Perfect.
* * * *
Later that night as Sean put away the last of the dishes and tossed the damp dishrag on the counter, he wondered when he had started considering this house his home. He couldn’t think of an exact moment in time. He then realized it had nothing to do with the house, but the people inside it. Where ever Liberty and Mason were was his home.
He shut off the lights, leaving the rest of the mess until morning. He locked the front door and nudged Liberty’s shoes out of the way so no one tripped over them. As he climbed the steps he heard them laughing and grew eager to join them.
Liberty’s compulsions began to wane one tiny obsession at a time. After the first time he had helped her exercise some of her demons, there was an obvious difference. He never thought much about spanking her again, but also never made any decisions not to do it.
One night Mason had to work later than usual and Libby was having a difficult time waiting for him. They’d watched a movie and she seemed restless. She stood and came to kneel beside him and then with such courage, she calmly confessed she didn’t like what she was feeling and asked if he would mind helping her work through it. When he realized what she was asking he asked if she was sure. She was certain.
He kissed her for a while, slowly removing little bits of clothing. Once she was naked she laid herself over his knees in such a graceful display of surrender he almost found it hard to breathe.
It had taken fifteen that night. He always counted them out in threes because he knew that somehow made it easier for her. Five sets of three.
When the last mark was made he knew she had escaped that dark place and reached a euphoric plane where there was no fear. They had made love afterward and Mason, having come home, found them on the floor and joined them.
Mason understood what was happening. He couldn’t deny how much more at peace Liberty seemed after Sean would help her exercise some of her demons, yet he was reluctant to use such force with her in the beginning.
As her OCD slowly became less and less obvious he began to envy the gift Sean could give her. One night Mason had offered and Liberty had eagerly accepted.
It was difficult for Mason at first, but then he too felt the transformation in his wife, saw the moment she transcended to that place of peace and let go of it all. After that it had just been something they did. It was never on a schedule, sometimes never discussed. Liberty learned to ask for help when she needed it and him and Mase had made a point never to let her go too long without such attention. Tense incidents became farther and farther apart.
Sean would never forget the day Mason came home early and found Liberty’s tiny shoes piled one on top of the other right where she’d kicked them off in the hall. He had broken down and cried that day and Sean held him, completely understanding. Mason hadn’t been crying because his burden had eased, but because his wife’s had.
They all felt the relief as Sean’s father’s hold and Liberty’s disorder eased. Bound in ways no predestined mold could have designed. Like trying to swim upstream, they had each been chasing other people’s ideals their entire lives. It wasn’t until they realized that even the definition of perfect was broken, a geometric ray with no end, that they finally stopped trying to be something other than themselves and embraced who they truly were.
Three separate people, neither one perfect, each a little broken, melded so tightly together they had eventually become one.
*THE END*