Something in the Water

"Now cum for me, baby." his voice now a heady mix between his gentle rumble and Aaron's fiery rasp, I closed my eyes and came. My entire body came along with me; my muscles tensed, my arms stiffened, my legs remained slack, my hole tightened and my eyes finally flew open as ropes of cum sprayed maniacally between our bodies.

Robert was gone and Aaron's beautiful face remained, screwed up in pleasure, desperate for his own release.

"Oh god, Aaron, yes, fuck me, cum inside me, baby." I felt released, renewed and reinvigorated. Aaron did just that, with one final pulse, he came like a fire hydrant inside me. His juices flooded my insides and the feeling was enough to draw another orgasm from me.

It didn't take us long to finally lay beside each other in a tired heap of sweaty, cum filled, and tangled messy limbs, breathing hard and spent to exhaustion.

"Wow, that was...life altering." Aaron said. I stroked his chest while snuggling closer to him, my mind moving.

"Yeah, it was incredible." I meant it; it was the best sex I'd ever had, the most important sex I'd ever had. It was life altering indeed. I felt Aaron turn towards me.

"You were gone there for a second, where'd you go?" I didn't expect him to notice. I couldn't lie to him; I couldn't start whatever this was and whatever it was meant to be off on a deceitful foot.

"I saw Robert."

"In here?" he looked up and around, wondering if an intruder had walked in on us. I shook my head before pulling him back down beside me.

"Above me, in your place. It was weird, he was apologising and I was just, staring and...I'm sorry, it was weird, but good weird and...ugh I don't know." I couldn't explain my feelings to a man I barely knew, a man who barely understood what Robert and I had and what we'd been through. Aaron reached over and pulled me towards him, I looked into his eyes before he spoke.

"I get it; in the few days he's been here at the resort, he became the man you always needed him to be, so when you finally jumped that final hurdle and welcomed someone into your bed, it's only natural that you would want to jump that hurdle with him."

"But that's the thing, I don't want to. I loved him, I always will, but I was able to let him go finally and I was able to think of him as part of my past, but not my present or future."

"I hope I get to be part of that future, more specifically your present, because I wouldn't mind having another go if you're up to it." his mischievous grin did what his body had done not too long ago, it cleansed me of all things Robert and I was ready, just as he was, to move forward once again. And move forward we did, four more times and it was amazing.

I was at the bar, my body gloriously aching from a night full of passion and exploration. I expected nothing from Aaron, but I was thankful for his part in my healing. I took a sip of my orange juice and closed my eyes, trying to feel each and every pulsing ache and remembering their origins.

"You came to say goodbye." that familiar rumble, the one that would always have a special place in my heart pulled a small smile from me. I turned towards him, as beautiful as ever.

"I was planning on staying the full week, but my nephew's birthday is today and I wouldn't want to miss it for the world, and I think I got what I came for."

"I hope I was able to help." he smiled knowingly.

"You were. I forgive you, thank you."

"I should be thanking you; you finally gave me a chance to say goodbye."

"I was finally ready to hear it." there was a moment of silence between us. We were finally parting ways, hopefully as friends and not the enemies I felt we'd become.

"Goodbye, Andrew." he finally said with the widest smile I'd ever seen on him.

"Goodbye, Robert." I smiled back. There was nothing more left to say. I pulled him into a hug, enjoying that spicy vanilla smell of his and pulled away. With a final nod, I turned away and left.

"I look forward to your future with him; he's going to treat you so well it's going to scare you, but love him." he shouted as I retreated. It was done, I'd said my goodbye, I'd begun my healing and now I was ready to face the world a man made new.

I'd left a letter for both Ethan and Aaron, not a Robert kind of letter, a letter apologising for my departure but explaining that my now five year old nephew was having his birthday and I needed to be there. I explained how happy I was to have met them and how I would like to hang out sometime when we're all back in New Jersey. I thanked Aaron for everything (without revealing too much) and gave him my number, just in case.

I was happy, I was free, and I was ready to take on the world and realise my dreams.

One week later.

"So this is where you come to clear your mind?" Aaron stared off into the calm waters of my very rocky, very cold beach; the one I always found myself coming back to, the one that had been my rock for the better part of two years.

"Yeah, not so much now, but back then I always found myself drawn back to this place." I looked up at him. He was respectful, sure he didn't get it, but he didn't have to and he knew that. He'd given me a call the very same day I'd left Mexico, we'd spoken for hours over the phone, traded infinite texts, I'd had a lengthy call from a very angry Ethan and I'd made a promise to take him to the zoo, he loved that. Aaron had made it clear he was going to pursue me, hard; I'd been scared, but I finally relented.

This was our first date, more like the precursor to our first date; a walk along the beach and then tonight will be dinner for two.

"If it kept you sane, then it's my new favourite place too." he said reassuringly. I could see myself falling in love with this man. He was kind, considerate, an expert love maker and he was beautiful. Most of all, he wanted me. I could definitely see myself falling for this man.

"Andrew, dear?" I turned toward the elderly voice to find Mrs Polizzi, Robert's grandmother, led by Robert's youngest cousin, Amanda.

"Gra'ma Polizzi, it's been years. How are you doing?"

"I'm old, baby butterfly, but I'm surviving; thanks to the help of my grand children who need to be bribed to take an old lady out of the house every once in a while." Amanda rolled her eyes and Aaron, gra'ma Polizzi and I laughed heartily. She was always my favourite in Robert's family; she was the wisest and there was always something about her that seemed otherworldly.

They called her crazy for a time, but they were just afraid that she spoke so candidly about the things she saw that they didn't understand.

"This is Dr Aaron Parker, he's a good friend of mine." I introduced Aaron to the still spritely matriarch of the Polizzi family. He shook her hand in introduction and she smiled mischievously at me.

"He's definitely one to keep, look at the size of his hands; I bet he has one of the biggest..."

"Gra'ma!" a blushing Amanda interrupted before gra'ma was able to embarrass Aaron any further, but this was part of her charm, part of why I loved her so much.

"I don't know what you might consider 'biggest', but he certainly takes some getting used to." I snickered along with gra'ma, to Aaron's embarrassed delight and Amanda's shock.

"I'm happy to see you again, baby butterfly; I've missed you." she considered me as we continued our joint walk down the rocky shore. Her light green eyes dulled slightly while her hand held onto my own with renewed strength.

"I've missed you too, I should see you more often, Gra'ma, you always have the best advice." and I meant it, now that Robert and I had resolved our differences, I was okay to see some of his family again.

"That I do." she chuckled softly.

"Gra'ma Polizzi, I have to know, why do you call Andrew baby butterfly?" I knew the story, barely understood it myself, but I never once argued with her when she'd first given me the moniker.

"Well, when I'd first met Andrew, he was the most beautiful boy I'd ever seen. At eleven he was turning heads because of his uniqueness and my Robert was smitten from the word go. In Andrew, however, I recognised a beauty still not yet realised, a strength he had yet to tap into and it reminded me of a butterfly. He was young then, but he's still a baby to me, my baby butterfly, who seems to have blossomed and come into his own." she had tears in her eyes, as did Amanda, it was a touching scene, made even better by Aaron's hand over my own.

"Speaking of Robert, I hope he's okay; I was able to see him in Mexico and we were able to resolve a lot of our problems and get over some of the things that haunted us both. It was a good trip, I was happy to see him. I hope he's good, I've tried calling him but I don't know if he's changed his number or if it was disconnected. I was hoping you'd thank him for me, again." my smile faded when both Amanda and Gra'ma stopped dead in their tracks, with tears streaming from their eyes.

"How did...how did my Robby look?" she smiled faintly, but her eyes wore a sadness that ran through me like an arctic wind in my veins.

"He looked good, really good. I mean I don't look at him that way anymore, but he looked beautiful." Aaron smiled encouragingly down at me while Amanda took a step back and turned towards the ocean and openly wept.

"Oh that's, that's good." Gra'ma Polizzi wiped the tears from her eyes, but they kept coming. I moved closer to her, wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer to me.

"What's wrong, did something happen to Robert?" I was confused. Something was off, I knew it in my gut.

"Robert...Robert passed away, baby." Gra'ma spoke and my breathing stopped.

"I mean, wait...I just, we were just...was it in Mexico? Was it when he got back? What happened?" my eyes had begun to water; I couldn't believe nor could I understand it.

"He wasn't in Mexico, baby, he passed away three weeks ago, from pancreatic cancer." I knew what her words were saying, I understood what they meant, but I didn't understand what...I just didn't get it. Something was definitely wrong here.

"No, no that's not true. I was there with him, we spoke, I slapped him that first day and we were at the bar together and at dinner...Aaron, you saw us, that first night when I was with him and you and Ethan came by and you gave me that death glare." I chuckled mirthlessly, pleading for Aaron to corroborate my truth. I knew I hadn't imagined it, he was there, I'd seen him, touched him, hugged him, we'd spoken and we'd made up. He was my friend again, I couldn't have made that up.

"I wasn't giving you a death glare, I was...I wanted to kill whoever made you cry. I can't explain it, I felt protective, I had no right to, but I did. And as for your ex, I never met him; you were always on your own at the table, babe." I took a step back, pulling away from both Aaron and Gra'ma Polizzi. They were lying, both of them, Robert was there, he was definitely there.

"I'm not crazy, I saw him, he was there; I remember it."

"I took his ashes to Puerto Vallarta a week and a half ago, it was always a happy place for him, it was what he wanted, the rest I spread over here." Amanda finally spoke, pointing out into the ocean before us. I turned from Amanda to the ocean, back to Aaron and finally gra'ma. They were lying, they must have been.

"No, you're lying, I'm not..."

"You're not insane, baby butterfly, you didn't see things, you never imagined him; he was there. He's always loved you, even after he left you, after he tried hiding behind the sexing and the drinking and then he fell ill in the last year and he still couldn't escape you. He loved you until the day he died. You were all he spoke about, all he ever cried over, all he ever remembered, you were his everything. I don't understand why he left, why he ran or did the things he did, but you were the love of his life."

"Then... why didn't anyone call me, why didn't anyone tell me about it, why wasn't I invited to the funeral?"

"Because he assured us that he was going to say goodbye to you himself. His final wishes were for us to respect him, to understand that all will be well and that he will make things right with you...and he did."

"But how, he died and..."

"He came to you, to make things right with you because without healing you he would not find peace. He loved you in life and in death, baby. It was forgiveness and love that brought him to you; you needed to forgive him, he needed to hear it to move on and he needed to say goodbye, you needed to say goodbye." Gra'ma looked up into the skies as she said this, a wistful look in her eyes.

"But... but..." it still didn't make sense, it couldn't have.

"Take it for what it was, for what you experienced. You don't have to try and make sense of it, just be thankful that you had those final moments with him. He did right by you, whether you accept it or not." Gra'ma turned to me, squeezed my hand and turned to leave with Amanda.

"I expect to see you for Sunday dinner sometime, baby butterfly. Then you can tell me all about my grandson's visit." with her arm through Amanda's, I watched the pair of them walk off while Aaron held me against his chest. I still couldn't believe it, nor did I want to, but a part of me couldn't deny it.

"I saw him." I finally said.

"You did." he finally said. I looked up at him, expecting judgement, but found his glistening eyes instead.

"He came to you, he drew you to this place, where a piece of him remains and drew you to Mexico, where another piece of him remains, because he wanted one last goodbye, to do right by you and to help heal you."

"You believe me?" I looked into his watery eyes, falling deeper into him.

"I do, because I'm thankful that he did. If he hadn't, then I wouldn't be holding you like this, right here. If he hadn't, then I wouldn't have met you and I wouldn't be imagining a future with you. He was there baby, he was in the water." with my head against Aaron's chest, I turned to face the ocean, the cold water, the place I'd been drawn to for some reason.

"Thank you." I whispered to the ocean, hoping that whatever was listening heard me, hoping that Robert had heard, hoping that he was with me, and hoping that he remained in the water so I may immerse myself in him and he may watch over my future for as long as I may live.

THE END.