peel

She was a delight, he thought.
From her giggles to the hearty deep laugh, her coquettish eyes to that curve of her brown lips. The way her chin angled in every picture he’d seen. It seemed natural that she’d do that until it was pointed out one day.
Her rich brown coffee colored hair streaked with henna, catching a bit of the sunshine as she turned and tossed her now waist length mane.

Flirtatious and flippant, she moved with purpose. Unaware of the effect she had amongst the row of men that waved from across the lines. It didn’t seem to faze her. It didn’t seem to make her heady. Her dancing feet firmly rooted, she pranced in and out of his life a few times now.

A whirlwind with every entrance. Leaving him breathless and harried. A high that was at once sexy, heady, thrilling as much as it drove him up the wall.

She was a child-woman. Excitedly she’d waltz into his life, with a bit of a tear threatening to flow down her rounded brown cheeks. He’d succumb. As much as a strict front he put on, he let her have the power on him. Every single time.

Every time she revealed a little bit of herself.

Animatedly she’d pull herself aside and show a secret. One. Each time it was just one, or maybe two. Not more. Guarded secrets. Ones that she treasured with great pride and a sense of urgency to protect.

He’d peeled away at her childishness one day. She let him.

Next it was her enthusiasm.

The way she held her pen while she wrote volumes to him.

Then came her spunk.

The sensuous curve of her neck.

The eyes that spoke volumes with different shades.

Peel by peel by peel.

His fingers trembled with every reveal.

She in turn glowed under his touch.

The finer fluff done, he probed further and braced her jealousies and insecurities.

Fascinatingly repugnant, yet strangely goading him further, he delved deeper.

The layers got difficult to navigate, murky, there was no clarity in where he was headed. Common sense told him to retreat now, but he was curious. He wanted to know everything about her. He felt that when he first met her and now there was a hesitation. A voice floated down “Be careful for what you wish for, you may just get it” He wondered briefly if this complication was necessary at all.

Outside his mind, the game continued. He stopped asking in hope that she would stop revealing. He was no masochist.

He exclaimed one day,”You are crazy! One day you surprise me, the next you shock!”

She smiled shyly. “There’s more. Just one last one”, she said with a twinkle in her eye.

With a sense of finality and relief and a sadness that accompanies the revealing of the mystery, he stood waiting. With a deep breath and a smile, she opened her palms and it shone. Clear and radiant, it lay there dazzling against the pinkness of her palm. It was her final treasure. It was herself.

Shielding his eyes to the brightness, he says with disappointment “A shiny clear stone!”

Her eyes drop, and she closes her palms. Her pulse raced and before she fell to the floor in a heap, she held onto her diamond just a bit tighter.