He missed her, he longed for her. He tried looking for her but it was as if she disappeared off the face of the earth.
Tamani felt lost and disoriented without Isalinda. He missed her touch, her smile, her hair, her smell, everything.
He remembered the time he came home to find her reading a book in bed with her wavy hair.
He was surprised because he believed her straight hair was natural.
She chuckled and told him she had a 'perm' to leave her hair straight for months.
She showed him the hair straightener and showed him how it worked.
He felt weird not seeing her hair straight but he actually loved her wavy hair. It was more graceful and gave her face a glow.
He smiled at the memory and he imagined her hair in his hands, her long wavy hair flowing through his fingers like water as he played with her hair.
He believed he could almost feel it.
He felt a light warmth come from his chest and he closed his eyes.
He imagined her face, her pale green eyes and her full lips.
He imagined the soft feel of her lips against his, her hands tangled in his hair, her body pressing against his, making him feel like he was living in a fairy-tale.
Flashback begins
Tamani was trying to do the homework he had received in government but he just didn't understand any of it.
Isalinda usually helped him but she was out buying food.
He heard keys in the door and he flew to the door, yanking it open nearly making Isalinda fall back.
"You're back!" He exclaimed.
She giggles and Tamani smiles helping her with some of the bags.
They place them on the kitchen counters and Tamani kisses her cheek.
"I missed you." He whispered in her ear.
"I was only gone for one hour!" She yelled.
"The longest hour of my life."
"Wow!" She said as she began to put away the food.
"Are you done with your homework?" She asked.
As her answer, he groaned and sat back down in the sofa.
"That bad?"
"I don't get any of it! I seriously do not understand humans."
She walks towards him and he draws her to him.
They kiss. It's a sweet kiss, an understanding between them.
Their lips part and he leans back, stretching out on the sofa, bringing Isalinda along by gripping her under the arms and pulling.
She slithers into space between his body and the back of the sofa.
She is facing him and he is propped by the arm of the sofa.
He can feel the length of her body pressing against him.
"Poor baby."
He jokingly rolls his eyes. Her words rolling around in his head, making him feel pleasured by the tenderness in her voice.
"Why?"
"Because you are just so exhausted from all that work you do." The tenderness still in her voice, warming him up.
She swings a leg over him so she's sitting exactly on top of his cock.
It concentrates his attention wonderfully.
"Don't move" he says.
"Not planning to." He slides his hands under her skirt and up her thighs.
She's wearing nothing but a booty shorts.
"That's my girl." He whispers in her ear softly.
She smiles a tiny wicked smile and thrusts her hips back and forth a couple of times.
He now has an erection and they both slightly groan at the pressure.
"You are making it hard for me to concentrate on my homework." He says.
"All part of the plan." She is unbuttoning his shirt. "God, you're so...sexy" she pinches his nipples, hard.
Forget homework, he thinks.
He's figured out the mechanics of her skirt and starts to make love to her.
The next morning
He wakes up and finds her drinking orange juice.
"Good morning." She says warmly making her way to him.
"Good morning." He answers.
"You forgot to do your homework last night."
"Bloody hell!" He yells as he sits up and runs a hand over his face.
She runs both hands over his shoulder and across his back, exploring his skin and body.
"I should probably do it. I don't want to get in trouble but I don't see the reason for doing it."
That's fair," she says. "But in the meantime..."
He turns to meet her gaze. "In the meantime?"
"I want..."
"You want?"
She looks up and there is a hunger in her eyes and he knows what she wants.
He smiles, and pushes her backward gently onto the pillows. "You know."
"I always know what you want."
Flashback ends.
He groans at the memory and places his head on the seat of his car.
He had driven onto the 101, feeling a need to drive.
He hadn't known how long he had driven until he parks in front of club called Tsunami Sports Bar & Grill on L Street that's booming with music.
The front wall is painted light blue and has 5 strikes of color on top, red, pink, green, white and dark blue.
He thinks about Isalinda again where usually around this time at night they'd be watching movies where he would grab her ankles, pull her feet onto his lap and she will laugh and lean back on her elbows.
After a while, she will burrow into his lap with her feet and without thinking he will put her feet on his shoulders.
But soon his hands will miss her feet and he will quickly take her feet in his hands again and holds them together with one hand in the air as she lies on her back, innocent and angelic with her hair spread around her like a blanket.
He tickles her feet. She giggles and twists out of my hands like a fish, jumps up and does a cartwheel across the room, grinning at him as if daring him to come and get her.
He just grins back.
He smiled at the memory, remembering how she acted like a child more than a teenager but in before, she was a whole different person.
He loved her for so many things, he was hopelessly madly in love with her.
When he was with her, it felt like the whole world has fallen away, leaving only her and Tamani.
That look in her eyes, one full of adoration, appreciation, trust and love.
When she looks upon him as if he were some kind of hero, he feels like he is everything to her.
It's the same look she gives him when they make love.
When they finish, he always wakes up with that dreamy rubber spine feeling that he links to having sex with her.
Flashback begins.
They are in bed, relaxing and simply enjoying each other's company.
"Do you miss anything from your human world?" He whispers since a woman had to sleep with them in the extra room because her home was being fumigated.
"Not really. I mean, with you I feel like I am home."
Three loud snores come from the next room.
They look at each other and smile.
"Why did you let her sleep here?" He asks.
"Because she needed somewhere to sleep."
"That's why I love you because you are so selfless. But I don't know how we are going to sleep."
She giggles. "One word. Earplugs."
"Perhaps. But I have something else in mind." He whispers as he runs his hands over her belly, and down between her legs.
She squeals.
"Shhh."
"Your hand is icy."
"Sorry." They make love carefully, silently.
Flashback ends
He groans and slams his hand on the steering wheel.
Its torture, remembering her and not having a single idea where she is.
How he wished he could take back the day that she found out everything. The day his life became a living hell.
When he watched her leave, he felt like someone had shot him endlessly with no means of stopping.
It was in that moment that he realized that as much as Laurel made him feel, it was nothing compared to how Isalinda made him feel.
Laurel didn't make him feel like he was the most important thing in the world.
He didn't feel special; he didn't feel like a hero, he didn't feel loved.
She didn't bring out the best in him.
But Isalinda did and remembering their time together, he realized that what he had with Laurel was an obsession and it broke when Isalinda left.
Something out of the corner of his eye captured his attention, a group of teens dressed in dark clothing.
4 guys and 4 girls walking inside the club.
He started to ignore them until one girl caught his attention.
She was dressed in a black coat down to her knees and black boots.
He paid closer attention. She looked awfully familiar.
Her walk and her body. He felt warmth coming from her and into him.
One of the boys who were solidly built called to her.
"Isa!" The boy yelled to her.
"I know." her voice froze his insides.
Could it be?
She turned her head and...
His whole world came crashing, his body going suddenly cold and he felt sick.
It couldn't be!
But it was.
It was Isalinda.