It was mid-afternoon by the time the two love birds opened the door of their secret hide-away. Their bones jelly, their minds languid, their hearts full; they were fulfilled in one another.

Approaching the spot where he had found her and Percy earlier, Cole spread the blanket before them and sat down. Joining him, Josey folded herself onto his lap and tried to enjoy what she knew what was swiftly approaching the end of their time together.

It was always this way.

They would spend their time making love in various locations around the property and then it would be time for Cole to leave. There were times when Josey handled the situation better, but today she could feel her heart breaking.

She wasn't sure when Cole would return. She never knew when she would see him again.

His visits were becoming more and more infrequent and she worried there would be a time when he would never come back.

As her mood tanked, anxiety stretching out inside her limbs over-taking her sense of calm, Josey tried to hide the sniffles threatening to spill tears down her milk-patched skin.

She didn't want Cole to see her cry.

She couldn't let that happen.

They'd had such a pleasant time. She had to accept that with their situation, this was the best she could hope for. Cole loved her while he was here but Josey knew she couldn't expect more. These small visits were all that he could offer her. She knew this. Had accepted it long ago.

Still.

It stung.

Sometimes it was just so hard.

Despite her best efforts, when Josey realized Cole was staring at her, raising his hand to catch a lone teardrop she didn't know had escaped, she cursed under her breath.

A frown pulled down the corners of Cole's handsome mouth as realization dawned inside him, and Josey berated herself for what she'd done. Now he'd wait even longer to come back to her. Cole couldn't stand to see Josey hurting. Just the thought of her in pain sent him running. Cole felt an ache so deep inside of himself that he didn't even realize he was retreating until it was too late.

Percy arrived to clean up the mess before Josey even knew that Cole was gone.

When she finally noticed the switch, Josey sat up alarmed, barely missing Percy's chiseled chin. "Oh, no. He left already?"

Not again.

Cole had just gotten here.

It had only been hours this time.

It was too soon.

She hadn't even had the chance to say goodbye.

"Hey, Jose," Percy sighed calmly, ignoring her question that hung between them. "You want to play another round? I'll let you be red this time. You don't even have to cook this month if you lose."

Resigned to their fate, Josey rubbed her eyes and tried to smile. "Ok, Perce. Sure thing. Just give me a minute to run inside and freshen up. I'll be right back."

Before reaching for their wicker back door, Josey turned around to ask Percy if he wanted anything from the kitchen.

"Yeah, an iced tea," he answered gratefully. "No lemon."

"Ok," Josey said to herself mournfully. "No lemon." Cole was gone for sure. He always took lemon with his iced tea.

Josey prayed that her lover would return soon. Never one to get her hopes up, however, she knew it would be a long time before Cole's repressed personality would surface again, and went inside to fetch her box of tissues, and Percy's iced tea.

THE END.

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I hope you like that little twist, and that it wasn't too obvious along the way.

Thank you for reading, and please remember to vote if you enjoyed this short story.

If you or someone you love has Waardenburg Syndrome, and you'd like to learn more about it, here are some good resources to start with:

*National Institutes of Health; U.S. National Library of Medicine; Genetics Home Reference; Your Guide to Understanding Genetic Conditions. (2019). Waardenburg Syndrome. Web Search: 27 September 2019. Website: https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/waardenburg-syndrome

*U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; National Institutes of Health; National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences; Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center. Waardenburg Syndrome. Web Search: 27 September 2019. Website: https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/5525/waardenburg-syndrome