Iris stretched across her bed, determined to finish the last few words in her journal before she completely passed out from the exhaustion her evil little kindergarten class had put her through earlier that day.
Dear Me,
I wonder when the next time I might see him will be. He always pops up so randomly when I least expect it, always dark and handsome. Watching him stand in my doorway, tie untangled, shirt unbuttoned, distraught at being at work all day playing the part of the good little husband he is all too good at playing, when he'd rather be with me wrapped in my arms and legs, inhaling my scent as if it would be the last breath he'd take...
Iris put down her pen. She hated thinking about him. She hated how as soon as the fantasies stopped, and she was able to stop thinking about him, he'd show up at her door step again, as if he was there to remind her of who he was and what they were. He was taunting her.
"Dammit, Iris, pull yourself together." She hastily rubbed her temples trying to get him out of her mind. "He's just a man." With that thought she turned out her light and got beneath the covers, falling asleep before her head even hit the pillow.
* * * *
"Dammit, Ash, you are a grown ass man, why can't you just leave this woman alone? YOU. ARE. MARRIED. Supposedly happily married too, and yet you're sitting outside of this woman's house when you should be at home with your WIFE."
Ash sat outside Iris's apartment three hours after he'd seen her light go off signaling that she was going to bed. Knowing Iris as well as he did, he knew she was probably asleep seconds after that light went out, knowing how much the children she taught ran through her. They loved everything about her; his own daughter came home one day after school to tell him just how pretty her smile was.
"Daddy, Ms Iris has the most prettiest smile. She's always smiling and laughing." His daughter would often throw herself on him as if she was swooning. "She's the best teacher, Daddy. I wonder why she has no kids of her own, she'd be a great momma. Ha, Daddy we should set her up with one of your friends, and then she could have a whole bunch of babies."
He would cut off conversations like that with his child, she was often too much for him to handle. Each conversation he'd have with his daughter about Iris would end in her having babies of her own, having babies with a man who wasn't him. He slammed his fist down in frustration on the steering wheel.
"Pull yourself together, Ash." He was waiting for the day she'd say no to him and slam the door in his face, but she never did.