Tenderness came crashing

The moment--the surprising, amazing, moment--his lips brushed mine, I was transported by his tenderness. How long had it really been since I had experienced tenderness alongside physical closeness?

I didn't know and I was suddenly drunk on sweetness; appreciation; gentleness; and feeling wanted.

Tenderness crashed in on me. And as I write, I realize that feels like an oxymoron because how could tenderness be crashing if it's tender?

And yet so much like the void of a vacuum; of a black hole in space; the absence of something is static until the presence of that same thing comes thundering in and suddenly it is a roaring revelation of understanding and feeling.

And at each step into the moments past that kiss, tenderness came first. Tenderness was all of it but not only it. It was everything I had almost forgotten I needed; it was nothing I had had in so many years.

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