EroticReverie

Emmy …one year later 

I’d like to say I’d been strong enough to leave. That I was responsible for being freed from the hell id been living in. 

It was my father actually. 

I’d like to say it was the first the hospital stay that my husband put me in that made him take action. But it’d been the second. 

I’d like to say it was my father’s love that made him take action against my abuser. But it was pride. Whatever the reason, the only man that had more money that Henry was the one that made me free of him. 

I didn’t ask for a cent. Didn’t want one. Didn’t need one. Yet they awarded it to me anyways in the divorce. The second it was finalized. I moved out of state. Leaving everything behind. 

I started eating again. Even though i was still depressed , I had control again. 

I was twenty six, living in an apartment in Manhattan. 

I had the lip and chest implants removed a month after the divorce. The only part of “Henry’s doing” that remained was my nose. 

My body was longer the unhealthy , too skinny version. I’d put on plenty of weight. More than I had on me ever before. I still worked out. My legs full of muscles and my arms toned. But I was healthy. Truly healthy. My mother disapproves. But I don’t care. And I’ve talked to her less and less since leaving. 

My hair is back to a shade natural to my own. My body no longer feels weak and I’m no longer tired and no longer live in fear everyday that a wrong look or word will get me smacked. 

He’d almost killed me. Almost. And he did , in a way. He killed the woman he turned me into. I wasn’t her anymore. I might not have been strong enough to be the reason I left. But now that I had, I wouldn’t go back. I wouldn’t be her. Ever again. I owed it to myself , I knew what I deserved. And I wouldn’t ever let my mother or anyone else convince me what was “best”. I had no excuse now. I had a choice. I had several of them. And they were mine to make. And I would make the right ones this time. 

——

I stand in the middle of the sidewalk. Frozen. Looking at the name on front of the gallery. 

“K.G Art.” 

It could just be a coincidence. Anyone can have those initials. But through the glass I see one giant photo that hang on a wall behind the desk in the center of the store.  And I know it exactly the initials I think it is. Because I’m in that photo. 

Is he here? My palms swear and I just stand there as pissed off New Yorkers huff and move around the dazed woman standing frozen in the middle of the sidewalk. 

I go in. A woman greets me with a smile. 

“Is this….is the artist here?” I ask and she laughs softly and shakes her head. 

“Oh no, he’s not in right now.” She says and I nod. Then look around. 

“Are you looking for pleasure or for purchase?” She asks.

“Both.” I say and she smiles. Dollar signs flashing in her eyes and she nods  and I point to my photo. 

“That one.” I say. 

She turns her head. 

“Oh.” She laughs again. “Oh I’m sorry that one’s not for-“

“How much?” I ask. 

“It’s um, it’s not for sale” she says. 

“I might be able to get you a smaller print made if you’d like.” She says and I shake my head. Knowing that’s the exact one that hung in the gallery before. 

“No. I want this one. Name the price.” I say and she laughs nervously. 

“I uh, well” she says and then looks back at it and then back at me. 

“Let me speak with my boss. And see if there’s anything we can do.” She says and I nod. 

“Feel free to look around while I look into it.” She says clearly flustered by my insistence for that specific photo. 

I walk around slowly. Stopping at one photo then another. 

“Yes. That one” I hear her murmur. 

“Yes I know. I just wanted to let you know the buyer was willing to pay any price. Incase you wanted to…yes…oh…um…a woman….no….no she’s not….no… okay…yes..” she goes on and I listen as I keep walking around. 

“Ma’am?” She calls and I turn my head. 

“Can I um, have your name please?” She asks.

“Emmy.” I say. 

“Emmy sir.” She says. 

“Okay sir….um…” she looks at me. “Brown sir.” She whispers. But I hear her just fine. And I know who her boss is. That she’s telling him the collar of my nose. 

“He um, my boss would like to speak with you if you don’t mind?” She says clearly confused as I walk over and reach out my hand and take the phone from her. I bring it to my ear. 

I say nothing.

“That’s MY photo.” He says. I feel my heart beat flutter at the sound of his voice. I smile politely at the girl as I turn and walk away from the desk. 

“So this is where you ran off to, New York?” He asks and I stay quiet. 

“How are you Emmy?” He sighs. 

“Good.” I answer and he exhales again. 

“I’m glad.” He says. I know he knows about the divorce. About my leaving. Because I sent him a letter. It was the least I owed him. 

———-

Kase ….

I always tell my staff to tell buyers I’m not here. I’m too busy to stop work to spend time during normal days to talk with people who just want to shoot the shit or ask about my techniques and other things. But the second Coral tell me there’s a woman in the gallery demanding to buy the photo I took with a woman a few years ago. And that she has brown eyes and her name is Emmy. Yeah, I have the time. 

I stand on the second floor at the railing. Smiling as I look down at the back of her head. I could cry at the sight of her. Even from behind. Her legs. Her body. Full. Healthy. Her hair. The color it was when I couldn’t stop staring at her in high school. Emmy. My Emmy. 

She turns and my heart stops. Her breasts are gone, at least the breasts her ex husband had cursed her with. Her mouth. Her fucking mouth. The work of art I swear I can still feel pressed against mine even know as I watch them curve slightly. She’s not looking up but I can see her.  

“Youre so beautiful” I whisper into the phone on an exhale. 

“You sure didn’t think so last time I saw you.” She says and her brows pinch. 

“You were someone else. You weren’t the girl I fell in love with at sixteen in History class.” I say and she bites her lip. 

“You weren’t the woman I made love to.” I say and she sucks in a breath. 

“I hated how you looked at me that day.” She says as she walks over to one of the photos against the side of the room and looks at it. 

“I’m sorry. It was…jarring. Heart breaking.” I say and she sighs. 

“I look better now.” She says quietly. “I’m not skinny anymore.” 

“I …dyed my hair back….removed the implants in my lips and breasts.” She says. 

“I’m proud of you.” I say and she clutches the phone. 

“I wanted to be the woman I was when you looked at me when we made love. Because I’d never felt as beautiful as you made me feel that night Kase. Thank you for that. Truly. I didn’t deserve that experience either you. But I’m thankful to you for giving it to me anyways.” She says. And my chest rises as I breathe deep. 

“You can have the photo.” I say. 

“I’ll pay for it.” She says. 

“No. You won’t. It’s a gift.” I say. 

“Another one I don’t deserve.” She says and turns and walks to the next photo and smiles. It’s the one we stood in front of at the gallery where he ex had been showing his abomination of “art” along side mine and other artists. 

“Not sure how many times I need to tell you Emmy, you deserve everything your heart desires.” I say. 

“What if I desire might be too late to have?” She asks. 

“It’s never too late.” I say as I watch her. 

“When will you be in New York?” She asks. 

“Already here.” I say and she pauses. 

“Oh.” She breathes. 

“Don’t go getting scared on me now.” I whisper and she smiles. 

“I’m not.” She says as she walks to the next photo. Closer to the stairs that lead to the second floor. 

“Your gallery is beautiful.” She says softly. 

“Mm.” I hum. “It has to be if you’re standing inside of it. ” I say and she licks her lips and turns and walks slowly , her heels clicking against the floor as she walks to the other side of the room. Her head craning slightly to take in the large photo hanging in front of her. 

“I want to take your photo again now that you’re you again, the you before him.” I say.

“What if you don’t like how I look? What if I’m not enough for you to look at me like you did that night?” She asks. 

“You are.” I say. 

She huffs. “You don’t know that.”

“Yes I do” I answer. 

“I’m scared that you won’t. “ she says unsteady. 

“Other than missing that cute bump in your nose you like exactly like the girl I fell for in highschool”

“Nobody liked that bump” she half laughs. 

“I did. I loved every thing about you. Work of art. Head to toe.” I say and she sighs. 

“Were you ever going to reach out to me?” I ask her. 

“I…wanted to…but…”

“But what?” I ask. Watching her as she sighs. 

“I needed to …just be…me…without anyone…for a little while” she says. 

“And I was scared that you wouldn’t …ever look at me like you did that night in your bed ever again, I was too afraid” she says quietly. 

“And what about now? Do you still need time to be on your own?” I ask. 

She shakes her head. “No, I want to see you” she says. 

“And you’re not afraid ?”I ask. 

“I’m terrified actually” she laughs nervously. 

“Why don’t you go take a look at the second floor” I say. 

“How do you know I’m not already?” She laughs and walks towards the stairs. 

“Because I’m standing on it, let looking at you just like I did that night.” I say and she freezes. Her hand on the banister and her eyes fly up and widen. 

I smile. 

“Hello Emmy” I say into the phone. Her eyes don’t even blink as she sucks in a breath.

“Do you like how I’m looking at you Emmy?” I ask and she nods.

“Good.” I groan slightly. “Now get up here and let me get a good look at that gorgeous face.”