Another Kiss

It was the third date. She was excited.

Very excited!

The first date was "Are you as sweet as you seem?" and the second date was "I hope it doesn't end after this."

By the look in is eyes, he shared her feelings that this was not the end, it was the beginning. The jazz bar was empty, and the couple made a strange sight, engrossed in each other, huddled together, oblivious to the World around them.

Sarah Jones was singing on a CD..."Come away with me, in the night"

They had met straight from her work, so it was only 6:30 PM, maybe a little later. Time was not on their minds. The date had started with an embarrassed kiss, as they both tried to act casually and not let their passions carry them away. But as they chatted, they both felt that wave of recognition that they were both falling –again! She loved that sense of inevitability, like a skier on a ski jump who sets off and hurtles downwards, with no chance of stopping. She had been hurt a few times, sure, -who hasn't? - but the passion and the thrill of racing down that slope made her forget the hard landings she had before.

She sat back as he was talking. She was half listening to him, but her eyes were milking in his presence. He was so cute, she loved the way his hair hung around his eyes, loved the way his eyes smiled at her, loved... everything about him.

"Slow down!" she told herself. "You'll get hurt again"

But her inner voice was drowned out by the tingling throughout her body, and the delicious intoxication she felt in her head, like she had maxxed out on too many Chardonnays. She had drunk one glass, well, two, and as the wine relaxed her, she savored the moment of realising that she was going to love loving this man.

His eyes looked back at her. He was animated and telling her some anecdote. She wasn't listening. She was drinking him in. Her mind was a riot of a thousand multicoloured thoughts jostling for attention.

He finished his story and she smiled and laughed with her mouth open, though she had not listened to anything he had said. A silence descended between them. Her mind had already raced ahead to how the evening would end. She had told herself to take it easy this time, but when she drank in his smile, she wanted to have him right there in the bar.

In the silence, they both tuned in to the lyric:

"I want to wake up with the rain falling on a tin roof, while I'm safe there in your arms, so all I ask is for you to come away with me in the night"

The silence descended on both of them for the first time. Before this moment they had so much to say to each other, and now there was a pause.

An awkward pause.

She wanted to ask him to come away with her. She wanted to ask him to stay the night. She wanted to go to sleep with him in her arms and stare at him the whole night so she could see his eyes when he opened them in the morning. She wanted... him.

"Do you want to come away with me in the night?"

She stared at him, half shocked. He had said exactly what she was thinking!

She did not answer, but simply drained the rest of the Chardonnay and picked up her purse, ready to leave. He paid the bill without exchanging a further word, and they walked to the door.

A taxi was approaching and he hailed it.

They climbed in.

The driver asked her partner "Where to?"

He turned to her, and as she looked into her partner's eyes, she flashed him a look that asked him to decide where they would make love. He nodded at her, so she instructed the driver with her address. She felt a little uneasy for the first time. What if he was an axe murderer?

He reached across with his hand, and gently held her hand in his.

A simple act? Yes. But it could not have had a greater effect on her. It reminded her of how gentle he was. It reminded her of the touch of another human being on her flesh, and how much she longed to feel him touching her all over. It reminded her that he had feelings for her too.

She moved her face nearer to his.

He strained forward a little.

Imperceptibly.

They stared into each others eyes with a longing for intimacy.

She parted her lips.