The room was dark, the light of a single lamp breaking it,
causing shadows to flicker over the bodies that lay entwined
on the bed.
Both are slick with sweat, large and muscular. Yet there is a
sense of tenderness here, not mere animal rutting.
The blonde speaks first.
"Buck, if there was something left to say, you know I'd say
it."
"Chris, it's all been said, at least a thousand times. But
I'm glad you talked. This silence is enough to drive me
crazy. You know me, I never was the quiet kind."
'God, Buck, if you knew what it was doing to me, just watching
our love slowly die away, knowing there's nothing I can do
about it...if I'm not quiet, I might say things I'll always
regret. Like wishing that you might find some magic words
to tell me that there is a way for us to be together.'
"I suppose that there is nothing left to say," Chris said aloud.
"We've crossed this road so many times, gone over things six
ways from Sunday, but Chris, I think it's time we finally
realise that there's nothing left to say and we both know it."
"Nothing left to say except goodbye," Chris added.
"So," Buck grinned, "Does that pretty little lady you met have
possibilities, Chris? After all, you're the one who wants to
go onto others, and I guess...if you want to have children..."
"You don't, Buck?"
"It's not so much the children, Chris...I can't imagine finding
a woman who I could spend the rest of my life with. I don't
know...there's just too many memories of the men my mother
knew, so many of them were married...I always swore that I
wouldn't marry anyone who couldn't make me not want to do
that, and I haven't found her yet. I have found someone who
could do that, but it was just my misfortune that it was
you."
"You really feel that strongly, Buck? I knew I did...that's
why it's so damn hard to give this...to give you up, but I
wasn't sure about you..."
"Chris, I've said that I love you often enough...god, if I
could find a better, more meaningful way to say it...something
that would set the whole world free, to make us loving each
other not wrong in the eyes of the world. If I could do all
that...there might be a dream that we could cling to, some
kind of hope for you and me."
"Why is it so wrong? I've always thought that love was more
important than who you find it with. Hell, the two of us
could throw away a lifetime talking about this, trying to
find a way to make each other stay."
"So you're saying that we might as well go straight down to
the last line? 'Cause we both know that at that point there
is nothing left to say."
"Let's not go over this all again, Chris. Bottom line, it's
not going to happen for us. It can't. You go and find out
if that lady is going to be good for you or not, and me...
I'll cope."
"I wish..."
"I do too, Buck. But we can't."
"Will you give me one more thing, Chris?"
"If I can."
"One more night? Tonight. Be with me one last time?"
"I can do that," Chris breathed as he covered Buck's body
with his own, moving in the familiar rhythm that had always
been a part of their encounters.
The End
Next story: The Lesser of Two
