Free The Crossover by E. Clay

handprint on my right cheek?”
    I got up from bed and stood behind her. I placed my hand directly over the print on her cheek. It was a perfect match.
    “Yup. Guilty as charged,” I said as I placed my arms around her waist.
    “Clay, you do know I have two cheeks. Feel free to spread the love, babe. Just sayin’.”
    I loved it when she caressed my face with her back to me. I admired our nakedness in the mirror. I took a mental snapshot.
    “Monet, I can’t believe you let me go on and on and on.”
    Monet turned around and faced me.
    “Clay, you didn’t come 6,000 miles for me to say no. Anyway, I wanted you just as much.”
    “I still owe you a dance. I haven’t forgotten,” I said.
    “Baby, as much as I would love to dance with you tonight, I don’t have any strength to do anything tonight. It’s a shame we only have two more nights together. Hopefully, I can get my dance before you go back to England.”
    I made my call and was glad to find out it was a library day. One of my Marine buddies in class covered for me.
    Monet and I got dressed and we had breakfast for dinner at Cracker Barrel. I had steak and eggs and she had French toast with grits and bacon. We both downed at least three glasses of water before we ordered our food. While we waited for our meals, I looked at all the couples in the restaurant. I truly felt no one was as happy as we. No one.

NINE
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The Dance
    T wenty years is a lot to make up for in two nights, but we tried. I couldn’t leave her alone and she proved just as insatiable. However, all the extended lovemaking would eventually take a toll.
    “Clay, whenever we make love it’s a one way ticket to the ends of the earth, first class. Well, I just got the bill and I’m paying for it right now,” Monet commented, lying next to me in bed in obvious discomfort.
    “I’m sorry, babe. I’ll be gentler next time.”
    “Next time? Clay, if you so much as breathe on her I will strangle you in a leg lock,” Monet replied wincing.
    She was half-kidding. But half-kidding means half-serious.
    We had two more nights together and the dance she wanted before I left seemed less of a possibility. That night she fell asleep in my arms in record time; I wasn’t too far behind her. We both were pretty exhausted.
5:30pm
The Last Night
    “Honey, I’m home!” I called out while unloosening my tie and hanging up my blazer.
    I looked around the room and Monet was out. On the center nightstand was a box of my favorite cookies in the world, Famous Amos cookies with pecans. She remembered after all this time. I turned around and saw a yellow sticky on the CD console, it read, Play Me.
    The CD was a mixed tape that featured most of our favorite R&B artists from the nineties. Memories flooded my mind and it made me smile. When she returned from Walmart I gave her the biggest hug and kiss ever. While at Walmart she purchased a long-distance calling card to call me in the UK.
    As our time together slipped away like grains of sand, we knew we needed to put things into perspective. We ordered room service and chatted over hot wings and a mammoth cheeseburger and fries.
    “Clay, so where do we go from here?” Monet asked sitting across the bed.
    “Sweetheart, do I really need to answer that? I hate to break the news to you but, you’re pretty much stuck with me. At least for this lifetime.”
    “I think I can handle that. There’s only one thing…” she said.
    “Is it a big thing or a little thing?” I asked reluctantly.
    “It’s my daughter Michelle. I need to wait until she graduates next year before we make serious plans. Just fourteen more months that’s all. She’s going to Vincennes University in Indiana. She plans to stay with her dad not far from campus. Does that sound reasonable?”
    I was relieved.
    “Anything that involves us being together sounds very reasonable.”
    “I’ve been thinking a lot today while you were in class. The insurance company I work for is opening an