Bring Me Back

by Kristen Granata

“No. That’s not what I meant at all. Your body is… you’re…” My feet slow on the porch, and I turn around to meet his worried gaze. He scratches the back of his neck as his eyes trail down my body. “I mean, you’re perfect.”

“You might not feel like a phoenix, but I’m starting to think you’re my phoenix.”

“Does yours race this way when we’re together too?”

“But you’re worth that fear, because I don’t want to go back to living my life without you in it. These past few days without you have been hell. Not a moment goes by that I’m not consumed by thoughts of you. And

no, Phoenix. I don’t want to be friends with you. That’s the last fucking thing I want. I can’t imagine a worse torture than being just friends with the woman who haunts my dreams every night.”

“I yearn for you. My fingers itch to reach out and touch you. My tongue craves your taste. I want you on me, your hair surrounding me, your scent filling my lungs.” He pulls me close, and his lips speak against mine as he says, “I ache for you everywhere. It takes all of my willpower not to devour you whenever we’re together.”

“Bring your lips anywhere near her, and you won’t make it into the new year.”

“That’s my girl.”

“I’ll be there. I’m going to bury myself so deep inside you that you’ll feel me for days after. Every time you walk, every time you move, you’ll think of me and count the seconds until I can fill you up again.”

“Hi, my beautiful girl.”

“I never want you to forget that you’re mine.”

I tip her chin, forcing her to look into my eyes and hear my words. “You are always worth it.”

I stalk over to Phoenix’s mother, my insides twisted into a knot after how she just spoke to her own daughter. To my girlfriend.

Mine. Mine. Mine.