Jack paused, staring at me as if he didn’t understand what the hell I was saying.

“Is there a problem?”

He shook his head. “No. I’ll get it done.”

I nodded and watched as he gave one final look between Deborah and I and left.

“Why did you do that?” Deborah questioned as soon as Jack shut the door.

“Because I wanted to.”

“And you think you can just do whatever you want?”

“Think? I know.”

She rolled her eyes, sighing as she slammed her bag closed, standing to leave.

As she brushed past me, I grabbed her arm—not tightly, but enough to stop her from exiting. “I’ll see you on the slopes.”

“I might have to work.”

“Take the week off. You have a month before the trip, that’s more than enough time to find someone to cover you, or just speak with your manager.”

She sighed. “It doesn’t work like that.”

“Make it work like that.”

Her shoulders slumped. “Is that how you live? Just bend the world to your will as you see fit?”

I looked her directly in the eye. “Yes. Especially when it’s this important.”

“It’s a spring break trip. What’s so important about it?”

“It’s not the damn trip.” Walking forward, until our bodies nearly touched, I moved the hand that had been holding her arm up her body to cup the left side of her cheek. And without so much as a final thought, I lowered my lips to hers, completing what we’d started before Jack interrupted.

Our lips melded together and Deborah’s lips opened up, welcoming me as I knew they would. The connection sucked me in completely. The more we kissed the more I wanted to kiss, something that’d never happened to me before. With every other woman I’d been with, this part had been just a prelude to the next step. With Deborah, I could keep kissing her until both of our lips were swollen, mouths dry, and lungs bursting from deprivation of oxygen. And even then I didn’t believe it would be enough. Especially, if she was going to keep moaning the way she was.

Just when it began to feel like the earth shifted beneath my feet, Deborah pulled back.

“I have to go.” Her voice was just above a whisper and it sounded like the very last thing she wanted to do was leave. “To work … I have to go to work.”

Nodding, I stepped back, releasing her. I watched as she turned, and with a shaky hand reached for the doorknob. I quickly reached around her, pulled the door, and held it open for her. She gave me a small smile over her shoulder before exiting.

I watched her walk away, the tightness in my chest growing with each step she took.

****

Deborah

What am I doing here? I questioned as I exited one of the buses that carried more than fifty of us seniors from Palo Alto to Yosemite National Park.

As I stepped down from the bus, I began looking around at the snow-capped mountains.