Caitlin pressed down on the accelerator and the car
surged forward, the mountain scenery whipping by at the highest speed
allowed. Another time, she would have
paused to admire its beauty, but it had taken 25 years to end the life she’d
been taught to want and now she wanted only for her new life to begin.
Frank had been a good husband and father. She could and would not fault him in any
way. They had raised two smart and
self-sufficient children together and though she had known that the marriage
was wrong from the moment of “I do,” to dwell upon the past was futile and
foolish. Time, after all, did not move
backwards, and while there are lessons to be learned from what has been,
Caitlin remained unwaveringly focused on what was to be.
Drawn to many of the same websites by their mutual love of photography – two artists sharing their work, eager for approval and encouragement – their friendship blossomed first online, slowly growing from the sharing of images to the sharing of intimacies. When they agreed to talk by phone for the first time Caitlin was embarrassed by her nervousness, fearing she would appear a fool, but their connection was immediate and complete in a way she had never experienced, though had always known in her heart must exist.
With hundreds of miles now behind her, Caitlin
left the highway for the road that would very soon take her into the arms of
the love she had waited for all her life.
She pictured Annie’s soft flesh
against her own, her tongue gently tracing the outline of her sweet lips, and
the way they would hold each other that night… and for every night to
come.
From both
the Trifecta prompt, “Dwell,” and the “30 Minus 2 Days Writing Challenge”prompt “Road Trip.”
