Ishtar asked for a bare minimum, Bob Lee gave her the opposite. Everytime she needed honesty, he gave her attitude instead. He made her question her whole world. He made her feel like she was too much. Now he sees she had everything, and he still messed it up.
The deepest meaning of sorry for everything he took her through smeared allover his face, and expressed with emphasis in his gesture. This time round, Bob Lee needed Ishtar back in his life for good.
After all, Nadia Browne, the young lady with an ethereal glow that called men to turn and look over their shoulders _ big brown eyes, a milky looking skin, perfect body curves loke a Coca-Cola bottle shaped, and a sweet voice that got all the worker bees in the hive busy making more honey; whom he thought was the last born of all the ladies on planet earth, turned out to be a total loss _ his worst pain in ass.
All Nadia Browne understood was the life of the party, spending money on luxury as much as she could, and giving Bob Lee her body in the most stunning styles.
Five years down the road, Bob Lee had got to understand that the life of excitement wasn't the best of his desire. As a man, he lost more than his senses to discovered that he needed more than stunning looks from a woman _ a more meaningful lady who could multiply his life, knowledgeable enough to build with him and make his world a better place.
Left alone in a sorry state, he thought through:
"Ishtar was the only one who ticked all boxes. Even if it don't change anything. If I could take back the hands of time, I swear I could do anything."
With a downcast face, grieving sorrowfully, he walked to his mother who was standing at the house main entrance balancing her scarf well on the neck. Seeing her son coming her way in sadness, attentively she raised her face, ready to listen to him.
"Mom I, am sorry. I feel terrible about what happened."
Bob Lee's voice trembling, he added:
"My behaviour... I feel terrible about the fact that I abandoned my child. The way I did it, I was selfish. Reckless. I thought the world revolved around me. I was stupid mom. I... I apologized to Ishtar, but I don't think she wants to forgive me."
Understanding her son's pain, on a sad face the grown-up woman replied:
"You cannot force forgiveness. You hurt Ishtar deeply. You must give her time."
In a downcast voice she added:
"Time to... And it will have come to terms with everything."
With tears rolling down Bob Lee's cheeks, he sighed heavily:
"I know, I know... I know. I... just wish she could be happy again. Like, happy. Yeah, you know?"
In a breaking voice, his mother answered:
"The most important thing is that now you know that you were wrong. You're remorseful and understand that everything that you did was wrong. That's all that matters."
She added:
"Ishtar will come around. She will definitely come around. Give her time. Give her time, son. Give her time."
Feeling extreme pain from deep inside, with continous tears wetting his eyes, Bob Lee nodded several times in a row, facing away from his mother. Stuck in the mind, regretful, he shrunk in a moment of loneliness. Later that evening, Bob Lee could not bear with the fact of knowing that Ishtar was to spend a night, and she was under his nose _ the guest room next door.
Courageously, after he had gathered his guts, he bumped into the guest room.
Without a single cloth on her body, Ishtar was getting herself ready to lay under a white blanket on a well laid bed right there on the side and have a relaxing sleep when Bob Lee abruptly showed up uninvited.
He tried not to look at the body he had spent years without setting his eyes on. But his eyes were hesitantly stuck on it. They could not completely look away. Ishtar, without any panic, she turned gently and looked at him at the entrance where he was standing.
In a small voice and captivated gesture, Bob Lee rushed to apologize:
"I am so sorry."
With a confident attitude, Ishtar stayed silent and kept a direct eye contact at him. Guiltily, he got stuck between turning back and leave to wherever he was coming from, and staying so that he could table his reason for bumping into her privacy without knocking first.
Nervous, his eyes stuck on her naked curves, Bob Lee swallowed a bunch of saliva.
"Um... um...!"
Unstable in the moment, he confronted her with the possibility of being rejected.
"Look, I know I messed up. Am sorry for all the pain I caused you. Over the years, I've hurt you in ways that... I can never undo."
She was standing there, with a careless gaze raised at him.
Bob Lee added:
"All this time I thought I was fighting you but the truth is, my heart never stopped reaching out for you."
The statement caught her attention and she lifted her face at a certain angle. She listened more attentively as he added more nails in the coffin.
"Ishtar, I am not saying these words to make you feel sorry for my stupid ass. But after everything, I have realized how much you mean to me. How much I care about you, how much I love you. I know I'm not a right man for you. You deserve a way better man than me. But Ishtar please. Please. I beg you just forgive me. I need you... we need you. Please Ishtar."
This phrase of words he used was a bomb blast that shuttered a concrete fence Ishtar had built surrounding her heart.
Speechless, on quick steps Ishtar bridged the gap in-between them and suddenly landed a very passionate kiss on his craving lips. Already naked, she jumped, tied her legs tight around his waist, and arms around his bold neck.
She whispered to him:
"I forgive you."
Next morning, as Bob Lee's mother walks up from downstairs, her eyes collides with her son's as he steps out of the guest room in tight boxer pants, holding his shirt and pair of trousers freely on shoulder.
"Mom! You're usually in bed by this time. What made you wake up this early?"
Mom poses her footsteps a bit, then smiles.
"I can see you had a great night. I don't have to ask."
Bob Lee quirked corners of his mouth shyly and replied nothing. The grown-up woman continued her way, leaving her son alone. But then, before she went further from him, she slowed down a bit and said a little louder.
"This boy is too greedy. I told him to give her time!"
.....
Three days later, under a blue sky, at a front beach contemporary glass house, Bob Lee and his mother were guests. Walking smartly with calm faces, Ishtar gladly pulled the door from inside to welcome them inside. Bimbo, right by his mom's side, he seemed prepared to meet grandma and dad as his face held a jolly expression. Unbelievably, as soon as Bob Lee's eyes set on his son, he went down on his knees to connect with him.
"My son?"
"Dad?"
Nervous and excited he beamed:
"Oh my goodness!"
In a passionate hug, they fell into eachother's chest and held in there for quite a while. With too much joy, they released.
"What's your name?"
With a joyful smile, the five years old boy replied:
"Bimbo!"
Bob Lee sighed joyously and said:
"Good to meet you son. Bimbo. Come here."
He grabbed the little one warmly once again in his chest. Ishtar was standing right there on the side with a happy continuous smile, watching father and son uniting as a happy smile smeared endlessly on her cheeks.
Finally, Bob Lee got up off his knees holding his son's hand, he looked Ishtar straight in the eyes.
"Thank you Ishtar."
Her heart fully open for him, with a soft touch she lingered her fingers smoothly on his left cheek and then embraced him in a warm hug.
Bob Lee was the man of Ishtar's life, the only she had unwavering love for. Humanly, she got angry, but there was possibly nothing that could shake or dilute the purity of her love for him.
He was her weakest spot from day one.
Bob Lee and Ishtar, in the midst of soft voices and touches, Bob Lee's mother was enjoying a tour of her daughter-in-law's house with her grandson, Bimbo, as her house tour guide.
Ishtar asked Bob Lee.
"What is your plan?"
"Plan?"
"Am talking about Nadia Browne. I cant be with you if that bitch ass is still riding in your life."
"Don't unlive her."
"Of course I won't. I'm past that assassin life now."
He sighed a relief.
"Thank the heavens."
"But... she must reap all that she sow. I must give her a show of her life for every pain she took me through. And do not stand in my way, else I must be forced to kill you both."
"You just said you're past assassin life!"
"But I didn't say I forgot how to put a bullet in between a matherfucker's eyes!"