From his steady, prolonged stare, she could see his troubled past, his entrenched fear.
His eyes told her everything.
Finally surrendering, he looked back into hers.
For a moment the shared gaze was broken by a rustling coming off of the balcony. But a quick glance revealed that it was just the cool summer breeze passing through ferns. The dull, white moonlight danced by the curtain and gleamed eagerly at the foot of the bed. Silently, the two lovers stood. The entire room seemed to lay still, as if frozen in time, waiting on their next move. Sensuality danced with the breeze.
The room was ordinary for persons of their standing. A large bed with silk sheets sat in the middle of a cold granite floor; two elegant drapes hung from either side of the frame. Above the headboard, in brilliant colour, was a mosaic of the gods. Usually the royal bedroom was bustling with slaves, attendants, advisers, but this night they both felt they were truly and completely alone in this world, immersed only with one another – already they were breathing as one.
Together, they moved onto the bed. The sheets rustled as they came closer to a full embrace. Motion by motion, he slowly became more entangled with her, and she with him. In fluid movement, they rid themselves of all clothing – carefully at first and then in a hurried torrent.
As their bodies coalesced, their breathing intensified. Sweat dripped from his brow. The air that passed through the room smelled sweetly of spring and further intoxicated the moment.
Amid their furious love-making, he thought back to these peculiar circumstances – to his troubled past. How had a cast-away come into such a situation. Where had he mastered the cunning that granted him the sweet spoils of circumstance? But these questions only nagged at him momentarily as he was fully engaged in the ecstasy of the vanishing present.
Similarly, she for a second pondered the peculiarities of fate. When everything seemed so lost, so hopeless, he had shown up out of nowhere and had sublimely delivered her from all worry.
How had things turned around so quickly? What of her previous loss?
Soon, the sheets sat in a chaotic pile by the bed. They both lay down, exhausted yet satisfied.
Without another thought, he lovingly spoke:
“That was amazing sex. Something about you is so comfortably familiar.”
She paused for a moment and then, turning towards him and peering once again into his no longer sad eyes, said:
“I think I’m falling in love with you Oedipus,” as if those words had no bearing whatsoever.
