What I Do For Love

He's really going. He's really leaving. So what am I going to do now? Do I just watch him finish packing his bags and let him walk out the door or do I beg him to stay and do what he wants?

"Tom?"

"I gotta leave Megan." He goes over to the dresser and grabs a handful of underwear and socks and shoves them in the duffle bag.

Quick tears spring to my eyes. "Tom don't be like that. I-I want you to..." I draw in a ragged breath and try to swallow past the lump in my throat.

"You want me to what Megan? I need you to do this. Don't you understand that baby?"

"But I can't Tom. I just can't. I love you, but this is just asking too much?" I pick at the bedspread to avoid looking at him.

"Baby, don't you see- it's all about love. And if you love me like you say you do, then you can do it."

I shudder at thought of his request. I can imagine the feel of the mans icy cold hands. The thought of having to touch him sends chills down my spine and bile into my throat. I can't even believe Tom is asking me to do this. This is the man that I love more than life itself and he's asking me to do something unthinkable. "Tom, I don't know if I could live with myself."

"Megan, baby. You'd be doing it for me. It'll be our little secret. And afterwards, I'll take you away somewhere. How about Tahiti? Or Hawaii? Then you could just lie on the beach and forget all about it. It's just this one time baby. I mean, if you can't help me out of this tight spot I'm in then I guess you don't really love me like you say you do."

"Don't say that Tom. I do love you. But how am I supposed to just forget it afterwards? Will you be able to?"

"I'll have to, won't I?" He shrugged his shoulders and came over to me and wrapped his muscular arms around me. I could smell the Axe body wash he used in the shower and could feel his hot breath on my neck. He leaned back so I could see his jet black hair and light blue eyes that always made my heart beat a little faster. "Come on baby. I wouldn't ask you to do this if I didn't absolutely need you to help me out. It'll be over with before you know it." He senses that I am close to giving in, so he starts to rub my chest and moves his hands down to my female core. Normally I would relish the unexpected attention to my desires, but I couldn't get the picture of the other man out of my head. I had only seen him one time, but his image was seared into my brain.

I push his hands away. "All right Tom. I'll do it. But you have to promise me that we will never, EVER talk about this again."

"Never, babe. I promise." He walks over to the closet and grabs a black outfit and throws it over to me. "Wear this."

I change clothes with shaking hands. He looks me over then nods his head. "Don't worry Megan. It won't be as bad as you think." I don't believe him.

He grabs his keys and we head down to his Porsche. After we started dating, I figured out his "import/export" business wasn't really legitimate, but by that time I was so head over heals in love that I didn't want to rock the boat. I never dreamed my bad boy would turn me into a bad girl.

I t takes us about half an hour to reach the docks. It's nearing midnight and the place is deserted, except for the other mans car. He gets a bag out of the trunk and then he walks over to the warehouse that he rents and punches in the code to unlock the door. I know the man is waiting for us inside and my stomach starts to churn. I can smell him as soon as I walk in the door and it makes me want to gag. I stop and am having trouble moving forward.

Tom looks back at me, "Come on Megan." He motions me over with his head.

I finally force my feet to move and I walk over to Tom who is now standing next to the man. I look down hoping that the scene has changed since last night, but the man is still lying there with a dagger protruding out of his eye and dark sticky blood pooled around his head.

Tom had no idea the deal was going to go bad. When the fence had demanded more money, Tom protested. That's when the guy pulled out the knife. He and Tom fought and somehow Tom managed to wrest away the knife. He swung blindly and ended up plunging it into his opponent's eye, killing him. I had been waiting in the car for Tom when he came rushing out and dragged me into the warehouse. At first he was freaking out, but then he calmed down and started coming up with a plan while all I could do was stare at the body. He said we needed to leave until the next night so that he could get everything ready. On the drive home he told me about his plan. When I protested and told him I couldn't help him, he said he would have to leave the country. He had worked on me all last night and today. When he finally started packing, I knew he really would leave me and I just couldn't bear that.

So now here we are. Tom pulls the tarp out of the bag and spreads it on the ground. He adds some bricks and chains to weigh it down so that we can dispose of it in the water. Then he has me help lift the body onto it. The dead mans hands are ice cold, just like I thought.