The Ex Vows

by Jessica Joyce

make it another hour before I announce I’m heading home. Nearly everyone groans their disapproval, and my secret praise kink purrs at the thought of being missed.

“In thirty seconds, you’re not going to want this, and I can’t pull away, so you’re the one who has to.”

Because after five years of barely talking, we’re finally in a better place and I need to protect that

“What were you thinking about?” “You.” He presses the word into my skin; it goes straight to my veins. “This. The way you taste and your sounds and your laugh. How well you fill my hands. What it would feel like to have you again.”

I wanted to get my hands all over you in the pool so you’d feel me when you went to bed,

Wanted to kiss you in the middle of a vineyard block. Tell you I love you at breakfast, while we were working, in the middle of the night— Just because I could.

you can be messy. The people who love you will accept every single piece of it.

“When I say I’m still in love with you, I mean the first time I saw you and right now. I mean every second in between.”