Kisses and choices...Part Eleven

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine
Part Ten

Today's soundtrack is especially fitting. It's a nice mellow song, so don't be afraid to click on play.

Our ride home from the mountains was quiet. It was late and I was tired...and honestly, a little confused. I must've read the whole thing wrong. Or my mojo was off. Something was off and so I rode silently running through the facts in my head. The windows were down and the summer sun that day had made the pine trees smell like vanilla. I let the cool air and the smell of the forest blow my reasoning away for a little while.

As we edged into town, new guy must've known something was up because he began to chatter nervously. I tried to chatter back in an effort to show that I wasn't mad. I really wasn't. Maybe he just wasn't that into me and that was okay. I mean, I REALLY liked him but if the feeling wasn't mutual then I'd gracefully move on.

After a while, he pushed the arm rest up between us and laid his arm over the back of the seat.

Many of you from the South are applauding but remember, I had lived in the city all through adolescence. I had no idea that this was an invitation to sit right next to him on the bench seat.

For those of you from the North, girlfriends are supposed to sit right next to their boyfriends in a pick-up truck. Only when there's a bench seat involved, of course.

I didn't know this, though, and so I assumed he was just getting comfortable.

He stayed in that position for a while before pulling to the side of the road. He slammed the truck into park and hopped out.

We were still in the foothills and it was dark outside...really, really dark outside. I watched him walk in front of the headlights and reappear at my door.

Utter confusion set in. Had I made him mad? He kind of looked like he was on a mission. He swung my door open and pulled me out of the truck.

My feet never touched the ground. Or if they did, I didn't notice past the mind blowing kiss that new guy planted on me.

Now, he's going to die...but I'm going to tell you anyway. Girls, if you've never had a guy wrap one arm around your waist and snake the other one up to lace his fingers through your hair and hold the back of your head while he kisses you...you ain't never been kissed.

I'd never been kissed like THAT before.

We stood in the dark, by the side of the road with the river roaring next to us and the world disappeared. From that moment on, I knew I couldn't live without those lips and his kisses.

And since the world conveniently disappeared while I stood in his arms, it made sense that new guy was my refuge. He was safe and honest and gentlemanly.

New guy was a gentleman.

Now, new guy lucked out too because he'd found a girl that recognized what a treasure he was and vowed then and there to cherish it. To cherish him.

I only hoped he would remember that when the next week he told me that he had to go back to Louisiana for a wedding. I saw it all over his face that he wouldn't be going to the wedding alone. He didn't have to say a word and so I tried not to cry when I told him to go do what he had to do. I wouldn't stand in his way. I'd known that he'd left a girl in Louisiana to move to Colorado. It wasn't sneaky and hidden like Jason. He had a choice to make and we both knew that.

I drove him to the airport and kissed him goodbye.