Forbidden Fruit

Last night’s pounding rain finally ended as the sun peeped over the horizon. It cast an auburn tint on the ocean’s surface that reminded Will Collins of an Arizona sunrise. As he walked leisurely down the beach, close to the water’s edge, he took deep breaths, inhaling the gentle breeze, retrieving broken seashells from the pathway of the children playing in wet sand. The flight back to Phoenix was a few hours away. He had pondered staying for one more night. 

In the meantime, Lara DeVere relaxed on the balcony of their Surfside Beach hotel room, enjoying the coolness of the early morning, the dubious smell of the Atlantic Ocean in its midst. She thought of how good it felt to be with Will again. In slow motion, she watched him stroll down the sandy shoreline, his body still strong and lean. Age hadn’t touched him. He wore the same mischievous smile Lara had remembered. The same one she’d seen but pretended not to notice when they had passed in the hallway of Lambert High.

She thought about prom night over twenty years earlier when she sat alone in the back of the auditorium, upset that her date had stood her up. A “no show,” but Lara’s mother had insisted that she go anyway. “You’re smart and pretty,” she had said. “His loss.”

Already dressed in the blue taffeta gown, her mother reluctantly bought - too expensive for one night’s wear. High heels specially dyed to match. Hair and makeup by the best stylist in town - still fresh, although incessant tears had ruined the mascara. “It made sense,” she later said.

Will had gone to the prom that night alone, too. She had noticed him long before he saw her, moving capriciously through the sea of satin and pastel dresses and tuxedos. He made his way to her, smiling with his hand extended for a dance. She silently questioned why he was alone. Surely someone as handsome as Will should have had a prom date hanging on his arm. Yet, Lara had never seen him with anyone, other than the silly boys at school. Those other boys - grinning and acting triflingly as adolescent boys do around giggling sixteen-year-old girls. But not Will. He would smile and look almost mature.

That night, tears still rested on Lara’s cheek when she shook her head ‘No’ to Will’s request. She didn’t feel like dancing, nor did she want conversation. Lara was too embarrassed. She had asked a boy on a date, and that boy had rejected her on her special night.

She held her head down, as not to reveal vain tears on a sad face. To her surprise, he asked, “Do you mind if I sit down with you?”

He had said, “With you.” Those words proved enchanting-like to Lara. She sensed his caring spirit, and she could not say ‘no’ anymore.

Will moved towards the vacant chair next to hers, waiting for her consent. She nodded her head, forged a smile, and said a somber, “Yes.”

The two of them didn’t talk much at first, but the easiness of his personality comforted her. Lara perked up quickly as they engaged in lighthearted conversation that didn’t seem like much, but it meant the world to her. Someone cared. He even persuaded a dance or two out of her before the ball ended.

The two of them became like ‘old friends’ quickly, leaving together arm-in-arm, enjoying each other in the after-hours rituals of prom night. Though that night had started out discouraging, Will made Lara’s prom night special after all.

Soon it was Lara grinning in the hallway, pretending not to see Will winking at her. Strange thing, Will and Lara had never really talked before prom night, and their relationship only lasted the rest of the school year. It was as though he was Prince Charming rescuing her - a pretty damsel in distress.

A few years after their high school graduation, Will came to visit Lara, looking handsome and self-assured, strutting sprightly in his Air Force uniform. By then, they had been in and out of love with other people many times. Although she was happy to see him, she had wondered why he came by at that time. Even stranger, her engagement to a man she thought loved her, had just ended.

They sat together on her front porch in the warmth of a southern September sun while he comforted her with small talk. It was as if he knew when her heart was in disorder. He rescued had her again.

Time after time, during those occasions when she needed comforting, he would either call or write a cheerful letter. Over the years, in-between the visits and the talks, pleasant thoughts of Will regularly popped up in Lara’s head. She enjoyed the memories. His endearing smile. The brief, but enjoyable times they had together with the few friends they had in common and their private moments of passion. There was something about Will that Lara couldn’t get through with - unfinished business that refused to be done.

Now, after years of enduring every emotion between pleasure and pain, Will and Lara happened again. A memorial service of one of their old friends in common brought them back together. It didn’t take long before they realized nothing had changed between them but time. The same feeling was there, although they still couldn’t categorize it, nor did they choose to. In certainty, they were not the same two people who had walked hand-in-hand and barefoot on Surfside Beach on a warm spring night years ago. Will and Lara were married now, although not very happily, to other people. The two of them understood that the start of a love affair could be beautiful, the sustenance they needed to keep it alive, would be difficult. 

So the night before, all inhibitions flew asunder, but they vowed to play out the new scene no matter the ending. Remorse wasn’t an option. The morning had roused with its usual promise. Those two young people who walked that beach long ago were still attached by a power too strong to be calmed by time.

On the plane ride back to Phoenix, Will rationalized his feelings about the weekend. He relived the moments of romance with Lara in his head, knowing it could be months before he would see her again. Still, he held on to their plans for a weekend rendezvous - meeting halfway between Arizona and Carolina and realizing the difficulty in justifying another weekend away from home without suspicion. Warm thoughts of holding Lara close to him made Will smile throughout the long flight home.

With much anticipation, Will phoned Lara as soon as the plane landed. With joy in his voice, he whispered, “Maybe we’re supposed to be in the place where we are now - in each other’s lives without a clear motive, without a noble purpose, without strings. And maybe the purpose is in the future and not for us to know now.”

Lara, sitting in her living room, recapping the night before in her head, while sipping on a comfortable cup of tea, responded, “Or maybe it’s just that old snake again, tempting us with another piece of forbidden fruit.”