"Take the road less traveled by

Tell yourself you can always stop

What started in beautiful rooms

Ends with meetings in parking lots"

- Illicit Affairs (Taylor Swift, 2020)

"Where were we?" James smirked at Lorraine. 

Lorraine had stared at him throughout the call. She felt her hands tense around the steering wheel. They had been out all day long, driving around town. They didn't talk a lot. They didn't need to.

"Right here," Lorraine said as she kissed him. She felt bad for Betty, but kissing James was just so good. They sounded close to breaking-up anyways. Maybe she'd speed things along.

Whoa Lorraine, what the hell? One part of her whispered. The other part shoved those thoughts into a trunk and threw away the keys. 

They had stopped just in front of James' home. James broke away.

"I don't think we should go in," he said.

"So where do we go?" she asked.

"Let's get out of this town."

*****

"Holy shit, it's beautiful!" Lorraine exclaimed as she took in the room.

James had driven an hour from their town to an Airbnb. It didn't look much from the outside but the room was truly one of the coziest she had ever seen.

"If you need anything just ring up the front desk," the owner said. 

They nodded as they were handed the keys. 

Lorraine sat down on the silk sheets. "It's lavish," she said as she rubbed her hand on the bedsheet. The walls were decorated with fairy-lights waiting to be switched on, but that wasn't even the best part. 

The ceiling was made of clear glass, and the stars were shining brightly without the city-lights dampening their spirit.

James leaned into Lorraine, clearing trying to kiss her, but Lorraine had other ideas. She placed a finger on his lips. The touch sent a tingling feeling down her spine. 

When James tried to speak, she interrupted, "Hush."

She just wanted to look at him for a minute. James was there, with her. His blue eyes were staring expectedly at her. She could see the end, as it began. Heaven couldn't help her now.

"No one has to know what we do," she whispered.

James nodded. Lorraine lifted her finger and caressed his cheek. He leaned into her touch and Lorraine felt ecstatic. 

James couldn't wait anymore, he kissed her. A deep instinctual feeling overtook Lorraine as she deepened the kiss. His hands were in her hair. Lorraine pressed hers against his chest, feeling his heartbeat increase.

James started taking off his shirt.

"Wait," Lorraine said, a little panicked.

He let the hem fall down over his torso. "Okay," he said shyly. "Can I know why?"

"I...I haven't...never have I ever before," Lorraine confessed.

"Oh," James said softly. "It's okay if you don't want to."

But Lorraine knew that anything between had to be physical. It wasn't pressure, it was passion.

"I want this," she said. She wanted James, and she was getting him. 

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

She was happy, and it seemed like he was too.

*****

Lorraine was flushed when she returned home. All she could think about, while lying sprawled out on her bed with her right hand aimlessly waving in the air, was James. A breeze cooled her skin as the curtains on her window fluttered slightly. 

They had parted at his home. She didn't want him to go, but she knew that if they didn't return, it would be very suspicious. 

It was good - they were good. 

"We," Lorraine whispered, savoring the word. 

And so, she cried. She was so happy that she had to. She could barely believe that it was possible for a person to be so happy.

Is this what people in relationships feel?

Is this what Betty felt?

Lorraine's heart didn't sink at her thought. She'd had her chance, and she didn't keep him. She had gone off with Adam and left James to make his own choices. He had chosen Lorraine. 

She couldn't think about Betty, not when Lorraine had experienced pure ecstasy. She could still feel his soft caresses linger on her bare skin beneath her clothes. She hadn't even taken a second glance at the universe above them after seeing James. She was full of him, yet she felt like she was starved of his touch. 

She was flying through the free-fall, and she couldn't change her mind about it now.