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cricket speaks.

  • 22…hiking.

    October 30th, 2023

    Here it was…the day, arriving in just the same way all the other days had, but this one was special. Neither Sammy nor I had slept much the night before, in anticipation of what was to come. The morning began with an uncharacteristically brief exchange between us; then, Sammy had clients all morning, and I had housely and momly duties to perform until we saw each other.

    I had taken a shower two times as long as normal, shaving off every little hair, making my legs and everything else as smooth and silky as humanly possible, thoroughly washing every inch of my body, knowing that if we ended up back at Sammy’s house after the hike, she would be exploring each one of them. Sammy was sensitive to scent so I put on my least-fragranced lotion to seal in the softness of my skin. I dressed for our excursion, putting on the only athletic-looking clothing I owned, along with new shoes I had bought specifically for this occasion. I laced them up, thinking about all the newness.

    I presented myself to Anthony, a slightly shinier version than he was used to seeing. He had the day off and said he would watch Leetl while I was spending time with Sammy. “Are you sure about all of this?” I checked one last time. (Please don’t say ‘no’ noooww, I begged silently.) “You do you,” he reiterated. “Ok,” I said, as I gave him a peck on the lips and an update on what Leetl needed. “I love you,” I said, my heart throbbing with excitement and grief. Why did I feel like Ariel kissing her dad farewell on her wedding day? Why did it feel like he was giving me away?

    I left. Moved straight through the house alone and out the front door across the drive into my car. I started the engine and before I knew it, I was sailing around the curves, blasting “What Lovers Want” with the windows rolled down, honoring the momentum that had gotten me here and the musical spark that had accompanied it.

    Of course, I left a few minutes early because I always do. I hate being late. Even meeting a friend, I will arrive early and park down the street until the appropriate time of arrival, at which point I will pull up. I don’t want anyone to think I’m a dweeb for being early, but I certainly don’t want to be rude for being late. Punctuality: it’s a weird little quirk in my otherwise type-not-A personality.

    I wondered what Sammy was doing in this moment…probably frantically tidying up weeks’ worth of mess, if she was anything like me. I sent her a message telling her please not to fuss over anything related to our visit.

    I parked right down the street, right before our date, waiting for exactly the right time.

    “Just finishing up with my last client!” she finally responded, right before time.

    I started driving. “On my way!” I texted back, breaking the law.

    As I pulled down the long, winding drive, the butterflies in my stomach multiplied. Can I kiss you when I see you? That moment was a milli-moment away now. First kisses always made me nervous. I mean excited? Yeah, excited. Nervous-excited and I…….

    arrived. And there she was.

    I saw her inside, walking window by window until she reached the French doors to her home. The top floor, their private space, where only the divinely privileged had access. She opened the doors for me and stood there, directing all her warmth and radiance in my direction, like a single beam of light, thawing me from my inert state.

    Practically bounding out of the car, I greeted her exuberantly, not willing to approach the moment with silence. I rushed to her quickly and intentionally…across the driveway, up the steps, to the doors…and then stopped directly in front of her. “Hi,” she said, slowly and sensuously, satin and silk lacing her voice. I took her in. My heart caught up to my body. Sammy looked into my eyes and then down at my mouth and started moving in closer. And then, as if by some magic force – one where I knew just what to do – my lips drew nearer and nearer to hers until I could feel the warmth of her breath…and then…the wetness of her mouth. Sammy’s lips caressed mine, deliberately. Their softness was intoxicating. I coaxed her lips open with mine and slid my tongue inside, feeling the shape and texture of hers…getting to know her from the inside. Pulling her toward me, my hands traced the contours of her back and moved along the curves of her waist and hips and around to her cheeks. Waves of erotic energy moved through me, as we pulsed together, thrusting our bodies together at each wave, only our clothing separating us.

    Suddenly, our moment of intoxication was met by a thud. We had slightly lost our balance and had fallen together against the door. I hadn’t noticed until now how much I was shaking. We reassessed the situation. Sammy removed from my shoulder the heavy purse I didn’t know I was carrying and sat it down on a chair by the door. She grabbed my hand and gently led me into the kitchen.

    And that’s when I knew………we weren’t going on a hike.

    “Can I pour you a drink?” Sammy asked me. “Botanicals are good for calming nerves and muscles.” We each had a shot and continued downstairs. She had suggested that before our hike she give me a massage, like “old times.” She waited in the other room as I slid out of my clothes and climbed face-down onto the warm table, covering my backside with that same white, crisp sheet.

    When she returned to the room, the cells on my skin buzzed in recognition of her presence, awaiting our tactile reunion. She applied her hands to my back and I was home again. This time her touch was about our connection – not about my back. I could feel that. As she kneaded into me, she expressed her heart and desire in long strokes, each one culminating with a tender kiss on my back…and then on my shoulders and then on my neck…and then on my thighs.

    An hour of having my body adored and covered this way with kisses was wildly romantic, and also, there was a perplexing aspect. Lying face down, I was able to have privacy while gestures of connection and affection were generously lavished upon me…all while my back was turned towards Sammy, preventing mutual exchange. Usually, I was on the other side of this equation. I was the lavisher. I wondered about my capacity to be a receiver of this much unobliterated attention. I couldn’t wait to turn over and respond to my lover.

    It was time for a standard bathroom break. Growing up, one of the nicknames my dad gave me was “TB” – short for “tiny bladder.” We had spent a lot of time in the car together, and I inevitably needed to stop every hour or two. Maybe I actually do have a small bladder, or maybe I’m just very sensitive to my comfort level, knowing that I won’t really be able to enjoy that movie or conversation or (as dreamy luck would have it here) a sensual back-kissing massage, on a full bladder.

    I let my benefactor know of my needs. She was gracious and said that anyway, it was time for me to turn over.

    “You remember where the bathroom is?” Sammy waited for me to get up.

    “Yes. Can you please close your eyes?”

    Sammy laughed and closed her eyes while I got off the table and floated to the bathroom.

    So far, we’d done relatively little talking, and I still needed to tell Sammy about my history with Superbloom. I wasn’t looking forward to it but at the rate we were going, I needed to forge that path, rather than just hoping it would come up in conversation naturally.

    When I returned, Sammy (back turned) patted the table and said, “Face-up now.” Yessss, I thought, as I climbed back on and under the sheet, tucking it under my arms. Face to face.

    As luck would have it, Sammy approached the topic I had intended to. “Now that we’re together, I’m so curious to find out about your October/November question from the other day….”

    Nervously, I began explaining the bipolar episode that happened after the miscarriage and led to my infatuation with her wife. “I sort of…fell in love with her…and those feelings took a long time to fade. I wanted to tell you because I didn’t want to start our relationship not telling you the whole truth about it……..”

    Sammy’s face stiffened a little, and she responded. “Well, of course you fell in love with Superbloom. She’s beautiful and she’s amazing…. Maybe we can see where we are in a month and if she has any interest in….”

    My heart was experiencing pangs. Sammy seemed to be misunderstanding what I was saying. From my perspective, this bit of history was just a technicality to be disclosed, and had no bearing on future or current feelings or wishes. I was in love with Sammy, not Superbloom. Frankly, I couldn’t even think about attraction to someone else in this moment with Sammy. She occupied all my free thoughts.

    “No…that’s not…I’m not looking for that with Superbloom….” I said, contorting my face. “I actually had the sense after meeting you that you must have been pulling me through her or something, that maybe I was feeling you…that maybe I was in love with you, even before knowing you….”

    Her face softened, in thought, still quiet…as she began soothing my muscles again, with the same long strokes…gently, sacredly…continuing to kiss in between her movements, blessing my feet, my knees, and my neck with her lips.

    Sammy had been doing all the kissing, and it was driving me crazy. She reached her hands under my back and thrust upwards, causing my breasts to rise and the sheet to fall off of them. Leaning over me, she kissed my mouth slowly, sensuously. Then, she walked around the table to my side.

    I rolled over to face her, grabbing her hips and drawing them in. I pressed my mouth to her pants, ravenously massaging what was underneath them, breathing onto her the warmth and moisture of my breath. Tugging on the material, I found the first button. I undid it, slow-kissing the lacy edge of her panty-line with pressure. And the next button, and the next, lower and lower….

    I looked up at Sammy, whose back was arched, holding onto the table. I interrupted her moaning. “Buttons? Really??” I teased her.

    Sammy laughed and said, “Follow me.”

    I left my clothes behind, following her upstairs to the master bedroom.

    The room itself was simple. A dark wooden bed with built-in bookshelves, all filled with poetry and philosophy, leaned against one wall. An unabashedly textured rug with gently bold colors warmed the floor…soft white on the walls…brushed gold fixtures…blush sheets…all overlooking a grand lake and mountains. The room was a personification of the Sammy-Superbloom duo, I imagined.

    Superbloom. I’d be in her bed, in their bed, with Sammy; would she care? (I would have.) I was feeling strangely like a voyeur in my own life….

    Now. I won’t go into detail because it’s not that kind of a blog, but Sammy and I made passionate love for the next two hours. And if you’re the kind of person who thinks the idea of two women together is hot, you’re underestimating. It felt so good to kiss – and to touch – a woman. Or maybe it was just Sammy.

    It was exploration in every sense. I had never been so fully connected to another human being. Somehow there was a sense of a knowing and a not knowing converging to form its own Big Bang.

    We completely lost track of time. Sammy’s next client showed up earlier than expected, and we quickly untangled ourselves as she scurried to get moderately cleaned up. She apologized for the suddenness in parting and expressed her delight in our experience together, stopping post-frenzy to kiss me one last time.

    “If you can hang out here a couple of minutes to give us a chance to get downstairs, then you can let yourself out…. I’m so sorry!….I love you….”

    “I love you, too. And I love hiking,” I said smiling from bed, as she rushed out to greet someone.

    Previous –> 21…headlights. Next –> 23…current.

    Image by JayMantri from Pixabay
  • 21…headlights.

    October 23rd, 2023

    “Did you make yourself look extra beautiful when you came to see me for your last massage?”

    “Mayyybe.”

    “Well, it definitely worked. You were stunning. I had the thought that your face resembled Buddha’s and that I could stare at you for the rest of my life….”

    Not exactly what I was going for, and this was the strangest compliment I had ever received. In fact, I only knew that it was a compliment because it was coming from Sammy.

    Some nights, I texted her from my sanctuary, and some nights, I texted her from bed with Anthony as he fell asleep to his shows. Sammy asked me why he didn’t throw the TV out when I told him I didn’t care for it. The truth is that I hadn’t minded it all that much in the beginning of our marriage; in fact, I had liked falling asleep to the television when I was single. I guess it started changing as alone time became less available and intimate connection became more highly sought after. That hour or two at the end of the day was precious, and I wanted something meaningful to be there. But by then, a pattern had already been established and was not easily negotiable.

    Sammy and I were twitterpated. We each had fantasy-inspired slip-ups. My repeat offense was bringing in the groceries and leaving them on the counter where I would forget about them until the ice cream melted. Sammy was in such a daze that she once accidentally slow-kissed her yoga mat during class, mistaking it for me. We were both driving around town 10 miles below the speed limit.

    I was in my “own” bed this night, and a good deal of my discussion with Sammy was centered around sex. Sexual practices, sexual preferences, safe sex. (A silent interlude when I smelled a poopy bedtime diaper across the hall and went to change it.) We talked about what this “open relationship” structure looked like logistically, for Sammy and for Superbloom. They had different styles of dating. Sex had been a dynamic experience in some of Sammy’s relationships, but she had come to the realization for herself that sex was rarely necessary or even desired, even in emotionally and spiritually intimate relationships.

    We revisited the mistaken orgy incident from the night before:

    “I really thought you had four people over to the house for sex, and that this must happen all the time. I don’t know if that’s funny or offensive.”

    “LOLOLOLOL”

    “Ok.”

    “I’m totally tickled that you would still even talk with me. I do have some beautiful memories of connection, which include sex, but hardly with the frequency you were thinking. That’s so, so funny! Thank you for coming to me, even so.”

    After a pause in the conversation, Sammy re-entered it:

    “Ok. Pop quiz…. How many people have flipped my stomach and made me bashful and shy?”

    “Two.”

    “Lol, this is like a newly wed show. Bonus question: Which two were those?”

    “Superbloom…and me.”

    “Ding ding ding ding! You have won!!! New sheets for you….”

    Leetl called out from her room: “My mom’s cocoa beans!”
    I performed my part: “I do not see!”
    L: “Stop! that! BIRD!!!”
    M: “Oooooaheeeaheheheee….”
    L: [SCREAM]
    M: “I do not see!”
    Together: “Luuuuuna Luuuuuune….”
    [Adapted lazily from Let’s Go Luna! I may never know the correct words.]

    Sammy continued, unaware of my other conversation. “I have so so so many ideas of how we can enjoy our time together tomorrow….”

    “Tell me.”

    “3-mile lake hike and picnic; canoe around the lake; walk along the ocean; stay here and make love for four hours; paddleboard in the ocean; get matching footie pajamas from the store and wear them together in bed while you tell me your stories….”

    I laughed. “All of those things sound amazing…. Let’s take a walk near the lake or ocean. Meet at your house?”

    “Lovely…. Can I kiss you when I see you?”

    I froze. Despite the lead up, this specific question caused paralysis. It’s not the headlights themselves that are terrifying; it’s the not being able to see what’s on the other side of those lights and what the impact will be. There is terror in the unknown, the implication that everything could change; there is even possibility of death.

    “You don’t have to answer right now…. Are you nervous about being with a woman?”

    I quickly contemplated that to a definitive answer: no. I wasn’t nervous about that. I had kissed a woman before and that was fun and exciting, even with a non-Sammy. It’s just that I hadn’t kissed anyone besides Anthony in over a decade, and it appeared to be the end of this particular era, many other ends which would certainly be riding its tail. All technicalities, but nevertheless….

    It was only the “change” thing that made me nervous. But I knew it was worth whatever the risk was. Things, actually, had to change…now that I was engaged with life in this way.

    “I’m not nervous about being with you…. Yes, you can kiss me tomorrow.”

    Previous –> 20…deeper. Next — 22…hiking.

  • 20…deeper.

    October 6th, 2023

    “Are we still on for Friday morning?” I asked her.

    Sammy laughed. “Could you swing 10:30 to 3:30? Need to know for excursion planning purposes.”

    I was effectively handled by her romance. She was planning something for us. And, with that, we firmed up our first date.


    A question had been forming into a little ball in the corner of my mind: “Can you remember anything significant going on in your life in October/November of last year?” A seemingly random question, the answer to which might hold a lot of meaning for me.

    Around that time is when I fell madly in love madly into something with Superbloom. My desire for her, and consequent despair, had faded over the months, but for the first few of them, my emotional pain was nearly intolerable.

    Meeting Sammy, I marveled at the capacity to be so strongly attracted to another person so quickly. Our connection was unlike anything I had ever experienced and unlike anything I could have dreamt up. With a childlike wonder, I asked myself if I had been feeling Sammy all along…through Superbloom. Maybe that would explain why I was so emphatically drawn to someone I didn’t know. Sammy was drawing me in through her wife.

    “Yes. A few. Why?”

    I gave no explanation but requested that she expand her answer, if she felt willing.

    “It depends on what kind of ‘significant’ you’re talking about but…I was going on an extended trip that was specifically about reorganizing my self in relationship to Superbloom. I have much yet to share about our relationship. I also was severely depressed and could hardly think about anything outside of how I could somehow disappear…mostly dreaming about sailing around the world and getting swallowed up by the ocean.”

    My heart ached for the Sammy I hadn’t known yet, who had been experiencing similar emotions at the same time, largely in relation to the same woman. It broke my heart that just one year ago I might have contributed to her sense of despair if given the chance to love Superbloom. I had been a participant in Sammy’s pain, indirectly, as part of humanity. I was in love with the woman whose heart I broke.

    And she deserved to know my secret. Our relationship deserved to know. It was the most valuable offering I could make…trusting her with the scary truth and my own repentant heart. I couldn’t have felt more vulnerable than in my request, asking Sammy to love me in the face of a big “even though”….

    “What are the effing odds?” was the river of words running through my brain, but the deeper waters were undisturbed. I had to tell Sammy everything–in person. And she would understand because our love ran deeper.

    Previous –> 19…shy. Next –> 21…headlights.

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