "Why didn't you ever ask me to change jobs?"

  "I had to ask?" Olive straightened and she twisted her body to face him, daring him to say, yes.

  "Maybe, I just wanted to know that you still needed me."

  Olive bolted up and paced around the fire pit, her hair swinging dangerously close to the flames. "I needed you, when Luna was colicky, when Taye needed you because, ‘only Daddy would understand,’ and when the boys started sniffing around for Amani."

  "Did you need me, Olive?"

  "I just told you—"

  "Not the kids. You," he stressed.

  She rubbed her arms as if warming herself from the chill of her memories. She stuttered for a moment trying to find a complicated answer to a yes or no question. At last, she folded. "Yes, I did. I needed you and wanted my husband home with me."

  He was out of his seat as if she'd beckoned him before her. "I needed you, too, cookie. Believe me when I tell you, I wanted to be home with you."

  She avoided his eyes, but he placed his hands on either side of her face and steered her head to him.

  "I still need you." His desperate lips fell on hers, seeking within her mouth the answer to all their problems, and needing her closer. She'd said no barriers. He wasn't testing her, but if she pulled away from him now he hadn't done his job. He hadn't given her enough reason to once again trust their love and their connection. He willed, prayed and pleaded that she didn't withdraw.

  When she leaned into him and slipped her arms around his waist, his body weakened as the stress left him. Olive must have felt the slack difference in him and tightened her arms.

  "Oh, cookie," he mumbled against her lips. His tongue slid deeper into her mouth and her drugging taste sent him soaring. The weakness in him was replaced by the exhilaration of knowing that she wanted to connect with him, too. On this trip he had been perpetually fighting a hard on but here at the campsite, with no one around and Olive hanging onto him as if her life depended on it, he didn't fight. He pressed his pelvis against her and when her hand massaged the rock poking against his shorts, he almost took a knee to the ground.

  "Let me feel you the same way…like you’re touching me," his statement was more a question than a directive.

  "Please." Olive breathed and guided his hand to her mound.

  His hand slid into her bottoms and her hot, wet pussy welcomed him home. She moaned from his touch, swaying in her stance as she bent her legs to give his fingers space to toy with her clit.

  "Fuck, Olive." He dropped to his knees, wrangling her bottoms down. He positioned her on her back against the dirt covered stone as she kicked off her clothing. The sleeping bag was mere inches away, but he didn't give a shit. When he covered her center with his mouth, and bathed her begging folds and clit with his tongue, Olive's moans confirmed that she didn't care either.

  "Nigel," she squealed his name like a divine mating call, and palmed his head as her hips circled closer to ecstasy.

  His jailed dick rubbed painfully against his shorts. He tore himself away from her to loosen his shorts and free himself from containment before returning to lavish Olive's clit with years of pent up desire to pleasure her.

  "Is that nice, cookie?" He teased and gazed up at her. Her face adorned with wantonness.

  "Yes. It's so fucking nice." Her belly rebounded from her ragged breath.

  "Do you want it nicer?" he asked as he rested a finger at her opening and traced continuous circles against her flesh.

  Her hips bucked. "Please, baby. Yes, I want it nicer. Make it nicer."

  Her words tumbled over him. He inserted a finger to the hilt. She moaned but her reaction was unsatisfactory, so he withdrew. Replacing his solitary finger with two more, he covered her clit, sucking and nibbling.

  "Nigel!" she cried out against the quiet night, and he smiled triumphantly against her flesh. "You're driving me wild."

  She was close and he wasn't going to wait. They hadn't sexed like this in so long and he needed to hear her satisfaction. "That's what I want to hear, cookie," his statement shaky with passion and desperation. He stroked her thigh and nuzzled his head against her inner thigh. "It's been too long since I've heard you come. I need to hear you come for me."

  He returned his mouth to her, pumping his fingers against her slick inner walls. He was heady from how damn good she gloved his fingers. She panted and fisted her hand in his hair.

  "Nigel," she screamed and her body jerked her release.

  The music of her deep moans and high pitch sighs healed him, reunited them. He hooked his arm around her thigh and clamped down on her leg to keep her in place as he continued to lash with his tongue. She was his, she'd always be his and he knew the exact combination to unlock each climax. He continued fingering her until she begged for mercy. Her legs smothered him just as an orgasm again ripped from her.

  Olive came to sitting and pawed at his shoulder. "Come here, Nigel."

  He responded to her breathless command as she drew him to her. She kissed him deeply, messily as she pushed him to sit. Before he figured out where they were going next, he felt her warm mouth on his dick. "Holy fuck...shit," he hissed.

  The fire highlighted her movements and he adjusted her hair and watched his cock disappear into her mouth. Her pillow soft lips stretched to accommodate him as they moved up and down his shaft. Her devotion to sucking him had always impressed him, but tonight, she was on another level.

  "Pull my hair," she directed.

  He wrapped her firm, yet soft, pliable locks around his hand and tugged. Olive moaned, satisfied, and he tugged harder. He hadn't forgotten that his wife liked it when he pulled her hair during sex, but this time, their first time together again after so long, he'd censored himself. He wouldn't make that mistake again.

  He pulled her hair hard enough to draw her mouth from his cock, her tendrils taut against his hand. "What do you want, Olive?" His dominance heightened and was in full charge. He waited for the response he yearned to hear her say.

  Olive didn't hesitate. "I want you to come in my mouth."

  His chest heaved. She remembered their play. When she offered her tongue, he relaxed his grip and she devoured him once again. The sucking noises her mouth made as she gobbled him up engorged his muscle and a fire log cracked in response to their fiery need. He was weak with rising passion, feeling her tongue tickle the length of him. Her moans quaked from the tip of his member to its base. She sped up the movements of her hand on his shaft as it twisted up and down in tempo with her mouth.

  "You're going to... get... your wish." He didn't have long and opened to receive the threatening storm brewing within him. Nothing else existed, not his brain or the rest of his body, just the feeling of her on his dick.

  "Olive, I'm ...fuck!" He huffed, his warning almost indecipherable.

  His entire body tightened and the burning in his lower abdomen exploded. He witnessed the contents, spewing from him, find refuge on Olive's greedy tongue. She swallowed him before returning to lap at his rod. She was sexy as fuck and he was married to her.

  She rolled onto her side in the blissful aftermath of their lovemaking. His cock, enrobed with the wetness from her mouth, glistened against the dimming firelight. He dragged her up and kissed her. Their tastes commingled as their tongues wrestled playfully. Sp
ent, on a bed of dirt, they held each other. The chill of night bit through the hot haze of their arousal.

  "Wanna smoke?" she purred with her chin resting on his chest.

  He laughed and pecked her forehead. "God, I've missed you."

  "I've missed you, too."

  He waited for 'my love' to follow her statement. He longed to hear her say the words and claim him with the endearment. Not wanting to overanalyze any further, he sat up with her, and then stood to reclaim his shorts. He'd reached third base with his wife. They were communicating verbally, emotionally, and sexually, and it was more than he'd experienced with her in the past two years. Happy? He was fucking thrilled.

  Olive dusted off her tankini bottom and slid them back on along with her pants. She sat on the bench and waited for him.

  He retrieved one of the joints from the side pocket. "All right. Let's light this bad boy.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Olive welcomed the recreational distraction from Nigel and his magic mouth and fingers. She'd wanted more but instead of initiating more from him, she suggested Cherry Pie.

  "Should we pull a Riley and Flor?" Nigel threw a few more logs into the fire. "Skinny dip in the swimming hole."

  "Can we even find it?"

  "I can find it.” A goofy smile was plastered on his face yet certainty fortified his delivery. "I can hear the waterfall."

  She listened hard for any sound other than ocean in the distance. "No, you can't." She was sure she sported the same goofy smile, from one shotgun, too many. Nigel was a pro at artistically blowing Cherry Pie smoke in her face. When she coughed, she was done. She stood up.

  Nigel shuffled closer to her until their bodies touched and she was on fire again. "Trust me." He stroked her cheek.

  Olive loved his confidence. "I'm game."

  He ran his hand down her hair. "Okay, let's do it."

  They donned their headlamps, moved their gear away from the fire and secured their food. Nigel walked north with surer footing than she did and she clung to his hand with both of hers. Though a skilled hiker, she was too faded to be confident hiking in the dark and gingerly trailed behind Nigel.