Regimen and Regiment.

She was beautiful, but then, your first is always beautiful.

Her cold hard body was glistening in the moonlight. Almost seductively, she beckoned. Her curves were accentuated by the silver play of the stars, her dark skin absorbing the radiance like a dark sun. Her derriere was inviting in its bareness, its brutal nudity.

She rested on my thigh, close enough to make me feel unsettled, but somewhere inside me, a thrill of excitement awakened. Something made me glad that the darkness covered the flush in my cheeks and strangely enough, the glint in my eyes that came close to lust. Or perhaps a form of rational madness.

A sudden urge seized me. I lifted her up into the air, her body brought up against the moonlight, but she didnt so much as groan. I studied every inch of her, my eyes devouring her beauty, and it rivalled the moon and the stars.

Memories came flooding back.

Earlier, I had undressed her. First, with my eyes, then with my two bare hands. They were shaking at the time, but I held them steady. Like all important things in a man's life, the first must always be perfect. I loosened her pin and her secrets came rushing out, sharing the deepest darkest ones with me. And it only took us a minute before everything came undone and she was lying on the sheets before me.

And now here she was, above my head, above me. Soon we would part again, if only for a while.

I took the oil and i dabbed it over her body. Slowly I went, with such tenderness that was only matched by the careful, exact nature of my service. Pleasure welled up inside, but it was suppressed, the efferversence, the bubbles popped by the inexonerable weight of parting. My last blessing, the last thing i would do before our long goodbye. I gave her a promise that I would see her again.

I promised that I would see her again.

Tomorrow? A year later? A decade? Never?

I stood there wondering as she left me. Somewhere behind me, a door was closing, and a bolt was shut.

And I could not bear to look back.

Farewell, my beloved. Farewell, dearest wife.