MARLA

There were moments in time when he was oblivious to the world and every part of his brain seemed to shut down, except for one part entirely fixed on that object of concentration. He felt it when he was racing his bike. He felt it while reading a mechanic’s manual to find a solution to a perplexing problem. He felt it now, lying in bed beside her. Nothing else existed. He was unaware of any external sound, except that of her steady breathing rhythmically mingling with his own. He was unaware of the bed beneath him, only the slight pressure of her warm body partially lying across his. She moved to the side of him, cuddled snugly in a fetal position.

Vaguely his eyes began to focus on the room, but he did not see it yet. Her soft sleeping sounds separated him from their oneness and he only now became consciously aware of where they were. His eyes scanned the ceiling, the room, and then settled on her. He touched her head in affection, felt the dampness of her hair, wet from perspiration. The room felt cool to his own damp body. He carefully pulled the covers over them, gently tucking them under her shoulders.

He had had a lot of women but never one quite like her. She had taken him higher than he had been before, higher than Patty, higher than his first sweet experience in adolescence, higher than he ever could have imagined.

He lay wide awake, watching her sleep, going over and over the afternoon of love in his mind. It was just like a daydream. In daydreams, panties easily slide off; bras smoothly float to the floor like a fall leaf to the ground. In real life, these things are more likely to come off humorously, clumsily, after much fumbling, but not so today. Everything had gone as though in the clarity of slow motion. Any apprehension he had begun with disappeared. He had wanted to perform well, to please, to convey the inner love even in the lust of the moment. He had expected to have to hold back and concentrate on learning her body so he could help her meet her own feminine demands, but she required no teaching. She was an equal, innocently experienced. If they were going to have problems, he was glad sex was not going to be one of them.

He awoke in darkness, lay staring until his eyes adjusted to the dim light shining through the drapes from the luminous Las Vegas lights outside the hotel window.

Joey would be disappointed. He was expecting a movie with his dad tonight. Up until this morning, Joey was the single most important person in Flag’s life. Now there was Marla. Flag visualized the three of them together, and smiled.

Tenderly he woke Marla. He had a phone call to make and a fascinating city to show her.

Marla was showered, dressed, and ready when he returned from using the downstairs hotel phone. They left and entered a world of neon lights that excited her like a child’s first trip to Disneyland.

He laughed, loving this newly revealed, unreserved side of her. He knew he would love every facet of her personality. She had said she was new; and he thought how lucky he was to have found a woman new, a woman whose personality was only beginning to unfold and he was there to help mold her to fit his in a perfect union. It was probably the closest a man could come to finding a perfect woman suited to himself. They would grow together; her freshness would influence him to be all the things he knew he could be. She had unknowingly also made him new.

When the night and their energy were spent but their spirits still high, she agreed to get married. She had no identification and they had to try three chapels and max out a credit card before it was done."