Love (Casey, Beth)

Once they had left the bar Casey wasn’t sure where she needed to go, but did know she would realize it when she found it. Walking hand in hand with Beth she could feel that this young lady would go on to do many great things. She also knew that she was at a very crucial point, emotionally, in her still young life.

As they continued down the street the haze slowly lifted and the sight of a pier greeted them. Not just any old pier this was the perfect pier. It jutted into the ocean a half to three quarters of a mile and looked as if it had just been finished the day before. There were people on the pier but not to the extent that it felt crowded. The sun shone brightly and warm. The ocean was lazily swelling, breaking on the pylons not in white caps but gently as if it did not wish to disturb anything it touched.

Walking to the end Casey and Beth found a quite, unoccupied bench to sit on. No sooner had they taken the bench, then a vendor selling ice cream cones stopped on his rounds and asked the two women if either would like a cone. They both indicated yes and exchanged the appropriate tender for said treats.

As they softly licked and caressed their cones, attempting to finish them before the sun worked its melting magic on them. Casey watched and knew what was basically going on inside Beth as her recent emotional turmoil ran its course. She was only too aware that the recent situation with mr. Wonderful had left Beth with raw emotions that were near a breaking point and that the love she was showing Beth could lead to things beyond that which Casey was tasked to handle.

“Beth?” Casey said turning toward Beth and pulling both her legs up onto the bench, folding them beneath her.

“Yes?” Beth replied, a sing-song lilt in her beautifully innocent voice.

“What are you feeling right now?”

“I’m not really sure. I’ve never felt like this before, so I’m not sure what to call it.”

“What you feel is love Beth. Not for me…from me.”

“Can I kiss you?”

“If you need to, yes.”

Beth slowly bent forward moistening her lips with her tongue as she drew near. She delicately touched Casey’s lips with her own, tasting the sweet remnants of the ice cream both had just finished. As her lips lingered she again felt the warmth that Casey radiated but realized that the warmth was not a sexual feeling. She knew from past experiences, few as they may be, that a sexual warmth was intertwined with a moistness that was not there. Maintaining the contact for a moment more she straightened, looking into Casey’s beautiful eyes.

“Did you feel it?” Casey asked fixing Beth’s eyes with her own eyes, the color of the setting sun, so as to better gauge the true meaning of Beth’s next words.

“Yes and no” Beth replied softly rubbing her lips with her hand.

“Do you think you are in love with me?”

“No.”

“Do you know what love will feel like when you do find it?”

“Yes, it will feel like…you.”

“The warmth that you feel Beth you will feel all the time when you have found ‘the one’. You will feel it when you are apart from them. You will radiate it when that person touches you and will feel it in them when they touch you. I am not the one for you, do you see that?”

“Yes I do, but I don’t want this feeling to leave.” She replied moving closer to Casey in fear that she would suddenly leave.

“It won’t leave it will always be right here, so you can revisit it and know what it’s like” Casey she taking Beth’s hand in her own and placing it atop her breast as she also laid hers atop Beth’s.

Taking a long cleansing breath Casey finally stated, “I need to get back to the Serendipity, would you like to walk with me?”

“I think I’ll just hang out here for a bit” Beth replied she too exhaling.

“Beth,” Casey said softly kissing Beth on the forehead…and then gently enough on the lips to almost seem as not at all, “For as long as you need to, remember that you are loved.”

With one last soul penetrating look into each others eyes the two parted ways knowing that they were destined to not be in each others company again, but content in the fact that they would not need to be in order to remember this moment in time.


* * * * * * *


Casey casually walked through the portal straight to the table where she had left the bar towel and picked it up, slinging it onto her shoulder. Looking around she quickly judged which tables needed her attention and which did not. At her next pass by the bar Phae caught her attention.

“She will be who and what she was meant to be, her journey will continue.” Casey answered the unspoken question Phae had.

“You did a good thing, Case.”

“It’s why I’m here”, she replied her eyes filling and overflowing slightly as Phae gently grasped her shoulder.